Calling all DIY LED Gurus: New Challenge(?)

[joecanna17]

Happy to see that. Hopefully, you will continue to deliver contributions from construction, best with pictures.
BTW,
I find dimming to 10% very useful when you need to work in the room or to look at your babies (eg for diagnostic purposes)

Ah, very good point about dimming for work purposes! Well, at least I can do that with the veg and clone lights For the flower lights, I can make a work shroud out of reflectix or something.

Now for the latest hiccup: The mid- and high-powered drivers have a lead time of about a month *sigh*....but, I've asked if they can at least send the 120H-C700's (which are in stock) when the light strips are ready (10-12 days), so I can at least start the clone/seedling lights. I guess 1 month is a better lead time than the 3 month lead time at most other places I've seen so far. Anyone know of any places closer to the US with better lead times, with the 480H-C3500's especially, as those seem to be the hardest to track down?

I'll definitely keep updating with pics as soon as I can...

 

[lilcobler]

it is mentioned

Thanks, i must have overlooked it.

 

[joecanna17]

Annnd here we are 3 months later! After a few delays and disappointments on our end, we've finally gotten LED strips and 2 of the power supplies in, as of a couple days ago!

The HLG-480H-C3500B is still apparently on backorder or something. I've got an email out to Kingbrite to see if they have them in stock or not, and may end up grabbing from him if it's going to be a lot quicker.

I've got the fixtures framed up, the 18/2 solid stat/doorbell wire, some drivers, but I'm looking for advice on a couple parts I'm still chasing.
I know I still need potentiometers of some sort, because these are B version drivers. What should I look for, and where? Without doing it online, within the next couple days? Would a regular wall dimmer work, if I had an extra one sitting around?
Radio shack's site says they have a couple of different kinds of pots, I think for "stereo volume" control? Look like they need to be soldered. Would spade type connectors work? ...
Leading to the issue of connectors...We haven't ordered Wago connectors yet, so are there other acceptable temporary connectors for between the fixture and driver?
The bloom fixture will have the most series of lights, with 5 sets of 6 strips, so I *think* I'd want a 6 port Wago, right? Would regular wire nuts work to test? What about bypassing the dimmer wires to test?
I know that's a bunch of questions, and there will be more, I'm sure, so thanks for any advice beforehand. Please let me know if there's anything else I'm missing before I power these things up!
It's good to have something to update here again, and it should get more interesting in the next few days...

 

[joecanna17]

I couldn't find a dimmer around anywhere anyway, so I just tied the dimmer ends together with a wire nut for testing.

Last night, I just laid the 6 strip horizontal seed light out bare for a minute or less, wired in series, and it lit up great. Today, I mounted it to an aluminum reflector, powered it up, and only 3 strips lit up. The strip with the initial + lit, and the end - strip lit, along with the strip just before the last, but the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th strip didn't light.

I took it apart, and checked the 3 that didn't light, individually, and they all worked. Wired them back up, nada....

So, moving along, I wired the 12 strip vertical veg light up, 3 parallel sets of 4 strips in series...only 3 strips lit. These were the + leg of each of the 3 sets.
Anybody have any ideas as to why all aren't firing?

 

[joecanna17]

I went to the only electronic supply I could find in the area to grab a couple of POTs (1 for each driver), but was talked out of it by the sales guy. They were 100k, but the guy said they're only good for like 5w, and I would need a rheostat, even for the smallest fixture, which they were out of stock.

Now, I'm pretty sure the main dimmer I've seen recommended by others here is just a 100k potentiometer, nothing too fancy or detailed...but with my limited electrical knowledge, I just left without any sort of dimmer. A dimmer is about the last thing I need to have these finished, so is there something I'm missing, or would those standard POTs at the electric shop have worked after all?

With help and a meter, we figured out that the issue with the intermittent light was the strips shorting out on the frames, which were screwed together.
(These were the horizontal 6 strip, ~100w seedling light, and the vertical 12 strip, ~200w veg light.)
So, a $20 roll of tape later, I got the strips remounted, and fired them up for testing. They all worked!

Thing is, they don't really seem all that bright...not as bright as I guess I imagined them, or they look in pics here, anyway...and not even as bright looking as some 10w household screw-in LEDs

Could it just be that they look dull because they're 3500k, and the other LEDs and CFLs I'm used to seeing are a cooler white?
Obviously I haven't grown anything under them yet, and don't have a meter to get any numbers, but they just don't seem super bright, even without a dimmer!

I'll try to get some pics up soon, but they're not the prettiest fixtures yet. As I said, they're functionally hooked up, but not finished.

Thanks again for stopping by

 

[Getgrowingson]

Don't short the two dimmer leads together it's one of the not to do things with the meanwell hlg drivers

 

[joecanna17]

Don't short the two dimmer leads together it's one of the not to do things with the meanwell hlg drivers

Good to know, thanks! Can you recommend dimmers for the drivers, so I can get these powered up properly? Are there dimmers with digital meters incorporated available?
They're the following models:
HLG-120H-C700B
HLG-240H-C2100B
HLG-480H-C3500A...Hopefully by end of month.
Couldn't get the 3500B, so no dimmer shopping for this one, I guess.

 

[wietefras]

Don't short the two dimmer leads together it's one of the not to do things with the meanwell hlg drivers

Why not?

Normally there wouldn't be much of a point since then the driver won't produce light, but you present it as some sort warning that something might go wrong if you do. The drivers are fine if you short the dim wires.

In fact, if you want the dim-to-off drivers to go in standby mode, you have to short the dim wires.

Perhaps you are confused with the warning not to short the dim and output wires?

 

[joecanna17]

Why not?

Normally there wouldn't be much of a point since then the driver won't produce light, but you present it as some sort warning that something might go wrong if you do. The drivers are fine if you short the dim wires.

In fact, if you want the dim-to-off drivers to go in standby mode, you have to short the dim wires.

Perhaps you are confused with the warning not to short the dim and output wires?

Thanks for checking in, Wietefras. I disconnected the lights after testing, just in case...

Can you recommend dimmers for the drivers mentioned?

 

[GBAUTO]

I went to the only electronic supply I could find in the area to grab a couple of POTs (1 for each driver), but was talked out of it by the sales guy. They were 100k, but the guy said they're only good for like 5w, and I would need a rheostat, even for the smallest fixture, which they were out of stock.

Now, I'm pretty sure the main dimmer I've seen recommended by others here is just a 100k potentiometer, nothing too fancy or detailed...but with my limited electrical knowledge, I just left without any sort of dimmer. A dimmer is about the last thing I need to have these finished, so is there something I'm missing, or would those standard POTs at the electric shop have worked after all?

With help and a meter, we figured out that the issue with the intermittent light was the strips shorting out on the frames, which were screwed together.
(These were the horizontal 6 strip, ~100w seedling light, and the vertical 12 strip, ~200w veg light.)
So, a $20 roll of tape later, I got the strips remounted, and fired them up for testing. They all worked!

Thing is, they don't really seem all that bright...not as bright as I guess I imagined them, or they look in pics here, anyway...and not even as bright looking as some 10w household screw-in LEDs

Could it just be that they look dull because they're 3500k, and the other LEDs and CFLs I'm used to seeing are a cooler white?
Obviously I haven't grown anything under them yet, and don't have a meter to get any numbers, but they just don't seem super bright, even without a dimmer!

I'll try to get some pics up soon, but they're not the prettiest fixtures yet. As I said, they're functionally hooked up, but not finished.

Thanks again for stopping by

The driver circuit only uses a few microAmps so power dissipation is minuscule. Even a micro sized pot is enough.

 

[wietefras]

Thanks for checking in, Wietefras. I disconnected the lights after testing, just in case...

Can you recommend dimmers for the drivers mentioned?

A simple potmeter would suffice.

Either a 100k pot for one driver or divide the 100 by the number of drivers needed to dim them all with one pot.

 

[Rider509]

You didn't think to take the spec sheet with you when you went to the electronics store, did you. LOL.
Your electronics store guy doesn't understand the application. The pot isn't wired into the V+/V- leads so a rheostat isn't needed. Just get 100K linear pots for each driver and don't worry about the power rating.

 

[Getgrowingson]

Y

Why not?

Normally there wouldn't be much of a point since then the driver won't produce light, but you present it as some sort warning that something might go wrong if you do. The drivers are fine if you short the dim wires.

In fact, if you want the dim-to-off drivers to go in standby mode, you have to short the dim wires.

Perhaps you are confused with the warning not to short the dim and output wires?

your totally right don't know what I was thinking I think I misread the data sheet like you were saying not to put it to v+ I stand corrected.

 

[joecanna17]

Thanks for the help, fellas!

I got the POTs wired in today, cleaned the wiring up a bit more, and soldered things together on the clone and veg lights.
Doing this, I found out a few things I had asked about before:
With the dimmer wires wired together, like first tested, the light was definitely dull...about as dull as the lowest setting on the POTs I just installed!
Now they're WAY brighter with the dimmer on at about 75% or so. With no dimmer, and the dimmer wires disconnected, the light was brightest, but it was only like this for a second.

The plan so far is to run both of these in a 2x4 veg tent, with the 6 strip light over clones and the 12 strip light vertically between 4 plants, in a 2x2x4 or 5 area...
....Although, just judging by the veg light hanging in a 4x4 tent at about 75% power, their final home will probably need dimmed down even more.
The vert flower fixture should be ready around the end of the month, and should be ridiculously bright in a 4x4 too!

They actually turned out pretty decent, and it'll be nice to see live results sooner than later!

I can post pics as soon as I remove any personal data.
Anyone got any good app suggestions?

 

[joecanna17]

The lights are up and running in their new homes now, so I've got a few pics to share. The plants haven't been through a whole cycle under their respective lights yet, but they're on their way.
If anyone has any questions, fire away...

 

[K0sherkush]

Very cool!

 

[dannykay]

The lights are up and running in their new homes now, so I've got a few pics to share. The plants haven't been through a whole cycle under their respective lights yet, but they're on their way.
If anyone has any questions, fire away...

Great build mate, really slick. How hard are you driving the strips? Is it just me or it seems that the leaves that are near the vertical fixture are showing burn signs?

Keep it up!

 

[joecanna17]

Great build mate, really slick. How hard are you driving the strips? Is it just me or it seems that the leaves that are near the vertical fixture are showing burn signs?

Keep it up!

Thanks! Your eyes do not deceive you- there's both a bit of nute burn, and light bleaching on those plants. They haven't had the smoothest cycle, and there's definitely a bit of a learning curve with LEDs, but they're doing pretty well over all.

When run at full power, the strips are running at 700ma...but they're all dimmed down to about 50-75% power, so they're probably running in the 300-525ma range. No meters on hand to test for sure though.

 

[joecanna17]

When run at full power, the strips are running at 700ma...but they're all dimmed down to about 50-75% power, so they're probably running in the 300-525ma range. No meters on hand to test for sure though.

Ehh, that's not right... At full power for the flower light, each set of 6 strips would run at 700ma, so each strip would be about 117ma...but, as I said, they're dimmed down, probably somewhere 60-90ma per strip at the moment.

The vert veg light would be 3 sets of 4 strips, each set capable of running at 700ma.
700 / 4 = 175ma per strip max, but dimmed down to around 90-130ma.

The clone light is just 6 strips in series, on a 700ma driver, so I think they're probably running about the same numbers as the flowering light- around 60-90ma per strip.

@Randomblame can probably explain better if I've gotten numbers wrong- I'm still a novice lol