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FrozenGate by Avery

Final Stage: Battle Royale






DTR said:
Couple things. The X-drives are not meant to be paralleled. Hopefully we have just effectively stacked the resistors on them and are getting 1/3 the current of an individual one. I don't know if they can be damaged by doing that but I know I have been told running them in parallel by Lazeerer a no-no.

Also is your power source ground isolated from the heatsink the diode is on. These diodes are case/negative and the X-drive can not run with a continuous ground so if it was it could have bypassed regulation altogether and that may be why you are reading over 5A to the diode as from what I was told even paralleled they can not pass the 3A limit of the regulator.

Do you have a bench supply?

Hopefully Lazeerer can chime in.:(
Click to expand...

Thanks! I think you nailed it! And I miss spoke earlier the diode is not getting 5a. I know where I screwed up. Now I need to find an appropriate drive really fast.
 
Hey Guys Great builds.:wave:

A few things. Yes the X-Drive should not be paralleled as you can only get the MAX currant out of what 1 driver can deliver per the Max Switch of the driver. (4A)

So if you parallel say 3 drivers and there set to 3A each you wont get 9A but only a MAX of 4A. (USUALLY its much less when you do this)

These diodes are CASE +. (Slight correction to what DTR said)

So if using a driver that is NOT continuous Positive Like the X-Drive is NOT continuous Positive you must isolate the complete diode and its heatsink from the entire built itself.

In other words the diode and its heatsink must be floating.

AMC drivers are the only ones that are CASE + Driver Chips. However you must not make the mistake and buy a china one and not pay attention to the outer ring because its CASE-. Like Jay did in his thread:
http://laserpointerforums.com/f50/c-mount-red-mag-stubby-build-84462.html

Right now iam working on 2 drivers.

One this will go up to 5A that will have all the ramp up features i recommend for such high currant,
and
Iam also working on a custom AMC Driver with modes for a customer. Now this is not anything special and all iam doing is making a board that can take X amount of AMC chips and then just transfer the mode chip over. But i have been working on this for about 1 month now and final got some boards in the other day.

So of course i wanted to test it out on my own laser just to make sure everything is working correctly and i got good results.

The Driver has 13pcs AMC 350mA chips. These chips give out a little more currant so iam guessing that iam getting ~4500mA to 4700mA of currant and i made a video to show that its work just fine at such high currant.


So just be patient guys i will finish the drivers and you guys can have higher powers in your builds.

So for now stick to the ~3A that is available.

I know this is a contest but you dont want to make a mistake and rush.

I dont know when i will finish the drivers but iam getting there as fast as possible and more then 50% done with them. Promise.

Anyway Great build guys. Keep up the great work.

I just wanted to post the video as some still think that they dont like higher currant. (Even though there has been alot of user already (wont say the number) with no issues heard from about killing diodes) ;)

GOOD LUCK.:beer:
 
I have the drivers isolated from the host like jayrob had. I get the idea of the case being positive. I just got bad info from the x-drive sale and info thread, about the drives being parallel able. I cut two of the drives out and even with only one drive it is still very dim. I may have harmed the diode... Ill get it. I am not giving up yet!
A kindly person has offered to help me if my electrical ignorance has caused the unthinkable. All is not lost yet.
 
Last edited:
I am ordering a new drive. I should be able to tell if I damaged the diode once I try the new driver. And on the bright side... The dimness of the diode makes fine tuning the focus much safer and easier. :tinfoil: silver lining!
 
jimmyoneeye said:
I have the drivers isolated from the host like jayrob had. I get the idea of the case being positive. I just got bad info from the x-drive sale and info thread, about the drives being parallel able. I cut two of the drives out and even with only one drive it is still very dim. I may have harmed the diode... Ill get it. I am not giving up yet!
A kindly person has offered to help me if my electrical ignorance has caused the unthinkable. All is not lost yet.
Click to expand...

OK Great. Lets hope it was just the drivers that failed.

There is something about the X-Drives that i noticed over the years of making them is when someone makes an error in there setup "whatever the error is" that usually if they where using another brand driver and they had an error in the setup it would always kill the diode in a build and sometime the driver too.

But there is something about the X-Drive that in most cases stops that from happening and sacrificed itself and blocks any of the ""Error"" to pas through to the diode to kill it. I would have to guess at this but i would give it at least a 70% chance that it will save the diode if there is a fault in the setup and the driver will take all the damage.

This info is from many many experience Ive heard over the years from people like putting the cells in wrong wiring things up wrong etc etc that with other drivers you are almost guaranteed it will also kill your diode but for some reason the X-Drive has about a 70%"Guess" chance that it will save the diode and only the driver will take the damage.

Its a total mystery to me why or in better words HOW it does this. Whatever it is nice to know that in most cases it will save the diode....

So lets hope that same thing happened in your case and it saved the diode and the drivers just failed..

ricktrent4 said:
Keep up the great work lazeerer !I am glade to see the drivers will be ready soon :yh:
Click to expand...

Yes they are almost done.

jimmyoneeye said:
I am ordering a new drive. I should be able to tell if I damaged the diode once I try the new driver. And on the bright side... The dimness of the diode makes fine tuning the focus much safer and easier. :tinfoil: silver lining!
Click to expand...

Check your last PM i just sent.;)
 
lazeerer said:
Hey Guys Great builds.:wave:

A few things. Yes the X-Drive should not be paralleled as you can only get the MAX currant out of what 1 driver can deliver per the Max Switch of the driver. (4A)

So if you parallel say 3 drivers and there set to 3A each you wont get 9A but only a MAX of 4A. (USUALLY its much less when you do this)

These diodes are CASE +. (Slight correction to what DTR said)

So if using a driver that is NOT continuous Positive Like the X-Drive is NOT continuous Positive you must isolate the complete diode and its heatsink from the entire built itself.

In other words the diode and its heatsink must be floating.

AMC drivers are the only ones that are CASE + Driver Chips. However you must not make the mistake and buy a china one and not pay attention to the outer ring because its CASE-. Like Jay did in his thread:
http://laserpointerforums.com/f50/c-mount-red-mag-stubby-build-84462.html

Right now iam working on 2 drivers.

One this will go up to 5A that will have all the ramp up features i recommend for such high currant,
and
Iam also working on a custom AMC Driver with modes for a customer. Now this is not anything special and all iam doing is making a board that can take X amount of AMC chips and then just transfer the mode chip over. But i have been working on this for about 1 month now and final got some boards in the other day.

So of course i wanted to test it out on my own laser just to make sure everything is working correctly and i got good results.

The Driver has 13pcs AMC 350mA chips. These chips give out a little more currant so iam guessing that iam getting ~4500mA to 4700mA of currant and i made a video to show that its work just fine at such high currant.


So just be patient guys i will finish the drivers and you guys can have higher powers in your builds.

So for now stick to the ~3A that is available.

I know this is a contest but you dont want to make a mistake and rush.

I dont know when i will finish the drivers but iam getting there as fast as possible and more then 50% done with them. Promise.

Anyway Great build guys. Keep up the great work.

I just wanted to post the video as some still think that they dont like higher currant. (Even though there has been alot of user already (wont say the number) with no issues heard from about killing diodes) ;)

GOOD LUCK.:beer:
Click to expand...

Great work as always...
 
Last edited:
I am sorry to hear this, jimmyoeneye. For testing purposes, you can use an LM338 on a big heatsink. It
works just the same as an LM386, same reference voltage and everything, except you can get up to 5A.
Using a 0Ω25 resistor will get you close, but some compensation has to be done for the actual voltage
drop inside the LM338 and in the lead wires. Then use a 100μF capacitor across the diode.

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35A Test Load
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Just an update everyone :beer:

Everyone has been putting in double time including Lazeerer himself to bring some truly unique and amazing builds to Life, so the contest will be extended til after the beginning of December. A holiday gift for the Forum.

Thank you everyone for putting so much effort and genius into this. It's an Honor :worthy:

Will Steampunk ***y or Tacti-Cool win the Day? :thinking:

~ LB
 
Thank You !!!!!! *****SIGH***** !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Deep Breath !!! SO Close....But...Not quite ready !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got wires goin EVERYWHERE !!!...Ten lbs of you-know-what....in a eight lbs bag !!!!!! As they say..." The Devil is in the Details" TRULY !!! NO time to rush now !!!

CDBEAM=======>
 
Man I can feel the tension from here. Good luck to all, and a big thanks to lazerbeak.!
 
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