Re: The Elasti-drive Intro (V1 and V2)
Elasti-drive sounds too much as if you are trying to follow after Dr.Lava and his flexdrive. I think this is a unique driver and it should have a unique name that will make it
stand out. Quack-drive although may be cartoony says that its creator is not without a sense of humor. That will draw people to you!
And I get credit for suggesting it originally muahahahaha
P.S. elasti-drive also sounds as if its made of rubber... a bit weird... but the ultimate decision is yours of-course
I think the original idea behind the name was to make people think of the Flex Drive but once you start reading the specs, it is actually better than the flex.
And...I haven't seen any mention of the tsteele-drive or T-drive.
RA_Pierce said:
I just want to make a few comments on the driver after actually using it...
That is great, what did you use it in and what current did you get?
I love the fact that I can use many different battery types. It's nice to have options for the power source, which is always an important consideration when assembling a high power portable laser.
That was something that Jared was excited about with the IC that we chose. It is an expensive and somewhat difficult-to-use IC, but you get a LOT of really nice features. Lots of inputs, over voltage, under voltage, thermal protection and so much more. The VERY "flexible" input options mean you should be able to run this driver off of anything short of an AAA battery. Well, pretty much...
The output seems stable and the driver does not produce much heat which is something I appreciate very much.
So far it looks very, very good on the scope. We will do some really hardcore testing before we start selling the final products. We kept putting bigger and bigger caps on the output to lower ripple and startup spike and then we discovered a totally different way to approach the problem and all of a sudden a ton of problems vanished. We had been barking up the wrong tree - :undecided:tackling the wrong area of the circuit.
That is why the final versions will be smaller.
As for heat, the heat DOES start to come into play at higher currents and even though it is very efficient, it will need to be heat-sinked at some point. ~800mA?
But there are a couple suggestions that I think would make the driver even better than it already is...
We are all ears! That is what we want our early adopters to do... test and make suggestions. Hopefully we have tested it well enough not to be sending you lemons, but we are very interested in developing a driver that does what you all want it to do! Of course there are the laws of physics to contend with and there is cost. We can make this thing ridiculously small and powerful but those things cost more $ and we are determined to keep it affordable.
First, I'd really like to see the output pads centered. I really like to hook up the driver directly to the diode since I mostly build compact lasers (usually pens). Unless the diode has long pins it will be difficult to make a direct connection. Using wires can get messy and takes up a lot of space - something which there is not much of in a little pen host.
Love this idea, we have already started building them smaller and the boards are getting the output pads so they can be used in very tight quarters.
Making the driver a tiny bit smaller would also be great. I had to file down a little off the sides to get it to fit just right.
Of course by now I've mentioned it quite a few times, but we have indeed done this.
Besides the size/shape of the driver and positioning of the components and output pads, I think this is a great driver and I think that future versions will be even better.
Thanks to people like yourself I think it will continue to improve.
Thanks a lot to all who worked on it. I'll look forward to seeing what you have to offer in the future.
:thanks:
