# Finally! A simple Thor (and other 12 Volt Incans) Spotlight Boost Board!



## BVH (Jan 18, 2012)

Back in 2005, give or take, member NEWBIE was considering making a Thor boost board to provide its' 100 Watt incan bulb with 14+ Volts instead of the 12.2 Volts (give or take) it gets from its' 7AH SLA battery under load. Unfortunately, it never materialized. Thanks to member igNITEor, the boost board is available today. I picked up a couple and gave one a road test.

The board:






The specs:

Module Properties: non-isolated step-up module (BOOST)
Input voltage :10-32V
Output voltage: 12-35V (adjustable)
Output Current: 10A (MAX)
Input Current: 16A (MAX) (Please enhance heat dissipation if more than 10A)
Output power: natural cooling 100W (MAX), enhance heat dissipation 150W (MAX)
Easy to drive 65W 90W dual-core notebook.
Use a 12V battery drive 19V 3.42A notebook, the module temperature about 45°c
Conversion efficiency: 94% (measured at Input 16V, output 19V 2.5A)
Output Ripple: 2% (MAX) 20M-bandwidth
Operating Temperature: Industrial (-40°c to +85°c) (ambient temperature exceeds 40°c, lower power use, or to enhance heat dissipation)
Full load temperature rise: 45°c
No-load current: 25mA typical
Voltage regulation: ± 0.5%
Dynamic response speed: 5% 200uS
Short circuit protection: None (Please Install fuses and protection circuits at Input port.)
Input Reverse Polarity Protection: None (Please Series diode at the input port.)

My results:

The control shot






Volts on Orange meter lower right, Amps from high precision white Ammeter on left, Relative CP from orange meter upper right. Light meter sensor is 3" from 100 Watt bulb filament. Board input Voltage on blue meter extreme upper center from my 26AH SLA 


Simulated lamp performance with 12.1 Volts input from Thor 7AH SLA: Total of 77.22 Watts to the bulb







Actual performance with 14 Volts to the bulb from the board with 12.0 Volt input from my SLA Total of 97.55 Watts to the bulb.
A 22% increase in relative CandlePower






Heat-wise, the highest heat was found on the heatsink on the left and was around 145 degrees after 7 minutes of running at 97.55 Watts. I could touch them for about 3-4 seconds. The board should be able to boost power for the 130 Watt Thors, but I would guess that run time would be limited by board heat unless forced cooling was provided.

Even at 14.4 Volts, I could not get 100 Watts to the bulb.


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## Ra (Jan 18, 2012)

Hi BVH,

It has been a while.. I returned to answer a PM... And saw this.. So tell me :

WHERE CAN I ORDER ONE OR TWO ???? Very neat stuff !! Thanks for sharing.


All the best, Ra.


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## Ra (Jan 18, 2012)

Ooops, Things frose.. Double post, sorry.


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## IgNITEor (Jan 18, 2012)

BVH! Mine came in yesterday's mail. All this white stuff outside delayed my bench test. :shrug: I can see you've
got the hot test well in hand! I was concerned that the output voltage would not be exactly stabilized, but I was
pleasantly surprised after setting the output to 14 Volts and the "little boost board that could" held on down to
10.2 Volts on the input side.
Best $16.00 I have ever spent lately!
I'm thinking if we were to fan cool the heat sinks, we may be able to boost the output current over the 100 Watt level.

So the question is, can we safely parallel two boards for increased current?
Since _you_ have two boards, sir, you might provide the answer.

Nice testing demo pics. Wish my bench was that tidy!


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## BVH (Jan 18, 2012)

Ah.....IgNIEor, it was your thread! Thanks again!

Ra - here ya go: ebay.com/itm/140671888594?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649 there's plenty to go around. I might order a couple more. Maybe I'll email the vendor to see if he has anything with higher output. But even this one could be driven a little harder, I think.

Ig...I dont quite know how to parallel two boards....or rather to do it without burning them up? Won't each one see boosted power from the other on its' output circuit and self destruct? Would each need a diode on the + output wire?

NOTE: Items purchased now will not ship until Jan 28 due to Chinese New Year Holiday.

NOTE2: Found it $1.00 cheaper and seems to be available now: .ebay.com/itm/150W-DC-DC-Boost-Converter-10-32V-12-35V-Step-Up-Voltage-Charger-Regulator-/110773897686?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19caa389d6


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## IgNITEor (Jan 19, 2012)

BVH, our boost converter adventure started with the Costco Monster thread by TheRealDoodle.
Which probably now warrants a redux of the Thor mod using the handy converter.

There is no doubt I will enhance my Xmas Monster with the boost board, especially since I keep all the burned-out (low beam) Sliverstar Ultra lamps from my wife's Subaru. 
They get replaced annually. Once I rip through those, who knows what? With this level of regulation, oh man! The sky's the limit.

I'm thinking you're better set up to test two boards in parallel. If the mfr's output is as stated in your spec. post, there shouldn't be too much risk if both boards are driven from the same source and the output voltages are dialed-in very close.
I don't have the gear to monitor temperature of the heat sinks, and if one board increases it temp, a slight adjustment of that board will keep a parallel output safe. 
The parallel connection will require three jumpers of appropriate wire size. One for the positive input side, the negative (which checks out to be common) and the last for the output side. I would start with a small load and see how boards respond.
Fuses and diodes are a must with this test!
If parallel operation is practical, we're headed for the BIG lights!

It's possible the lack of output in the 100 Watt threshold is related to heat generated at the heat sinks.


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## BVH (Jan 19, 2012)

IgNITEor said:


> ...............It's possible the lack of output in the 100 Watt threshold is related to heat generated at the heat sinks.



I may have given the wrong impression on this. Or I'm misinterpreting what you said here. What I meant to say is that even at 14.4Volts, the 100 Watt rated bulb did not consume 100 Watts and that I was surprised it did not. It seems as if the bulb is over-rated. I would think that it really should reach its' rated power level by 14.4V. - that Voltage being pretty much the top end of a typical automotive electrical system. The board was capable of a lot more output, I believe. I just stopped there.

I don't have any diodes to try to parallel the boards. I could probably get a couple from radio shack if I knew some specs to go by. Also, I'd want to see a simple schematic? Can you provide? I'm pretty good with things electrical but really a novice in things electronic.


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## IgNITEor (Jan 19, 2012)

No, you're description is right on. It's me that's not getting it. :thinking:
Anytime I feel heat, I think of power loss. Probably established by my previous experiments
and impatience with not cooling when cooling is needed.
I will do a little drawing of the parallel connection, and the diodes should be sized up to 15 Amps.


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## BVH (Jan 19, 2012)

OK on the diodes but I know there are lots of different "kinds" - "Regular, Zener, and who knows what. Can you give me a Radio Shack part number?


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## IgNITEor (Jan 19, 2012)

Here's the 15 Amp diode. May come in a 2-pack. Nice!
Quick check of the Shack shows a part # 276-1661 is a 4-pack of 6 Amp diodes like this one. You will use two in parallel for 12 Amps, etc. (more paralleling!)


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## IgNITEor (Jan 19, 2012)

BVH,
Here's the scratch diagram. Somewhere between the scanner and Photobucket it got all fuzzy!
I would put another fuse in the battery positive jumper to the #2 booster. The first diode(s) will protect both boosters




Slight disclaimer: I am an electrician, also not an electronics geek. I prefer big on/off knobs, push buttons, and loud clacking relays. Today however, we have to know some of this stuff about keypads (got a hammer?) and electronic switches & relays (if it's hot and smells bad, do I turn it off?)

Start off with a 2 Amp fuse.
So, if your board goes



at the start, I will send you mine and order another from Mr. Jennyear.
Sound fair?

This is SO much fun!


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## BVH (Jan 19, 2012)

No need to send me your if I poof one. Got 3 more coming and it will have given its' life for a good cause. Good, an easy to follow schematic, thanks! It's been a long time since any formal electrical schooling but I thought my memory aid for the orientation of a diode was that correct current flow was in-line with the arrow point. In this case, it looks as though the pictogram indicates that current tries to flow with the arrow but then hits a brick wall and stops?


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## IgNITEor (Jan 19, 2012)

That is correct. If you have success, and it appears that these boards can be paralleled, we can use an automotive reverse polarity protector that carries higher current.
I'm thinking this would be perfect for the Cow Light project I never finished.


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## BVH (Jan 20, 2012)

For the banded RS diode, + battery power should go to the non-banded end of the diode, correct? A layman question. With the diode before the "2nd" board on the left, couldn't current from the first board on the right flow back into the 2nd board on the left?


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## BVH (Jan 20, 2012)

ok, components connected as per the diagram except diodes are not in-place until I see your reponse to the above question on diode placement. I independently set both boards to exactly 14.00 Volts on My quality Fluke and using the exact same battery so input Voltage was identical. My smallest DC load is a 55 Watt headlamp bulb so it will be in the neighbor hood of 4-5 Amps. I've got my smallest fuse - 3 Amp - for the initial, no-load connection. If that is successful, then I will shut down, install the 5 Amp fuse and attempt to power up the 55 Watt bulb. If that works, I have two, 100 Watt bulbs independently switched on the same load bank so I can bring them in one at a time for up to 251 Watts.


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## IgNITEor (Jan 20, 2012)

Diodes are correct. I understand the current looping back from the right side board to the left board. Because they are both fed from the same protected source this shouldn't be a problem. Truly, you're being very careful here and from the nice pics I can see you're using all the right colors. So the threat of reverse polarity is pretty minimum.

It's lookin' good!


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## BVH (Jan 20, 2012)

OK, going out now to have some fun or release some magic smoke.


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## BVH (Jan 21, 2012)

Well, the good news is that the boards released no magic smoke. And they successfully powered the 55 Watt lamp. However... Observations:

Output Voltage fell to 13.96 from their 14.00 Settings.
4 minutes into run, heatsinks on left board were cold - 74F - Heatsinks on right board were 107F
Current flow from left was 2.95 Amps. Current from right was 1.75. Total equals 4.7 Amp reading after butt connector splice.
Both diodes were hot a heck - immediate burn to fingers. Let cool and tried again and diodes were very hot in less than 20 seconds.

A lot doesn't make sense to me yet. Why is the board with the most current output, the coolest running? Why are they different? Why are the diodes very hot running at about half rated capacity?


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## IgNITEor (Jan 21, 2012)

Well, so far almost good. Sorry about yer' fingers bro!
Odd that the diodes are getting so hot. Unless RS's rating for them is max. intermittent at 6 Amps each?
Still, very odd.
As for the voltage change I think these boards need a load in their output to stabilize/regulate. 
Can you tell if both diodes are equally overheating? And is there some significant voltage drop across them while in operation?
One check for the dual performance issue is to gently adjust up or down the pot on the idling (cooler) board and watch the current draw on that board increase.
It may be causing the other board to struggle. Is there a way to check the current through the diodes with another meter just to be sure on the reading?
Okay, enough questions.

This kinda reminds me of hearing stories about adjusting twin carbs on an outboard engine.
The boards differences could be because they are not of matched components, or if they are a true switch-mode type design, each board is switching at an unmatched frequency. But because their output is supposed to be well filtered DC, this shouldn't be a 
serious issue.


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## BVH (Jan 21, 2012)

IgNITEor said:


> Well, so far almost good. Sorry about yer' fingers bro!
> Odd that the diodes are getting so hot. Unless RS's rating for them is max. intermittent at 6 Amps each?
> Still, very odd.
> As for the voltage change I think these boards need a load in their output to stabilize/regulate.OK, makes sense
> ...


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## IgNITEor (Jan 21, 2012)

The voltage drop across the diodes should be close to any difference of volts between the input terminals of each board and the battery. Since the fuse hasn't blown yet, I might consider jumpering across the diodes until the board thing is figured
out. Kinda scary being all hot like that.

The general idea here is to have each board carry close to 50% of the load connected.
Somewhere way back when I remember that if you have multiple power supplies feeding a common DC bus that one will have its output dialed up just a little more than all the others.
Alpha Rectifier? Woof!
Them are some interesting readings ya' got there.
Things may even out a little as more load is applied.


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## IgNITEor (Jan 21, 2012)

I think your ammeter will not read in the negative scale for amps. The .8 A reading? That's a stumper.


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## BVH (Jan 21, 2012)

Next steps:

Jumper the diodes with no load. Success. Boards played together.

Everything that follows is with the diodes jumpered/removed from circuit

After uncoupling the boards, set each boards' output Voltage to 14.00 while under the 55 Watt bulb load.

Recouple the boards.

Place coupled boards under the 55 Watt load. Success. Left board at 2.17A and Right at 2.5A. Circuit at 14.00 Volts.

Add in 1st 100 Watt bulb load - immediately pop 5 Amp fuse! Replace fuse with 15 Amp and repeat. Success. L=3.44A, R=3.34A. Volts=13.98.

Change fuse to 20 Amp.

Add in 2nd 100 Watt bulb for 255 Watt load. Success. L=9.8A, R=8.3A. Volts=13.98.

Everything goes dark with a "snap". Thought the boards died.

Radio Shack alligator clip melts temporary Beldon butt connector connection. Boards are fine. Radio shack connectors good for 15 Amp give or take.

Total full-load run time was probably 2-3 minutes and hottest heat sink was 150F. Each board was approximately at 84% load. I think at 100 Watts, no active cooling might work as the vendor indicates "cool beyond 100 Watts". Each boards contribution was certainly a lot closer this time after the initial under-load calibration but still, the percentage they were off varied with load.


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## IgNITEor (Jan 21, 2012)

Successful load test. Yeeehaaaah!! 

Your efforts show great promise for the boards. VERY interesting how the diodes were 
affecting the power sharing.
Are you going through your inventory looking for a 12 Volt micro fan?


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## AlexGT (Jan 21, 2012)

I was wondering if this can be used to boost the car headlights to 14-15v? I would need one per headlight, right?


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## BVH (Jan 21, 2012)

Chances are, if your headlight lows are 55 Watts each, you could get by with one board, especially since most of the time, you'll be moving and force-cooling the heatsinks, if mounted in an air stream. But if it were me, I'd use one per light. I would set mine, if I did this, to 14.0.V I think a constant Voltage above that might very significantly shorten bulb life. I'd guess you're already running 13.6 pretty much full time to your bulbs so I'm not sure there's much to be gained. If you're doing 13.2 Volts, then yes, maybe it's worth it.


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## Mr. Tone (Jan 22, 2012)

BVH, do you still have an incan Blitz? Or have you modded them all to HID? It would be cool to see how it would do with this board. I remember a thread someone had about the Blitz having a lot of resistance in the cord intentionally to keep the voltage lower to the bulb. 

Nice thread, BTW. This is a very cool thing for incan spotlights. What do you think the voltage would be on a 12 volt 9 amp/hour SLA with a 100 watt H4 on it? Less than 12?


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## BVH (Jan 22, 2012)

Mr. Tone, here’s some data: My Costco HID has the original 7AH SLA. However, it was at 12.41 Volts. When the 100 Watt load was connected, Voltage dropped by 1.3 to 11.1V. Same test on my 28AH bench SLA that is old and has a capacity of about 16 AH and Voltage fell by .3V.

Broke out a stock 100 Watt 240 Blitz. Powered with a 30V, 50 Amp Variable DC power supply.

12.6 Volts, 7.8 Amps, 98 Watts – 12,200 Lux @ 21’
14.0 Volts, 8.3 Amps, 120 Watts – 17,500 Lux @ 21’


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## Mr. Tone (Jan 23, 2012)

Wow. So this board would definitely make a noticeable increase for incan spotlights running on SLA batteries. The bulb in the Blitz is a Philips, right? So it would be sucking a potential 130+ watts at 14.4? I am just guessing at that since at 14.0 it was at 120 watts from your variable power supply. 

I wonder what the runtime would be for a typical 7-9 amp/hour SLA pushing that kind of wattage since the board would regulate the output voltage and draw more current from the battery as it depletes.


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## BVH (Jan 23, 2012)

My guess would be 30 min, 35 tops. I re-did the 7AH fully charged SLA test with the 100 watt bulb. Dropped 1.1 Volts.


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## Mr. Tone (Jan 23, 2012)

thanks


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## Sway (Jan 23, 2012)

The stock bulb for the SL240 Blitz is an Osram 62138 “axial filament”. *LuxLuthor* performed destructive testing on this bulb along with many other incan bulbs and recorded his results, info on the bulb in question can be found here.

Nice work guys 

Later
Kelly


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## Mr. Tone (Jan 23, 2012)

Sway said:


> The stock bulb for the SL240 Blitz is an Osram 62138 “axial filament”. *LuxLuthor* performed destructive testing on this bulb along with many other incan bulbs and recorded his results, info on the bulb in question can be found here.
> 
> Nice work guys
> 
> ...



Thanks for the info and link! That chart is awesome. I can't believe how much increase in performance there is with the voltage increase. I am also surprised that it didn't flash until 15 volts. I also did not realise how short the lifespan of the bulb would be at 14.4 volts. Even at 12 volts it is really pathetic! I guess that is the price you pay for having a hot performing incan bulb.


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## BVH (Jan 23, 2012)

Mr. Tone said:


> Thanks for the info and link! That chart is awesome. I can't believe how much increase in performance there is with the voltage increase. I am also surprised that it didn't flash until 15 volts. I also did not realise how short the lifespan of the bulb would be at 14.4 volts. Even at 12 volts it is really pathetic! I guess that is the price you pay for having a hot performing incan bulb.



Good reasons to convert it to HID!


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## Mr. Tone (Jan 24, 2012)

BVH said:


> Good reasons to convert it to HID!



Yeah, you got that right. This makes the bulb/ballast lifespan seem pretty insignificant in comparison to hot incan bulb lifespan!


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## HooNz (Jan 26, 2012)

Thanks for the thread guys , 29th soon and ready to order a couple , i'm gunna fit it to the pic one 100w H3, but i'll put in a 55w or even a 35w H3 as the battery is only a 4amp hour type so it'll last longer.

Q-What are the dimensions of the board





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## IgNITEor (Jan 27, 2012)

The board measure's 65 mm x 36 mm x 26 mm in height.
Inches? About 2.5 x 1.5 x 1. One tidy little board with some guts.
If you're gonna push it upwards of 100 Watts @ 14.5 Volts, you may want to monitor the temp.
rise inside your light's casing. Could get a little warm with that level of output.


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## HooNz (Jan 28, 2012)

Wow thanks , it's smaller than it looks .

I'll be using 35w first then a 55w to see the difference , and there is plenty of room in there for the board behind the reflector , if there was a heat drama i already figured out a few air flow holes top and bottom might fix that up , thanks again ...


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## HooNz (Jan 28, 2012)

???? , i just went to order and the page has changed , input says 4amp max , 5amp for less than 10 seconds

150W-DC-DC-Boost-Converter-10-32V-12-35V-Step-Up-Voltage-Charger-Regulator-/110773897686?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19caa389d6

what happened ? , anyway about to look for another page ...

*edited*---150W-DC-Boost-Converter-10-32V-12-35V-Step-Up-Voltage-Charger-/220887163706?pt=AU_B_I_Electrical_Test_Equipment&hash=item336de6a33a
Got the last one? and 16amp in 10 out it says ...

*Re-edited*---that first one threw me , it looks like the same board , and it looks like i actually got the dearest last one  , ijust found 2 other sellers at 10 local moneys , but at least one is on the way  .
DC-10-32-switch-12-35V-150W-adjustable-boost-converter-/330576410430?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4cf7e3b73e

*And again , *make that 2 on the way


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## BVH (Feb 4, 2012)

On the subject of modding, I'm offering some limited free machining services (by lathe) here.

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...ot-Too-Complex-Projects&p=3866884#post3866884


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## HooNz (Feb 5, 2012)

BVH said:


> On the subject of modding, I'm offering some limited free machining services (by lathe) here.
> 
> http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...ot-Too-Complex-Projects&p=3866884#post3866884



That is one nice Gadget! 

Can't wait for those boosters to turn up , any day now .
I also ordered some H4 55w brite globes to try too .
Thanks again for the thread guys and gals ...


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## BVH (Feb 5, 2012)

I think I got my shipping Ebay notice yesterday or the day before on mine.


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## HooNz (Feb 5, 2012)

No problems with the shipping notices BVH , those were very soon after i purchased , all i was really saying was any day soon they will turn up here in the post box , so really it's just the mail system and of course i'm impatient  .

*You'll have a ball with that Lathe *imo , i was real good at that stuff at trade school and after (i'm not bragging just a fact) , and that was not my trade to be , actually a ex Heavy Earthmoving mechanic now and in our eventual workshop back then there was 2 lathes and one was a ex gun barrel lathe ) , around a 16-18ft bed lenght and a 4ft 3 and 4 jaw chuck , a long time ago now so the diamensions will not be accurate , but close , cheers  , twas fun!


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## HooNz (Feb 13, 2012)

One board turned up today :thumbsup: , silly me , in my eagerness i hooked it up and with my only 100w H4 fired it up and bango H4 , dunno why but i assumed the output was set for 14v LOL , it was 30v! ...

Now i gotta wait for the Globes , but i did try it out with a 12v 25w blinker globe , screwed it right up to 15v and no pop , just with the 25w there seemed (by eye only) 3 brightness increases from 12v , one at around 12.6v , next 13.2v and next 14/14.2v , but the output seemed the same , but the whiteness seemed to change ? , make sense anyone ....


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## BVH (Feb 13, 2012)

Mine should be here today or tomorrow. My first two boards from a different seller were set around 18V.


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## HooNz (Feb 13, 2012)

Ok , that 30v was with nothing connected btw  , those boards are well made and put together imo

The mosfet used has a max rating of 80 amp! , and the rectifier diode are 2 x 10 amp , a larger amperage one would be easily and cheaply got just for a extra saftey thing but as it is it is fine imo , but anyway one would have to do some track work and other stuff then of course the extra heat , but as it is it's fine...

The board fits with plenty of room in the old torch , there is even a flat spot to mount it and i'll use those brass mounts and some screws from the outside to inside , hurry up H4's  .

Anyone reading have a idea of lumens of a H4 at 12vdc and then at 14vdc (either a 55w or 100w h4) ?


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## HooNz (Feb 13, 2012)

BVH , i just re-red the thread and i thought i'd mention in a seperate post that those heasinks getting warmer than the other is due to .

One heatsink has the rectifier on it STPS2045CT , a 2 diode to220 style ic , thats 2 x 10 amp diodes in the same package .
The other heatsink is a mosfet 75N75 , that gets drive from the 8 pin ic 2843A underneath the board , that ic is a PWM style of thing , so i think the mosfet turns the input DC to fast AC and then the diodes rectify it back to a smoothed pulsating output DC .


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## HooNz (Feb 15, 2012)

What a day , but i'm not to embarassed to post 

Those ebay globes turned up 55w H3's , set it all up and no light , so looks at the globes more indepth and *both* did not have the pin to earth or steel housing spotwelded to it , junk , so soldered them on just for now which was then , in the messing around i hooked up the board back to front and POP :huh: it went .

2 globes no good (solder will melt when hot) but are bright *and* a popped board , what a day , luckily another board is due to turn up any day now ....

What a DaY :thumbsup:


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