My goal is to drive an infrared LED like (this SFH 4727AS) to control IR remote controlled devices (for example a TV).

I can already output the signal on a pin of my microcontroller. The signal has a carrier frequency of 38kHz.

I am however limited to a 5V 1A power supply and would like to drive the LED as close to the 5W psu limit as possible.

I first thought about using a MOSFET like this AO3400A together with a resistor, but decided it was worth using an LED driver, do you agree?

Now I’m looking at this PAM2804 constant current LED driver but I’m not sure if I can just supply my signal to the EN pin. The EN pin is meant for PWM-dimming, so does that mean the output is smoothed to prevent flickering?

I’d love to hear your thoughts about how I should go about this. Thanks

  • @lemmymanEnglish
    2•1 year ago

    How would I go about calculating the time a constant current source takes to recover from a short?

    To the extent possible, I’d look for graphs of “load regulation” in the datasheet, which graphically depict the regulator’s response to a load change. But that seems like maybe an uncommon thing for LED drivers (neither of the two parts we’ve been discussing have those in their datasheets).

    Alternatively, if the regulator lists its control bandwidth in the datasheet, you could use the old rule of thumb to relate that to the rise time. For instance, if you’re modulating at 38 kHz, and you want to be sure your rise time is less than 10% of a period, you’d want it to be less than 1/380,000 = 2.6 microseconds. From the article, you’d want a control bandwidth of no less than 0.35/2.6 microseconds = 133 kHz. (or you could just say you want a bandwidth at least 3.5x your carrier frequency).

    Using that metric, the MAX16834 is more than capable - yet despite that, the datasheet suggests (not a hard spec) that PWM dimming is functional only up to 20 kHz. I don’t know how to explain that discrepancy. This is where I’d buy an eval kit and try it out to see what I’m missing.