Best LED for a 2x4x5 tent. Looking to replace a 144x5 Mars Hydro Reflector

Dammit, I just hooked my light up to a KW meter and for some reason it's only pulling 9 watts at the wall? I thought the lights looked really dim....what am I doing wrong here. @Rahz @REALSTYLES @bizfactory any ideas?

@Humanrob Yea these are 5 gallons, but for my next run I'll be doing just 2 plants in 7 gallons as I'm going to use living soil.

Not sure. The dim leads are open and isolated?

Check the connections

@Rahz I'm a dumbass. I just wired up the 10k pot to the dimmer circuit and when I turn it up I get 26.8 watts, so the issue is that when I wired the dimmer together it was at a super low level. Once I get the 100k pot on there everything will work great.

What I don't understand is why when I wired the dimmer + - together the light isn't at 100+% power?

tinyplantas said:

@Rahz I'm a dumbass. I just wired up the 10k pot to the dimmer circuit and when I turn it up I get 26.8 watts, so the issue is that when I wired the dimmer together it was at a super low level. Once I get the 100k pot on there everything will work great.

What I don't understand is why when I wired the dimmer + - together the light isn't at 100+% power?

Click to expand...

you are suppose to leave it un-wired until you get a pot and you get 110% power from the driver without the pot

tinyplantas said:

What I don't understand is why when I wired the dimmer + - together the light isn't at 100+% power?

Click to expand...

100% power is +100K ohms of resistance (open dim wires = absolute resistance, also 100% power or 100-108%, whatever the driver supplies). Wiring the dims together creates zero resistance which would be a short except the driver regulates the current at 10% of max.

@Rahz Thanks man, I understand now. I just ran to radio shack and wired a 10k resistor and a 100k audio pot (all they had) and everything is working great. Once my linear pot arrives on Monday I'll do a nice wiring job but this will do the trick for now.

@bizfactory worth noting that to get 100% power you leave the dimmer unwired, rather than wire it together.

The light is so damn bright now I can't believe it is only at 50% power of what these cobs can run.