Bogart
0
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2009
- Messages
- 66
- Points
- 8
Well, I'm having some horrible luck with drivers lately.
So I had 3 drivers laying around that I use for testing diodes, configured with output leads and power connectors soldered on to connect to an ATX power supply. A Micro FlexDrive, a Micro BoostDrive, and one of the red AixiZ 500mA drivers. All were working.
Then one day I had the FlexDrive plugged into the power connector, and was careless and shorted a part of the bare driver board against the bare metal PC case. I think the PC rebooted, and the FlexDrive appeared to be toast. It behaved like an open circuit.
So I desoldered the dead FlexDrive, configured a brand new one for the highest current range, and soldered it up to the harness. When I tried to power my test load with it, it behaved the same way. As an open circuit.
I can see 4.95v measuring from the input points on the driver board, but no output.
Then things got even stranger. I plugged in the Micro BoostDrive, which had been working fine up until now, and something seems to have gone awry with it as well. Powering my test load using 6 diodes, it puts out 1200 to 1400mA, depending on the pot adjustment. It also gets very hot very fast, and on the input side consumes 2.67A. Not right at all.
Inspecting it visually I can't see anything wrong.
The cheap red AixiZ driver, on the other hand, continues to operate as it always did, using the same power supply.
This one really has me scratching my head. The power supply seems fine. It continues to power the PC just fine, and I measure around 5 volts from the 5V rail, both when powering a laser driver and not.
I guess next I will try another MicroBoost and see if it behaves any differently.
:can: :huh:
Edit: The new MicroBoost works like it should...
So I had 3 drivers laying around that I use for testing diodes, configured with output leads and power connectors soldered on to connect to an ATX power supply. A Micro FlexDrive, a Micro BoostDrive, and one of the red AixiZ 500mA drivers. All were working.
Then one day I had the FlexDrive plugged into the power connector, and was careless and shorted a part of the bare driver board against the bare metal PC case. I think the PC rebooted, and the FlexDrive appeared to be toast. It behaved like an open circuit.
So I desoldered the dead FlexDrive, configured a brand new one for the highest current range, and soldered it up to the harness. When I tried to power my test load with it, it behaved the same way. As an open circuit.
I can see 4.95v measuring from the input points on the driver board, but no output.
Then things got even stranger. I plugged in the Micro BoostDrive, which had been working fine up until now, and something seems to have gone awry with it as well. Powering my test load using 6 diodes, it puts out 1200 to 1400mA, depending on the pot adjustment. It also gets very hot very fast, and on the input side consumes 2.67A. Not right at all.
Inspecting it visually I can't see anything wrong.
The cheap red AixiZ driver, on the other hand, continues to operate as it always did, using the same power supply.
This one really has me scratching my head. The power supply seems fine. It continues to power the PC just fine, and I measure around 5 volts from the 5V rail, both when powering a laser driver and not.
I guess next I will try another MicroBoost and see if it behaves any differently.
:can: :huh:
Edit: The new MicroBoost works like it should...
Last edited: