These diode-array drivers on ebay/Ali

[-bart-]

Does anyone have some first hand experience with these diode array drivers widely available one ebay and Ali ?

I expect these drivers to be actual COB-LED drivers that also happen to be able to drive these arrays, however I've not seen them sold or applied anywhere else.

Are they really TTL, or are they suitable for analog modulation ?
Attachment 60185Has anybody checked how noisy these drivers are, and how well/bad they behave when powering on/off ?

How are these arrays actually driven in their native/donor projectors ?
Are these PSU / drivers also scavenged / available ?

[turbohead]

I bought one to drive a FAP laser diode. The two capacitors get very hot in a short period of time. That did not seem normal. I returned the driver and received a full refund.

[Draco]

I miss the days of the simple drive, quite a few laser/led drivers from China have a low bandwidth that poses problems in a laser projector, the simple drive was 100khz some of these Chinese ones tend to be about 30khz and are not as reliable, I have one that surges at power up, and killed an expensive diode, even with a LASORB stuck to it so test these with LEDs cheapies as a load

[edison]

I miss the days of the simple drive, quite a few laser/led drivers from China have a low bandwidth that poses problems in a laser projector, the simple drive was 100khz some of these Chinese ones tend to be about 30khz and are not as reliable, I have one that surges at power up, and killed an expensive diode, even with a LASORB stuck to it so test these with LEDs cheapies as a load

China is building projectors so cheap the group of DIY people has become too small for selling laserparts. As soon as it was cheaper to buy then build yourself the whole DIY market was going south. Back in the day the drive to DIY was because of money saving. I build systems up till 22W in good quallity but cheap has become the norm. The future isn,t bright in laserbussiness or any bussiness that china can do cheaper. There is a reason why china is slowly becoming the new world economy leader,. In any bussiness, if people can afford to buy quallity and long lasting goods they will go for cheap. You need to be cheap or your bussiness is on the way to the grave. Good quallity cost money and is better for the envirement as it can be repaired and doesn,t and up at the landfill half a year later. But the world doesn,t care.

The diy laserbuilders can blame themselves that parts no longer are available. Because most of them have becoming buyers instead. Also the knowledge how things are working is not past on so you get more and more people that don,t know anything how a system works and when its broke how it can be repaired if it even can as most china systems are not designed for replacing a diode optics or electronically.

If you need to have good drivers Livelasersystems has good drivers but not cheap!

[mixedgas]

If you need drivers, Technological Artisans also has a good hybrid digital/analog programmable driver, one board RGB, not at 20$ a channel though. It costs money to have an office in Brooklyn and a NYS Class B..***

Tariffs , shipping fees, and excessive taxes on importing it from NY to protectionist Europe, generally not paid by Ebay Sellers, but forced on the buyers, probably make Philip's board cost effective. No doubt it is technologically good.

Conversely being charged VAT often stops me from ordering from Europe.

Hey but when China's government subsidizes the shipping by invoking an old international postal treaty, well..... When they have state owned semi internal distributers that can get parts at a fraction of what I pay... What can I say...

I still do my own machining, as that will never come down in cost.


*** disclaimer: John is a good friend and I buy many of my RGB modules from him.

Steve

[-bart-]

I bought two pieces for the hack of it ; absolute crap.
One of the leads of the input capacitor even lit up. Fortunately I wisely used a dummyload.

• These are not able to deliver near the 200W needed for driving the 31T array. To get the driver in a comfortable range (n>80%) the driving voltage should be higher ~80VDC and the current should be much lower.
• There does not seem to be any overcurrent, overt temp, over voltage protection.
  The driver is now relisted as A 95W driver, which may be an overstatement too.
• The PWM input is not capable of any modulation, it appears to be ON OFF control at best. Anything other than 0 or 5V fries the output stage.
• Despite their low ESR, the caps get hot fast.
• Did not even to bother to look at ripple, brownout behavior or transients.

Stay away !