DiY LEDs - How to Power Them

stardustsailor said:

...Sure one can make millions out of a single idea ...
Same way,many can spend millions and still have no idea ...
But then again I've no idea about which idea ,we're talking about ...
Yesterday's that would be ?
Or today's ,or tomorow's idea ?
Which one of the million ideas is the one ?
That can make millions ?

I've no idea ...

Cheers.

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The 'one' that is priceless.

Hey guys;
I just plugged in my 3070 & mean lpc 60-1400. for the first time. About 2 minutes later the light in the room started dimming for a few seconds and then turned off, then it came back on at 1/2 power and fluctuated a bit. The light is controlled by a touch sensitive switch. The other lights on the same circuit which are controlled by normal switches aren't affected.
I can only assume there are some rogue frequencies coming out of either;
a) meanwell driver
b) variac?
c) 9v smps for the arctic 11 fan.

Anyone had any similar issues?
I will look at mains EMC filter, can I get a 1 size fits all?

thanks, UKP

SupraSpl, have been going thru the led threads. Very informative and useful info, thanks for sharing.

You mentioned veg lighting and I want to replace my t5's and t8-t12 fixtures with led. They light my moms and I saw you recommend bridgelux 5000k"s. Lost the post and heres what I plan to use them for.

Mother plants below 36 inches tall. Currently use approx 160 watt floro. Would like to use led to light. Area 4 ft long 2 1/2 ft wide. Passive cooling.

Your suggestions or links to previous info. Thanks OG

UKP, it is most likely the dimmer that is the problem. Even when set at full, it still interferes somehow.

Hello OG, yes the Vero 5000K is good for vegging in most cases. For 8ft² of mothers you could use 4W/ft². I use 10W/ft² when I am looking for vigorous growth, although you could go higher in situations where you are vegging in a hurry. There are many options you could go with, Vero10, 13, 18, 29 or Cree XPL or Cree CXA etc. Vero is probably the best compromise of efficiency, price and would be a huge improvement over fluoro. Cree is capable of much higher efficiency if you are willing to pay more up front.

You can use a dimmable driver if you would like to be able to adjust it. The Meanwell HLG-120H-C700 is a good example. Or you could use generic drivers and just swap them out to change the current when necessary.

The HeatsinkUSA 2.08" profile is the cheapest surface area that I know of. OK for passive cooling especially for smaller LEDs and COBs, and gives a decent spread between the emitters.

i just put together one lamp with 10 - Vero's 29 powered by 2 - hlg-185h-c1050b ,i plan to use it for flowering and veggie ,i was hoping to place 6-9 plants under ,but when i use kill-a-watt it only reads around 450 watts or so from wall .I am wonder ,if this lamp is underpowered ? May be i used wrong drivers ?

Veg light plan:

8 ea vero 10's 5000k BXRC-50c1000-B-04 ($4.37 ea. from Newark)

3 ea Fasttech led drivers 300 ma 1714902 (1 spare 8.12 ea)
2 ea Heatsinkusa 2.08 heat sinks 36 inches long.
8 ea Molex vero connectors (don't have to solder priceless !.46 ea newark)

Will be mounting 4 vero's on each heat sink, 1 driver each.

See any problems with setup??? Thanks OG

Hey stock, i looked up your power supplies and you are running those vero's very soft. That power supply is 1050ma output I am suprised the killawatt read that high. Those leds should last a real long time if properly heatsinked. Gl OG

OG is right, that should read about 400W. Which kill-a-watt are you using?

OG that setup looks good to me. Those fasttech drivers go up to 150V so each one can run 5 Vero 10s at 280-285mA, 88.5-89% efficienct. If you want lower voltage I would recommend these. Each driver can run 3 Vero10s at 280mA, 88% efficienct.

Do you have a link to the vero connectors? I think they are ~$1.50 on digikey (pico ez mate)

OldGrower said:

Hey stock, i looked up your power supplies and you are running those vero's very soft. That power supply is 1050ma output I am suprised the killawatt read that high. Those leds should last a real long time if properly heatsinked. Gl OG

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it what i thought .What drivers i should use ? And how many per driver ? I am using 7 inch wide ,20 inch long heatsink from heatsink usa .May it was even lower than 450 watt i can't remember
Supra ,pleaseeee

SupraSPL, here is the link for the 6" molex connectors, the shorter ones are a little cheaper.

http://www.newark.com/molex/68801-4085/pico-ezmate-harness-305mm-4pos/dp/63W2994

Thanks again for all the info, OG

The HLG-185H-C1050B is a great driver for CXA3070/Vero 29 size LEDs. You are running them relatively soft which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is even more suited for CXA3070s. Veros are more suited for running hard to minimize up front costs. What color temp are they 4000K?

SupraSPL said:

The HLG-185H-C1050B is a great driver for CXA3070/Vero 29 size LEDs. You are running them relatively soft which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is even more suited for CXA3070s. Veros are more suited for running hard to minimize up front costs. What color temp are they 4000K?

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i have mix of colors 4- vero29 is 2700k , and 6-vero29 is 3500k . So if i use this driver for vero 29 ,how many pcs i can hook up to driver to drive them harder ? What about this driver HLG-600H-42A ?

Do you guys mind if I take the lazy way out instead of digging back through this thread?

I've got some CXA3070's. Have stuck to the basic "one LED/one driver" recipe so far. I'd like to try firing two LED's with one driver. Something between 700mA each and 1200 or so. Don't want to go any higher than that.

I'd prefer to stick with brand names like Meanwell or similar. One with a dimmer might be cool...

Mellodrama said:

Do you guys mind if I take the lazy way out instead of digging back through this thread?

I've got some CXA3070's. Have stuck to the basic "one LED/one driver" recipe so far. I'd like to try firing two LED's with one driver. Something between 700mA each and 1200 or so. Don't want to go any higher than that.

I'd prefer to stick with brand names like Meanwell or similar. One with a dimmer might be cool...

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http://www.meanwell.com/search/HLG-120H-C/default.htm

Either the 700 or 1400 models

Hey MD long time. Yep the HLG-120H and HLG-185H can get you 93%+ efficiency and a better bang for the buck. The 60H 80H and are up to 91.5%. All dimmable and power factor corrected.

At some point I'll need to jump on this wagon of downsizing drivers to just 2-3 instead of 6. Say I want to keep driving all my CXA3070's or even CXA3590's at 1400mA, do I just add up the Vf of the CXA's and compare it against the Constant Current Region of the HLG-185H?

Sevren said:

At some point I'll need to jump on this wagon of downsizing drivers to just 2-3 instead of 6. Say I want to keep driving all my CXA3070's or even CXA3590's at 1400mA, do I just add up the Vf of the CXA's and compare it against the Constant Current Region of the HLG-185H?

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Yes

Thanks for the pointers, guys. Supra, I haven't kept up with your design philosophy but last year we both preferred efficiency over pushing the lights hard. If you were going to fire two CXA3070's, which Meanwell driver would you pick?

I know, what a lazy ass. Thing is, I don't want to study some chart and go, "OK, I think I want this one".

I'm already a little confused about the recommendations that were made. Dloomis mentioned the 700 or 1400 models. What about the HLG-120H-C1050? Wouldn't that be a good compromise if I was looking for something with a little more punch than 700 mA?

Funny you guys are talking about these bigger drivers as a capacitor just blew on the cheapo NL driver I'm using running 4 CXM-22s. Couldn't bear buying a couple of drivers so I sucked it up and grabbed one of these.
http://www.trcelectronics.com/View/Mean-Well/HLG-185H-C1050A.shtml
https://www.trcelectronics.com/ecomm/pdf/hlgc185.pdf
Was looking at the 120H but went with a 185H- A Series for a couple more bucks. Adjustable mA is the shiznet .