How would you keeo drivers outside a tent?

Airwalker16

Airwalker16

Well-Known Member
Okay, so here is my question. If a light were being built that was using three small drivers to power 6 red and blue clusters of xpes that had two on each driver, 4 Cobs on an hlg 185 and another 3 on an hlg 240, I want to know how I could make these disconnectable the easiest way so that if you were to want the driver box where they're all housed outside the tent just like you would do with a waterproof connection for the main power cord. It's very simple to be able to make a connection that is removable BEFORE the project box with one simple power connection, but to have five different drivers how could you do this so that it's just one cord that goes to the fixture and the power is split to the drivers? You can't right? you can't run a bunch of different current values through one cord so you would have to make the two drivers on their own cords (black and red) and the other 3 drivers each split on their own cords right? 5 connectors?
 
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Airwalker16

Airwalker16

Well-Known Member
What barrel connectors are good for breaking the pos/neg(black&red) chains between hlg drivers and series cobs? I guess you could just use 3 smaller ones for the 3 small drivers that are only running like 65 watts through, and larger ones marked 1 & 2 for the other 2 hlgs? Any recommendations? Basic 12v 5a 18g can't handle the 185 or 240 meanwells amount of watts right? They would work on the small drivers though? They're only each doing like 60ish watts. Even though the red and blue clusters of xpes, like the cobs is 36v?
 
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CobKits

CobKits

Well-Known Member
depends on the driver. are they CC high voltage (cobs in series) or CV/CC low voltage (cobs in parallel)?
 
Airwalker16

Airwalker16

Well-Known Member
diyled said:
What are you trying to do, i got lost...you can buy multicore cable and cable connectors if thats what you need.
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Trying to make the lines from each driver to each cob/XPE cluster able to be disconnected so the driver box can be housed outside a tent.
 
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diyled

diyled

Well-Known Member
You want to remote mount the drivers but only have 1 cable going to the fixture? With 5 different drivers?

Can you not just cable tie the 5 wires together? Put a iec connector on each wire to disconnect.
 
Aolelon

Aolelon

Well-Known Member
I'm still kind of lost, you want to remote place the drivers with some sort of quick disconnect?
 
Airwalker16

Airwalker16

Well-Known Member
I understand that each of the 5 drivers from the driver housing box outside the tent, each will have a red and a black wire going to the fixture. At this point I've kinda figured out the answer to my question and am NOW more trying to get an idea on what quick disconnects I could use that would work with the drivers I mentioned above.
Because I'm pretty sure basic 12v 5a ones would not. Right? Except for maybe the smaller drivers?
 
Aolelon

Aolelon

Well-Known Member
Airwalker16 said:
I understand that each of the 5 drivers from the driver housing box outside the tent, each will have a red and a black wire going to the fixture. At this point I've kinda figured out the answer to my question and am NOW more trying to get an idea on what quick disconnects I could use that would work with the drivers I mentioned above.
Because I'm pretty sure basic 12v 5a ones would not. Right? Except for maybe the smaller drivers?
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yes they will not work. You will be hard pressed to find a barrel jack connector that will work for the larger drivers. Unless the smaller drivers are 12v then they wont work either. You may be able to get away with it if it was a bit over 12v. but i wouldnt go much over.
 
Airwalker16

Airwalker16

Well-Known Member
Aolelon said:
yes they will not work. You will be hard pressed to find a barrel jack connector that will work for the larger drivers. Unless the smaller drivers are 12v then they wont work either. You may be able to get away with it if it was a bit over 12v. but i wouldnt go much over.
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I don't get what's so hard about finding one that works... It's just a break in the 18awg wire to quickly connect and disconnect that we all use on DIY projects.
 
boilingoil

boilingoil

Well-Known Member
Airwalker16 said:
What barrel connectors are good for breaking the pos/neg(black&red) chains between hlg drivers and series cobs? I guess you could just use 3 smaller ones for the 3 small drivers that are only running like 65 watts through, and larger ones marked 1 & 2 for the other 2 hlgs? Any recommendations? Basic 12v 5a 18g can't handle the 185 or 240 meanwells amount of watts right? They would work on the small drivers though? They're only each doing like 60ish watts. Even though the red and blue clusters of xpes, like the cobs is 36v?
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Check the specs on your drivers DC output wire size. I know my hlg 240C 24B only has 17 gauge wire coming from the driver.
 
dstroy

dstroy

Well-Known Member
Airwalker16 said:
Like would these work? @CobKits
They're 16awg and the cob builds we all do we use 18awg.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01A6LTK44/ref=pd_aw_lpo_263_bs_img_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=9MK1DE2H7XCHYHTS5BGV
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Those are for low voltage (12vdc) and should not be used for high voltage connections.

If you try and buy all neutrik that would be super expensive.

Go to mouser.com, and search for 2 wire connectors that are safe for your voltage range. Then you can look and see if you can find a connector with a higher pin count at a decent price.

I personally use mini molex connectors, which are rated to 600v and 10a.

Any time you need an electronic part, go there first if quality is a concern.

Good luck.
 
Aolelon

Aolelon

Well-Known Member
Airwalker16 said:
I don't get what's so hard about finding one that works... It's just a break in the 18awg wire to quickly connect and disconnect that we all use on DIY projects.
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because they need to be rated for the proper voltage and current. or else you may encounter some problems you dont want.
 
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