bk78
Well-Known Member
This is what I wanted to read. Thank you I have fans directly on each set of drivers and I will be sure to keep them 250w and under.
1 of my drivers is hot to touch.
- Thread starter diggs99
- Start date
This is what I wanted to read. Thank you I have fans directly on each set of drivers and I will be sure to keep them 250w and under.
diggs99
Well-Known Member
Hey Mark,
i gotta comment on this post again, Im not sure how expensive they are, what i can comment on is their apparent quality, they feel,appear and act cheap. Push wire a little too hard? they will twist off, tug to make sure you have a good connect? they will fall off, lead wire bends a little too much and they twist. Not too mention i had one that just wouldnt grab the wire at all, there was no backside, the wire just went right on through. So theres an issue somewhere. I know, small sample size, but i cant comment on anyone elses issues, only my own.
I just had to pull a light down to fix a connector that popped off the soldering while hung, whatever, no biggie, it happens, ( the 7th one out of 36 since i started building the 2 lights ) Then,in the process of getting the light back up 3 more have since come loose.
You say they arent cheap, i say they are dangling by a thread, so if the connectors are supposedly good then it must be the way they are actually being attached? My build thread has this stuff logged in the early pages , how delicate i felt these connectors were and the issues i was having.
Im now at 10 connectors out of 36 strips. i have the first 6 there in a pile , i just tossed them to the side because i had more strips to use, but now its happening on the lights i have built and hung already.
I handle them with kid gloves because i know how delicate they are since day 1. So im not sure what else i can do other than rip them all off and solder everyone of them to make sure this dont keep happening.
Sorry to vent, but this stuff is taking all the fun out of it.
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https://www.wago.com/us/smd-pcb-terminal-block/p/2065-101_998-403
Can you post a good picture of a separated connector and it's solder pad?
diggs99
Well-Known Member
I feel bad for the earlier post, I'm not trying to bad mouth or rag on anyone, it's not my style. Overall I'm happy with the strips, they are bright and according to some smart dudes should be good.
I do feel I needed to say something tho, as for a newbie diy'er these are issues that aren't mentioned.
Whytewidow soldered everything, I should have just done the same.
I do feel I needed to say something tho, as for a newbie diy'er these are issues that aren't mentioned.
Whytewidow soldered everything, I should have just done the same.
TintEastwood
Well-Known Member
From my perspective....You've been putting your heart and soul into everything you do. Going out of your comfort zone at times and doing a damn fine job.
Anyone helping or following is sure to understand that you have been through hell and back with more than just lighting. But the lighting....driver....arghhhh.
I'm frustrated for you! Im sure other are as well.
I'd like better pics, but from what I see, I'm surprised the connector stayed on the board at all.
A solder joint is very strong. If abused, the solder pad would rip off the board, leaving the solder joint intact.
diggs99
Well-Known Member
Ya it really seems they just aren't soldered to the strips very well.
I def wasn't hard on them , I found out very early on that they seemed very delicate to work with.
I dunno, maybe it's just me lol. I don't have much expierence to go on.
diggs99
Well-Known Member
Thanks bud, its been an experience to say the least lol....truth be told, i probably bit off a little more than i can chew, oh well, gone too far gone to look back now, just gotta keep moving forward
appreciate the words tho buddy
diggs99
Well-Known Member
@1212ham
Here's a few more pics I just took of the strips that never made it to the fixtures before breaking.
They are being kept off to side, I'll spend some time one day and just solder all of them before I build the last light.
If you want pics of anything else just let me know.
Here's a few more pics I just took of the strips that never made it to the fixtures before breaking.
They are being kept off to side, I'll spend some time one day and just solder all of them before I build the last light.
If you want pics of anything else just let me know.
Attachments
Chip Green
Well-Known Member
I've broken maybe dozens, of push in connectors on EB strips, I think it's just the nature of the beast with those types... durability is not an attribute.
Yeah, but how many fell of the strip?
Chip Green
Well-Known Member
Ahh yes indeed, point taken. Less than 1.
Those solder pads were sized for wire, not connectors. The connectors barely overlap the pads, so a small solder bridge is the only thing holding. I can't even see a solder bridge in the first pic posted.
diggs99
Well-Known Member
Ya it seems that way. I just know that they have been very very delicate to work with or handle.
welight
Well-Known Member
Thanks Diggs, I take all such comments on board with a view to product improvement so will be looking at this carefully to see where we can make this better
Cheers
Mark
ChiefRunningPhist
Well-Known Member
Lux = lumens/m2
1m2 = 10.764ft2
16ft2 = 1.486m2
Lux is the total amount of lumens per square meter. If you counted up every little lumen in a m2 then you'd have lux, or lumens per m2. Lux is an average and most times there's hot spots in light patterns, so its common to have a larger lux reading in the middle of a fixture than the sides. This is because the sensor reads only the intensity in that one tiny spot that the sensor is currently occupying. Lets say the sensor is only 0.5cm2 in size. There's 100cm in 1 meter, so 100cm x 100cm = 10,000cm2, or 1m2. If the sensor is only 0.5cm2, then it means that its taking the amount of lumens it measured in that 0.5cm2 area and its multiplying that tiny measurement by 20,000 (10,000cm2 / 0.5cm2 = 20,000) to spit out a lux reading for you. Its just an average of how many lumens would/could be in a m2 if the intensity that the tiny sensor is measuring were consistent throughout the entire space (well only a meter really, so really only consistent throughout an entire m2) being observed.
The SPYDR strip style builds are probably pretty uniform throughout their distribution, so you could use only a single lux meter measurement and extrapolate total lumen count more accurately than pretty much any other style of build. That said, the accuracy will only increase with the number of recordings, so if you took 16 measurements, say in a 4x4 grid, and averaged all the readings, you'd have an even closer approximation to extrapolate from.
1m2 is only about 10.764ft2, and your tent is 16ft2, so that means that there's 1.486m2 in your tent (16ft / 10.764ft2 = 1.486). If you want to calculate the total lumens your fixture is producing, you'd multiply your most accurate average lux reading by 1.486 to calculate total lumens in the tent. 60,000 Lux * 1.486 = 89,186 lumens that the fixture is giving off. To put that into perspective, an HPS typically emits around 145lm/w, that means a 600HPS is around 87,000 total lumens.
Id have to look at the data sheets of the CREE chips again to cross examine what you're getting vs whats expected, but im lazy lol and off the top of my head, that seams ok (120W less and a bit more intensity in comparison to 600W of HID?). Your fixture, if thermally managed properly, could handle (2) 480h's, (1) for each side of strips (if Im remembering the calculations correctly) so if you want more umpf id say upgrade the driver to a 600-48h.
I added digi's to my drivers so I didn't have to pull the mulitmeter out every-time I wanted to check stuff. Pretty easy, and cheap. Worth the effort imo, I have 2 drivers stacked ontop of each other, 1 is the 320h (under), and the other is a 24W driver for the CPU fans (on top) I use to cool my lights (the digi had little tabs that randomly snapped into the venting holes of the 24W driver... SCORE! lol). I cut the female ends off of 16ft ext cords so that I could wire the female plugs to the drivers and then wired the longger portions of cord with the male ends to the the fans and lights so I could easily plug and unplug them, and so I could mount the drivers outside ..
EDIT:
IF YOU DO THIS, THEN THE DRIVER HAS TO BE OFF OR UNPLUGGED FROM THE WALL IN ORDER TO DISCONNECT OR CONNECT ANY LIGHTS FROM IT!!!
If you don't unplug the driver from wall before connecting or disconnecting lights, then your going to have a bad day. If the driver is outputting 10A and you unplug half the load, or half your lights, then the other half that's still plugged in will get ALL 10A! Same with connecting lights while driver is plugged into wall. If its set to push 10A and you plug 1 light in at a time, then 1 light will get ALL 10A until you plug the other one in, 1 second is probably all it will need maybe less till they are fried. Don't want to do that, so just unplug the driver from the wall before connecting or disconnecting lights if wired this way.
1m2 = 10.764ft2
16ft2 = 1.486m2
Lux is the total amount of lumens per square meter. If you counted up every little lumen in a m2 then you'd have lux, or lumens per m2. Lux is an average and most times there's hot spots in light patterns, so its common to have a larger lux reading in the middle of a fixture than the sides. This is because the sensor reads only the intensity in that one tiny spot that the sensor is currently occupying. Lets say the sensor is only 0.5cm2 in size. There's 100cm in 1 meter, so 100cm x 100cm = 10,000cm2, or 1m2. If the sensor is only 0.5cm2, then it means that its taking the amount of lumens it measured in that 0.5cm2 area and its multiplying that tiny measurement by 20,000 (10,000cm2 / 0.5cm2 = 20,000) to spit out a lux reading for you. Its just an average of how many lumens would/could be in a m2 if the intensity that the tiny sensor is measuring were consistent throughout the entire space (well only a meter really, so really only consistent throughout an entire m2) being observed.
The SPYDR strip style builds are probably pretty uniform throughout their distribution, so you could use only a single lux meter measurement and extrapolate total lumen count more accurately than pretty much any other style of build. That said, the accuracy will only increase with the number of recordings, so if you took 16 measurements, say in a 4x4 grid, and averaged all the readings, you'd have an even closer approximation to extrapolate from.
1m2 is only about 10.764ft2, and your tent is 16ft2, so that means that there's 1.486m2 in your tent (16ft / 10.764ft2 = 1.486). If you want to calculate the total lumens your fixture is producing, you'd multiply your most accurate average lux reading by 1.486 to calculate total lumens in the tent. 60,000 Lux * 1.486 = 89,186 lumens that the fixture is giving off. To put that into perspective, an HPS typically emits around 145lm/w, that means a 600HPS is around 87,000 total lumens.
Id have to look at the data sheets of the CREE chips again to cross examine what you're getting vs whats expected, but im lazy lol and off the top of my head, that seams ok (120W less and a bit more intensity in comparison to 600W of HID?). Your fixture, if thermally managed properly, could handle (2) 480h's, (1) for each side of strips (if Im remembering the calculations correctly) so if you want more umpf id say upgrade the driver to a 600-48h.
I added digi's to my drivers so I didn't have to pull the mulitmeter out every-time I wanted to check stuff. Pretty easy, and cheap. Worth the effort imo, I have 2 drivers stacked ontop of each other, 1 is the 320h (under), and the other is a 24W driver for the CPU fans (on top) I use to cool my lights (the digi had little tabs that randomly snapped into the venting holes of the 24W driver... SCORE! lol). I cut the female ends off of 16ft ext cords so that I could wire the female plugs to the drivers and then wired the longger portions of cord with the male ends to the the fans and lights so I could easily plug and unplug them, and so I could mount the drivers outside ..
EDIT:
IF YOU DO THIS, THEN THE DRIVER HAS TO BE OFF OR UNPLUGGED FROM THE WALL IN ORDER TO DISCONNECT OR CONNECT ANY LIGHTS FROM IT!!!
If you don't unplug the driver from wall before connecting or disconnecting lights, then your going to have a bad day. If the driver is outputting 10A and you unplug half the load, or half your lights, then the other half that's still plugged in will get ALL 10A! Same with connecting lights while driver is plugged into wall. If its set to push 10A and you plug 1 light in at a time, then 1 light will get ALL 10A until you plug the other one in, 1 second is probably all it will need maybe less till they are fried. Don't want to do that, so just unplug the driver from the wall before connecting or disconnecting lights if wired this way.
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