SF G4500 blinking, popping, tripping breaker

RuggedWombat

RuggedWombat

Well-Known Member
I'm officially worried about my SF G4500. it's only a year old, but this morning the problems began. At only 50%, I began to hear a series of popping sounds. I checked the LEDs themselves as I worried maybe some blew out. When I went to turn down the dimmer dial, the entire room tripped the breaker and went dark. I tried resetting the breaker with the lights still on, but the breaker tripped again. I have it at only 40% for now, but I'm about to switch back to my HLG 100 R Specs as I'm worried this thing will now cause an electrical fire. What do I do to get this light fixed? Keep in mind these HLGs are still flawless after like 2-3 years of use. If i move the dial on the G4500 to even 50%, it'll start crackling with electrical type sounds. I'm too scared to use this now while I'm out of the room; what can I do to fix this? I'm worried as I've heard a lot of horror stories about dealing with Spider Farmer. Do you believe they will fix this light to where I can feel safe using it? This has me really shaken up as I feel like i already might have dodged a fire...
 
RuggedWombat

RuggedWombat

Well-Known Member
MissinThe90’sStrains said:
Best of luck. There is an advertisers forum where they have a thread. Try posting there. Also, if you’re on Reddit at all, they have a support forum there too, https://old.reddit.com/r/SpiderFarmerLED/
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Thanks for the information and looking out! Idk how they can even fix this though as I'm guessing I would need to ship it to them and I have no idea where I could find a 4 ft long box and also insulate it to protect the light bars. I'm a total Luddite with electricity, so Im very concerned there won't be a fix that will make me confident the shit won't blow up. It's like practicing with a gun and it malfunctions. Yeah it may never happen again, but now the anxiety of wondering if it will fail at a critical moment which could cost me my life is hard to ignore.
 
Rocket Soul

Rocket Soul

Well-Known Member
You may not have to send the entire light back as what you describe sounds like an issue with the driver. Does the crackling sound come from the power supply?

In any case contact SF and if you dont want their service post a pic of the label of the power supply and peeps here can identify what to replace it with, as long as this is really the issue.

To isolate the fault is maybe a bit hard, but if your HLG drover is compatible you could try to switch them out and see if the problem persist.

How to know if theyre compatible? Another photo of the HLG driver to co pare :)
 
RuggedWombat

RuggedWombat

Well-Known Member
Rocket Soul said:
You may not have to send the entire light back as what you describe sounds like an issue with the driver. Does the crackling sound come from the power supply?

In any case contact SF and if you dont want their service post a pic of the label of the power supply and peeps here can identify what to replace it with, as long as this is really the issue.

To isolate the fault is maybe a bit hard, but if your HLG drover is compatible you could try to switch them out and see if the problem persist.

How to know if theyre compatible? Another photo of the HLG driver to co pare :)
Click to expand...
I'm guessing it's the driver. I have it removed and on top of the tent, but funny enough I started noticing issues at 60% several weeks ago, but nothing like this. It was at 50% for the last almost 3 weeks with no issues. Today I started hearing the crackling and pops and thought maybe it was my oscillating fan hitting the lights. It's when I tried to adjust the dimmer that everything went out. It's definitely something with the electrical components as the LEDS themselves are all lit and functioning when powered on. The sounds were definitely electrical in nature and sounded like electricity was popping or surging when I moved the dial. Moving it slightly higher than 50% instantly knocked out the power. Thank God for the removable driver as you may be right and I can just exchange that part.

I love this light so I'm really aggravated I cant use it. I'm definitely not a SF hater; I just want my light to work and so do my plants! Keep in mind I've ran this at 100% for flower, so it's not the house electrical or breakers at fault. In fact I've never had this light trip a breaker, even at max intensity.
 
Rocket Soul

Rocket Soul

Well-Known Member
RuggedWombat said:
I'm guessing it's the driver. I have it removed and on top of the tent, but funny enough I started noticing issues at 60% several weeks ago, but nothing like this. It was at 50% for the last almost 3 weeks with no issues. Today I started hearing the crackling and pops and thought maybe it was my oscillating fan hitting the lights. It's when I tried to adjust the dimmer that everything went out. It's definitely something with the electrical components as the LEDS themselves are all lit and functioning when powered on. The sounds were definitely electrical in nature and sounded like electricity was popping or surging when I moved the dial. Moving it slightly higher than 50% instantly knocked out the power. Thank God for the removable driver as you may be right and I can just exchange that part.

I love this light so I'm really aggravated I cant use it. I'm definitely not a SF hater; I just want my light to work and so do my plants! Keep in mind I've ran this at 100% for flower, so it's not the house electrical or breakers at fault. In fact I've never had this light trip a breaker, even at max intensity.
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If you really like the light id just try to get another new driver from a decent distributor and a good brand; meanwell/inventronics are usually top, as long as theyve gone thru proper qc. I have a feeling that a lot of the cheapo drivers from alibaba and some china lights are likely to be the ones that could quite pass.
 
Star Dog

Star Dog

Well-Known Member
The dimmers on Mars, sf, and viparspectra are absolutely crap quality it wouldn't surprise me if it's the dimmer that's faulty.

Do you have the knowhow to bypass the dimmer?
 
RuggedWombat

RuggedWombat

Well-Known Member
Star Dog said:
The dimmers on Mars, sf, and viparspectra are absolutely crap quality it wouldn't surprise me if it's the dimmer that's faulty.

Do you have the knowhow to bypass the dimmer?
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There is a dimmer bypass switch I believe, but then it would just run at 100% the whole time wouldn't it? That would be major overkill for a 2x4. I think maybe 60-70% is enough to max DLI without C02 at peak flower. I agree though the issues always seem to occur when adjusting the dimmer. Or are you suggesting bypassing the stock unit and run a pure dimmer in the middle of the setup?
 
RuggedWombat

RuggedWombat

Well-Known Member
MissinThe90’sStrains said:
Can you bypass the light’s dimmer, and plug it into a more stout external dimmer to control it - like a variac ?
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I believe the light has a dimmer bypass for linking multiple lights. I'll wait to see how SF responds to the warranty request first, but a driver is certainly cheaper than a new $400 light. What would be a stout dimmer for a 430w just in case? Hopefully it's not the driver itself having issues. It is interesting though the only issues that have popped up were when adjustments to the intensity were made. I mean it's ran like every day for a year with no other issues, so it sounds like the dimmer is a likely culprit...
 
GrnMonStr

GrnMonStr

Well-Known Member
Lucky your breaker tripped, very lucky. I mean I seen some old posts on Amazon that got removed years ago of lights a burnt up and melted.
Some complaints on Amazon say this light is not UL listed. Only has 138 reviews if I am looking at the right one. Lots of reviews are fake, and these lights are too risky the ones built in China that are designed by them would never trust. I built mine with a meanwell driver and put inline fuses on each of my Samsung led strips and made sure my driver was a little bigger than necessary. The pots used to dim come rated in various wattage's I made sure mine was over rated. This is why the good lights are 2x as much because its UL listed and has properly engineered and spec components throughout.
 
Mumbeltypeg

Mumbeltypeg

Well-Known Member
If you don’t have any luck with SF then you could always take the driver to an electronics store and describe the issue and get them to do a repair on it, it is probably something obvious and easy to fix if it’s shorting and won’t cost much.
 
Star Dog

Star Dog

Well-Known Member
If the light has a controller port you can wire a dimmer to the rj11 cable.

How do I fit a dimmer to a led ?

Easiest way would be to check the lights voltage and amp draw during operation, and buy a dimmable driver. The driver is dimmable in 20% increments i want 0-100% I've got a controller coming now so its not important, however I still want to find out if a dimmer could've been wired to a rj14...
www.rollitup.org
 
Rocket Soul

Rocket Soul

Well-Known Member
Mumbeltypeg said:
If you don’t have any luck with SF then you could always take the driver to an electronics store and describe the issue and get them to do a repair on it, it is probably something obvious and easy to fix if it’s shorting and won’t cost much.
Click to expand...
Its going to be cheaper and safer to replace it.

OP: honestly it sounds like an issue beyond the dimmer. The dimmer failing will give issues like the intensity "sticking" and other issues of controlling intensity. What you got, fuses and crackling sound, is likely to be the driver itself.
At this point i would look at replacing it but check any connecting cables from the driver to the strips, especially if there are connectors. They tend to skimp on the connectors using dodgy contactors.

Edit: disconnecting the dimmer is usually as easy as cutting the cable. But obviously somewhat non reversible.
 
1

1212ham

Well-Known Member
RuggedWombat said:
I'm guessing it's the driver. I have it removed and on top of the tent, but funny enough I started noticing issues at 60% several weeks ago, but nothing like this. It was at 50% for the last almost 3 weeks with no issues. Today I started hearing the crackling and pops and thought maybe it was my oscillating fan hitting the lights. It's when I tried to adjust the dimmer that everything went out. It's definitely something with the electrical components as the LEDS themselves are all lit and functioning when powered on. The sounds were definitely electrical in nature and sounded like electricity was popping or surging when I moved the dial. Moving it slightly higher than 50% instantly knocked out the power. Thank God for the removable driver as you may be right and I can just exchange that part.

I love this light so I'm really aggravated I cant use it. I'm definitely not a SF hater; I just want my light to work and so do my plants! Keep in mind I've ran this at 100% for flower, so it's not the house electrical or breakers at fault. In fact I've never had this light trip a breaker, even at max intensity.
Click to expand...
Failing LED grow light dimmers can't trip breakers or overload anything, they just don't dim correctly. Unless the sounds came from somewhere other than the light, it's a failed driver. It's about $140-$160 for a Inventronics or Meanwell driver and both have 7 year warranty.
 
RuggedWombat

RuggedWombat

Well-Known Member
Just an update. After showing them some pics of the issues, SF sent me a newer model driver. Once I ran the new wires into the assembly, it powered right back up and is now alive again. Regardless of what good or bad things you may say/hear about the company, they did make it right and included a new driver with video instructions clear enough where an electrical newb like me was able to wire in the new driver. So many companies will find any reason to throw their hands up or wash themselves of any responsibility for their product; at least SF cared enough to make it right.
 
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