Micropuck+buckpuck?

[chase]

So if I were to get a 350mA micropuck and a 1000mA buckpuck and attach it to a green luxIII, it won't blow up right? It would equal out to 1350mA? I want to overdrive my LED a little bit...

[Eandori]

Hmm... I would really have to pour over the spec sheets a bit to have a solid answer for this. I think it's possible, but I would be a bit worried about a ground loop backwards through the puck-outputs.

If it was to work at all, it would most likely have the output of one puck connected to the output of the next puck, then on that same middle node the load (your device that you are driving) connected to one side. On the other side of that load you have the ground.

So the currents from the two pucks would add together at the 3 way shared node before entering the top of your device (probably the LED).

That should work... but I would not reccomend it until somebody spends time looking over the datasheets and double checking ground loops.

[Eandori]

After thinking about it a bit more, I don't think a minipuck would work for this. It's high voltage output rail is probably not high enough. You might need to switch the idea over to a 1000mA buckpuck and a 500mA buckpuck. With their input + and - tied together with the supply in a single 3 way node for each.

Still though, don't try this until I give it more thought or somebody else has a solid answer.

I need a new online storage place where I can upload images. So I can show a circuit diagram.

[xwingband]

Two 700mAs would be better. I'm not sure what might go on with mismatched drivers, but I have seen diagrams for paralleling pucks.

No time to research... gotta jet to a class soon.

[Eandori]

Two 700mAs would be better. I'm not sure what might go on with mismatched drivers, but I have seen diagrams for paralleling pucks.

No time to research... gotta jet to a class soon.

Totally agree with Xwing on that. Good point.

Again, we are not saying "go for it." yet. We are simply saying that if it can be done... it would probably work like that.

[chase]

Ok, well...I don't plan on doing it right now, but somewhat soon. My first plan was to get a green K2, and now I'm wondering if getting a 1000mA + a 700mA buckpuck would overdrive it well? Has anyone done that?

[Eandori]

Doubt anybody has done that... no.

Again though, like Xwing said you might want to stick to matched buckpucks. Two 700mA would yeild in 1.4A and that's barely under the specified max for that LED (1.5A max.) So two 700mA buckpucks would be much better.

[chase]

well, I don't want to go under the max, I want to overdrive it.

[Eandori]

1.4 amps (1400mA) is a lot of current through an LED. You said you have a green Lux III right? 1.4amps IS overdriving that LED. It's rated for 700mA to 1000mA. Your current LED is only rated at 80 lumens.

I assume by wanting to overdrive it, you want it brighter. If you want brighter then use a Green Luxeon V at 1 amp (rated 160 lumens at 700mA). That will be much brighter then a green K2 can get. The green K2 is 130 lumens at 1.5 amps.

Or if you want red, get a red Luxeon III and drive it at 1.4 amps (around 150 lumens). That's right next to the max and you won't see much difference past that.

If you want blue, get a Hyperblade. Blue Luxeon is not as bright as other luxeons (only like 30). Still brighter then an MR if built right though.

If you want white (so you can filter purple, blue, yellow, orange, etc.), get a white K2 at 200 lumens as they become available.

There are other luxeons like Seoul ones that are bright but I have no experience with those and I don't know where to order those.

But still, if you insist on overdriving the crap out of a lux III instead of those things then get 2x 1000mA so they are matched still. But again, a Green Lux V at 1 amp will be brighter. Probably somewhere around 180 lumens of green. That's over twice of what you have now.

[chase]

I already have a green LuxV and I love it, I just don't love the battery space it takes. Since you and xwing said that it wasn't a good idea to have different pucks, I asked about overdriving a green K2. I asked about a 1000mA +700mA buckpuck combo and if it would work well with overdriving a green K2.