(2) 700mA Buckpucks = 1400 mA

[DACOTA]

Sounds great! If you can, you could possibly hook up the two pucks to an mr board so you could have a fully powered lux lll red/o. That is if you can fit it all.

[Eandori]

ArmOnFire, you might have only gotten that low current reading because your battery was too small.

REMEMBER (man I think it's the 20th time I've said this on board, I need to make a sticky...) Your battery output WHILE it's sourcing current needs to be at least 1v higher then what you expect your current regulation circuit to drive.

If you have a 3.9v forward K2 green, it will need around 4.2v at 1.4A. That means if the Buckpucks is going to drive 4.2v and 1.4A they will need a battery that is outputting at least 5.2v while in use. Even better to give those buckpucks like a 7.2v battery, because as the battery drains, the voltage drops and as soon as the battery voltage drops below 5.2v your buckpucks will no longer regulate the current you want.

That DEFINITELY the case with 1 buckpuck, and very likely the problem some of you are seeing with 2.

[Arm on Fire]

Thanks Eandori, I would really like to use a 7.2v pack but the sw-616 card im using will only take 6v (or so ive heard) what are my options for voltage regulation?

[Dark Navel]

Hey Arm,

I'd be interested to see who has the answer to your question because I'm scratching my head over here...Anyways, what about 2 3.0V Lithium Ion's (cr123a's?) You'll have to make a pack but not sure if you can stack em side by side and fit them in your hilt. The other option is to stack one on top of the other but then your looking at the room constraints as well.

Measured 1 lith. cr123 battery: about 11/16" wide & 1 3/8" long

[Novastar]

Thanks Eandori, I would really like to use a 7.2v pack but the sw-616 card im using will only take 6v (or so ive heard) what are my options for voltage regulation?

A lot of people use relays to get all this to work. But... there have been checkered results with these things... maybe because of pulsed current... I don't know.

Anyhow... you are CORRECT that (as far as I know) 6v *firm* is pretty much the limit of most any MR board.

Now... this does NOT mean it'll blow @ 7.2v for 10 seconds. It might... but... it might not. The POINT is... if you want the board to survive almost indefinitely... 7.2v is DEADLY risky. Even 6v could be pushing it, but... I think it should be OK.

In my thinking, 5.5v or 5 would be excellent for pushing the "normal" current of around 900ma (@ 4.5v) to something like 1000 or 1100 or whatever.

As to sending enormous voltage in there and bypassing the MR (aka giving it only x amount of volts while the LED gets X + 3v or whatever... yeah... sounds like a job for... SUPER relaaaaaaaay... lol.

Or I don't know... direct drive w/ resistor for overdriving? Hmm.

[Obi-Dar Ke-Gnomie]

If you have a 3.9v forward K2 green, it will need around 4.2v at 1.4A. That means if the Buckpucks is going to drive 4.2v and 1.4A they will need a battery that is outputting at least 5.2v while in use. Even better to give those buckpucks like a 7.2v battery, because as the battery drains, the voltage drops and as soon as the battery voltage drops below 5.2v your buckpucks will no longer regulate the current you want.

That DEFINITELY the case with 1 buckpuck, and very likely the problem some of you are seeing with 2.

Are you sure? I'm running a Seoul P4 on two 700mA pucks, with 4.8V from four AA NiMH's, and it runs fine. I haven't timed it, but I seem to be getting a decent run time with it too.

[Arm on Fire]

Obi ,I think what Eandori is saying is yeah it will run, but not to its potential. Have you tried a bigger pack (more volts) to see if there is a difference in performance other than runtime?

[Novastar]

Two things with that... if you're not running your LED *MOST* optimally... but getting close... you will probably never notice the visual difference.

Secondly, you'd really have to measure using tools (light meter or measure voltage/current) to be for certain on what the heck was truly going on in there with an LED and its battery solution.

Personally, I don't think it makes any difference when you're off by <1 volt or so. Especially if the battery solution isn't something super tiny "punch-wise" like a bunch of AAA cells or a 9v (essentially AAAA cells!!!).

I mean really. The difference between 100 lumens and 110 lumens of the same color/bin/LED/optics/blade length/diffuser/etc. ... is almost totally irrelevant. I *DARE* you to tell me the difference if I just had you walk into a room and then asked you "Ok, which one is brighter". You wouldn't know.

MAYBE you'd know from 100 lumens to 130. And you would definitely know once you started seeing 40% increases, 50% increases and all that. Such as from 130 lumens (k2 @ 1500) to 200 lumens (likely what is happening on an over-driven Lux V).

Often times, I TRULY believe that people find "better" results vs. other people's sabers... but it is in the optics, blade, tip, diffuser, and LED bin... not the current. Surprise!

[Obi-Dar Ke-Gnomie]

I'm pretty happy with the setup for now, and I figure it's running pretty well. Maybe it could be better. I'll find out eventually. I like to experiment and try new things.

I'd like to first try a 6AA pack and see what it runs like, then try the 7.2V rechargeable pack from the store. Maybe if I get brave enough, I'll move up to Lithium Ions. I'd also like to try a bunch of different LEDs too. Of course, I would take lots of comparison pictures. That's a good idea with the light meter. I have one kicking around somewhere. I'll have to try it.

Unfortunately, I blew my saber budget in April, and won't have free money to play for a while. I bought myself a CF a couple of weeks ago, (although I won't see it until the next run is produced.) Then I placed an order with Tim, bought some stuff on Ebay, and made a couple of other purchases.

Then the starter blew up in my car, stranding me in the parking lot at Rona*. I had to get towed to the shop. And when he had it up on the hoist, my mechanic showed me that my brake lines need to be replaced from front to back.

I'm done whining now, but needless to say, I'll be putting in the CF when it comes, but that's all I'll be doing for a while.



(*Ironically, I was at Rona looking for plumbing parts for sabers at the time.)

[DJMoonbass]

the lightsaber i am building isnt going to have sound. just a K2 Silver LED. now my question is whats the difference between a buckpuck and a normal resistor? also how did you wire that into a parellell. Im not very good with electronics