Renfro
Well-Known Member
Ok folks, this is a nice product that I found on amazon for less than $30 bucks at this time.
"DROK DC 0-300V 200A STN LCD Display Digital Multimeter Voltage Ampere Power Energy Ammeter Voltmeter Battery Volt Amp Meter AH Monitor Panel with Hall Sensor …"
This meter will run on 5 - 90 VDC so you can power it off your driver string. It only uses 4 - 10ma (10ma with back light on).
I am using a meanwell HLG-240H-54B driver and I hooked the meters yellow and red wires into the positive side of DC power for a parallel string of 4 CXM-22 COBs. I connected the black wire to the positive side of the string. I then ran one of the 18 gauge wires for the string to the cobs through the coil sensor, just one polarity. It worked like a charm when the driver was powered up. You can see it running here:
I also ran the meter with one wire from each of three drivers, that were each powering identical strings, through the sensor coil, all the same polarity and voltage. It was able to sum the total energy for all three strings. The strings were identical and voltages the same otherwise that wouldn't work as the meter uses the yellow wire to read the voltage and the current is read by the coil. So I am making the assumption that all strings are running at the voltage of the string the yellow wire is connected to.
Here is meter when I mounted it into a project box:
I haven't played with it much, forgot to even press the buttons when I had it all connected for the two tests. It seems like a nice little meter for the price and a good way to measure the DC output to your LED strings.
"DROK DC 0-300V 200A STN LCD Display Digital Multimeter Voltage Ampere Power Energy Ammeter Voltmeter Battery Volt Amp Meter AH Monitor Panel with Hall Sensor …"
This meter will run on 5 - 90 VDC so you can power it off your driver string. It only uses 4 - 10ma (10ma with back light on).
I am using a meanwell HLG-240H-54B driver and I hooked the meters yellow and red wires into the positive side of DC power for a parallel string of 4 CXM-22 COBs. I connected the black wire to the positive side of the string. I then ran one of the 18 gauge wires for the string to the cobs through the coil sensor, just one polarity. It worked like a charm when the driver was powered up. You can see it running here:
I also ran the meter with one wire from each of three drivers, that were each powering identical strings, through the sensor coil, all the same polarity and voltage. It was able to sum the total energy for all three strings. The strings were identical and voltages the same otherwise that wouldn't work as the meter uses the yellow wire to read the voltage and the current is read by the coil. So I am making the assumption that all strings are running at the voltage of the string the yellow wire is connected to.
Here is meter when I mounted it into a project box:
I haven't played with it much, forgot to even press the buttons when I had it all connected for the two tests. It seems like a nice little meter for the price and a good way to measure the DC output to your LED strings.
