What led strips to consider in 2024?

J

Jonesfamily7715

Well-Known Member
taproot said:
Can you run multiple strips,in parallel, that have slightly different forward voltage as long as it's in rage of the driver? For example I was wanting to order a few of those samsung strips above that @nxsov180db posted. The voltage is 46 and the ones I have are 48. As long as I run them in parallel would they work? On drivers that have a range does the driver set itself to a range based on the load? If so will strips that have a difference confuse the driver? How does this work? What if one strip is 45 and the other is 52? etc.

Here's the driver I'm looking at.

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This can work just realize your driver will only spit out 1 voltage at a time. Meaning your strips will all be getting the same voltage just different amps, This is why we use resistors to do what you are asking so mismatched voltage loads can work together. So if your using 46 and 48 volt strips together on the same circuit your 46 volt strips will be running hotter than the 48. In grow lights we run our strips so low it usually works out. But personally I wouldn't do that, at least not without adding at least a meanwell ldd To drop voltage for the lower voltage strip. 46 and 48 is really to much of a difference without some sort of resistance to even out the load. I can explain further if you would like with #'s but that's simplified, and I am an electrician who has fried multiple strips cobs and everything between over the years lol. Electrical theory videos on YouTube are worth a watch.
 
J

Jonesfamily7715

Well-Known Member
Jonesfamily7715 said:
This can work just realize your driver will only spit out 1 voltage at a time. Meaning your strips will all be getting the same voltage just different amps, This is why we use resistors to do what you are asking so mismatched voltage loads can work together. So if your using 46 and 48 volt strips together on the same circuit your 46 volt strips will be running hotter than the 48. In grow lights we run our strips so low it usually works out. But personally I wouldn't do that, at least not without adding at least a meanwell ldd To drop voltage for the lower voltage strip. 46 and 48 is really to much of a difference without some sort of resistance to even out the load. I can explain further if you would like with #'s but that's simplified, and I am an electrician who has fried multiple strips cobs and everything between over the years lol. Electrical theory videos on YouTube are worth a watch.
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1716722566871.png
They make these in all different sizes but you can kinda get an idea about what they do
 
C

cage

Well-Known Member
Jonesfamily7715 said:
This can work just realize your driver will only spit out 1 voltage at a time. Meaning your strips will all be getting the same voltage just different amps, This is why we use resistors to do what you are asking so mismatched voltage loads can work together. So if your using 46 and 48 volt strips together on the same circuit your 46 volt strips will be running hotter than the 48. In grow lights we run our strips so low it usually works out. But personally I wouldn't do that, at least not without adding at least a meanwell ldd To drop voltage for the lower voltage strip. 46 and 48 is really to much of a difference without some sort of resistance to even out the load. I can explain further if you would like with #'s but that's simplified, and I am an electrician who has fried multiple strips cobs and everything between over the years lol. Electrical theory videos on YouTube are worth a watch.
Click to expand...
No, the components will take what voltage(because of resistance) they need if the total voltage you supply isn't over the total voltage of your circuit.
Absolutely fine running different voltages in parallel or series, when the driver can modify it's output voltage.
But yes, the driver needs to have range instead of using constant voltage power source.
If you'd run them in series, you could still have different (f)voltage components in that series,
you just need to supply enough voltage of each component, so each components forward (f)voltage added up.

I'm an electrician and I have yet to fry any leds.
 
J

Jonesfamily7715

Well-Known Member
cage said:
No, the components will take what voltage(because of resistance) they need if the total voltage you supply isn't over the total voltage of your circuit.
Absolutely fine running different voltages in parallel or series, when the driver can modify it's output voltage.
But yes, the driver needs to have range instead of using constant voltage power source.
If you'd run them in series, you could still have different (f)voltage components in that series,
you just need to supply enough voltage of each component, so each components forward (f)voltage added up.

I'm an electrician and I have yet to fry any leds.
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your driver can't send 46 to one strip and 48 to the other in parallel without some form of resistance is what I'm trying to say. What you are saying can be easily misinterpreted by someone who doesn't fully understand what you are trying to say.
 
F

Frankindank

Member
Path of least resistance. More current will always want to go down the lowest voltage strips. And could get away from its self and keep hogging until failure.
Current hogging...runway...issues commonly related to uneven parallel loads.

If you are going to run 2 or more different model strips on the same driver they better be in series. Never parallel. Not worth it in any manner to run two different strips in parallel. One more proper drivers, additional strips...all cheaper than a burned up house/facility. Sure its worst case, by why even make it a possibility.
 
C

cage

Well-Known Member
Well the thermal runaway is only a issue if you don't use constant current, which you should.

I have a mix of low and high voltage versions of Meanwell power supplies, no real favourite.
Depends really on the setup you are building.

About mixing different strips, only thing you kind of want to avoid is the too big voltage difference between strips if you are using parallel.
Problem here would be that the current wouldn't go evenly between them as so the light output would be uneven too (without balancing the load one way or the other).

So in the case of 48v strips and 46v strips, I'd be fine running with that.
Smaller resistance will take a bit more amps, so the light output is slightly skewed to the strip taking more amps.
But with such small difference it shouldn't really be a problem.
 
taproot

taproot

Well-Known Member
cage said:
Well the thermal runaway is only a issue if you don't use constant current, which you should.

I have a mix of low and high voltage versions of Meanwell power supplies, no real favourite.
Depends really on the setup you are building.

About mixing different strips, only thing you kind of want to avoid is the too big voltage difference between strips if you are using parallel.
Problem here would be that the current wouldn't go evenly between them as so the light output would be uneven too (without balancing the load one way or the other).

So in the case of 48v strips and 46v strips, I'd be fine running with that.
Smaller resistance will take a bit more amps, so the light output is slightly skewed to the strip taking more amps.
But with such small difference it shouldn't really be a problem.
Click to expand...
The driver I'm looking at seems to be CC and CV.

 
taproot

taproot

Well-Known Member
cage said:
Yea, I got some smaller ones of those.
ELG150, ELG240, HLG320

The A versions have the potentiometer which worked for only 50-100% range and was in a bit clumsy place in bottom.
But ended up adjusting them with the 1-10v
Click to expand...
I've got the 185h and it's been good ..but I'm going to get the B version as I got tired of adjusting the potentiometer with a screwdriver. What I'd hope to find one day in a affordable diy method is a way to adjust the io via a app. It would be nice to turn up or down power but also set on/off time. But what would be really cool is to say..the last 4 hours at the end of the flowering cycle to start lowering the lights slowly to mimic a sunset.

Anyways..those B models use a 100k ohm potentiomenter per the specs right? Any decent brands you recommend?
 
C

cage

Well-Known Member
taproot said:
I've got the 185h and it's been good ..but I'm going to get the B version as I got tired of adjusting the potentiometer with a screwdriver. What I'd hope to find one day in a affordable diy method is a way to adjust the io via a app. It would be nice to turn up or down power but also set on/off time. But what would be really cool is to say..the last 4 hours at the end of the flowering cycle to start lowering the lights slowly to mimic a sunset.

Anyways..those B models use a 100k ohm potentiomenter per the specs right? Any decent brands you recommend?
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Ye, 100k ohms, though the 1-10v and pwm's are just as good.
And same for the brands really, go by what's available and in good price.
They all do they same job.

When I bought mine at led-tech.de they had 3d printed casings and a knob for the component,
so it ended up as very neat looking and easy to adjust.

What about some smart plugs where you can set up atleast the on/off time?
The dimming for sunsets might be more for the zen than the plant.
I suppose we want to feed her as much light as she can take within the 12h (discounting meddling with far-red to get longer window for flowering lights).
 
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taproot

taproot

Well-Known Member
cage said:
Ye, 100k ohms, though the 1-10v and pwm's are just as good.
And same for the brands really, go by what's available and in good price.
They all do they same job.

When I bought mine at led-tech.de they had 3d printed casings and a knob for the component,
so it ended up as very neat looking and easy to adjust.

What about some smart plugs where you can set up atleast the on/off time?
The dimming for sunsets might be more for the zen than the plant.
I suppose we want to feed her as much light as she can take within the 12h (discounting meddling with far-red to get longer window for flowering lights).
Click to expand...
I'll just continue using my cheap timer if it's a off/on setting and nothing more. I heard dimming towards the end helped it ripen up..kinda like people start pulling light on time back at the end. Who knows..might be bro science. I nature though..they do get a sunset not a hard on/off and since we're trying to mimic nature it was just conclusion I had.
 
taproot

taproot

Well-Known Member
1212ham said:
Running different voltage strips in parallel is asking for trouble. This graph for Bridgelux EB Gen 2 shows why.

400mA at 38v.
700mA at 39v.

View attachment 5395784
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Does that take into account the driver has a brake via the potentiometer? I have 16 strips of 500-1500mA @48V of LM281B/301H strips I bought off of Aliexpress a year ago that I never used. I was going to buy all new ones if there's was something much better for a reasonable price but doesn't seem to be per this thread unless I missed something. I only paid $13 per strip. I was wanting to add in 8 of the samsungs above which are 46v with similar current. I thought it wouldn't be such a issue as the samsungs would run a touch hotter. I was going to try and use the pot to run a half capacity. Each strip says it's 60W. So, I figured the samsungs might be a little hot at 35W while the others were around 30W. That's why I was asking here about it.

Here are the ones I got over a year ago. They said 301H and 281b+ on the ones I got..who knows.

 
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taproot

taproot

Well-Known Member
I bought them because they have UV and IR. They do work as I powered each one up individually on my small driver.
 
1

1212ham

Well-Known Member
taproot said:
Does that take into account the driver has a brake via the potentiometer? I have 16 strips of 500-1500mA @48V of LM281B/301H strips I bought off of Aliexpress a year ago that I never used. I was going to buy all new ones if there's was something much better for a reasonable price but doesn't seem to be per this thread unless I missed something. I only paid $13 per strip. I was wanting to add in 8 of the samsungs above which are 48v with similar current. I thought it wouldn't be such a issue as the samsungs would run a touch hotter. I was going to try and use the pot to run a half capacity. Each strip says it's 60W. So, I figured the samsungs might be a little hot at 35W while the others were around 30W. That's why I was asking here about it.

Here are the ones I got over a year ago. They said 301H and 281b+ on the ones I got..who knows.

Click to expand...
Strips in parallel will all be at the same voltage, dimming doesn't change that. Different voltage strips can be run in series, but they will all run at the same current.
 
taproot

taproot

Well-Known Member
1212ham said:
Strips in parallel will all be at the same voltage, dimming doesn't change that. Different voltage strips can be run in series, but they will all run at the same current.
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I was talking about current, the current would be limited by the potentiometer. Right?
 
C

cage

Well-Known Member
taproot said:
I was talking about current, the current would be limited by the potentiometer. Right?
Click to expand...
Yes. And if you'd use 2 parallel circuits with equal amount of resistance, the current would be equal.
If the resistances are different then the currents would be different too.

You could measure the diode resistance with typical multimeter which has diode function on it.
This way you could calculate the actual current/wattage you'd be running each circuit.
Or any sort of current reading device to do the same.

The high voltage power supplies are nice in that way that you can just add the strips in series
and only mind that the amps are ok for each component.
Might add some UV's to mine one day.
 
Rocket Soul

Rocket Soul

Well-Known Member
taproot said:
I was talking about current, the current would be limited by the potentiometer. Right?
Click to expand...
I think i know why youre having problems here; in parallel connections the current divide evenly every string right? Not exactly

It only does so if the resistance on each string is equal (in the case of leds the forward voltage, what we all refer to as just voltage).
The current over each string depends on the resistance of on each string


Theres a formula for it, i cheated with chat gpt cause my high school books are long gone:

"To calculate the total current flowing through a parallel circuit with different resistance values on each branch, you can use the formula:

1/R_total = 1/R1 + 1/R2 + 1/R3 + ... 1/Rn

where R_total is the total resistance of the circuit and R1, R2, R3, ... Rn are the resistance values of each branch.

Once you have calculated the total resistance, you can use Ohm's Law (I = V/R) to find the total current flowing through the circuit. Just divide the voltage across the circuit by the total resistance to get the total current:

I_total = V_total / R_total

Where:
I_total = total current flowing through the circuit
V_total = total voltage across the circuit
R_total = total resistance of the circuit

Keep in mind that the current flowing through each branch of the parallel circuit will be different depending on the resistance value of that branch. To calculate the individual currents, you can use Ohm's Law for each branch:

I1 = V_total / R1
I2 = V_total / R2
I3 = V_total / R3
...
In = V_total / Rn

Where:
I1, I2, I3, ... In = current flowing through each branch
R1, R2, R3, ... Rn = resistance values of each branch
V_total = total voltage across the circuit

These formulas will help you calculate the total current flowing through the parallel circuit as well as the individual currents flowing through each branch."
 
taproot

taproot

Well-Known Member
Rocket Soul said:
I think i know why youre having problems here; in parallel connections the current divide evenly every string right? Not exactly

It only does so if the resistance on each string is equal (in the case of leds the forward voltage, what we all refer to as just voltage).
The current over each string depends on the resistance of on each string


Theres a formula for it, i cheated with chat gpt cause my high school books are long gone:

"To calculate the total current flowing through a parallel circuit with different resistance values on each branch, you can use the formula:

1/R_total = 1/R1 + 1/R2 + 1/R3 + ... 1/Rn

where R_total is the total resistance of the circuit and R1, R2, R3, ... Rn are the resistance values of each branch.

Once you have calculated the total resistance, you can use Ohm's Law (I = V/R) to find the total current flowing through the circuit. Just divide the voltage across the circuit by the total resistance to get the total current:

I_total = V_total / R_total

Where:
I_total = total current flowing through the circuit
V_total = total voltage across the circuit
R_total = total resistance of the circuit

Keep in mind that the current flowing through each branch of the parallel circuit will be different depending on the resistance value of that branch. To calculate the individual currents, you can use Ohm's Law for each branch:

I1 = V_total / R1
I2 = V_total / R2
I3 = V_total / R3
...
In = V_total / Rn

Where:
I1, I2, I3, ... In = current flowing through each branch
R1, R2, R3, ... Rn = resistance values of each branch
V_total = total voltage across the circuit

These formulas will help you calculate the total current flowing through the parallel circuit as well as the individual currents flowing through each branch."
Click to expand...
What I'm confused about is there was a mention that the samsung strips could have a run away event leading to a fire. Voltage is electrical pressure, I get that. I also understand that the lower voltage 46 vs 48 like the other strips means its resistance is slightly less and as a result will consume slightly more current. All the strips, including the samsungs, are rated for 60W...it's just the voltage is different. I figured the samsungs would just consume a little more current and run slightly hotter. For example, if I ran the entire array at half it's capacity ..based on a killowatt I'd assume the 48V strips would be close to 30W and the 46V samsungs 32 or 33W. I know they won't be consuming current evenly but what I'm not understanding is where is the run away event that poses so much danger?

Regarding the pot...I was just saying I thought in a runaway like the light shorted out the pot would prevent the driver from giving full current.
 
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