DiY LEDs - How to Power Them

[grouch]

The HLG-185H-C1400A is dimmable from 700-1400mA, total cost $75. Swapping out drivers would work well. You can get 800mA drivers from the list above and as far as 1400mA drivers, you can wait until perfectdeal_us gets them back in stock or use the meanwell LPC-60-1400.

He has the same 1400ma drivers for $16 with a 50w chip if I dont feel like waiting. Would I be able to run both 3070's off the one hlg-185h-c1400a?

 

[Bueno Time]

He has the same 1400ma drivers for $16 with a 50w chip if I dont feel like waiting. Would I be able to run both 3070's off the one hlg-185h-c1400a?

Ya you would run both COBs off one of those drivers. You actually need two 3070 COBs in series to meet the vF minimum of the driver so it will work great to run both COBs at a max of 1400mA.

 

[grouch]

Could I run a third 3070 in a different spectrum and bin on that same driver? Would all of them need to run at the same tj temp?

 

[SupraSPL]

Yes that would work, you can run up to 3 CXA3070s per driver. If you go with the HLG-185H-C1050A you can run up to 5 CXA3070s at 1150mA.

 

[epicfail]

I picked up a pair of 3070's recently and would like the ability to run them at lower power 700-1000ma and higher power 1400-1900ma. I will be mounting them on the alpine 11 plus coolers. Am I better off buying a dimmable driver per led or a couple different drivers I can swap out? What would be a good dimmable driver that would work with these?

grouch,

I just received and tested the Meanwell HLN-60H-42b which will drive a single 3070 at 1.45A to 700mA or you could get the HLG-120H-C1400* which will drive 2 in series at the same current but at higher voltage. There are other options but I cant recommend them as I have not used them.

 

[zangtumtum]

sorry for my nobbi situation, my cincon LDP25 as spec PWM / 1~10VDC / Potentiometer
I don't understand praticaly what can I use for this two type of dimmer option.
I read, I must attach to a 10v, for this can I use a recom that I use for the fan?
but i realy not understand i can connect.

note 1:
to the other side,the meanwell LPF-40D-36 run perfect with a 100khom pot and one CXA3070 from 0 to 100% dimmer to 1.14 Amp near 45W,after 24 hours non stop run at 30°C,ambient temp 25°C.

note 2:
the cincon LDP25A360-P070BR can run a single CXA 3070 at 720ma and put out 27W with active PFC: after 24 hours at 100% full load(right now i can not dim you know)of stress run near ambient temp.

 

[zangtumtum]

and I have to rectify and correct: 1 Cincon LDP25 works with 1 pot 100khom
I discovered that the pot previously used was corrupted then not working ...
now i need to connect 2 driver to 1 pot
1 double 100khom i think i can use....

 

[epicfail]

now i need to connect 2 driver to 1 pot
1 double 100khom i think i can use....

You can use a 50k ohm pot (100k / # of drivers) to dim them simultaneously instead if a double 100k. This one here will dim 2 drivers and has built in on/off switch.

 

[zangtumtum]

You can use a 50k ohm pot (100k / # of drivers) to dim them simultaneously instead if a double 100k. This one here will dim 2 drivers and has built in on/off switch.

thanks for answer, in house I have many Alps RK09L1220A1B - Dual Unit- Total resistance 100kΩ,
test ok > run perfect with dual Cincon DLP25:
at start the two driver with this pot run at 10W each(not less), and are dimmable near 27/28W each.
sorry for the bad photo but this is the pot,you can see the dual unit pin.

I ask you: what the difference,if there are, in this circumstances use a dual 100K for 2 driver, or a single 50K for 2 driver?
change the range of possible driving?
qualitatively is the same?
contraindications to electrical level that can be or other that I don't know?

 

[epicfail]

I ask you: what the difference,if there are, in this circumstances use a dual 100K for 2 driver, or a single 50K for 2 driver?
change the range of possible driving?
qualitatively is the same?
contraindications to electrical level that can be or other that I don't know?

To the best of my knowledge they would work exactly the same but the one I posted also have on/off switch built in.

 

[bicit]

I have two questions. I'm looking at the possibility driving a string of Vero 18's in series with a meanwell HLG-185H-C700[ ].

1: Driving 7 in series comes out to about an 74-81% load on the driver, 8 works out to about a 82-92% load depending on assembled temps. Assuming the worse case scenario, would there be any detrimental effects to running the driver with a 92% load on a 240v circuit for up too 18hour periods? If I'm interpreting the spec sheet correctly, it looks like there would be a 1-2% increase in efficiency, but I wanted to confirm first.

2: The molex connectors available for the vero series consist of 18AWG-28AWG-connector. Would it be safe to drive eight vero 18's in series using these connectors?

 

[medicinehuman]

Picked http://www.ebay.com/itm/30W-Watt-High-Power-LED-Driver-AC85V-265V-50-60HZ-Waterproof-USA-Seller-/310948865469?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4865ff25bdup 2 of the 30w drivers that Supra had tested, put the watt meter on after changing out some M W 1400mA drivers and came up with 36.9 watts and .493 amps. That is a CXA 3070 5000K, a fan controller and a fan. The plant's have been under a few day's with it and are really enjoying it. They run a little warmer so I mounted them on some square aluminum tube to act as heat sink, seems fine.

 

[SupraSPL]

There would be no problem running it at 92% load. If anything you might get a slight boost in efficiency.

Because it will be a high voltage circuit a small wire can get a lot done. As long as the jacket of your wiring is rated above the voltage of your circuit, 18 gauge will be more than enough because it is only carrying 700mA and probably not a very long distance.

 

[SupraSPL]

Sounds good MH. So at 800mA the CXA should be about 35.5 vF, dissipating about 28.5W. So the driver is about 90% efficient, and warmed up should be consuming 31-32W depending on the driver's output. Looks like you are in good shape!

 

[smokey the cat]

Hey ya thread, and good to say hi.

Just a couple of random questions for you all on these newfangled whites. I've decided I'm definitely suffering from too-few-blue syndrome, and not enough spread syndrome with my current 2xVero 3000/3500k setup.

And I still haven't built a mom/clone/veg box

While I ponder what to do over this state of affairs (it might involve a new cabinet), here are some random qs for you all.

1) Can I try running my Vero in parallel? Really interested to try this out. I dunno what the voltage difference between the emitters is, but I just want to plug em both in to my Meanwell LPF-60-36 -
http://www.trcelectronics.com/View/Mean-Well/LPF-60D-36.shtml

Assuming will start with 100% dimming and gradually power em up. Presuming slightly different forward voltages in parallel I should see uneven current between emitters and differing performance - right? No idea if one will be brighter or what.

I think sweet-spot for V18 is around 0.80A - LPF-60d-36 puts out 1.67 which would be awesome for 2 emitters in parallel. If things get unstable the Meanwell will just shut down - I have complete faith in them, they've been bulletproof.

So any thing else undesirable I'm missing?


2. What colour XML2 would you recommend for a Veg light? What colour CXA?

3. What current level would you recommend for XML2 emitters? Thinking 1000mA a nice balance between output and efficiency. Or would you crank em even softer?



Thanks for any insihgts

 

[SupraSPL]

Hey Smokey, it is true that if you run them in parallel they will run at different currents. You can add balancing circuitry but that is beyond my knowledge, maybe SDS can help us with that. If you check the vF of each Vero with your multimeter and they are very close there should be no problem. If one is drastically different, maybe you could add a coil of wire to add some voltage drop to the lower vF Vero.

The 4400K XML2 4C U2 bin or 4400K XML2 4D T6 bin are both great for vegging hybrids. I like a bit of stretch for my setups but if you are running Sativas or prefer very close internodes you can use 5000K. The top bin CXA3590 is available in 5000K and there are 290mA drivers on eBay that will power it for $3 at 59% efficiency (cool factor).

I run my XML2s at 700mA but you know I emphasize efficiency, 1A is a good compromise.

 

[smokey the cat]

Awesome - that comparison between 4500/5000k is the exact shit I need. Cause I have dimming I can mix in my too red flower lights so 5k looks great.

4k for my mums and clones. Mmmmm.

I'll bust out the multi over the weekend and check out what my drivers can lights do with two vero. I'm harvesting so gives me a chance to pull everything apart for a bit.


Thanks buddy, you're a champ

 

[smokey the cat]

"If one is drastically different, maybe you could add a coil of wire to add some voltage drop to the lower vF Vero." - use a thick thermal pad under the high v Vero so it droops more when running - stoner solutions

59% "cool factor" line was totally awesome by the way, pure Supra insanely efficient light generating no bs. Totally get your soft xml2 - great to have a handle on it. I'm likely to use them in the mum/clone build I have ahead of me as I with a low ceiling I need multiple sources.

 

[Tazbud]

No hiding another newb question but can anyone suggest the most efficient way to run a single cxa3070 from 12v (at a decent power output, 1400ma+ the more the better, I have excess solar + going to waste but it's limited) Would I be better wiring the batteries to amp up voltage (48V?) or a sine wave convertor, I see they are not very efficient at all. The meanwell drivers I have are lpc 60-1400 & 1050 I (now) have... to dip my toes... need 90v min startup it seems. Or could they run directly through some sort of resistor. I want to make a light bar but have access to a bank of batteries all running at 12v and largely power to waste... could use a 12v veg light ; )

 

[nevergoodenuf]

Taz- I have used a car battery and an 750w inverter, from HarborFreight, to power my room when the power was out. Needed it for a few hours and worked fine. Sounds like you could run everything off your 12v source.