CXB3590 Build Query about earthing?

Hi everyone and many thanks to all in the community.

I've been getting everything together for a CXB3590 with HLG185 C1400 meanwell drivers, build with passive heatsinks from Fastron H42 x 1000mm which will carry 4 cobs on each run of heat sink x 4.

My question is about whether or not to run an earth wire to the heatsinks back to the earthing wire for AC input as this will be plugged into a RCD (earthing protection switch) to protect from electrical shock.

If earthing is wise can you suggest the best way to attach this to the heatsink? Should it be fully covered were it attaches to the heatsink?

Can I run one earth cable and simply branch off to the different heatsinks?

Or should I just run a triple core cable to each heatsink?

Will this protect the DC side from potential electrocution (given it's 146v @ 1400ma), I'm wanting to ensure safety first and foremost.

Thanks in advance to everyone.

yes earthing (grounding for people in the US) is best practice. in case of short circuit to your extremely conductive heatsink it will short to ground (and trip a breaker) as opposed to you (shorting your life!)

best way to attach is to simply drill and tap the heatsink and attach a round or u-shaped lug on the end of the wire and screw it down. it is a ground, no need to protect it. by definition it has the same voltage as the external cases of all of your electrical equipment

nothing can protect against a dc short, but again, having the heatsink grounded gives it a place to go, so to speak (somewhere other than you). ground is ground for both AC and DC sides. heatsink would be the most likely place for iut to short to.

you can hop grounds from heatsink to heatsink, easiest to just tie to the same ground your driver is using

Thanks for that Bobby_G,

Down in Australia and have been thinking through all this as I've watched others do builds, I've been somewhat concerned that most if not all the builds don't seem to be showing this about earthing to protect from DC killer shock.

Seems to a fair number of people willing to have a go at building these lights and also seems some don't have any actual electrical knowledge, my own is fairly limited and that's why I ask questions. It's better to ask and be alive than be a know it all and end up dead guy's.


I'll create a thread of my build which should happen next week.

You should ALWAYS have metal parts such as cases, heatsinks etc. connected to ground/earth and use an appropriate plug.
Don't know what you mean with "fully covered". Make sure there is a solid connector on your heatsink or case for the ground wire. You can also use a Multimeter to test whether all your metal parts which should be grounded are connected to each other. (Say if you place a heatsink in a metal housing, chances are that the heatsink will have a conducting connection with the case). If not, connect the metal parts, case, heatsink etc. somehow together with solid wires. Then, one wire to is enough, connect where convenient, say to the case or to the heatsink. When done smartly you don't need to have three wires going to each part you want grounded.

I understand what you are saying and probably should have stated the drivers will be remote from the lights.

I'll be running a common earth and splitting off to each of the lights, I would do this anyway but was thinking how I hadn't seen this in the builds
I've looked at... maybe I've just missed it...

Thanks

Yeah I haven't really seen this talked about enough

I thought we had to ground the hs if the driver was on it!?!?
There's little pieces of metal under the driver to make contact with the hs but if it is not on the hs???
CU

If you're using the meanwell drivers I've found only the screws into the casing of the driver are earthed, the actual casing appears to have no earth, so either a join into the driver AC earth or attach a lug to one of the screw's on the ends of the driver. Not the one's used to mount the driver though.
Then run that to the Heat sink....as stated above you can save on cable by running a common earth and splitting off to each of your heat sinks...

Note I'm going to be running remote drivers so the cables are about 15 -20 feet long.

Decided to go triple core for my attachment leads that way everything just plugs in.

Does anyone know of good triple core connectors that will be IP67 68 even, want to make them really safe....

Zulunature said:

If you're using the meanwell drivers I've found only the screws into the casing of the driver are earthed, the actual casing appears to have no earth, so either a join into the driver AC earth or attach a lug to one of the screw's on the ends of the driver. Not the one's used to mount the driver though.
Then run that to the Heat sink....as stated above you can save on cable by running a common earth and splitting off to each of your heat sinks...

Note I'm going to be running remote drivers so the cables are about 15 -20 feet long.

Decided to go triple core for my attachment leads that way everything just plugs in.

Does anyone know of good triple core connectors that will be IP67 68 even, want to make them really safe....

Click to expand...

Bonjour
Which Meanwell...there's thousands of!
I have an hlg and there is like geometric metal pieces (look like bees house baby places...alvéoles in french!)and it is a contact for ground...is anyone else have an hlg and can confirm what I say...!?!?
CU

littlejacob said:

Bonjour
Which Meanwell...there's thousands of!
I have an hlg and there is like geometric metal pieces (look like bees house baby places...alvéoles in french!)and it is a contact for ground...is anyone else have an hlg and can confirm what I say...!?!?
CU

Click to expand...

You are so right, there are thousands of drivers, I'm using the HLG185C1400B drivers.

I just checked and you're correct there are three little geometric shapes that are earthed to the AC side and that would protect the DC side if mounting the Drivers to the heat sink or framing. I'm going to run remote drivers so will use those or the screw to attach earth wires.

Think I'll just solder a earth wire to that.

I love this site guy's you're all so helpful, I wouldn't have tried any of this without reading many threads created.

Special thanks to Growmau5, SuperSPL, GardenGenes, Robyn... Starsailor absolutely fantastic always making me think....

I agree this is not talked about enough. My philips xitanium only has a neutral, and a line wire coming out of it. I connected it to a 3 prong plug and ran a dedicated ground from the plug to the heatsink. Is that acceptable? It is remotely mounted. I almost scrapped DIY because of my worries about proper grounding. I read that this is acceptable. Could someone please confirm this for me? Thank you very much.

ReddEyez said:

I agree this is not talked about enough. My philips xitanium only has a neutral, and a line wire coming out of it. I connected it to a 3 prong plug and ran a dedicated ground from the plug to the heatsink. Is that acceptable? It is remotely mounted. I almost scrapped DIY because of my worries about proper grounding. I read that this is acceptable. Could someone please confirm this for me? Thank you very much.

Click to expand...

I think Xitanium drivers have a case made of plastic ,ain't that so ?
Well ,if the drivers are remote and the driver's output voltage is not higher than 50-60 volts ,
then no earthing / grounding is quite acceptable .

cheers.