I have a few drivers that I bought for some reason that I don't know, but if I wanted to build lights with these useing some led stripps what are my options? I have built lights but there was always the recommended driver so it was easy. Here is what I have: 1ea) HLG 240H-C1050B, 2EA) HLG 185H-48A, 2EA) HLG 185H-C1400B. Thinking either 2' or 4' strips, maybe BXEB-TL-L1120Z-2750E4000-B-C3, or the 560 length.
What can I do with these drivers?
- Thread starter burnpile
- Start date
I'm no expert, but it seems like you have a lot of different options for those drivers. If you're comfortable with wiring things in series/parallel any of those drivers would be able to power up those strips you mentioned. I have never wired up anything like the vesta's with the two different channels on one strip, but same concept as far as wiring them up. I think @Rocket Soul has some experience with the vesta strips and could probably offer some more specific advise on all of this.
@MedicinalMyA$$ just posted some samsung strips that might be a good option for all the above drivers as well in as different thread https://www.arrow.com/en/products/si-b8v261560ww/samsung-electronics?region=nac and https://www.arrow.com/en/products/si-b8v521b20ww/samsung-electronics?region=nac
Also, the bridgelux 90cri gen 3 strips could work as well, something like these https://www.futureelectronics.com/p/Led-lighting-components--led-lighting--led-Modules--mid-power-led-modules--linear-mid-power-led-modules/bxeb-l0560z-27g2000-c-c3-bridgelux-4115970 Multiple spectrums available and with a few different driver choices could give you some nice control over spectrum.
Hopefully some others will jump in soon and be able to give you some real advice on options, these are just an amateurs thoughts. I think it will really come down to what kind of space you would be looking to light up, size and what stage of growth, before someone could give you some specifics. Like I said though, those drivers seem to have a lot of possibilities for things you can pair them with.
Best of luck whichever route you go.
@MedicinalMyA$$ just posted some samsung strips that might be a good option for all the above drivers as well in as different thread https://www.arrow.com/en/products/si-b8v261560ww/samsung-electronics?region=nac and https://www.arrow.com/en/products/si-b8v521b20ww/samsung-electronics?region=nac
Also, the bridgelux 90cri gen 3 strips could work as well, something like these https://www.futureelectronics.com/p/Led-lighting-components--led-lighting--led-Modules--mid-power-led-modules--linear-mid-power-led-modules/bxeb-l0560z-27g2000-c-c3-bridgelux-4115970 Multiple spectrums available and with a few different driver choices could give you some nice control over spectrum.
Hopefully some others will jump in soon and be able to give you some real advice on options, these are just an amateurs thoughts. I think it will really come down to what kind of space you would be looking to light up, size and what stage of growth, before someone could give you some specifics. Like I said though, those drivers seem to have a lot of possibilities for things you can pair them with.
Best of luck whichever route you go.
Rocket Soul
Well-Known Member
Yes, there are a few good vesta driver matches there but it all depends on what op wnana do. How big a space, flower/veg or auto, any budget considerations? Also is thia for gen 1 or gen3?
What I was thinking was for my veg area which is 108" x 40". Thinking two fixtures with 4 strips or 6, approx 50" x 20", I can make the fixture from al sheet, and attach the strips with the driver mounted on top of the fixture. I'm not really worried about the cost, just want to use my drivers and have the best strips currently available. That is based on the strips being approx $20.00 ea. Thanks for even replying, I have some mental problem with figuring out the driver match with the strip, the wiring is easy once I know.
Thanks for the input, looking more for a 5000k, should have been more specific.
I tried looking at the how to power led thread, is there some basic way to see how many strips a driver will drive. I want to run them at low power but with the ability to increase. I have made a bunch of quantum board lights and one strip light but I was helped by others determining the strip driver combination.
https://ledgardener.com/diy-led-strip-build-designs-samsung-bridgelux/ would probably be a nice resource to get familiar with strip builds since it has a lot of general info and examples. The strips used as example builds may be a little outdated or better options available now, but might be of some use for getting a general idea on # of strips needed/possibilities.
It will really all come down to what specific strip you want to use for your build and the required V to power that strip @ the given currents. You'll have to compare datasheets of strips and your specific drivers to calculate how many strips you can fit on there. The only "problem" you might find is that you may not always be able to pull the full power of the given driver with the strips you are looking at. You'll be able to manipulate the wiring to get close enough for it not to be an issue and since you have a few drivers to work with should work out fine.
Also, going to have to figure out roughly how many watts per sq ft you are going to want for your area. I cant really offer any advice on how much to shoot for as far as vegging that kind of an area.
Figured I should just post up an example since everything I keep saying is pretty vague.
I'll use these as an example https://www.futureelectronics.com/p/Led-lighting-components--led-lighting--led-Modules--mid-power-led-modules--linear-mid-power-led-modules/bxeb-l1120z-40s4000-c-c3-bridgelux-5132308 These strips run nominally at 960ma, so ideally you would want to shoot for pushing them no more than this to avoid any real additional heatsinking being needed along with other benefits.
Now let's pair these up with your hlg-185h-C1400B drivers. With this driver, you have a voltage range of 71-143 to work with at a maximum current of 1400ma. Running the above strips at 1400ma would be far from ideal in my opinion, so you'd want to figure out the best series/parallel wiring configuration to utilize this driver. By doing this, you would be able to basically cut your max current of 1400ma in half while still being able to use the same 71-143 range of volts available in the driver.
So we can now check out the strip's datasheet to see how many strips we can fit on this driver while running them at 700ma. You can find in there that at 700ma they will need 39.8 volts. For simplicity sake, we'll use 40 volts for easier math. The maximum number of strips you can fit in a series on this driver would be 3 (40x3=120 which is the most Volts you can add while staying under the 143 maximum range of the driver). So you would want to wire this in a 3s2p way to get the most out of that driver. So with this set up, you would use 6 of these strips for per hlg-185-c1400 driver. You would be getting close to 170 watts out of the driver when running max. Not quite the full amount, but still utilizing the majority of it.
This example is definitely not the easiest possibility but if you can somehow follow what I just put out there, it can hopefully allow you to see how you really don't have to find a strip that match perfect to your specific drivers. I mean if you find a strip that runs nominally at 1400ma or 1050ma currents or close to the 48v of the hlg-185-48 driver, then that would just simplify the wiring a little.
Sorry for rambling and not sure if any of this is actually helpful, just wanted to try to give a thorough example. Again, not the most experienced with all of this, but what I've gathered so far came from people on here and other sites so I try to help the little that I can.
I'll use these as an example https://www.futureelectronics.com/p/Led-lighting-components--led-lighting--led-Modules--mid-power-led-modules--linear-mid-power-led-modules/bxeb-l1120z-40s4000-c-c3-bridgelux-5132308 These strips run nominally at 960ma, so ideally you would want to shoot for pushing them no more than this to avoid any real additional heatsinking being needed along with other benefits.
Now let's pair these up with your hlg-185h-C1400B drivers. With this driver, you have a voltage range of 71-143 to work with at a maximum current of 1400ma. Running the above strips at 1400ma would be far from ideal in my opinion, so you'd want to figure out the best series/parallel wiring configuration to utilize this driver. By doing this, you would be able to basically cut your max current of 1400ma in half while still being able to use the same 71-143 range of volts available in the driver.
So we can now check out the strip's datasheet to see how many strips we can fit on this driver while running them at 700ma. You can find in there that at 700ma they will need 39.8 volts. For simplicity sake, we'll use 40 volts for easier math. The maximum number of strips you can fit in a series on this driver would be 3 (40x3=120 which is the most Volts you can add while staying under the 143 maximum range of the driver). So you would want to wire this in a 3s2p way to get the most out of that driver. So with this set up, you would use 6 of these strips for per hlg-185-c1400 driver. You would be getting close to 170 watts out of the driver when running max. Not quite the full amount, but still utilizing the majority of it.
This example is definitely not the easiest possibility but if you can somehow follow what I just put out there, it can hopefully allow you to see how you really don't have to find a strip that match perfect to your specific drivers. I mean if you find a strip that runs nominally at 1400ma or 1050ma currents or close to the 48v of the hlg-185-48 driver, then that would just simplify the wiring a little.
Sorry for rambling and not sure if any of this is actually helpful, just wanted to try to give a thorough example. Again, not the most experienced with all of this, but what I've gathered so far came from people on here and other sites so I try to help the little that I can.
Rocket Soul
Well-Known Member
Theres afew different ways to do this:
- If you want complete dimmable control then you can go for one driver per channel, and ideally both the same driver.
- if youre happy to work with 3 separate spectrums then you can do a one driver solution, then group all strings from each channel together in one wago each. As per need you connect one or both channels to the driver (this can be setup with switches so you dont have to touch the wiring to change spectrum). This lets you use CW and WW separately but also both at the same yime which results in a "full cycle" kind of spectrum just under 4000k 90cri. This solution gives you a lot of options but not separately dimable. And it works both on series and parallel. Also, if you use 2 drivers dimable then you cant use your light at full power using only one spectrum
However your space is maybe a bit big to veg with one of your drivers, this depending on how hard you push veg. Id probably use 2 drivers tbh. Dimensions: you want to have as much cannopy as possible under the light, id try something a bit bigger than 50x20 unless you only want to veg a part of your space. Light falls of very fast outsipde the fixture.
Some ideas for driver matching:
-Hlg180-48A: 2 x 2 foot gen1 vestas in series per string, with voltage turned up a tad to get to 50V. Id normally not push vestas or any plasticy strips more than 20w per strip. They heat up a bit and get bad efficiency if you run them too hard. This solution cuts the amount of parallel strings down to half which is nifty. You could also use gen3 2 foot
- the 240-c1050 can be matched to 12 x 2 foot gen3 in series, at just under nominal for about 20w per strip. Should prob also work with 6 4' footers but im not 100% familiar with the specs.
- If you want complete dimmable control then you can go for one driver per channel, and ideally both the same driver.
- if youre happy to work with 3 separate spectrums then you can do a one driver solution, then group all strings from each channel together in one wago each. As per need you connect one or both channels to the driver (this can be setup with switches so you dont have to touch the wiring to change spectrum). This lets you use CW and WW separately but also both at the same yime which results in a "full cycle" kind of spectrum just under 4000k 90cri. This solution gives you a lot of options but not separately dimable. And it works both on series and parallel. Also, if you use 2 drivers dimable then you cant use your light at full power using only one spectrum
However your space is maybe a bit big to veg with one of your drivers, this depending on how hard you push veg. Id probably use 2 drivers tbh. Dimensions: you want to have as much cannopy as possible under the light, id try something a bit bigger than 50x20 unless you only want to veg a part of your space. Light falls of very fast outsipde the fixture.
Some ideas for driver matching:
-Hlg180-48A: 2 x 2 foot gen1 vestas in series per string, with voltage turned up a tad to get to 50V. Id normally not push vestas or any plasticy strips more than 20w per strip. They heat up a bit and get bad efficiency if you run them too hard. This solution cuts the amount of parallel strings down to half which is nifty. You could also use gen3 2 foot
- the 240-c1050 can be matched to 12 x 2 foot gen3 in series, at just under nominal for about 20w per strip. Should prob also work with 6 4' footers but im not 100% familiar with the specs.