Meatball
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- Feb 1, 2008
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The entire back side of the PCB is a copper layer, with vias holes that go to the resistors.
With just that bar, I was able to give it 3.3A for 20 seconds before i had to take my thumb off the top of the diodes (the driver was another story...i could smell that poor regulator)
I'd like to see 1 minute run times without the readings straying too far off.
DTR has all the proper equipment to accurately test it, so i'm mostly relying on him for the results.
I've got 1/2" bar coming which will cover from the white line to the edge (twice as wide as the current one)
I've also got small finned copper heat sinks coming. They are the Chinese ones made for RAM chips.
Not sure how i'll incorporate them until they arrive. I thought about lining them up and soldering them together into a strip to mount on the board.
I didn't get the test load mailed today, I got caught up with the lender over our new house, as well as working today so I can have tomorrow off. We're closing on our new house tomorrow, so i'm going to drop it off at the post office on our way to the title company.
Prices is really start to go up on these. I want a nice quality test load that a person only needs to buy once and it will last them for as long as they're into lasers, and be less than $30 retail. Though when I order in bulk it will drop the price by a few dollars each...
I think you make a good point moh, unless you're looking at test longgggg term stability of a high current driver, the resistors on this board ought to be just fine.
It takes time to heat resistors this size. All it takes is 5 seconds to know where your driver current is landing. If you need 3 minutes to tell if your driver is in the correct range, than you can simply adjust the dial without it necessarily being on. Aim and shoot until you get the voltage you want. If you need to sink 3A for ten minutes for testing, yeah maybe you could actively cool something this small.