HLG B drivers not dimming down to 10%

K

kushedy

Well-Known Member
Morning all. Hoping someone more learned can help me out with this. I have built a number of cob panels using HLG B drivers. I have recently just completed my 2nd Samsung strip build also using HLG B drivers.

In general, all good but the one thing I have noticed is that none of them actually dim all the way down to 10%. Dependent on which build I am looking at I am getting down to anything from 20-40%.

Each of them has been wired with a 100k potentiometer with a 10k resistor on the ground.

Now the potentiometers I have been using are the cheap one's you get on *bay which I suspect are the problem. That said I don't want to spend a lot of time relacing potentiometers only to find that they make no difference.

Have any of you come across this? Is it the potentiometer at fault or something else?

Cheers in advance
 
canadian1969

canadian1969

Well-Known Member
On my build I bought a bag of pots from ebay, think 10 or 15, then just measured until I found two that where bang on 100KOhm, Didnt use a resistor. Pull the resistor and see what happens?
 
alesh

alesh

Well-Known Member
kushedy said:
Morning all. Hoping someone more learned can help me out with this. I have built a number of cob panels using HLG B drivers. I have recently just completed my 2nd Samsung strip build also using HLG B drivers.

In general, all good but the one thing I have noticed is that none of them actually dim all the way down to 10%. Dependent on which build I am looking at I am getting down to anything from 20-40%.

Each of them has been wired with a 100k potentiometer with a 10k resistor on the ground.

Now the potentiometers I have been using are the cheap one's you get on *bay which I suspect are the problem. That said I don't want to spend a lot of time relacing potentiometers only to find that they make no difference.

Have any of you come across this? Is it the potentiometer at fault or something else?

Cheers in advance
Click to expand...
Not all HLG B drivers are the same in regards of dimming. Which ones do you use? And how do you know actual current if your multimeter is still stashed somewhere and covered in dust?
 
CannaBruh

CannaBruh

Well-Known Member
That 10k resistor is there to present a minimum 10k Ohms for when your pot is turned to 0Ohms? Removing that presents a dead short between dimming pins with pot turned to 0Ohm position (might be no good)

You might be in a situation where the driver is dimming as much as it can.

Why is dimming such a thing to focus on? Fire up the lights and grow some plants. :blsmoke:
 
CannaBruh

CannaBruh

Well-Known Member
canadian1969 said:
I would be bothered if it wasn't working to spec too, anything electrical that doesn't do exactly what you expected needs to be looked at.
Click to expand...
What isn't it doing to spec? If it's not "to spec" return it to the manufacturer, all else is user error in practice or assumptions.

Why would you offer to "pull the resistor" if you don't know what its purpose is?

Dimming lights doesn't grow plants is all i'm saying, stop focusing on this tunnel vision function that adds minimal value to the intent of the light which i would have guessed would be to actually grow something bongsmilie
 
nc208

nc208

Well-Known Member
CannaBruh said:
What isn't it doing to spec? If it's not "to spec" return it to the manufacturer, all else is user error in practice or assumptions.

Why would you offer to "pull the resistor" if you don't know what its purpose is?

Dimming lights doesn't grow plants is all i'm saying, stop focusing on this tunnel vision function that adds minimal value to the intent of the light which i would have guessed would be to actually grow something bongsmilie
Click to expand...
I agree with you on the dimming thoughts, unless your trying to set up a wireless multi-channel dimming function I think the A drivers are much better. Just my Opinion.

To the OP, pics help and so does giving us the full name or spec of the driver you are using.
 
K

kushedy

Well-Known Member
This relates to hlg:
120h-c1050b x 1
60h-48b x 1
120h-c700b x 1
240h-1750b x 3

I know the wattage being used as I have plug in wattage meters.

I'm not overly focusing on dimming.

I am growing bud at the moment quite happily.

I'm not sure why some people's answer to a reasonable question is the equivalent of "why you complaining why don't you just shut up & go grow something".

I am going to be building a light for a really really small tent (30cmx30cmx60cm). When choosing my Led's & driver I need to know what minimum & maximum wattage range I'll be working with so a hlg driver dimming range is quite important.
Plus I am curious as none of the above drivers have dimmed to 10% using potentiometers.
Bottom line. As far as I am aware (from memory of data sheets) all of those drivers are meant to dim down to 10%. In practice none have.
 
CannaBruh

CannaBruh

Well-Known Member
Good luck with it, if you're really serious about dimming i'd second PWM. Pots are likely 20% - 10% tolerance, 10k resistors are what precision?
 
C

conversekidz

Well-Known Member
HLG-600H-48B is 0-100% dimming (0-10VDC) and is 96% efficiency
HLG-480H-48B is 0-100% dimming (0-10VDC) and is 94.5% efficiency
HLG-240H-48B is 10-100% dimming (1-10VDC) and is 93% efficiency
HLG-185H-48B is 10-100% dimming (1-10VDC) and is 94% efficiency
 
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K

kushedy

Well-Known Member
Not looking to dim a driver to 0%. Never was.


Simple point: I have lots of HLG drivers. Not unhappy with them. None dim to 10% which I was under the impression they were meant to. I started this post to help with troubleshooting.


As pointed out in the very first post I suspect the use of cheap potentiometers to be the cause. Rather than spending time re-wiring potentiometers I thought I'd throw it out on RIU & see what other people’s experiences were with potentiometers.


Sounds like the answer for full accurate dimming is pwm dimming. From what I have read that generally involves expensive controllers.
 
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