Using Wago's for all connections?

[Abiqua]

Replacing the 600, not adding to. Glad to get that heat machine out of my space. Hoping (need to check) that two 240's in place of the 600 will be ok.

Gonna watch some more videos tonight and tomorrow to make sure I've got it all down.

something tells me I'm going to have more questions, especially about grounding everything.



My plan was to tie the two drivers together with Wago's into a junction box and then have a power cord coming out of that box To plug into my timer and power everything. For the cord I was going to use a 12 or 14 gauge extension cord with the female end cut off. You're telling me this isn't safe, so what can I use? I appreciate the help. I use a similar setup for a thermostat that controls a 1500w heater in my other hobby room, and that's why I presumed it was safe. Thank you again.

Romex 14/12 or whatever code is, in all honesty. Its great that you are using a larger gauge Ext cord at least, shows you are thinking a bit....but it is still a temp solution.


I would run dedicated lines for that amount of wattage. Just my opinion. Even just running the wire thru conduit to keep it off the floor and into your junction box with a dedicated plug GFCI and AFCI if you can source them both..... That sucks and isn't the cheapest, but it is the safest.

 

[captain crunch]

Romex 14/12 or whatever code is, in all honesty. Its great that you are using a larger gauge Ext cord at least, shows you are thinking a bit....but it is still a temp solution.


I would run dedicated lines for that amount of wattage. Just my opinion. Even just running the wire thru conduit to keep it off the floor and into your junction box with a dedicated plug GFCI and AFCI if you can source them both..... That sucks and isn't the cheapest, but it is the safest.

Are you say dedicated AC power line for each driver and not tie them together? Just curious, this whole led setup should pull less than 450w, so why should they be on dedicated lines. I appreciate you taking the time to explain.

 

[Abiqua]

Are you say dedicated AC power line for each driver and not tie them together? Just curious, this whole led setup should pull less than 450w, so why should they be on dedicated lines. I appreciate you taking the time to explain.

Just a single dedicated line, following code. Wattage is irrelevant. You can start a fire with 1 watt in theory.

Both drivers hooked to the same line is Fine....I like to keep my 15A circuits at a 12A threshold FYI.....

 

[captain crunch]

Aah.....

That moment when you mount your drivers and they're 2" too far apart to tie the AC leads together in a wago.

And the bars they're on are already riveted on.

And you have to seriously rethink your driver placement. Lol. Should have mocked up the drivers first.

 

[Abiqua]

Aah.....

That moment when you mount your drivers and they're 2" too far apart to tie the AC leads together in a wago.

And the bars they're on are already riveted on.

And you have to seriously rethink your driver placement. Lol. Should have mocked up the drivers first.

heat shrink - equal gauge wire @ 3-4" in length - soldering iron - eutectic solder.....presto!

soldering iron is $15 and youtube videos will show you in minutes if not familiar....

 

[captain crunch]

I ended up going with a different mounting area. I'm not sure how I like it.

Wondering because I may end up remote mounting the drivers, how hot do the drivers usually run?

 

[CobKits]

Aah.....

That moment when you mount your drivers and they're 2" too far apart to tie the AC leads together in a wago.

And the bars they're on are already riveted on.

And you have to seriously rethink your driver placement. Lol. Should have mocked up the drivers first.

$5 4" jbox

 

[captain crunch]

Decided to mount the drivers on the inside wall of my box. I like the remote look better than having them on the frame. Didn't really leave space on the frame (stoner here didn't look at driver dimensions before designing his frame).

Everything is up and running. I had no idea these would be this bright. I mean, holy shit!

Thanks again to everyone who helped me along the way!!

 

[PhotonFUD]

Remote is better.

Heat, weight reduction, cable management, safety. Voltage drop with decent gauge wire is negligible plus it makes expansion easier.

 

[THE KONASSURE]

Hopefully this is my last basic question before I get everything wired up and ready to go.

Heat sinks arrived yesterday and I have my frame all built and ready to go. Package from kingbrite with the COB kit (cxb's, ideal holders, reflectors, thermal tape, etc) all arrives tomorrow and I think I'm ready to put it all together.

I've watched growmau5's videos and feel pretty confident about this whole thing.

I'm wanting to know if I can just use Wago connectors all around, connecting drivers to COB strings, and connecting wall power to the drivers. I don't have a problem soldering, it's just been a while and my only recent experience is wiring and soldering the speakers in my truck.

I also like the flexibility of being able to rewire my setup very simply (using Wago's) if I decide to upgrade drivers in the future.

Figure I can find some small junction boxes to hide the wago connections and make it all look really clean.

Is it safe to wire both drivers into the same wall plug? That way I don't have to run a power strip off my timer for two plugs. Do I simply take the hot side from both drivers, plug them into the wago, and then plug the hot from the wall cord into the third slot? Same with the negative, then wire the ground from the drivers to the aluminum frame for the whole setup? Going to tape off the dimming leads on the drivers for now until I decide what I want to do there.

Hope I'm on the right track here. I really appreciate everyone's help and advice.

They do a conductive glue you can "solder" with now days

I`ve been tempted to use it to glue a cob onto a heatsink and see how good the heat transference is

I mean with a 100w cob chip I`ve used just heatpaste and it stayed on there for 2/3 years so far no issues but bigger chips or a bigger light I would not take the risk

I`ve been lazy before and heat pasted a cob then used 2 tone epoxy round the edges to hold it onto the heatsink

But yeah I`m tempted to find a good tube of this conductive glue next time and just glue the cob to the heatsink done, I mean if it can replace soldering it should be able to conduct heat pretty well right ?

 

[captain crunch]

Here's the layout I had before taking the drivers off the frame. Much happier with remote drivers.

Happy to have it up. Going to look into some extruded 8020 for a different frame, try and spread them out a little more. They're just under 12" apart all around. Measure twice. Cut once. Make sure you leave enough room for the heat sink....Probably get some better tools too. Hack saw and 3/4" file just isn't doing it.

Now to start thinking about a setup for my veg area.