DiY LEDs - How to Power Them

Armyofsprout

Armyofsprout

Well-Known Member
I need help guys. I’m in the process of ordering 4x qb288 boards kingbrite. I ordered a Inventronics EUD-600S280DT 600W driver which is the same driver HLG uses to run 4 Rspec boards at 600W. Not realizing these aren’t R spec I think I may have made a mistake and they run. At 48v apparently.

i have a meanwell 600w B Driver I sent off for repair so that’s not an issue. I just have to wait to get it back. My main questions are:

1. will the Inventronics driver work ok and get 600W out of 4 of those boards or is it too powerful?

2. Will the Meanwell 48V work ok or is it two powerful for 4 boards at 600W?

3. If it is too powerful is the only way to get 600w is running 6 of these boards? I have no idea how these calculations work. Sorry guys I need to figure something out now because my HLG-600-48V might not be repaired for a month or two with covid.

I asked kingbrite about the Inventronics working and this is what they replied with.


“Each QB board is 16 series 18 parallels, so each board is 48V, 700mA-2700mA.”
 
pulpoinspace

pulpoinspace

Well-Known Member
shimbob said:
I dunno man, I'm looking at a specs file for the hlg-600h which is dated 2018-9-18 and it shows 45.9v, they've been there for years. Not to mention that this range (45.9-56.7v) is only the upper range of its voltage limit. The lower limit is 27V.
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Airwalker16 said:
I'm 99% positive you can't use, say 27v strips on an HLG-480H-54A. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong...
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Rocket Soul said:
Yes, you can run it using that driver but its far from ideal, youll only get just over 200w out of that driver which is 320w. This means driver efficiency will be affected downwards normaly, amount is in the datasheet. Best to try to run drivers close to max for peak efficiency.
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ive been wondering about this myself this morning and my search led me here. I currently have a 600h-54b. I'm wondering if i could use it to power 4 to 6 aussie high lights even though their max voltage is 50. since its a B type driver i cant turn the voltage down does the driver do it by itself or is this a no go? cant wrap my head around this constant voltage region
 
Rocket Soul

Rocket Soul

Well-Known Member
pulpoinspace said:
ive been wondering about this myself this morning and my search led me here. I currently have a 600h-54b. I'm wondering if i could use it to power 4 to 6 aussie high lights even though their max voltage is 50. since its a B type driver i cant turn the voltage down does the driver do it by itself or is this a no go?
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You can but make sure you never get into a situation where theres only one board drawing full current: 600w in one highlight is not recommended.

Also for interesting viewing check out quantum board torture by ledgardener; these suckers seems to be able to take somewhat of a beating, at least the real deal HLG ones...
 
pulpoinspace

pulpoinspace

Well-Known Member
Rocket Soul said:
You can but make sure you never get into a situation where theres only one board drawing full current: 600w in one highlight is not recommended.

Also for interesting viewing check out quantum board torture by ledgardener; these suckers seems to be able to take somewhat of a beating, at least the real deal HLG ones...
Click to expand...
thanks. good to know. i was planning on running 6 of em with just a big aluminum sheet as heatsinking . so they should be able to handle 150+ watts each so even if 1 blew or a connection came loose the rest should still be alright i think. i usually keep the driver dimmed under 500 watts anyway.

i see now in the data sheet for the 600h it says "In the constant current region, the highest voltage at the output of the driver depends on the configuration of the end systems." does this mean that the 600h-54b can actually be used with strips/chips/boards as long as forward voltage is anywhere between 27v-54v? thats amazing i never knew it was this versatile, unless im misunderstanding something.
 
MrToad69

MrToad69

Well-Known Member
Quick question:

Just educating myself on the electronics side of the equation

Do the Meanwell drivers operate in a manner that you can simply "dial them down" to operate smaller lights..( specifically the HLG series)...
For example could I get a meanwell HLG 240 and hook up a single QB 132? My intention is simply to use it like Leggo...have a couple of the HLG 240s And scale up or down? Example..use 1 light for seedings..later use that same driver and adds 3 lights to grow? Essentially cycling 2 drivers with Scale up-scale down lighting..

Thanks
 
1

1212ham

Well-Known Member
MrToad69 said:
Quick question:

Just educating myself on the electronics side of the equation

Do the Meanwell drivers operate in a manner that you can simply "dial them down" to operate smaller lights..( specifically the HLG series)...
For example could I get a meanwell HLG 240 and hook up a single QB 132? My intention is simply to use it like Leggo...have a couple of the HLG 240s And scale up or down? Example..use 1 light for seedings..later use that same driver and adds 3 lights to grow? Essentially cycling 2 drivers with Scale up-scale down lighting..

Thanks
Click to expand...
It can be done, but it depends which HLG-240 you have, give us the full part number.
 
S

scraggy

Active Member
SupraSPL said:
Recommended tools/supplies

-Lead solder 63/37 or 60/40 thin wire $9
-60W soldering iron $8
-Flux Gel/Paste MG $10
-Brass wool/stand $8

Most of this stuff can be found on Amazon or eBay. I like lead solder because it is easier to work with and easier on the LEDs. Just make sure you wash your hands after handling lead solder. Please solder under a ventilated hood or do it outdoors. The 60W iron is an aggressive amount of heat. This should allow you to work very quickly even on a large heatsink, but be careful not to linger with the iron it will melt wire jackets and unseat solder pads. If it is taking too long to melt the solder just clean the tip and it should melt instantly. This is the method I have developed but there are other ways to solder, please share yours!

-Warm up soldering iron
-Strip wire
-Apply flux gel to wire
-Apply flux gel to the solder pad on the LED
-Clean iron tip on brass sponge
-Apply a few dabs of solder to the tip of the iron
-Tin the wire by touching the tip of the iron to the wire, the solder will migrate from the tip to the wire
-Make sure the wire is thoroughly tinned but don't melt the jacket
-Apply more solder to the tip of iron
-Tin the solder pad on the LED by touching the iron to the solder pad (careful not to touch the LED dome with the iron)
-Place the tinned wire in contact with the tinned solder pad
-Touch the solder pad and or tinned wire with the iron
-As soon as the solder becomes liquid and the wire sinks into the pad pull the iron away
-Make sure no part of the wire is shorting to the LED star or the heatsink
-You are done!
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Thankyou so much, very well written.
 
count zero

count zero

Member
Hey guys, gals, can somebody have a look at my driver config?
adding a bit of LED to a 1,8m² 2x 315w CMH flower area.

let's do a 320W white channel:
12x 3500k LM301B Strips, approx. 20V each.
A whopping 240V, if I do the strips all in series. It's the volts that tickle us, but the amperes that kill, right ...?
HLG-320H-C1050 should be the driver to do it? has a constant voltage region of 152 ~ 305V, my 240 is right in the middle.
At full power each of my 12 strips shoud get 320/12=26W, or 1,3 amps at 20V.
The driver is rated at 1050ma. At 240V, that's 252W.
If i go to 100% power, will the driver go past it's rated 1.05 amps, or is the voltage gonna go up? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

and a 60W 660nm Red channel:
4x 50cm 10 pcs Osram Square Hyper Red, approx. 20V (I guess. rated min 16 and max. is 20V)
That makes 80V, 0,75A max.
I might wanna add the same amount red LEDs in parallel circuit for adjacent area, so I'll need ~120w.
HVGC-100-700 fits the bill, albeit not as nice as HLG series. HLG-120H-C1400 is a more efficient PSU but is awkwardly 150w and might get a bit bored at and hard to dim 20w.
Maybe I should put 2 and 2 strips in series for 40V and get a HLG-120H-42?
It's really 120w, looks neat and is 93% efficient. But a bit more cabling.

Soooo, any grave errors in my first DIY?
60W of red is probably a bit much, I'd run at 10, 20W before trying anything crazy. Is 50W max, me thinks.
The item I listed for the red strips says Oslon SSL hyper red, but I talked to the shop, they say they ship the newer Oslon Sqares.
 
GrassBurner

GrassBurner

Well-Known Member
Hey hows it going. Ive got a question about a couple qb288's ive got. Right now in my 2'x3'x4' veg cabinet, I've got one qb288 b spec on an HLG-120H-54A driver. My flower cabinet isn't gonna be open by the time my smaller plants are ready to flip, so I got a qb288 rspec to go in the smaller cabinet. Should I run them both in series @120 watts, or replace the b spec with the r spec when I flip? ]
I'm thinking 2 qb's would give me more even light coverage. HLG says don't run different boards in parallel, but from what I can tell it would be okay to run them together in series. They are both V2's.
 
count zero

count zero

Member
GrassBurner said:
HLG says don't run different boards in parallel, but from what I can tell it would be okay to run them together in series. They are both V2's.
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I'd advise against it, at least not without intensive testing, could be dangerous.
I think you'd have to measure the voltage drop on each board at every load scenario to make sure it's evenly balanced.
 
Rocket Soul

Rocket Soul

Well-Known Member
GrassBurner said:
Hey hows it going. Ive got a question about a couple qb288's ive got. Right now in my 2'x3'x4' veg cabinet, I've got one qb288 b spec on an HLG-120H-54A driver. My flower cabinet isn't gonna be open by the time my smaller plants are ready to flip, so I got a qb288 rspec to go in the smaller cabinet. Should I run them both in series @120 watts, or replace the b spec with the r spec when I flip? ]
I'm thinking 2 qb's would give me more even light coverage. HLG says don't run different boards in parallel, but from what I can tell it would be okay to run them together in series. They are both V2's.
Click to expand...
You wont be able connect those 2 boards in series using that driver, its voltage is too low.
 
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