Has anyone made an LED driver based on LM3463 6 channel driver IC?
- Thread starter tomservo
- Start date
O2,
I have been following this thread and the other Meanwell-dim-to-0 thread for some time, and even went as far as getting some 4-up and 5-up PCB's made from ITEad for Dream Chips..
And I'm really looking forward to these new driver boards once they're all tested and ready.
A few questions, if you don't mind:
Do you plan to release the design as the board files and a BOM for the parts?
How about as a kit, board and parts, soldering required?
Or as a fully assembled board?
Thanks!
I have been following this thread and the other Meanwell-dim-to-0 thread for some time, and even went as far as getting some 4-up and 5-up PCB's made from ITEad for Dream Chips..
And I'm really looking forward to these new driver boards once they're all tested and ready.
A few questions, if you don't mind:
Do you plan to release the design as the board files and a BOM for the parts?
How about as a kit, board and parts, soldering required?
Or as a fully assembled board?
Thanks!
nemosworld
Active member
You have to get the reward for DIY'r of the year.
your contributions to this hobby is just amazing.
I bet if you got a couple of guys under your wing and work out of a garage
(steve jobs) you could create some really cool led solutions and/or aquarium controllers.
all open source.
Thanks for the compliment, LOL I've been inspired by a few of your projects as well! (That AC powered chip you pointed out looks promising!)
I promise to release the build files after I've built a few more iterations of the basic design. It seems that I suffer from a disorder that I've come to call "PcB OCD" LOL. Just when I start to feel happy with one of my current designs, I'll notice something about the design that's lacking and want to improve it further. Maybe I should seek treatment? LOL
Seriously though, I always have extra PcB's laying around, since I can't use them all. If there's something you see that I've built and want one for yourself, just send me a PM. I've got a really good "Day Job", so Profiting from these projects is not my motivation. I do them purely for the sake of learning something new and for the chance to help other hobbyists get cool stuff without having to break the bank.
Man, you're making me blush
Steve Jobs is one of my Hero's! It's too bad that I can't get my head wrapped around the software side of these projects LOL. I'd build an "Open Source" Time machine and use it for one purpose LOL. I'd go back to the time just long enough to find Steve Jobs & Bill Gates and "loan them some cash" in exchange for just a small investment position in any "future" companies that they would form. How cool would that be?:celeb3:Oh i'm just a novice playing here and there with ideas. You're the master as well as terhaz....if it wasnt for the both of you i'd just be biting my nails waiting for a new design by you guys to come out.Mouser has em but only reels of 1k....grrrr....I wanna get my hands on one to try out. Would mean a smaller foot print than the mean well ac drivers and more power for LEDs in series.
I had the day off today, so I thought I'd be productive. I built a temporary LED rig so that I could test the drivers with all five channels under a full 1400ma load. I used two Chinese "White" 100watt arrays and a couple 50watt RGB arrays. The 100 watt arrays comprised two channels and the three remaining channels were used to drive (2) 50 watt RGB arrays wired in parallel. All 5 channels were configured to drive 1400ma each. I let the drivers run for 4 hours and took temperature measurements occasionally. The highest temp measured at 68C with no air movement. I added a small 45mm fan to the mix and temps fell to no more than 35C. I'm happy with the performance of this driver and will finalize the BOM, so that others will be able to replicate the same performance with this or other designs. I'm going to make a few small changes to this design, mainly to make assembly a little less tiresome, and post the build files when I'm finished.
I also built out the remaining A6211/LDD-H replacement drivers for 1400ma service and dropped 4 of them into the mail for "ROTT" to try out. The little guys perform just as well as the Big PcB and should provide a nice DIY option to the Meanwell LDD-H.:beer:
I also built out the remaining A6211/LDD-H replacement drivers for 1400ma service and dropped 4 of them into the mail for "ROTT" to try out. The little guys perform just as well as the Big PcB and should provide a nice DIY option to the Meanwell LDD-H.:beer:
Hey Rick-
Yeah- There are 4 different current setting resistors for each channel. Since I designed the PcB with the "Dream Chip" in mind, the driver's component values are optimized for a 36Vf load with a 48V input. The jumper settings are (from the photo - top to bottom)
300ma
700ma
1000ma
1400ma
I made an interesting observation when driving a BridgeLux BXRA-C4500 with one channel of the driver. That particular led array has a max Vf of 26V @ 2000ma. For some reason that I don't quite understand, the current fell to 1100ma with the jumper in the 1400ma position. Just to see what would happen, I added a second shunt to the 300ma jumper and Viola! the current level rose to 1400ma. From this observation, I have to conclude that more than one shunt may be needed to raise the current into lower Vf loads. It's a good thing, as the shunts are dirt cheap to purchase and only one BOM is needed to cover multiple led Vf levels and current requirements.:bounce1:
That sounds good. I think Lasse has posted some of the different fv's he was getting when he power the different channels on his DC's. I asked about the jumpers, because I found a guy that will sell me some 50W'ers from his build that never happened. They run at a max 700ma, 1/2 of the 100W. If I get 10 boards on my board order, I need 4 for 100W 1400ma and 3 for 50W 700ma.:bounce1:
I've been reading up on SMD soldering and bought some of the paste you linked me to. Getting excited!!---Rick
I've been reading up on SMD soldering and bought some of the paste you linked me to. Getting excited!!---Rick
Cool Rick!
Once you've learned how to solder SMD, You'll prefer it over "through hole" any day. Since your PcB doesn't have the current setting jumpers it actually makes it easier to predict and fine tune your desired current levels. I've got an Excel spreadsheet from Allegro that will make choosing the Rsense resistor values easy for you. I found that, due to the small amount of resistance added by the jumpers in my design, my expected current outputs were always lower than expected. I had to skew all my resistor's values lower to compensate.
The spreadsheet is attached.
LOL- It's slim pickins' for the Rsense resistors on Fleabay. I eventually knuckled under, bit the bullet and ordered them from Digikey. I ended up blowing about $100 for 6 values in cut tapes of 100each. That works out to $.16 per resistor or $3.20 per 5 channel PcB.:headwalls:
Ok O2,...after rereading your posts this morning, I understand now 
that I don't have/need the jumpers on my boards. As you said...this will make my soldering easier. I soldiered SMD pull down resistors on my first 5up boards by scraping the top of the board, and I didn't even have the paste back then, so yes I like SMD better than through hole.
Your jumper design will surely make the boards pretty versatile for others.
What do you mean 3.20 @ 5 channel board ? Is that total cost @ board?:bounce3:
Hey I'll take some of the rsense off you, and anything else, to help offset your development cost.
Now what about ordering my boards? I have the files,and the BOM. The only thing was,... I thought you changed the pad size for the 6211 (larger) to help with cooling.and In your latest pics. I don't see the little heatsinks you had showed earlier...are they on the other side?
Getting closer :dance: ---Rick
that I don't have/need the jumpers on my boards. As you said...this will make my soldering easier. I soldiered SMD pull down resistors on my first 5up boards by scraping the top of the board, and I didn't even have the paste back then, so yes I like SMD better than through hole.Your jumper design will surely make the boards pretty versatile for others.
What do you mean 3.20 @ 5 channel board ? Is that total cost @ board?:bounce3:
Hey I'll take some of the rsense off you, and anything else, to help offset your development cost.
Now what about ordering my boards? I have the files,and the BOM. The only thing was,... I thought you changed the pad size for the 6211 (larger) to help with cooling.and In your latest pics. I don't see the little heatsinks you had showed earlier...are they on the other side?
Getting closer :dance: ---Rick
Ok O2,...after rereading your posts this morning, I understand now
Your jumper design will surely make the boards pretty versatile for others.
What do you mean 3.20 @ 5 channel board ? Is that total cost @ board?:bounce3:
Hey I'll take some of the rsense off you, and anything else, to help offset your development cost.
Now what about ordering my boards? I have the files,and the BOM. The only thing was,... I thought you changed the pad size for the 6211 (larger) to help with cooling.and In your latest pics. I don't see the little heatsinks you had showed earlier...are they on the other side?
Getting closer :dance: ---Rick
Rick-
I'll save some Rsense resistors for you. LOL My "$3.20" comment was just an effort to show that even little components can add significant cost to a PcB, when you're using a lot of them. Being that each channel has 4 Rsense resistors, 5 channels equals the need for 20 Rsense resistors. $.16 X 20 = $3.20
Check out Digikey's pricing for the resistors that I needed for the 1400ma drive option.http://www.digikey.com/product-sear...t=0&page=1&quantity=0&ptm=0&fid=0&pageSize=25 LOL Digikey prices them at $.46 each for multiples of 1. I ordered 100 and the price falls to $.16 each w/ a fraction of the shipping charges included
I didn't add the solder pads for the copper heat sinks to this design yet.... but I did attach the copper sinks to the back of the board, using the thermally conductive adhesive that comes with them. They seem to pull off the heat just great as is, but a solder pad would be a more robust thermal path/ attachment method for long term use. The little copper sinks add another $2.50 in cost for each PcB LOL, but they sure "look purdy".
I actually tried doing that, but I couldn't find any "off the shelf" that were long enough and didn't interfere with some of the "through hole" solder joints. I'd already purchased 50 of the little copper sinks, so I thought why not put them to use. LOL They actually do a good job on the "big" Pcb and make all the difference in the world for cooling the little LDD-H sized driver PcB.
The 5 channel PcB measures 10cm X 10cm. Do you know of a particular VGA cooler that might fit? I was planning to mount a few of these drivers into a 6' Maker's Heat sink (they fit the top channel where the fans reside) and just let the cooling fans intended for the leds provide the needed airflow. That's the plan for now anyway. LOL
Rick-
I'll save some Rsense resistors for you. LOL My "$3.20" comment was just an effort to show that even little components can add significant cost to a PcB, when you're using a lot of them. Being that each channel has 4 Rsense resistors, 5 channels equals the need for 20 Rsense resistors. $.16 X 20 = $3.20
Check out Digikey's pricing for the resistors that I needed for the 1400ma drive option.http://www.digikey.com/product-sear...t=0&page=1&quantity=0&ptm=0&fid=0&pageSize=25 LOL Digikey prices them at $.46 each for multiples of 1. I ordered 100 and the price falls to $.16 each w/ a fraction of the shipping charges included
I didn't add the solder pads for the copper heat sinks to this design yet.... but I did attach the copper sinks to the back of the board, using the thermally conductive adhesive that comes with them. They seem to pull off the heat just great as is, but a solder pad would be a more robust thermal path/ attachment method for long term use. The little copper sinks add another $2.50 in cost for each PcB LOL, but they sure "look purdy".
Ya... I like the looks of those little guys...clean! I understand your math now. I was thinking before there was only one Rsense resistor @ driver.@channel.
I thought you had ordered some boards with the larger solder pads for the 6211's a while back to try to pull some heat off them.
Are their any changes you know of for the boards I want to use?
Another question,...looking at the calculator you posted, if I want to build some of the boards to push 700ma, do I switch the resistors from .143 to .286?
Thanks O2!---Rick
