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ArcticMyst Security by Avery

Driver Testing?

Joined
Jan 14, 2011
Messages
3,816
Points
63
Hey everyone.

I just got a nice little driver from DinoDirect (well, two of them) called the 3.0~9.0V 9W 1-Mode Regulated LED Driver Circuit Board 20mm. It's well built, but I want to figure some things out about it.

First things first - it has an inductor. Does that mean that we are talking boost driver? How do I test this?

Secondly - how do I check the amperage of this driver? I have heard that, because it's switching, my multimeter won't like to test it through a test load. I tried hooking it up to my testload, and it didn't work, even though, off of my testload, it was putting out voltage and amperage.

Thirdly - if I wanted to drop this driver down to 100mA, would I just stick a 10 Ohm resistor in series with the Out+?

Thanks everyone.

EDIT: Regarding the first question - probably not a booster, even though it has an inductor, because I realized the reason it wasn't reading anything on my DMM was because it was on blu-mode, and it wasn't putting out enough voltage from a single li-ion. Also, that's why it wasn't reading anything :p The voltage wasn't high enough.

So the third question is the only remaining one.

EDIT2: Great news! It works. It's steady at around 127mA, so I will stick the equivalent of an 11 Ohm resistor there instead.
 
Last edited:





Joined
Jan 14, 2011
Messages
3,816
Points
63
So this is a good driver. It's voltage regulated, but it's incredibly stable. I ran it off of two primary 3V CR123s on 2.8Vf on my test load and it read 320mA with an 11Ohm current setting resistor in series with the output. That's alright though. Just have to make sure the batteries used are in the range of the diode.

Once I get my RCR123s from China I will fully charge them and see how much resistance I need in order to prevent killing another diode. This could perhaps be quite an effective driver.
 




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