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Shark Bucks of different amperage in parallel?

Bimmerboy

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I had posted a couple times in the Shark Buck thread, but not sure if anyone noticed. Just trying my luck with a new thread.

Wondering if I can parallel two Shark Bucks of different amperage. For example, will a 3A work in conjunction with a 1A or 2A for a total of 4 or 5 Amps?

Thanks!
 

Mattaus

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To one LED? Without knowing the ins and outs of the Shark Buck - No. You cannot share a load like that between two different constant current sources, especially with a switching regulator as they rely on voltage feedback to ensure they are outputting the current voltage and current. If you put two in parallel onto one load they will destroy themselves trying to regulate their output.

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Mattaus

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As a side note - you can parallel linear regulators because there is no voltage feedback. They're 'dumb' devices and just spit out whatever current they are programmed too irrespective of the load.

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Bimmerboy

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Thanks, Mattaus!

Just to make sure I'm clear on this, since Shark Bucks actually can be paralleled, do you mean I would need 2 X 2A Shark Bucks instead of a 3A and 1A?
 

AnAppleSnail

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Click to SharkBuck thread

"As with the Shark you can parallel more than one Shark Buck to increase the output drive level. Two Shark Bucks could then drive up to 6A of output current and if both had one common pot would control regulation from full off to full on (or nearly full off)." --Wayne

Each driver can be fed separately or from the same pot. So you could drive them from 0-0A (Off-ish) to 3-1A (4A output on), according to this description. I have not checked if this describes the same SharkBuck model you have.

The post I linked to, is the first result in a google search for Shark Buck Driver Parallel. google: shark buck driver parallel
 

Bimmerboy

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Thanks, AppleSnail!

I had actually read the whole already. My apologies for not mentioning that. In scanning through the thread, I didn't spot specific mention of two Shark Bucks of different outputs being used together, and just want to make absolutely sure before spending money on a planned upgrade for one of my lights that already uses a 3A. I'd like to go up to either 4 or possibly 5 Amps.
 

Mattaus

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Well that's surprising but I'm not going to argue with the guy who designed them!

Edit: actually now that I've thought about it a bit more it would actually work. Silly me. Sorry!
 
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Bimmerboy

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Haha... no problem, Mattaus!

I'm gonna' send out e-mails to a couple people who would know (one being Wayne... lol). I'll report back.
 

dat2zip

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It's been a while... Since the driver is not a common ground based design I must have tested and verified running more than one driver in parallel. But, I'm not certain based on the actual design. To be certain I'll have to re-test this weekend and post an update on my tests.

Wayne
 

Bimmerboy

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Awesome! I'll keep an eye out.

Thanks, Wayne!


Edit: Just to make sure you know what I'm looking to do, I want to run a 3A and a 1A together.
 
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dat2zip

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The statement that two Sharks in parallel may have referred to the Boost converter or Blue Shark. That driver has common input and output ground and is safe to parallel. For the Shark Buck input and output are not common grounds and testing two in parallel showed interaction between the two which means that two Shark Bucks can not be paralleled together. Yes, you can hook two in parallel as my test configuration, but, the output current of each converter board will not be independent of each other.

A general rule of thumb: If LED- and input- are the same then it is safe to parallel the converter boards.

Converter boards that have a sense resistor from LED- to GND are not safe to parallel or other configurations like the Shark Buck where LED- is not battery- are less likely possible to parallel.

Wayne
 

Bimmerboy

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Thank you VERY much for tesing that for me, Wayne. I highly appreciate it! :bow:

You were right, Matt! :thumbsup:
 
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