VERO 13 Powering in Parallel

[TRIBUNAL]

I am just a beginner in this venture of electrical wiring, hopefully you can clear me up on wth is wrong, if anything.
So I bought a driver with an output of DC 25-38v and 1.25a
I wired 2 Cool White Vero 13's in parallel expecting to cut the current in half.
I tested the total voltage with the multimeter and it went up to 60v.
I am sure I am missing some basic understanding here but I wanted to check before proceeding because this is not what I was expecting.

 

[alesh]

Parallel connection of LEDs with constant current driver is not recommended.

Are you sure you connected them in parallel? Which driver? Did you also test current on each Vero?

 

[TRIBUNAL]

Thanks,
I didn't realize parallel was not recommended. I read the info on bridgelux's website and I am going to try Series wiring. I think that's what I was looking for ><
whoops
glad i didn't keep them on long at all.

 

[apoulin]

Thanks,
I didn't realize parallel was not recommended. I read the info on bridgelux's website and I am going to try Series wiring. I think that's what I was looking for ><
whoops
glad i didn't keep them on long at all.

Yea all of my leds are wired in series.
Live and learn my friend
At least you didn't fry anything

 

[Rahz]

You are going to use a different driver to run in series?

 

[TRIBUNAL]

yea it was one of these:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/50-W-Watt-High-Power-LED-Driver-AC90V-265V-50-60HZ-Waterproof-/181578939219?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a46f2bb53
Tried to run it in series, no luck.
I think I need to do some more reading.
I would like to run them about half current 700ma each @32v would be good. I suppose this would work for each one, not series: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lots-Firm-20W-30W-50W-Watt-High-Power-LED-Driver-AC95V-240V-50-60HZ-Waterproof-/201260354234?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item2edc0d4aba

The one I have is a bit too much to run just one of them too.
Also I would never buy one of these drivers again, it's impossible to get inside of it.

 

[Greengenes707]

This isn't making sense. That driver is not capable of 60v no matter how you wire them. And wiring them in parallel would not accumulate voltage low that.
It either should not work at all, or should work as it is supposed(cut current in half and not effect voltage)...I'm not understanding how on earth your getting a 60v reading.

What was the current when you had them in parallel?

With smaller chips and cobs parallel isn't a huge issue...though still not manufacture supported. Smaller chips mean smaller voltages and smaller voltage tolerances in manufacturing...so less chance of serious unbalanced strings and thus current hogging.
Try and tell mr flux's garden parallel is wrong...plants and multiple runs say differently.

 

[TRIBUNAL]

Yea it doesn't really make sense to me either. I'm not an expert but this isn't completely forign to me either. In parallel, it was putting out a lot of heat. In just under 45 seconds the small heatsink was already warm. The driver is not rated to output over 38v +/-5%, so I don't know what the story is. They were bright and looked great, but I did read on the bridgelux site. parallel isn't recommended and apparently it isn't recommended for the driver either. I guess I should bail on that idea and not bother to find out why its not working. I didn't test the current in that setup.
I wired them in series but it wont work... It should.. but it just doesn't lite up much at all.
I wired them individually but it's too much current for 1 IMO.
Gotta play with it some more and probably wind up getting two small drivers, I guess.

 

[bicit]

Like greengenes said, wiring in parallel shouldn't be an issue. Are you sure the driver isn't faulty? Are you sure everything is wired correctly? The voltage output of that driver isn't high enough to wire them in series.

 

[TRIBUNAL]

Ok, I think what happened is the multimeter must have been picking up current from surrounding wires, ac or something interfering.
I checked again in Parallel just for closure and it is holding at 32v.
Because of the way I have it wired current will be more difficult to check.
So Parallel is not a good idea right?
Because it sure would be convenient.

 

[TRIBUNAL]

I checked the current 1.3a total, about 610ma to each unit in parallel.

 

[Greengenes707]

I checked the current 1.3a total, about 610ma to each unit in parallel.

Money right there.
You should be fine in paralell(even though not "recommended by bridgelux) like you have them
The only thing that makes paralelle trouble is if the Vf of each emitter is significantly different.
Can you check the voltage of each vero separately.

 

[TRIBUNAL]

Thanks Green,
Checked Voltage on each (when I close my eyes I am seeing spots now, damn they're bright!) and it's identical, holding at 32v.
Seems perfect thx for the help man.

 

[apoulin]

Thanks Green,
Checked Voltage on each (when I close my eyes I am seeing spots now, damn they're bright!) and it's identical, holding at 32v.
Seems perfect thx for the help man.

Are the leds still throwing a lot of heat? It sounded like you were worried about how hot the heatsink got in a few seconds, then you wire it the same way and test each voltage and it was ok, so was the heat issue figured out?

 

[alesh]

Thanks Green,
Checked Voltage on each (when I close my eyes I am seeing spots now, damn they're bright!) and it's identical, holding at 32v.
Seems perfect thx for the help man.

Of course it's identical. Can't be else when running both in parallel. The current will be different on each.
On the other hand, if you test them separately (only one on the driver at the time) the current will be same and there will be slight difference in voltage.

 

[Mechmike]

You can run Vero13s in parallel. I have a clone light which has 2 vero13 5000k run in parallel off a single Meanwell APC-12-350. The driver outputs 36v which lights up the 2 emitters at 175ma. It uses 11.8 watts at the plug and makes enough light for full tray of cuttings. I can't see any difference in the brightness of the the emitters. Maybe I got lucky with matching them or maybe it doesn't make much difference.

 

[churchhaze]

It will matter if one if someone starts disconnecting parallel strings and all the current is forced down one string.

The thing about Mr. Flux is that everyone had to keep asking him questions, but never understand any of the answers... He matched his vero 10 by forward voltage, like a puzzle. The puzzle becomes easier with longer strings. If you're only running strings of 1 vero 12 like mechmike described, it will be a lot harder to match the cobs.

Avoiding parallel connections makes the design more fool proof. It's obviously not impossible considering most cobs are already series strings in parallel, it's just that it's matched for you to act like 1 giant superdiode blackbox.

 

[Abiqua]

1/ Current Mirror
2/Over-current Protection

 

[alesh]

You can run Vero13s in parallel. I have a clone light which has 2 vero13 5000k run in parallel off a single Meanwell APC-12-350. The driver outputs 36v which lights up the 2 emitters at 175ma. It uses 11.8 watts at the plug and makes enough light for full tray of cuttings. I can't see any difference in the brightness of the the emitters. Maybe I got lucky with matching them or maybe it doesn't make much difference.

This issue occurs at higher currents. Also for Vero13 Imax = 1050mA, you simply cannot do any harm with 350mA driver.