New Niche Driver Market with No Supply

[Braddubya]

Im surprised that no one has come out with a higher output driver in the micro driver world. The microboost and microflex are great but with the new 445nm diodes they need to be run at their max output in order to even come close to the potential of these diodes. I would also be willing to bet that these 445nm diodes wont be the last or the highest power diodes to come out in the near future. We even already have people running multiple drivers for a single diode! I know I myself will be building a 1500mA handheld instead of a 1600-1700mA handheld only because the Microflex maxes out at this current and I cant find any other popular micro drivers that can supply that.

The market needs a 1000-2000+mA micro driver. I think if someone could produce such a driver at a similar price they could clean up quite nicely.

If someone is inspired to create one put me down for a few! :drool:

 

[iFoSh]

Dr lava is working on a V6 i've heard...Don't know any specifics though!

 

[cd520]

Im surprised that no one has come out with a higher output driver in the micro driver world. The microboost and microflex are great but with the new 445nm diodes they need to be run at their max output in order to even come close to the potential of these diodes. I would also be willing to bet that these 445nm diodes wont be the last or the highest power diodes to come out in the near future. We even already have people running multiple drivers for a single diode! I know I myself will be building a 1500mA handheld instead of a 1600-1700mA handheld only because the Microflex maxes out at this current and I cant find any other popular micro drivers that can supply that.

The market needs a 1000-2000+mA micro driver. I think if someone could produce such a driver at a similar price they could clean up quite nicely.

If someone is inspired to create one put me down for a few! :drool:

My sentiments exactly!!

 

[BShanahan14rulz]

I'm pretty sure you are the first person ever to have thought of that.

 

[jib77]

Its coming soon enough, TI has unleashed the 4Amp TPS63020 upon us and there are people ironing out the design as we speak. Its always a challenge getting these things in current mode. At 2+ amps you are talking 1Watt resistors and more(0.5Vref*2Amps = 1W), and they just don't exist in smaller sizes, so you have to use multiple 1/4watt resistors ... which eat up board space.

 

[Benm]

Its fairly pointless though, the dissipation of those resistors has to go somewhere which requires a larger board and/or heatsinking the whole thing.

 

[WLHostage]

It's already in the works by multiple parties. So expect to see some in the future (hopefully the near future lol).

 

[jib77]

Its fairly pointless though, the dissipation of those resistors has to go somewhere which requires a larger board and/or heatsinking the whole thing.

Yup ... heatsinking is a must and the boards will have to grow no matter what. I don't anticipate these things fitting inside an Aixiz anymore.

 

[Benm]

Nah, and even if they could be made to fit, it wouldn't be a good idea - just more heat dissipated in a package that is already uncomfortably small for just the diode.

 

[ShaneL]

This is something I was working on until I decided that it might be better to go with a buck driver instead of forcing the poor batteries to higher and higher currents.

I started to lay out a board, but haven't had much time or motivation to finish.

I don't know if everything works as I imagine it might. The attached zip file contains an excel sheet that I was working out operating points in.



JP3 is an input header, JP2 is out to the diode.
The part labeled INA138 should be a INA139.

The OPA374/REF3318 circuit is a current source set to match the output current of the INA139's full sense voltage current output.

It is outputted to the wiper of the trimmer resistor to enable a somewhat linear current adjustment from the TPS63020.

 

[jib77]

This is something I was working on until I decided that it might be better to go with a buck driver instead of forcing the poor batteries to higher and higher currents.

I started to lay out a board, but haven't had much time or motivation to finish.

I don't know if everything works as I imagine it might. The attached zip file contains an excel sheet that I was working out operating points in.



JP3 is an input header, JP2 is out to the diode.
The part labeled INA138 should be a INA139.

The OPA374/REF3318 circuit is a current source set to match the output current of the INA139's full sense voltage current output.

It is outputted to the wiper of the trimmer resistor to enable a somewhat linear current adjustment from the TPS63020.

I like your current setting solution, would have never thought of that.

 

[Braddubya]

Yup ... heatsinking is a must and the boards will have to grow no matter what. I don't anticipate these things fitting inside an Aixiz anymore.

That wont matter though really. Hardly anyone running over 1000mA is doing so without a sinked driver. It just has to be small enough to fit inside a medium handheld host...unlike the flexmod

 

[ShaneL]

Got the parts down to about a .60*.64 inch (15*16 mm) board. What's a good board size to aim for? The micro flexdrive is 9*12 mm but I doubt I could do anything that small with so many external parts.

So far I removed the headers to break out the enable pin and power save mode since it won't matter with the currents 445's run anyways and most people use a tail cap switch anyway.

Still working on routing so I might find a more efficient layout.

 

[Benm]

If you intend to use it in a flashlight host, a round PCB could be an interesting option, since it can replace the one touching the battery. The size will depend on the host though, but it will give you some extra space compared to fitting a square peg in a round hole

 

[jib77]

I tried to make my TPS63000 board 15mm round w/ a battery contact on the bottom layer ... it didnt work too well at higher currents because the TPS needs that thermal pad to go through to the bottom layer without solder masking it(not good for having a battery contact nearby). And this was with a very low part count, I was out of room, and the creative routing of the current amp circuit was less than optimal. I gave up on that design and went with a 10x15mm rectangle board and used the bottom plane for the current amp.

 

[ShaneL]

Here's what I got after fooling around on eagle for a few days.

Can anyone spot any errors or omissions in the schematic I posted or in this layout?

It is .551in by .551in

Also, how is the service from Sunstone (PCB123)? I made this layout with their ValueProto design rules in mind.