You are lucky then. Most of the chinese ballasts now have an INPUT power of 35W. This I have tested myself and they usually work out to an input power of right around 35W, some as low as 33 some as high as 36. Either way, the power at the bulb is well out side of the 10% range. I have tested DDM, VVME and about 5-6 other no name companies. Not ONE at the time when I tested them had an input power higher than 36W. It may be in the beginning things like this were an issue but from personal experience there aren't any issues with it in the past few years. AT ALL.
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no ambiguity.
Plain english is always better than burying a substandard product in .......
Luxeon headlight
continued from: http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/soli...lls-power-amplifier-book-167.html#post2554680
Hi Stein,
First, I'm glad you are back from your 'vacation'.
It took a long time to finish the mechanical part of the job, i.e. finding the right parts and the right guy with a lathe.
So I finally got the time to concentrate on the electronics. For those who didn't know yet, my objective is to power three Luxeon-III LEDs (in series) by means of two A123 LiFePO4 batteries (APR18650), which in turn are charged by a hub dynamo (SON).
The batteries, together with the charge controller, will be put in the steering tube. This means that there is not much room for a bunch of batteries, in fact only for two cells, that is 6.6V. As the three Luxeons need some 11.5V, the battery voltage has to increased by means of a boost converter. This part of the electronics will be put in the housing of the headlight. Again, not much room for big components.
Four functions has to be fulfilled by the electronics:
1. Current regulation of the LEDs (of course).
2. Over voltage protection in case the LEDs are disconnected.
3. Under voltage lockout in case the batteries are exhausted.
4. Over voltage lockout to prevent overcharging of the batteries.
Of course there are a lot of ICs out there that will do the job, but most of them are housed in a minuscule package. Very DIY unfriendly and at my age I can't handle these chips anyhow. So I had to limit my choice to old school DIP packages. Finally, I found them (for free
)
The MAX1771 for function 1 and 2 and the MAX923 for function 3 and 4.
Now I'm waiting for a small but high DC current choke with a toroidal Ni-Fe core and distributed gap.
When all has been finished I will put the schematics, the test rig and some pictures on my website.
Cheers,
E.
PS: Don't put Li-Co batteries in the steering tube. If they explode you will get the debris right in your face! Also, don't use cheap LiFePO4 batteries, as they can't handle the high currents, at least the small ones.
continued from: http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/soli...lls-power-amplifier-book-167.html#post2554680
Hi Stein,
First, I'm glad you are back from your 'vacation'.
It took a long time to finish the mechanical part of the job, i.e. finding the right parts and the right guy with a lathe.
So I finally got the time to concentrate on the electronics. For those who didn't know yet, my objective is to power three Luxeon-III LEDs (in series) by means of two A123 LiFePO4 batteries (APR18650), which in turn are charged by a hub dynamo (SON).
The batteries, together with the charge controller, will be put in the steering tube. This means that there is not much room for a bunch of batteries, in fact only for two cells, that is 6.6V. As the three Luxeons need some 11.5V, the battery voltage has to increased by means of a boost converter. This part of the electronics will be put in the housing of the headlight. Again, not much room for big components.
Four functions has to be fulfilled by the electronics:
1. Current regulation of the LEDs (of course).
2. Over voltage protection in case the LEDs are disconnected.
3. Under voltage lockout in case the batteries are exhausted.
4. Over voltage lockout to prevent overcharging of the batteries.
Of course there are a lot of ICs out there that will do the job, but most of them are housed in a minuscule package. Very DIY unfriendly and at my age I can't handle these chips anyhow. So I had to limit my choice to old school DIP packages. Finally, I found them (for free
)The MAX1771 for function 1 and 2 and the MAX923 for function 3 and 4.
Now I'm waiting for a small but high DC current choke with a toroidal Ni-Fe core and distributed gap.
When all has been finished I will put the schematics, the test rig and some pictures on my website.
Cheers,
E.
PS: Don't put Li-Co batteries in the steering tube. If they explode you will get the debris right in your face! Also, don't use cheap LiFePO4 batteries, as they can't handle the high currents, at least the small ones.
CandlePowerForums ...is the place for all illumination related stuff, if you can stomach a bunch of people who think nothing of spending more on a flashlight than would support a 3rd. world family for a year.
w
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Hi Wakibaki,
Thanks for the link.
As for my 'stomach', I know you can spend an insane amount of money on this stuff.
Happily, I got most parts for free, except the hub dynamo (SON28), which I bought at a discount of 33%. Nevertheless, it was still ridiculous expensive (120 euro), but I refuse to use a cheap Shimano hub that consumes even more mechanical power when the lights are off than when they are on. For lowest drag you better short circuit this kind of cr@p !!! Apparently, Shimano has never heard of eddy currents.
Cheers,
E.
Thanks for the link.
As for my 'stomach', I know you can spend an insane amount of money on this stuff.
Happily, I got most parts for free, except the hub dynamo (SON28), which I bought at a discount of 33%. Nevertheless, it was still ridiculous expensive (120 euro), but I refuse to use a cheap Shimano hub that consumes even more mechanical power when the lights are off than when they are on. For lowest drag you better short circuit this kind of cr@p !!! Apparently, Shimano has never heard of eddy currents.
Cheers,
E.
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