EB Gen 2 Parallel Safety.

Just built a strip light with 12x 560mm strips, wired in parallel. Wondering if anyone wires a safety device (resistor/fuse) in series with each strip to prevent thermal runaway? If so what are you using?

Cana-bliss said:

Just built a strip light with 12x 560mm strips, wired in parallel. Wondering if anyone wires a safety device (resistor/fuse) in series with each strip to prevent thermal runaway? If so what are you using?

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I can't think of any builds that have done it. Ita really not an issue and hasn't been documented here really at all. And there are hundreds of not thousands of builds on here.

Thanks for the reply. That's pretty much the reason I asked because I've never seen it myself either but see the recommendation for fail safes in multiple discussions. I got looking into it a bit and couldn't quite find what I was looking for. Inline dc fuses in the 1.4 amp range seem to be hard to come by also if one light goes all 12 fuses will blow so not the ideal situation. I was thinking a current limiting resistor so that no more then 1.4 amps could reach each strips but again couldn't quite figure out what resistor I needed for that, as well how much that would affect the reading on my drok meter. i.e. x amount of amps, volts, and total watts are being consumed by the resistor itself.

And inline fuse wont protect against thermal runaway anyway. Bc if you get a fuse that is suitable enough going by actual voltage and amperage ratings by code the size would be big enough to let thermal runaway happen anyway. But only running 12 in parallel your not going big enough to even worry about it. And bridgelux under rates their strips. I have pushed way way more through them than their rating with zero problems.

Even run at 1400mA on 12 strips you're only pushing 16.8A and by code you would need 125%, of that rating which is 21A. And that would allow thermal runaway at that amperage and not pop the fuse.

Thanks for the info whytewidow. How far have you pushed these strips? I'm running them at around 1.15 amps each and without a fan on them my temps were below 40°C, got a 6" fan angled at the corner of the fixture now and the tc points are all below 30°C. A resistor to prevent the strips from being overpowered in the event of a failure would still be nice, though after seeing how cool they run I see that a complete strip failure is probably fairly low. Thermal runaway or high voltage, I guess there is an inherent risk with whatever way is chosen to wire them.

Would this make sense? I am a little rusty on my electronics but this is what I was thinking that if one strip became faulty then that one fuse would pop?? not sure though.

Yeah that was my original thought process but as soon as one fuse popped/strip failed, then the subsequent current would be sent to the next fuse/strip. So by the time I got to check on things I'd have 11 popped fuses and some hurting plants. I was looking at resistors to wire in series with each strip so that no more then the max 1.4amps could be sent to any individual strip in the event of failure I just couldn't figure out what type or size of resistor would be required for that plus the additional resistance to the overall circuit would require an increase in driver output to ensure there was adequate power making it to the strips. Been far to long since my last electrical class lol.