I've been thinking about using LDD drivers for 8 1ft strips instead of one large driver for redundancy and more control like dimming per each channel. Plus I want to learn Arduino and create PWM dimming for it.
Here is my thinking, I would like to separate strips into 4 channels, 2 strips per channel and one LDD-350ma driver.
Each channel will have 44.2V (2x22.1v) @ 350ma well within range of LDD-350 driver (2 to 52V).
My question is this: how do I calculate the power supply for this setup? What output numbers I should look at?
The way I understand it is that I need a single output 44.2v (plus small overhead of 10% or so) lets say 48v
and for Amp I just add them together so 4 x .350 = 1.4am
(so instead of adding Volts if I would go with one large driver I'm adding Amps)
So the power supply should have at least these numbers: 48V and 1.4Amp
I was looking at these drivers:
* Mean Well LRS-75-48 (Single-OUT 48V 1.6A 76.8W 5-Pin) eff @91.5%
* Mean Well LRS-100-48 (Single-OUT 48V 2.3A 110.4W 7-Pin) eff @90%
* Mean Well NES-75-48
* Mean Well RS-75 Single-OUT 48V 1.6A 76.8W 5-Pin
Am I looking at this correctly? Will this drivers support 4 LDD-350 with 44.2v @350mA on each?
Also, does it matter if PSU has single output? Can I connect all 4 LDD to it? Or do I need separate output for each?
Nothing wrong with your calculations! But lacks a bit in effiency..(91,5% x 97%= 88,75% with the 1st. driver, 87,3% with the 2nd.), but I see no reason why your setup should not work.
You could also use a HLG-80H-C350, 91,5% or a ELG-75-350, 91%. The ELG series is dimmable to 0 but you would need a 0-10v pwm extension card to convert the 0-10v from the driver to the 0-5v from the arduiono.
There are a few threads about pwm dimming and arduinos. At least one is from the talented hobbyist and programmer
@VegasWinner, maybe he could be helpful for your project because he already created an own arduino based pwm controller.