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Lampounette

Just a last minute cute hack before I went to a camping trip in summer 2009.

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What do you do, a few hours before you leave for a few weeks of camping ?
In this case, I was concerned I'd have to spend time in the dark of the 8-hours summer nights.
So I built a torch lamp.
Not your average torch lamp though:
* up to 20h on one charge
* automatic shutdown in case it's left on, still leaving some charge
* 2 push-buttons
* undervolted 3W Luxeon LED for wide-angle lighting
...
These days it's still working very well, despite some traces of oxydation.
I love my lampounette and here is how to make yours :-)

Note: the heatshrink tube trick is cheap but it might not be NF/CE/UL certifiable...
_______________

This was a time when I depended heavily on getting free samples from the manufacturers. So thank you Texas Instruments (TPS3809, REG104 in different packagings and voltage options), Analog Devices, Maxim/Dallas (MAX809), Microchip...

Logs:
1. How does it work ?

  • 1 × REG104 3.3V
  • 1 × TPS3809 (2.93V reset)
  • 2 × push-buttons
  • 1 × 10K resistor
  • 1 × 100K resistor

View all 9 components

  • How does it work ?

    Yann Guidon / YGDES05/01/2016 at 21:49 0 comments

    This system is a pretty neat hack and I intended to publish for some years... The time seems to be now :-)

    First, let's just consider the REG104. This reference is now obsolete and replace by an improved version, by the way. It's still a great regulator with very low dropout and very low leakage (so it can be left connected to the battery without significan discharge). The very low drop is possible thanks to an internal N-FFET polarised by an internal charge pump. For portable LED lighting, this is great because the battery can still work well close to the LED voltage, in "dropout mode":

    • Vin / Vbatt between 4.2 and 3.3V : the REG104 is in "regulator mode", dissipating the difference as heat.
    • Vin / Vbatt at 3.3 and below : the REG104 is fully on, "dropout mode" with the least dissipation (even less dissipation because it's sized for large loads and I draw significantly less).

    I could have used an adjustable version to set a specific working point for the LED but I kept the fixed version at 3.3V and experimentally set the series resistance to get a significant light output without much heat. I even soldered a small copper tab for heatsinking of the REG104 but the LED shouldn't get hot. The LED is a leftover from the project described in #Cheap linear LED temperature regulator


    Now, consider that the usual pins (Vin, Vout, GND) are supplemented with the "Enable" pin, which is active high. Normally, it's tied to Vin.

    If the EN pin is tied to Vout, it could "latch" the state to ON.

    But then it is necessary to turn it on or off, so two push-buttons are required, with series resistors of suitable values to override the latch.

    In order of priority:

    • Normally the pin shouldn't be left floating (to prevent spurious turn-ons) so a 1M resistor serves as pull-down.
    • Once ON, the output should go back to EN, through a 100K resistor, which is 10× stronger than the pull-down and override it.
    • To turn it ON, a push-button must override the pull-down and the feedback, with a 10× stronger current through a 10K resistor.
    • To turn is OFF, a push-button short-circuits everything, with no resistor, because the stronger current is about 0.4mA (worst case) through the above 10K. Adding a 1K would not change that much.

    Well, I just described a kind of set-reset latch !


    I want the battery to be totally disconnected when its voltage is below 2.93V. That's a standard voltage for reset controlling chips, such as MAX809, TPS3809 etc.: 3.3V-10%=2.93V.

    If I connect the voltage monitor on the battery side, it will continuously draw some current, even if it is small. It is not desired because it will reduce the shelf storage time.

    Ideally, the monitor is on the LED side so it is powered when the LED is on.

    It should pull down the EN pin when the voltage drops below 2.93V, but instead of overriding the feedback path of the 100K resistor, the feedback goes through the monitor.

    The type of monitor I use has a little delay so you have to push the ON button for 1/2s. It can be seen as a protection agains transients.

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Discussions

Frank Buss wrote 10/07/2019 at 07:09 point

Did you measure the battery capacity? Your battery looks like the BRC type, which could be a fake, it is listed here as a fake battery:
http://danyk.cz/test18650_en.html
Instead of the claimed 5000 mAh, he measured only 426 mAh for the BRC brand.
I got a similar battery, brand name "GIF", also only about 500 mAh. The seller claimed an impossible high capacity of 9900 mAh:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/dodgy-technology/9900-mah-18650-accus/msg2725094/#msg2725094
And there are sellers who offer 12000 mAh batteries, crazy. Real capacity was 1500 mAh. Still searching for a high quality genuine 3000 mAh 18650 battery.

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Yann Guidon / YGDES wrote 10/06/2019 at 20:09 point

I found it in a drawer after 3 years without use : it still worked but failed after I tried to recharge it.
R.I.P. :-(

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TheotherMike wrote 05/01/2016 at 20:52 point

Ahhh....great, I understand. Very interesting circuit, I have to keep that in mind...

Thank you so much for your description !!!!  :-))

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kelu124 wrote 05/01/2016 at 20:45 point

Terrible! Well done, nice hack =)

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Yann Guidon / YGDES wrote 05/01/2016 at 20:55 point

Thanks !
It's an evolution of a previous design I made for an artist, maybe I should document it here too.

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TheotherMike wrote 05/01/2016 at 20:06 point

Hi, could you please explain the function the reg104 and the TPS3809? Never before seen such a combination... does the TPS changes its reset level each time it´s toggled with the momentary button?

Kind regards,

Mike

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Yann Guidon / YGDES wrote 05/01/2016 at 20:16 point

Hallo Mike,

Yes I intend to write a log about how it works. It's in the evergrowing "todo" list :-)

(poke me if I'm late)

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K.C. Lee wrote 05/01/2016 at 20:40 point

So looks like there are 2 momentary buttons - on and off.  When the EN pin at REG104 (LDO) is pulled high, it turns on power and drives the LED.  

TPS3809 is a power supply supervisor.  Its output (/Reset) stay high when the supply is above a preset value.  That signal is fed back to EN so that it stays on.  When someone presses the Off button, EN is shorted to ground and that turns off the LDO.

Now when the battery is dead, the TPS3809 output stays low to shut off the LDO.

Interesting design as the power supply supervisor is powered off, so that save some more power.  TPS3809 has a reset delay, so the circuit has some immunity to random glitches. :)

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