Is there a good infinite control ring style driver available?

eh4

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I want to make an infinite ramping light for a photo red XPE LED, to place on the bow of a kayak.
I'd like to be able to ramp it up and down with two momentary switch buttons in the cockpit, or something like that.

It should run off a single or parallel 18650.
So far the best option I've been able to find is an 17mm Nanjg ak47a from Mountain Electronics with the guppy firmware; but while that Is "good enough", I'd really, really like to have a smoothly adjustable dimmer rather than preset levels.

Any ideas?
 

eh4

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We're not supposed to make duplicate posts, but now I'm thinking that this should be in the custom builders forum rather than the homemade and modders forum.
 

DIWdiver

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I've never seen such a thing, but if you have or are willing to develop the right toolset, this is not a hard thing to build. It can definitely be done with two off-the-shelf boards. You need an LED driver with PWM dimming input, and a microprocessor board to which you can attach two switches.

There are many standalone microprocessor boards available, and some have user communities that could help you write the tiny bit of code you'd need to run it. These range from the Adafruit Trinket, which is roughly the size of a postage stamp and can be had for under $10.00 US including shipping, through the Arduinos and Beagle Bones, to high end monsters with multiple USB, ethernet, WiFi, and Linux operating systems. The Lilypad Arduino might be a good starting point, as it is small and inexpensive and I imagine it will have good community support.

The Mods are pretty good about moving things to the right place, especially if you ask nicely. Often they'll do it even if you don't realize you've posted in the wrong place! But I think this is the right place, unless you want to hire someone to build or mod something for you.
 

archimedes

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.... now I'm thinking that this should be in the custom builders forum rather than the homemade and modders forum.

.... The Mods are pretty good about moving things to the right place, especially if you ask nicely. Often they'll do it even if you don't realize you've posted in the wrong place! But I think this is the right place, unless you want to hire someone to build or mod something for you.

Yes, glad to help, but I agree that this is the correct location. Good luck !
 

staticx57

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You might consider an Emisar D4 and reflow Red XPE2s 660nm on it. Use it with a low drain cell like an 18650B and you should be good to go although it only has one button instead of two.
 

eh4

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Great, thanks All.
I'm going to look over the Emisar D4 and if that doesn't do it, look into the Arduino option.
Reflowing seems less intimidating than jumping into Arduino, though that's something that I've been thinking that I Should be getting into for quite a while now.
 
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eh4

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Oh boy, ok here's the deal.
Staticx57 pointed me in a good direction, Mountain Electronics apparently has all of the components of the lights they sell, for sale individually. There are so many options and I didn't know what I was looking for but eventually stumbled onto the
FET + 7135 Driver - 15mm - MTN-15DDm driver,
which is available with the Emisar D4 firmware,
D4 V2 Ramping... for 10$.
Pretty neat.
So I need to figure out how to not fry the red XP-E led with the driver,
and figure out how much of an issue the long wires between electric switch, battery, and led will be,
but I feel like this will come together now pretty easy, and without breaking the bank.
Being wired into a kayak, I can use as thick of stranded wire as need be, add a capacitor at the end, mount the led on a slab of aluminum, whatever; no host space constraints to speak of.
Mountain Electronics is my new favorite shop on the internet.
 

thslw8jg

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Also check out kaidomain for a magnetic variable driver, you'll probably have to fabricate a rotating ring with small magnets to control the output.
I've built several p60 copper dropins using solid copper pills with copper MCPCB's with xpe2 emitter's and a FET driver and always fried the emitter's. The highest amperage I could go with Xpe emitter's is 5 amps. You might be able to use a FET driver if you use a massive heat sink to keep the emitter's from overheating
 
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staticx57

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There's a reason why I suggested building a quad combined with low current cell :cool:
 

DIWdiver

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I'd just use the 7135 mode, and put the right number of chips on it, so you wouldn't have to worry about frying the LED no matter what battery you put on it.
 

eh4

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Good stuff.
I'll be taking a lot of the advice here.
 
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