X-boost v7 micro driver question

[paul1598419]

I was going to say that the IC probably has thermal shutdown to keep it from thermal runaway, but astralist already beat me to it. The boost topology is unlike bucking drivers that can take 1.5 amps without heat sinking. I would not run it at all until you heat sink the driver.

 

[icah93]

Were are you located on the globe? Slip it into your Avatar

I am from Hungary, EU but I do not like that information to get generally visible,
as I do not want any possible agency to tie it potentionally to my nick, e-mail address and so on.

Thanks, Rich for the offer but I have all the equipment and material to do it myself.
However, I want to do it in the opposite way, using the pill as a heatsink,
so I go with either thermal paste or an adhesive pad.

 

[icah93]

I would not run it at all until you heat sink the driver.

This was exactly the outcome of the issue for me as well. I shall report back after solving this.

 

[Radim]

I am from Hungary, EU but I do not like that information to get generally visible,
as I do not want any possible agency to tie it potentionally to my nick, e-mail address and so on.

Thanks, Rich for the offer but I have all the equipment and material to do it myself.
However, I want to do it in the opposite way, using the pill as a heatsink,
so I go with either thermal paste or an adhesive pad.

OMG! What have you done? Now they can track you. :crackup:

Do not worry, if you put just country or EU as I have, it is completely fine. Not much info is needed. Only for the others to see. You know when asking for some help it is easier, since someone close to you can send you components much faster than from US or China for example. I do not see any reason, why not to say some info like this. Of course exact address or email could be a problem, but just general info... And agencies have much advanced ways to track you without even you knowing if they wish. Really, if you do not use torr or something, it is quite easy for them to find out.

 

[icah93]

That is why I do not have e.g. FB, Twitter and another sh@tspread account and have a bit of different nicknames
on different forums.
Even if anybody in my country can tie one of my nicks to my real identity, I do not want them to get further,
to forums where I used to post or trade.
This can be avoided by not exposing info like country together with my nick repeatedly,
that can easily be listed by the search engines.
And most agencies do not wish to put that much effort on tracking a potential threat, so why not keep some simple rules?

Truth is that I mostly participate only in legal things but who know what kinda bureaucrat thinks
when hobbies like lasers, drones, airsoft, photography and electronics are tied together even with the fact
of me being a contractor for the army in drone build and testing area
Better to not give a chance to them.

However, exposing only EU is fine so I do so

 

[paul1598419]

That qualifier that you "mostly" participate in legal things has me wondering. :thinking:

 

[icah93]

One does not have to overthink it, all of us have our little sins

 

[hoo7h]

Hi Robert,
Were you able to fix the flickering issue with heatsinking? I have an X-Driver buck and it has been doing that too.

 

[paul1598419]

What current is your X-Drive set for? If it is over 1.8 amps, then yes, it needs heat sinking.

 

[hoo7h]

What current is your X-Drive set for? If it is over 1.8 amps, then yes, it needs heat sinking.

I think I had it at 2.2amps. I was going to adhere a piece of metal on the chip but I will get some of these aluminum pieces from survivallaser just to be safe.

 

[paul1598419]

For X-Drives at that current, I like to separate the driver from the LD and heat sink the driver to something more substantial.

 

[icah93]

Hi Robert,
Were you able to fix the flickering issue with heatsinking? I have an X-Driver buck and it has been doing that too.

Not yet I did not have time for it.
But the thermal adhesive have already arrived so in the next days I shall do so.

 

[Pman]

I pretty much heat-sink all my drivers regardless of settings for piece of mind as there's no reason not too unless it gets in the way. You can always cut down stuff to make one fit. I've cut down copper washers so that when I couldn't go up I could go to the side around other components. Can buy a plastic container of them with different sizes at Harbor Freight for those in the US

 

[icah93]

Good news.

Today I put a 2-side adhesive thermal pad between the driver and the brass pill.
Bought it on the Ebay cheap, having 6W/mK thermal conductivity.
Link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Thermal-Sel...0x130x1mm-1-5W-mK-2-4W-mK-6W-mK-/112181164804
I set back the current to 1.5A.
I also printed a cover for the pill so it keeps the driver on spot, no matter
whether the thermal pad sticks differently during heating up.

The flickering is gone. Have not tried lasing for more than 2 minutes continuous but during
that time the driver was stable.
And my diode heatsink starts to heat up well as intended

So yes, answering my own question, the flickering was caused by thermal throttling.
Thanks for your suggestions and posts.

 

[icah93]

In the meantime my Sanwu BE arrived so I promptly created an O-ring, for
better stability of the whole construction as the BE tends to be a bit loose
on the 9mm lens thread.
This way the heatsink and the BE acts rather as one unit.
So for now, I am using it on the WF501 host with the M140 and the X-boost driver.