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FrozenGate by Avery

Lava Micro FlexDrive Driver (lavadrive2) fits pens

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As far as I know he is... I ordered and received a FlexDrive v5 from him just the other week. He shipped the driver a couple days after I placed the order.
 
Hey guys got a question for ya's, tried to set up a flex drive today with a test load(rckstr) but the problem is that it only reads out 2mv and only putting out .5v on the diode out leads. The input was from a 3v cr123a and also two AA's were tried aswell can't figure out what's going on?
Oh and btw fasting shipping to australia.
 
^ Can you take a picture of how you have everything connected including where you have it set on your DMM.?
 
Yeah sure, here's a few pics of the set up

P1130159.jpg


P1130160.jpg


P1130162.jpg
 
It looks like you have everything set up good. The only thing i cannot tell is if you have your DMM st to 200mA or 2000mA DCV.

ON your dummy load there are 2 bridges that you have to solder witch one you want to use. There is a Red and a Blu. Since you are using a 445nm you want to bridge the blu. Have you done this.?

Edit:

Also the range you have your flexdrive at is set to ~65mA - ~100mA
Here are the Ranges for the Flexdrive V5:
http://hacylon.case.edu/ebay/laser_diode/MicroFlexDrive_V5_manual.pdf

Have you also tried turning the pot at all.?
 
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It looks like you have everything set up good. The only thing i cannot tell is if you have your DMM st to 200mA or 2000mA DCV.
Click to expand...

Yeah thats the problem it all looks fine, the DMM is set to v which autos to mv/v. it does have a selection for max 400ma but that separate

ON your dummy load there are 2 bridges that you have to solder witch one you want to use. There is a Red and a Blu. Since you are using a 445nm you want to bridge the blu. Have you done this.?
Click to expand...

Tried both the red and blue which made no difference. Also tried a rckstr driver on the test load and that worked fine so its something to do with the flex drive.

Have you also tried turning the pot at all
Click to expand...

yep gave that a turn and no difference at all.

I'll tell ya what this one has me scraching much head:thinking:
 
Maybe I'm missing something but is there now way to order more than one type of driver at a time from his site? There's no way that I can see to add both a flexdrive and a microboost to your order. I don't want to do two orders and pay double shipping.
 
I think you are right :undecided:


LtKernelPanic said:
Maybe I'm missing something but is there now way to order more than one type of driver at a time from his site? There's no way that I can see to add both a flexdrive and a microboost to your order. I don't want to do two orders and pay double shipping.
Click to expand...
 
I think I'll PM him and ask if there's a way but might just order two microboosts too. I was going to order one of each because one of my builds was going to be a PHR which a flexdrive could drive fine so if I ever want to repurpose the driver from that build it could be a red or BR diode.
 
I'm a big fan of the flexdrive.
The microboost will supply the voltage a 405nm diode wants but the flexdrive is better for everything else.
Flexdrive is easier to heatsink for a high power build.
Flexdrive is easier to solder the ranges.
Flexdrive will provide up to 1.5A of current.
Flexdrive will buck to the voltage of a red or infrared diode, microboost only boosts (makes sense :P ).
You don't have to be AS careful to isolate the flexdrive from the sides of your host, it is continuous negative path (easier to wire some builds that way).
Microboost needs negative from the battery, positive from the battery, negative to the diode, positive to the diode. Not much of a difference but in a really tight build it can be the little bit of room you need
One thing I have heard about it is the potentiometer in the flexdrive is only rated for 15 adjustments whereas the microboost's is far more robust.
I have used both, Flex is my choice even if a DDL driver would work, the $23 for lava's stuff is TOTALLY worth it.
 
I ended up deciding to build a DDL driver for the PHR. I just couldn't justify the $23 for it when I had the parts on hand to build the DDL. Plus i would have had to buy spend $40 on batteries and another charger since none of my chargers can take a 22600. I can get 3 10440s to power it for a little more than one 22600. I still am going to get a microboost for my 12x for sure.

I'm kicking around the idea of a dual flex instead of running one at 1.5A for my upcoming 445 build. When should you start heatsinking the driver though? I can easily fit two unsinked drivers into the big plastic pill of the guidesman but I think I could only fit one on the bottom of the heatsink. Hmm. So much for saving money on an extra driver. :p
 
Is there any way you can stack both drivers on a coin or coins?
Examples:

-------Driver---Driver-------
------------Coin-------------

OR

----------Driver-------------
-----------Coin-------------
----------Driver-------------
-----------Coin--------------
....etc.
 
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