DiY LEDs - How to Power Them

Rocket Soul

Well-Known Member
Awesome. I check the datasheet, theres even lower amp versions all the way down to 100mA/200V. @MedicinalMyA$$ whats the dets on the second driver? Id love myself some pwm dimming, the first one seems like it only does nominal, no dimming
 

MedicinalMyA$$

Well-Known Member
Awesome. I check the datasheet, theres even lower amp versions all the way down to 100mA/200V. @MedicinalMyA$$ whats the dets on the second driver? Id love myself some pwm dimming, the first one seems like it only does nominal, no dimming
Product Link

Data Sheet

I tested the links this time lol, If they still don't work you could search LD12W-48-C0125-RD or EPtronics on Digikey.
 

Lamok555

Member
Really depends on how hard or light you're going to run them.
The driver voltage is correct, just do the math on the current you're planning.
Thanks for the reply!
I was thinking of 18.5V/210mA. I've have a hard time trying understand the math
with electricity/electronics.
I was given 24 EB's and told I needed this driver. Ordered the driver's, was shipped yesterday and should have next week. 12 Gen.3 HO for Veg. and 12 Gen. 3 Thrive for flowering.
 

Boatguy

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the reply!
I was thinking of 18.5V/210mA. I've have a hard time trying understand the math
with electricity/electronics.
I was given 24 EB's and told I needed this driver. Ordered the driver's, was shipped yesterday and should have next week. 12 Gen.3 HO for Veg. and 12 Gen. 3 Thrive for flowering.
I didnt see anything labeled ho in that datasheet so i cant help you there unless you have one. The regular 560mm eb strips are good from 700ma a piece to 1400. At 1400ma you could run 8 or so.

Sorry, edit here.
1400ma is 1.4amps. That driver is good to 12amps at 20v max. So wired in parallel at that current you could run 8.
At 2100ma you could only run 5
24 of those strips you would be giving 500ma a piece. It may work and be fine even without a heatsink
 
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Rocket Soul

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the reply!
I was thinking of 18.5V/210mA. I've have a hard time trying understand the math
with electricity/electronics.
I was given 24 EB's and told I needed this driver. Ordered the driver's, was shipped yesterday and should have next week. 12 Gen.3 HO for Veg. and 12 Gen. 3 Thrive for flowering.
Connecting your strips to the driver in parallel you can put as many strips as you want just make sure theyre all the same strip/voltage
 

Pedro Mello

Well-Known Member
Hi guys, hope you are all fine!
I have 6 Vero 29se BXRC-35G10K0-B-7X and a XLG-240H-AB Meanwell driver.

I was using 3 cobs with this driver but realized they were getting too hot.
Looking in datasheets I've found that probably will make sense using more cobs to decrease the amps in each one and get a higher efficiency.

Altought, using more cobs will make my dimmering range shorter (I'm using a 100K potentiometer), right? How many cobs do you guys suggest for me to use with that driver, intending to optmize the setup?

(I know that the setup itself is not that good, but I kind of panned things in the past years lol)

1690925066723.png
1690925082054.png



Thank you!!!
 

Sinfor

Well-Known Member
Hi guys, hope you are all fine!
I have 6 Vero 29se BXRC-35G10K0-B-7X and a XLG-240H-AB Meanwell driver.

I was using 3 cobs with this driver but realized they were getting too hot.
Looking in datasheets I've found that probably will make sense using more cobs to decrease the amps in each one and get a higher efficiency.

Altought, using more cobs will make my dimmering range shorter (I'm using a 100K potentiometer), right? How many cobs do you guys suggest for me to use with that driver, intending to optmize the setup?

(I know that the setup itself is not that good, but I kind of panned things in the past years lol)

View attachment 5314135
View attachment 5314136


Thank you!!!
Assuming that you haven't touched the built in potentiometer there will be no problem at all with the dimming range, adding more COBs you will see a little drop in the power output as each COB will require less voltage.
 

Pedro Mello

Well-Known Member
Assuming that you haven't touched the built in potentiometer there will be no problem at all with the dimming range, adding more COBs you will see a little drop in the power output as each COB will require less voltage.
I've actually touched the built in, I just need to reconfigure it?
If I mount up all 6 cobs with that driver, will it work?
 

Pedro Mello

Well-Known Member
If you set them all up in parallel it will work, no problem.
Nice, Rocket! Thank you.

Just for me to understand the idea.... in terms of efficiency, more cobs will always be better, since the voltage is sufficient to them light up? Is that it?

The current, splitting for 6, don't have the chance to be insufficient to light them up?
 

MidnightSun72

Well-Known Member
Nice, Rocket! Thank you.

Just for me to understand the idea.... in terms of efficiency, more cobs will always be better, since the voltage is sufficient to them light up? Is that it?

The current, splitting for 6, don't have the chance to be insufficient to light them up?
Putting cobs in parallels keeps the voltage the same. Just splits the amperage up. If you wired then in series then you would need a driver capable of producing the additive voltage of each cob in the string.

as a simple example. If you have 5 cobs in series and each one requires 20V and 1amp to run at nominal current then you would need a driver capable of 100V at 1amp (or less if you want to drive softer, or slightly more if you have enough of a heatsink to go hotter)

but taking those same cobs in parallel

you would need an led driver that can do 20V and a~ 5 amps. The cobs would then each still be getting a 20V and 1 amp each.

You can also do combinations of series and parallel. It all sort of depends on which LED drivers you have available and what voltage and drive current you are aiming for.
 

MidnightSun72

Well-Known Member
Your COB from the data sheet looks like it takes 52V at 1.8Amps nominal. The XLG 240H AB can do around 4.5a at 52V. Meaning if you run 3 cobs each would be getting 4.5a/3 = 1.5a each.

if you add a 4th COB in parallel with the other 3 the drive current to each COB would be 4.5a/4= 1.125a each.
 

Pedro Mello

Well-Known Member
Your COB from the data sheet looks like it takes 52V at 1.8Amps nominal. The XLG 240H AB can do around 4.5a at 52V. Meaning if you run 3 cobs each would be getting 4.5a/3 = 1.5a each.

if you add a 4th COB in parallel with the other 3 the drive current to each COB would be 4.5a/4= 1.125a each.
Got it!! Thanks!!

Just one more question... If I keep adding cobs, the current would be 4,5a/(n cobs). Naturally, sometime the current would decrease to a point insufficient to cobs work, right? How do I discover the minimum current the cob needs to light up decently?

Ideally, should I setup 4, 5 or 6 cobs with this drive?
 

MidnightSun72

Well-Known Member
Got it!! Thanks!!

Just one more question... If I keep adding cobs, the current would be 4,5a/(n cobs). Naturally, sometime the current would decrease to a point insufficient to cobs work, right? How do I discover the minimum current the cob needs to light up decently?

Ideally, should I setup 4, 5 or 6 cobs with this drive?
as far as I know there's no real limit on how low you can go with the amperage. But one thing I did notice with the Samsung calculator is that you can hit a point of such low amperage that it's actually less efficient than driving a little harder. I think at like half the nominal current it's kind of not worth it to run any more LEDs. But I think also it's more of a personal discretion thing where you have to weigh the cost of additional chips vs gain in lumens from driving softer.

Typically you have to cut the amperage in half to gain about 10% more light relative to drive current. Like if you had an LED that made 1000 lumens at 1amp. Then at 0.5a you could expect 500 lumens plus 10% so 550 lumens from the same chip.
 

cobshopgrow

Well-Known Member
But one thing I did notice with the Samsung calculator is that you can hit a point of such low amperage that it's actually less efficient than driving a little harder.
there is probably no measured data for low amperages, so output is a bit random.
same for the blux calc, you can see it also varies from led to led and also calcualtor version to calculator version (more measuring points added here and there it seems).
bit ago i went deeper in to it, but you see the pattern and its clearly missing data causing this.
 

Greengrouch

Well-Known Member
Splitting my mars fce65000 that I bought a few months ago into two 320w lights since I need to size down to 2 2x4s in my new place(can’t even close my bedroom door with the 5x5 in here) these look like the right connectors? Probably gonna have some questions about setting up the dimmer switch on the 320w sosen drivers(I’m sure there are better or cheaper options but they’re just smaller versions of the one on the 6500 and I figure the closer I stay to spec the less issues I’ll have)
 

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