AtMa-BoostDriver

Well I said I would get down to start working on this and I did! For those who noticed my signature then you will have seen that there's been a "New Boost Driver .............". Well after about a month of designing this brand new boost driver it's almost done. The boards have been ordered and I just have to order components for the test batch of these. This driver uses the LM3410 boost converter. By using this tiny boost converter I've been able to get the board down to a tiny 6.5mm x 12.95mm! And just because it's that small doesn't mean it's bad. Based on datasheets it should be very efficient. ( I'll have the exact number soon). It can power any 405nm and 445nm, (Soon the 510nm diodes too) and provide up to 1000mA or 1 Amp but don't worry you'll be able to parallel two of these to achieve the 1.8 Amps needed for the high power M-140 diodes. And it won't cost you an arm and a leg to parallel these drivers as they will only cost 12$ each! ( I can do better on pricing depending on how much demand there are for these If there enough interest I can bring the price down to 9$!*)*

Well everyone just let me know how interested you would be in this so I have an idea of how many of them to buy and produce. Of anyone has any questions just post below or PM me I'll answer

I'll update this post when the boards come in, when I get the components or for anything else about this driver. *
*
EDIT: Oh and one more thing, I don't have a name for this driver yet so if anyone has any suggestions I'll take them. Whoever makes the best name for this driver gets the first one i make (still fully functional driver set to your choice of mA)FOR FREE!
THIS CONTEST HAS BEEN WON.

So I hope This works out as good as it looks like it will.

EDIT: I will be using the LM3410 for higher efficiently.

EDIT: it looks like I'll be trying with these currents 52mA,*105mA,*131mA,*263mA,*395mA,*527mA,*790mA,*834mA and 1000mA. If anyone wants a different one or you think I missed a common one just let me know and I'll add it

EDIT: 11/03/2012- Parts ordered for 2nd revision

EDIT: 11/03/2012- Based on the 2nd revision I've gotten it a bit smaller! 11.81mm x 6.27mm!
Im proud to say this is the SMALLEST DRIVER ever. And still with current outputs up to 1Amp!

EDIT: 19/03/2012- the pricing for these will be 10$ each all the time for any current setting.

the parts came in
Pictures of a semi assembled AtMa-Driver.
Welcome to Flickr!
Welcome to Flickr!
Welcome to Flickr!

I'm still waiting on some capacitors and resistors but once they arrive I'll just add them and then start testing! I think I did a decent soldering job considering I was in a bit of a rush

EDIT: 03/25/2012: 6th revision of board has been ordered and designed. New dimensions are 11.79mm x 8.76mm So its pretty much the same size as a flex drive now

I'll just be posting a new thread once these are actually ready and working well.

Everything is finalized and I've ordered the final boards. My 11th revision gave me good results so I'll wait on this 12th and I think final revision.
The size is now 9mm x 11mm. So it's a tiny bit tinier then the flexdrive.
And I've added a pot

-Anthony

Re: New Boost Driver!

What was the method you used to make it constant current? On the datasheet, it is given as a CV 1.2Vfb driver....

Re: New Boost Driver!

I think that's almost perfectly pin-compatible with the LM3410 used in the Open/DIY boost driver. I'll take a closer look later tonight.

Very cool!

Re: New Boost Driver!

EDIT:Well it's a step up voltage regulator. It's similar in pin out to the LM3410 as RHD said.

-Anthony

Re: New Boost Driver!

I just checked it out - it is perfectly pin compatible. However, it also has a MUCH higher FB voltage, so you're going to be getting MUCH less efficiency, and probably less possible output current.

EDIT: It is absolutely NOT a constant current LED driver. It's a VOLTAGE regulator, giving constant voltage.

Re: New Boost Driver!

Ya I mixed up the ic's for a second there thanks for pointing it out.
Oops...
EDIT: The datasheet does have LED applications as one of the Applications.
-Anthony

Re: New Boost Driver!

You should actually be able to get that into constant current mode if you use the trick we use for linear voltage regulators. As Wolf said though, it'll be significantly less efficient since you'll be burning an extra volt across the FB resistor.

It's also capable of a bit less current than the 3410.

BTW, if you check out the LM3410 and like it, feel 100% free to use it. The usual forum customs re: similar product designs don't apply to the DIY boost, at least as far as I'm concerned. You've got my blessing. That was the idea behind it.

Re: New Boost Driver!

Thanks so much RHD. I've seen your post with the open sourced boost driver and its really a great thing that you did you helped everyone a lot including me. I felt that I would have been copying you if I used that ic so I looked into other ones and I designed my own board. I can tweak it a bit here and there and it'll work with the LM3410. I'll actually try making two versions and see which one is better and then I'll take that one that works better. I also did not copy your design but it did help me to understand the boost drivers much better.
+1 to you and thanks again

-Anthony

Re: New Boost Driver!

AnthoT said:

Thanks so much RHD. I've seen your post with the open sourced boost driver and its really a great thing that you did you helped everyone a lot including me. I felt that I would have been copying you if I used that ic so I looked into other ones and I designed my own board. I can tweak it a bit here and there and it'll work with the LM3410. I'll actually try making two versions and see which one is better and then I'll take that one that works better. I also did not copy your design but it did help me to understand the boost drivers much better.
+1 to you and thanks again

-Anthony

Click to expand...

Thanks!

And hey, it's not copying since we gave the forum our thumbs up to use it

Re: New Boost Driver!

You could call it the ATmA-Drive
A= Antho
T= T (duh)
mA= self explanatory
Drive = see above

Re: New Boost Driver!

ATmADrive I actually really like that name .
-Anthony

Re: New Boost Driver!

ok well it looks like ill be using the LM3410 in this design. Its just more efficient. I edited the first post with this info.

-Anthony

Re: New 12$ Boost Driver! AtMa-Driver

Oooo... in Montreal on top of things. Let me know when these are ready to go, I'll be grabbing a few of these from you... especially since shipping will take 24 hours at most, I'm in Gatineau...only about 200km away.

Re: New 12$ Boost Driver! AtMa-Driver

I just want to through this comment out there:

- Don't expect your first (or second, or third, or fourth) design of a boost driver to work exactly as you've expected it.

I think the boost Ben and I worked on went through 18 revisions to get to the stage it was in when we released it. Many of those revisions were soft (between PCB fabrications) but many of them were real/physical "need another PCB in front of us" changes.

In other words, I'm saying "don't count your chickens before they've hatched". Get a few PCBs in front of you, do some testing, and make sure you get everything ideal, before you start selling (or preparing to sell, or allocating boards, etc).

Boost driver design isn't at the state of evolution (at least among us) that linear drivers are. A lot of "designs" have popped up on the forum.

You'll thank me for this tip

Re: New 12$ Boost Driver! AtMa-Driver

Ya for sure. I'm expecting this one to work as I planned but something can go wrong.
I am not going to sell them until I am satisfied with the results because I'm not gonna put a defective product out there

:thanks: for the tip

-Anthony

Re: New 12$ Boost Driver! AtMa-Driver

cilegray said:

Oooo... in Montreal on top of things. Let me know when these are ready to go, I'll be grabbing a few of these from you... especially since shipping will take 24 hours at most, I'm in Gatineau...only about 200km away.

Click to expand...

Yup shipping would be no longer then a day. I can actually ship all over Canada for not over a day for 8$. But to somewhere like Gatineau lettermail would get there in 2 day tops and that shipping is 0.61$ but I won't charge
0.61$ to anyone in Canada that wants that option that will be the "free shipping" option"
-Anthony