cheapest 2.5A driver out there, I guess?

[Finale]

Okay, first thing's first, I'm not a chinese seller linking to my own webstore claiming to be a customer or some shit like that. You can probably tell by my other posts and my writing style.
But look at this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-5A-Analogu...item3d1741f968

$10?
For people on a budget maybe this isn't so bad? About $60-100 saved just on drivers for a low power rgb build this way. I imagine the modulation frequency is going to be low, but the more important question is there any slow start feature and similar stuff to not kill the diode in a day or two?
I saw some positive reviews of this seller on this site and one negative so I'm curious if anyone has tried these and can give a short review? I'd test it myself but I don't have the necessary equipment. Thanks.

[jors]

To keep safe your 'precious' diodes is a wrong procedure to save $ on crap drivers IMO.
I'd like to recommend proved quality drivers like BBe, Lasershowparts, Stanwax new one or Lasertack as an example

[Finale]

Sure, but the diodes are not really that precious now, except the green ones and 465nm ones, considering cost of diode vs cost saved on drivers. Would I risk it on a $1000 build? No. But this is not for a $1000 build. We can disagree on this, that's fine. I'm just asking if anyone has tested these and proved them to be crap only in the modulation department or crap also in the diode protection department.

[absolom7691]

I can tell you with certainty that the driver you linked above will not work for scanning. It would be fine for lumia but not scanning. This "analog" driver is PWM and not true analog. I have bought some of these before for use only with my lumia because I wasn't going to be scanning with them. I know you're trying to save a buck but in my personal experience, it is far more expensive to go cheap. Best to save up and get exactly what you need.

[Finale]

Ah, so really terrible modulation but good enough for the diode safety to place in a lumia. Got it, thanks!

[catalanjo]

Ah, so really terrible modulation but good enough for the diode safety to place in a lumia. Got it, thanks!

Even for lumia, I would suggest a decent add on switchable/variable low pass filter, if you want to get close to a smooth max output from the diodes

.... to evoke a more intuitive image ......

"hitting laser diodes with the electronic wave equivalent of the Alps, and expecting a reasonable average mountain height, is completely acceptable for an orbiting Satellite, but is extremely dodgy for low flying aircraft"...

...we are talking "lumpiness" here not linearity, which is usually the primary concern, when comparing modulation techniques to achieve a uniform colour pallette

Cheers

[ZeroPoint]

I purchased the 2A version on October 17th. It hasn't arrived yet... I will be using it for a lumia project with some modulation so if/when it arrives I can give a basic review, although I don't have an oscilloscope for a proper review. Maybe an Oscope will be on my Christmas list this year

[VDX]

... I'm still puzzled, why laserdiode drivers have to be such "overcomplex" and with only low modulation frequencies of only some ten kHz

When starting with IR-laserdiodes with 1A and more current, my first "drivers" were simply a LM317 (or more in parallel for currents above 1A) and a shunt resistor in constant current configuration -- plus a MOSFET for the modulation.

As the LM-drivers tend to convert all overvoltage into heat and are only good with preset power levels, I've switched to a slightly more complex driver with an adjustable OpAmp instead of the LM constant current regulation and a MOSFET with low RDSON as driver ... good from 50mA to up to 20 Amps (short pulses can be even higher - the specs give something like 90 to 150 Amps!) current regulation ...

The modulation with the LM's was good until 500 kHz (maybe more - didn't test the limits), with fast OpAmps I'm switching with up to 2 MHz and can go even faster, as they can be found with up to 10MHz bandwith.

So why this "cheapish" failure-prone chinese drivers?

Viktor

[Finale]

I purchased the 2A version on October 17th. It hasn't arrived yet... I will be using it for a lumia project with some modulation so if/when it arrives I can give a basic review, although I don't have an oscilloscope for a proper review.

Let me know. Thanks.

[ZeroPoint]

VDX, that is a good question. The only thing I can really think of are the added features on most drivers like protection circuitry and beam suppression. I don't know enough about how they all work to know for sure though. Certainly the key benefit of IC's over a linear regulator is the efficiency. I'm still toying with the idea of trying to design my own driver... guess I should start studying up on how they work.