High Quality $3 500mA+ LED Driver. Why Not?

[oldgage]

Hi everyone,

I have been looking at the different driver options, specifically for a 16x or 20x DVD build, and what I'm wondering is if there's any reason why one wouldn't use a driver such as this one LTC3453 - Synchronous Buck-Boost High Power White LED Driver - Linear Technology They also sell 200mA, 300mA, 350mA, etc. drivers.

Unless I'm missing something, these seem like a great deal.

Thank for viewing.

 

[SKeeZ]

Great Find! they seem a little inefficent (at least the 150mAh) but i think they should work great for a diode.

 

[Wolfman29]

In the end, making drivers isn't only the parts. It's the labor, it's the boards, it's the markup from resale, etc. In fact, that IC is pretty expensive. If you want adjustability, you need a potentiometer. You need an inductor, you need, and you need some other parts. Then there's the bit about how it can't take in input above 5.5V or output more than 5.5V. So that means it wouldn't be any good for high-power 405s and it wouldn't work for most of the lower-power blues and especially the green diodes. While it would be good at what it's designed for, we don't really need what it's designed for.

For a DVD burner diode, they are typically case negative, which means that you need a continuous negative driver (unless you want to eletrically isolate the diode). This IC does not satisfy that condition.