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Boost/Buck 3-18V Triple XM-L Circuit Board

by: Nov 29,2013 917 Views 0 Comments Posted in Engineering Technical

Boost/Buck 3-18V Triple XM-L Circuit Board

Boost/Buck 3-18V Triple XM-L Circuit Board

Boost/Buck 3-18V Triple XM-L Circuit Board

Driver is from Intl-outdoor.com, but it looks like it has been removed from his shop.

Official specifications
•Optimized for 3-4*XM-L LED in series, Low voltage protection and Thermostat protection
•For 3-4 LEDs:
•When using 1-2 Li-ion cells in series the driver will act as boost
•When using 3-4 Li-ion cells in series the driver will act as buck
•Suitable for 1 or 3 or 4 LEDs
•Operating voltage: 3-18V
•Output current for 3-4*LEDs is 2.6A-3A and for 1*LED is 5A
•Constant current
•Modes: High-Medium-Low (100%-30%-5%)
•PWM frequency: 1000Hz
•PCB diameter: 24mm
•Contact board diameter: 26mm
•Height: 17mm
•Leads: 20AWG
•Gold plated contacts
•Tinned leads
•Thermal management, overheating protection 55-60C, the driver will automatically adjust the output current
•Low voltage protection 1 cell: at 3V the light will step down to low mode and start flashing 2 times each 5 seconds
•Low voltage protection 2 cells: at 5.5V the light will step down to low mode and start flashing 2 times each 5 seconds
•Cut-off after 3 minutes of low voltage warning
•Thermal pad included (5mm thick)

Measurements

Tested with 3*XM-L2
Diameter 24 & 26mm
Max. height: 19 m
The driver has high, medium and low.
Pwm is at 1kHz
Low pwm is about 3.7%
Medium pwm is about 30%
Does turn off after about 3 minutes with low voltage warning.
The driver has memory, the actual mode is stored when the light is off for a short time.
Uses a 25kHz regulation frequency when turning down output due to heat.
A fast off/on will select next mode.
The driver can be used with 2, 3 or 4 LiIon batteries in series.
Driver can both do buck and boost.
The low voltage warning only works with 2 batteries, not with 3 or 4 batteries.

High

Boost/Buck 3-18V Triple XM-L Circuit Board

This driver does not use a constant current to drive the led, but varies the current, depending on the battery voltage.
At 5.5 volt it reduces the led current and shows a battery warning.

Boost/Buck 3-18V Triple XM-L Circuit Board
The driver changes seamless between buck and boost.

Boost/Buck 3-18V Triple XM-L Circuit Board
Because the current is varies, the led voltage will also vary.

Boost/Buck 3-18V Triple XM-L Circuit Board
Doing a sweep from low to high voltage, shows that the low battery warning will be turned off when the battery voltage raises.

Boost/Buck 3-18V Triple XM-L Circuit Board

Boost/Buck 3-18V Triple XM-L Circuit Board
At high the led is fed with a fairly constant current.

Boost/Buck 3-18V Triple XM-L Circuit Board

If the driver gets hot, the current is reduced, the regulation is done at 25kHz, i.e. no visible flashing.

Boost/Buck 3-18V Triple XM-L Circuit Board

The low battery warning is two flashes with about 6 seconds between.

Medium

Because the light uses pwm, I am cheating a bit to calculate power: I have locked the led voltage to a constant value.

Boost/Buck 3-18V Triple XM-L Circuit Board
The driver is pulsing the current at a fast rate and it is no surprice that it looks like high.

Boost/Buck 3-18V Triple XM-L Circuit Board
Notice the fixed led voltage, this is a cheat, not a measurement. The correct voltage would be closer to the curev from high.

Boost/Buck 3-18V Triple XM-L Circuit Board
The pwm can easily be seen on the curves, but are to fast to see with the eyes.

Low


The low level is low and the battery warning uses a higher level.

Boost/Buck 3-18V Triple XM-L Circuit Board
Again I have used a fixed led voltage.

Boost/Buck 3-18V Triple XM-L Circuit Board
The driver is using a very short duty cycle for low mode.


Conclusion

The buck/boost function works very well on this driver, but I am not impressed with the low voltage warning. This means it is best to use protected batteries when using 3 or 4 batteries in series.

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