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2 or 3 of these in parralel
In reality, small differences in voltage thresholds may prevent perfect current sharing, and some devices will try to hog all of the current, possibly resulting in that device overheating. You'll have to just try it and see what happens.
[edit]
just to clarify further... let's take an example of two PT4115 regulators in parallel. Regulator one turns on at Vsense<=0.9995 and off at Vsense>=1.0005. Regulator two turns on at a slightly lower Vsense<=0.9994 and off at Vsense>=1.0005. The second regulator will only work for one cycle (a few microseconds) and then stay off! The first regulator will then carry the entire current. Because Rsense is now half (because they are paralleled), regulator one will try to run at double the current. If it exceeds the maximum rating of 1.2A, then it will overheat and shut down. At that point both switches are off and Vsense will finally drop below 0.9994V and regulator two will take over. Regulator two will then also try to deliver double the current, possibly overheat and shutdown. Eventually both chips will cool down and reactivate, starting the cycle over again.
post edited by desolder on 10/20/2009 at 4:22 PM
However, as Desolder predicted, one board does take the lead in current sharing and athough the combined output appears to remain steady, one board does get very much warmer than the other. To make this work as a long lasting solution, you will have to heat sink both boards to get that heat away and prevent thermal cuts.
On my 10 watt rated composite LED I had the following figures that may be of interest. (SSC P7 may apply also)
12.24Volts DC feed (on load)
1 x sku.26110 board 800-900 MA
2 x in paralell boards 1.82 A (approx double!)
Boards were not heat sinked in order to identify any over heating quickly.
Board 2 when in paralell got too hot to touch after 40 seconds with combined O/P of 1.82 amps.
So you must heat sink both boards! or you'll get thermal cutout
Note I have used about 15 of these regulators and none of them have ever reached their max rated output, even driving the stated Q5s (1.2A)
My feeling is that running 3 boards in paralell may be pushing the limit, especially if the current is not shared predictably as these tests indicate. If you want to run a P7 at max on a 12 V supply, you'll need a different regulator board not sold here but That OTHER LED supplier has one... cant name them because of the TOS below, but the hint 'KD' should help you a bit.
More DIYers are using this kit to make 'home/ solar LED assemblies' so I wish DX would get some more 12 volt friendly regulators and LEDs in stock
Hope this helps some.