Help - Actually Hate the P3 Driver...

[danielbriggs]

one of my problems is the lack of two ground (-) outputs,

Con, get some of these stacking banana plug cables:

[drlava]

one of my problems is the lack of two ground (-) outputs, my bench psu's only work if both have a G connection.

Hi con, someone pointed me to this thread, and I've got to say I'm a bit surprised you didn't contact me about your new difficulty. But in any case. The failure here I guess comes from me not explaining in the user manual that ground is ground is ground for all voltage levels are referenced to the ground and that ground is one. Sorry, it's late The P3 has protection built in that prevents you from doing many bad things. This protection is much more substantial than with robin's driver. If you see the red light on the P3, it sees a problem. Problems can be bad solder connections, no solder connections (sockets on solder), PSU juice, etc. Your frustrations would be much lower if you had contacted me when you ran into the red light this second time. But I'm glad you figured that grounding thing with your supplies. Once people figure out why the red light was on, they are usually very thankful that it exists.

Those of you who have posted your good experiences with the P3, thank you, you will not be forgotten.

andy, if you run into more difficulty, feel free to post a detailed report so I can help and please contact me as well so I know what's up.

[heroic]

im sure the driver isnt fully to fault i do not gide the fact in poo with electronics. but i still dont think the driver is easy to use.

Someone call the waaambulance: lasers, it turns out, involve electronics.

[norty303]

drlava, reading your post back, I just realized my P3 told me my PSU was dying, before it even died. A few problems starting up showing the red light then. Eventually it started but about 15mins latert the PSU went. The P3 KNEW!!!!

[Solarfire]

The P3 KNEW!!!!

Hmm... Do you think this could be any help with a lottery?

[planters]

I found this thread after a frustrating night running up the current on my 4x445 series module. With the driver set at a conservative 1.0 A. every time I reached a modulation voltage beyond 2.7 V. the little red light comes on and the strip dies. Because I was running the diodes at a low temp. (-10C) I tried warming the diodes to more conventional temps. and this helped, but only to allow 3.5 V. modulation. Even setting the PSU all the way up to 24 V. only allowed 3.9 V. prior to the little red light. Because I am running 5 drivers in parallel this effect would occur with first one driver then another; not simultaneously, but within a few tenths of each other. I am grounding the P3 to the BK PSU that is supplying the variable modulation voltage. The generic 24V. 15A. Chinese PSU is grounded to the AC supply voltage. I only experienced this before when I was testing single diodes with the P3 and had set the supply V. to less than 6.5V., But above this level the diodes would function happily at 1.6A. Any thoughts?

[drlava]

@ planters,

Measure the diode loop voltage and compare this with your supply voltage at the driver input +/-. I think you'll find that your diode loop voltage is getting too close to the rails, triggering the protection. This can be aided by using a non-sagging PSU, thicker wiring, or breaking your 4-series loop into a series-parallel pair with a 16V supply for diode chilling. Chilling diodes increases their forward voltage, so this is why you experienced different cutoffs at different temperatures.

[planters]

Thanks. I'll give this a try.

[taggalucci]

@ planters,

Measure the diode loop voltage and compare this with your supply voltage at the driver input +/-. I think you'll find that your diode loop voltage is getting too close to the rails, triggering the protection. This can be aided by using a non-sagging PSU, thicker wiring, or breaking your 4-series loop into a series-parallel pair with a 16V supply for diode chilling. Chilling diodes increases their forward voltage, so this is why you experienced different cutoffs at different temperatures.

I envy and respect this level of knowledge!

[planters]

I'm not going to be able to get into the lab for a couple of days to test Drlava's suggestion. However, are all these generic Chinese PSUs similar? If you set the pot to 24V.on a 15 A.rated supply, without load, and measured with a good multimeter what kind of voltage sag are you likely to see at 5-6 A. draw? I'm assuming a 4 diode string if provided 22V. should be able to be driven at 1A. If the sag remains constant independent of the drive voltage will the drivers be damaged if inorder to obtain the necessary voltage at load the driver saw somewhat greater than 24V. at minimal load?