SBX S-Mini Adj driver dims with 2 cells

[danefex]

Greetings!

I've had a couple of these S-mini drivers from Pyro dating back months ago & recently used one of them in a build I've started. After soldering everything up I successfully tested the driver in low power mode, then soldered those 2 tiny resistors for high power mode - also successfully.

Problem is when I turn the laser on to set the output the laser spikes for a second before quickly dimming down to ~20mW or off. I'm using 2 3.7V cells when this happens, the output is stable but much lower using just 1 cell. Is this 'softstart'? I wasn't clear on what that was when re-reading up on X drives today & hadn't really heard of that before.

I apologize if this is a stupid or obvious question/fix, I'm coming off a 2yr hiatus from LPF and don't recall Lazeerer's X drives having this feature before. Happens with both drivers so I'm guessing this is intentional or for safety standards(?)

If anyone can point me towards what I'm trying to adjust, fix or remove on these drivers I'd be grateful

:beer:

 

[diachi]

Greetings!

I've had a couple of these S-mini drivers from Pyro dating back months ago & recently used one of them in a build I've started. After soldering everything up I successfully tested the driver in low power mode, then soldered those 2 tiny resistors for high power mode - also successfully.

Problem is when I turn the laser on to set the output the laser spikes for a second before quickly dimming down to ~20mW or off. I'm using 2 3.7V cells when this happens, the output is stable but much lower using just 1 cell. Is this 'softstart'? I wasn't clear on what that was when re-reading up on X drives today & hadn't really heard of that before.

I apologize if this is a stupid or obvious question/fix, I'm coming off a 2yr hiatus from LPF and don't recall Lazeerer's X drives having this feature before. Happens with both drivers so I'm guessing this is intentional or for safety standards(?)

If anyone can point me towards what I'm trying to adjust, fix or remove on these drivers I'd be grateful

:beer:

Soft star is the opposite of that, instead of just turning on (think square wave, really fast rise time), the current will slowly ramp up to the set current (instead of reaching set in 1ms it'll reach it in 100ms for example), meaning less stress on the diode.

Have you tried it with a DC power supply set at the correct voltage instead of the two cells?

 

[danefex]

Have you tried it with a DC power supply set at the correct voltage instead of the two cells?

Ah thanks for the explanation

My PS is dead unfortunately, I can't test with it until I replace mine.. I have tried different batteries though to rule out bad cells but that same thing happens.

Im also assuming this driver can handle 2 x 3.7Vin, Im not positive & haven't found specs on this yet but usually Angelos' drivers have a wide V input range.

:beer:

 

[94Z28]

If this is a SXB boost driver it's made for one cell and you could be damaging the driver or the diode by running 2 cells (7.4v nominal 8.4v max).

Not sure which you mean though, super x drive linear is made to run two cell at high amperage or high output mode.

5v max I go by on boost drivers.

 

[danefex]

If this is a SXB boost driver it's made for one cell and you could be damaging the driver or the diode by running 2 cells (7.4v nominal 8.4v max).

Not sure which you mean though, super x drive linear is made to run two cell at high amperage or high output mode.

5v max I go by on boost drivers.

Thanks for your feedback, that seems to be the case with the driver being made for just one cell because it's a mini boost driver and I missed this previously reading up on these

X-Boost V7 input voltage range is 2.5 to 9.0 volts
X-Drive V6 input voltage range is 3.4 to 16.0 volts
SXB-2 all versions input voltage range is 2.8 to 6.0 volts

I'll assume these drivers range 2.8-6V, one cell but I still can't get the current above ~600mA after soldering the resistors on the bottom for 'high output' mode :thinking:

Thanks again for your input.

:beer:

 

[94Z28]

Thanks for your feedback, that seems to be the case with the driver being made for just one cell because it's a mini boost driver and I missed this previously reading up on these

X-Boost V7 input voltage range is 2.5 to 9.0 volts
X-Drive V6 input voltage range is 3.4 to 16.0 volts
SXB-2 all versions input voltage range is 2.8 to 6.0 volts

I'll assume these drivers range 2.8-6V, one cell but I still can't get the current above ~600mA after soldering the resistors on the bottom for 'high output' mode :thinking:

Thanks again for your input.

:beer:

Shoot me some PM of what you soldered, if I remember correctly some of those XBoost are only rated at 900mA and depending on the Vf your testing at it could be all it has for the set resistors.

Is it adjustable? If so, then you still have resistors to set your "range" otherwise the resistors will set the exact current.

All those x boost are different, you need to know which is which. I don't know if the SXB will allow you to just soldering something and get a bridged resistor for the higher range.

 

[badboybilly]

There both probably damaged now if you used 8.4v on them!

 

[94Z28]

There both probably damaged now if you used 8.4v on them!

+1 on that also. Good chance you burnt something up.

 

[danefex]

Shoot me some PM of what you soldered, if I remember correctly some of those XBoost are only rated at 900mA and depending on the Vf your testing at it could be all it has for the set resistors.

If you dont mind I'll share this here in case someone else has similar problems or questions with these drivers, pictures often help

The joint I made is just to the left of LD-

Is it adjustable? If so, then you still have resistors to set your "range" otherwise the resistors will set the exact current.

Indeed and yes it's adjustable. I can set it anywhere between 100mA & ~600mA which is its range in low power (400mA actually) but that's it.

All those x boost are different, you need to know which is which. I don't know if the SXB will allow you to just soldering something and get a bridged resistor for the higher range.

You know it! I wish I had more specs on these, so far I've only IDd them from flaminpyro's driver page & what he's listed about them. Thanks again for your help!

There both probably damaged now if you used 8.4v on them!

They should be, but Anlgelos' drivers are that good. The one I'm using now has taken about 15 seconds of overvoltage 3 or 4 times when I was trying to adjust the pot figuring out these weren't in HP. The driver got reallly hot too, I planned on heatsinking the shit out of them once I got the current set but 600mA is all I can get from one cell - which was the case before I soldered the resistors and tried 8+V on both of them. I'm lucky they both still work fine except finding 1500mA hehe

:beer:

 

[94Z28]

Holler if you wanna beta test one of my boosts... can get 600-1200* and 1.2A - 2.4A on the ranges.

 

[danefex]

Will do 94z28!

:beer: