navmenu

spacer


Celebrating the independent kiwi spirit of invention.

Original list by Ian Mander started 1 February 2008. Added to this site (Aqualab) 26 November 2008. Database released 27 May 2009.
Please note that the date mentioned below that the database code was last updated is not the date the data itself was last updated.

Driver List
Database code 16 December 2019
Footnotes 10 August 2016

• Step-up drivers
• Low voltage step-down drivers

• Mains drivers
• User interface & PWM drivers

Drivers not yet added
3 March 2012
Links
28 February 2012

Why use a driver?
20 February 2010

Driver types overview
15 September 2010

LED Driver List – low voltage buck LED drivers

An O-ring, Tailcap & Silicone Grease List is also available.

Video Foundry/Aqualab does not sell any of these drivers. Links are provided to resellers. The short URL for this list is www.videofoundry.co.nz/driverlist. See the bottom of the page for my email address. If you're just a spam bot looking for fodder, spam the hell out of these spammers' addresses: spammer address 1, spammer address 2, spammer address 3. They deserve a taste of their own spam.

Note that some sellers are more reliable than others. Inclusion of particular resellers in this list is not an endorsement of them as businesses. Note that Fasttech closed in December 2022 but the drivers are still included for reference.

Jump to: Footnotes & Instructions | Schottky diodes.

22 drivers found. Listed by driver name.

Driver Name

SKU or catalogue #

Retailer

Price (US$)
(shipping incl unless
otherwise stated)

Driver Type

Driver Purpose

 Vin min-max
(DC except where noted)		 Number of LEDs (or LED dice) in series
min-max		 Battery Suitability Efficiency
min-max

Output Current
(off the shelf)

Max current (with just a resistor modification)

 Number of Modes Size
(diameter except where noted)

Notes

Show only SKUs containing
from $
to $

Stock level


from
to

Driver can power

LEDs incl with driver

    (instead of off-the-shelf current)
from
to

from
to
 

2.5-3.0 A, 3 mode driver

128269

DealExtreme

$4.20
(down from $4.99
up from $4.70)
(sold out and/or discontinued)

Buck driver

4.5-18 V 1-3    

2500 mA

Can be modified to 3000 mA

 3 22 mm x 12 mm high Update Jan 2016: Some changes made to the driver, unknown what change to specs these have.

3 mode; high, low, fast strobe. Output current said to be 2500-3000 mA. Assumed to be suitable for 1-3 LEDs. Driver fitted with a couple SS34 Schottky diodes. An alternative is DX sku.57779.

2.6A, 5 mode driver

351550

DealExtreme

$5.56
(sold out and/or discontinued)

Buck driver

3.0-8.0 V 1 1-2x Li-ion  

2600 mA

 5 22 mm 5 modes, unknown memory; high, medium, low, strobe, SOS. Polarity protection.

2.8A buck driver

1143100

FastTech

$5.59

Buck driver

3.0-8.4 V 1 1-2x Li-ion  

2800 mA

 5 21 mm x 10 mm high - two boards in double layer Buck driver with components on both sides of main board. Larger dummy board for battery contact. 5 modes in 2 groups without memory; low (5%), medium (50%), high (100%), strobe, SOS. Alternate group by half press. Low voltage warning at 3.0 V and 5.8 V.

2.8A Cree XM-L driver

p-324

Intl Outdoor Store

$4.98
(up from $4.68)
For 1-2: + shipping
(sold out and/or discontinued)

Buck driver

6.0-18 V 1-3 2-4x Li-ion  

2800 mA
constant current

 3 22 mm x 16 mm high - two boards in double layer Driver removed from site.

3 modes; high, low (20%), strobe. Low soltage protection, reverse polarity protection. Presumably the same as DX sku.57779.

2.8A, 8.4V 4 mode LED driver

S023147

KaiDomain

$4.62

Buck driver

8.4-8.4 V 1 2x Li-ion  

2800 mA

 4 22 mm 4 modes; high, medium, low, strobe (long press for 3 seconds).

3A buck driver

1143104

FastTech

$7.97

Buck driver

5.5-15 V 1 2-3x Li-ion  

3000 mA

 5 21 mm x 10 mm high - two boards in double layer 5 modes with memory; low (10%), medium (50%), high (100%), strobe, SOS. Disappointingly slow PWM frequency, 122 Hz. Low voltage warning and protection.

3A, 3 mode driver

57779

DealExtreme

$5.79
(up from $5.00)
(sold out and/or discontinued)

Buck driver

6.0-18 V 1-3   71-91%

2800 mA
constant current

 3 22 mm x 14 mm high - two boards in double layer 3 modes; high, low, fast strobe. Regulation appears to be reasonably good. Modification for single mode and test results for 1 to 3 LEDs are on CPF here. An alternative is DX sku.128269.

3A, 3 mode LED driver

AC011011

ledsupermall.com

$6.60
(down from $7.60)

Buck driver

5.5-15 V 1   90-95%

3000 mA

 3 19 mm x 8 mm high 3 modes; low (10%), high, medium (35%). Recommended use with maximum 12 V input.

3A, 3 mode LED driver

AC011021

ledsupermall.com

$5.10

Buck driver

8.4-12 V 1    

3000 mA

 3 22 mm x 14 mm high - two boards in double layer Incomplete specs - buyer beware. Possibly the same as DX sku.57779 (which is cheaper). Size listed here assumes that.

Assembled Shark Buck with Remora UI

1212

Sandwich Shoppe

$59.00 + shipping

Buck driver

5.0-15 V 1-3   75-77%

3000 mA
constant current

 4 19 mm Multimode high current buck driver. Available in two flavours - three mode Plain (low, medium, high) and four mode Special (with SOS). For some strange reason complete specifications are not readily available but some more information is available in this thread, where Wayne says you can drive "maybe 4" LEDs. (I can't see any explanation why the efficiency graph shows values 2% higher than the table.)

Cree MC-E, Seoul P7 driver

S006130

KaiDomain

$10.11 each, also available in 5 pack
(sold out and/or discontinued)

Buck driver

5.5-15 V DC; also works with AC 1    

2800 mA

 3 19 mm Three modes at high, medium (30%), low (10%). Its only reviewer says it needs heatsinking or it will burn out. Buyer beware.

Formerly product ID 5595. Also available in a 5 pack, S006371 (formerly product ID 6282).

LD-29, 2.8A

p-416

Intl Outdoor Store

$8.95
For 1-2: + shipping
(sold out and/or discontinued)

Buck driver

3.0-8.4 V 1 1-2x Li-ion  

2800 mA
constant current

 5 19 mm x 9 mm high - two boards in double layer Driver removed from site.

5 modes with memory (claims to not use PWM); high (2.5 A one cell, 2.8 A two cells), medium (700 mA), low (100 mA), strobe, SOS. Constant current output with two cells. Low voltage protection, at 3 V/5.8 V; drops to low mode and starts flashing.

LDV9

501

LCK-LED

$9.45 + shipping

Buck driver

5.5-15 V
(preferred less than 12 V)		 1   90-95%

2800 mA

 3 19 mm Three modes - low (5%), high (100%), medium (35%). Switches to low mode on over-temperature. Output claimed to be constant current and either 3.0 amps or 2.8 amps. Input variously listed at 5.5-15 V (with <12 V preferred), 5.5-13.2 V, and 4.0-12.0 V. 90-95% efficient seems to be the default claim by this retailer. The claim to provide 1+ hours of 3 A output from four Eneloop cells is clearly false for a Cree MC-E or SSC P7. With a LED Vf of 3.4 V (MC-E) that's 10.2+ Wh output from less than 8.5 Wh input (Eneloop @ 2.25 A, assumed driver 95% efficient for estimating battery voltage under load). This also raises doubt about the constant current claim. Buyer beware.

MC-E/P7 driver, 5 mode

S007542

KaiDomain

$8.18 each
(up from $7.99),
also available in 5 pack

Buck driver

5.5-12 V 1    

3000 mA

 5 19 mm Uses PWM for 5 modes; low (10%), medium (50%), high (100%), fast strobe, SOS. If driving a Cree MC-E its four dice must be parallel connected. Also available as a 5 pack. Both product pages have photos of two different drivers. Buyer beware.

This driver gets a bad review here.

Formerly product ID 7947.

P7 or MC-E driver, 3 mode

S009721

KaiDomain

$7.99
(sold out and/or discontinued)

Buck driver

5.5-12 V 1    

3000 mA

 3 19 mm 3 modes; low (10%), medium (50%), high (100%).

Formerly product ID 10973.

Shark Buck

1244

Sandwich Shoppe

$27.00 + shipping

Buck driver

5.0-15 V 1-3   75-79%

3000 mA
constant current

 1 19 mm Three versions available (different set resistors), with output current set to 1 A, 2 A and 3 A. For some strange reason complete specifications are not readily available but some more information is available in this thread, where Wayne says you can drive "maybe 4" LEDs. (I can't see any explanation why the efficiency graph shows values 2% higher than the table.)

WY6825

162784

DealExtreme

$4.40
(sold out and/or discontinued)

Buck driver

3.0-12 V 1    

2500 mA

 5 22 mm x 10 mm high Five modes without memory; high, medium (50%), low (10%), fast strobe (8 Hz), SOS. Polarity protection. Unknown PWM frequency, eh!

XHP50 driver

7217102

FastTech

$2.55

Buck driver

6.0-15 V 2 2-4x Li-ion  

2400 mA

 1 22 mm

XHP50 or XM-L driver, dimmable

7492701

FastTech

$3.20

Buck driver

7.0-15 V 2 2-4x Li-ion  

3000 mA

 1 22 mm A review for the 5 mode version (FT 7492700) says the actual output current is 2.5A. Unknown if the driver is actually dimmable as claimed in the title.

XHP70 driver, 22mm, 5 mode

7217203

FastTech

$3.32

Buck driver

8.0-15 V 2 3-4x Li-ion  

3250 mA
constant current

 5 22 mm 5 modes in Impractical Reverse Order; high, medium, low, strobe, SOS. The single mode version (FT 7217201) is not 4 A output current as claimed. direct drive with 2x Li-ion. Efficiency of about 75%.

XHP70 driver, 22mm, CX-5322-D

7217201

FastTech

$3.32

Buck driver

8.0-15 V 2 3-4x Li-ion  

3250 mA
constant current

 1 22 mm Not 4 A output current as claimed. Direct drive with 2x Li-ion, but output reasonably steady above ~8.0 V. Output flickers slightly when regulated output takes over from direct drive. Efficiency about 75%.

XM-L Multi-cell Circuit Board

p-361

Intl Outdoor Store

$9.95
(sold out and/or discontinued)

Buck driver

5.5-12.6 V 1-3 2-3x Li-ion  

3000 mA
constant current

 3 21 mm x 15 mm high Driver removed from site.

Three modes; high, medium (30%), low (5%). PWM rate 3.9 kHz. Thermal protection, low voltage protection; flashes to indicate both of these.

Notes

Footnotes & Instructions

  • Video Foundry/Aqualab does not sell any of these drivers. Links are provided to resellers.
  • Use the pop-up menus, check boxes, etc, in the second row of the table to filter the results.
  • Click on the links in the titles in the top row of the table to order the results by that information.
  • Results of searches can be bookmarked because all the search parameters are contained in the URL. (You can delete the parameters you don't want - for example, http://www.videofoundry.co.nz/ianman/laboratory/research/driverlist.php?sku=26110 brings up just that driver.)
  • All prices in US$ (except where dual prices are listed in US$ and € for some European retailers).
  • All driver boards from DealExtreme and KaiDomain include shipping.
  • Information is unfortunately not guaranteed to be correct. any updates, corrections, omissions, etc.
  • However, please don't bother sending me an email to tell me about your company's LED products. It will be treated as spam. I really don't like spam, and SpamCop is busy enough as it is without having to process your email as well. Putting "Re" in the front of your spam's subject does not make it any less likely your spam will be sent to SpamCop.
  • Recommended drivers highlighted in green. They have a good combination of price, features and efficiency.
  • Drivers no longer available (sold out or backordered) are highlighted in grey.
  • Recommended drivers no longer available are highlighted in a darker green.
  • Drivers listed at those resellers as "Backordered" etc for more than a month are deemed to be discontinued (although I'm happy to later be proven wrong).
  • Don't connect drivers that have capacitors across their outputs to LEDs while the driver is powered. An explanation (on CPF) why not.
  • No mains driver will be completely waterproof. Those that are water resistant mostly have an IP rating (eg, IP67).

Notes on PT4105 and alternative driver chips (PT4115, AX2002, CL6807) (click to expand/contract)

PT4105 (datasheet):

Production of this driver IC - as used in the Kennan and MR16 base drivers described above - has been terminated. The manufacturer doesn't even have a publicly displayed link to the datasheet any more, which is the weirdest part of it. This from Micro Bridge (now removed from their site; try to ignore the punctuation and spacing):

The PT4105 which the manufacture has already officially stopped producing,and the subsequent instead item is the PT4115,AX2002 and FP6101 Also,The PT4115,AX2002 and FP6101 has superior performance over ,wider input range and more current than the PT4105.

PT4115 (datasheet):

While I look forward to the PT4115 being available in low cost LED drivers (by its numbering the apparent successor to the PT4105), I note that it needs an input of at least 8 V (and has under voltage lock out at 6.8 V), so isn't nearly as well suited to low voltage torches as the PT4105 was. It will, however, have its uses for 3x Li-ion torches and automotive purposes. The chip has a DIM pin which gives it the ability to very easily be dimmed. Efficiency is about 80-82% for 1 LED, up to 93% for 3 LEDs, and apparently up to 98% for 7 LEDs. Maximum output current 1.2 A.

AX2002 (datasheet):

This driver chip from AXElite looks extremely interesting. It will accept a minimum 3.6 V input and has a maximum switched current of 2.5 A, although it tends to overheat at more than 2 A. It includes thermal protection (140°C), over current protection, short circuit protection, and has a PWM control circuit. Its efficiency is good too, with an output of 2 A @ 5 V it's an impressive 91% efficient (with 12 V input). Driving a Cree XR-E at 1 amp will give an efficiency of about 87-88% (with 12 V input). Efficiency is not quite as good at low currents with a single LED, dropping under 80%.

AX2002 drivers can also easily be configured as a constant voltage power supply. The load is connected straight to ground and the 0.25 V reference voltage is used to control a voltage divider with a couple of moderately high value resistors to give a fixed multiple of 0.25V at VOUT.

For example, for 5 V, 5 = 20 * 0.25, so a 10 kΩ resistor is placed between ground and FB (the feedback pin), and a 190 kΩ resistor between FB and VOUT (making the total of those resistors between VOUT and ground of 200 kΩ).

When used in this way, to give stability the current through the resistors probably just needs to be comfortably greater than the feedback pin bias current of (0.1 µA typical, 0.5 µA maximum). If two exact resistor values for the voltage divider are not available it's easiest to use a single resistor for the sense resistor (between ground and FB), while the other value (between FB and VOUT) uses two resistors in series or parallel. For series, one of those two resistors will be as close as possible to the desired value, and just under it, while the other will be a much smaller resistor to tweak the total resistance up for the output voltage wanted. For parallel, the main resistor is just over the actual value wanted while the other resistor with about ten times the resistance tweaks the total resistance down. If that resistor is getting into megaohms you should probably revise your values.

Some AX2002 drivers (such as DX 3256 sadly no longer an AX2002 driver) come with a 1 A Schottky diode, which will need to be changed if increasing the output current over 1 A. See the Schottky diode notes below for links.

AX2003 (datasheet):

The AX2002 also has a big brother, the AX2003, which has a maximum switched current specification of 4 amps – easily enough to drive a Seoul P7, or a Cree MC-E with the dice in parallel. No drivers with the AX2003 are presently known. The spec sheets of the AX chips could do with a few more graphs showing how constant the output current is, etc.

FP6101 (datasheet): Not an LED driver.

CL6807 (datasheet):

Chinese LED driver, 1 A maximum output current, 6-35 V input, 0.1 V high side sense voltage. Claims to be able to provide up to 35 W output power. Dimmable with 0.5-2.5 V PWM signal.

So there are some nice driver chip options, but it still leaves a gap of a high efficiency, really low voltage, low current driver.

Notes on Schottky diodes (click to expand/contract)

Schottky diodes are diodes that have a low voltage drop across them. 0.3 V is a typical figure, compared to around 0.60-0.65 V for a typical silicon diode. This makes Schottky diodes good for rectifiers and LED drivers where high efficiency is required. Drivers that use the AX2002 such as DX 3256 can easily be modified for higher output current but the Schottky diode needs to be replaced if the output current is to exceed 1 A.

Inexpensive Schottky diodes are available from these sources:


Celebrating the independent kiwi spirit of invention.

Contact:
Return to ianman HOME | Back to Aqualab Home | Return to TOP
Inventions: Super Soaker Backpack | Air Cannon | Car Interior Lighting | LED Torch

* This would have been an ad.

 When you buy stuff from Asian sellers:
Please don't buy stuff from a country in the middle of intimidating its neighbours.
spacer