I'm not very savy when it comes to electricity, but really good at following plans. With that said, I would have no idea how to run the HLG's like how many leds per driver and if it would even work with my Profilux. Any suggestions?
Let me see if I can simplify this a little bit.
Each LED has a "forward voltage" and a maximum operating current. Let's generalize a bit and look at an average Cree LED. The forward voltage has been quoted anywhere from 3.2 to 3.5 volts and a maximum operating current of 1 Amp (1000 mA).
The math is now very simple. If you run 12 LED's in Series (positive to negative, negative to positive) and keep on running it in a string you simply need to add up the voltage. Eventually you will run out. So for example if you have a 48 Volt driver and you use 3.5 as an average forward voltage you can in theory run 13 LED's (12 on the safe side). The other parameter, current, is what you will adjust to dim the LED's. The MW driver that is typically used is 48 volts and over 1 amp current.
So step 1, as you will see all over the forums you must first take apart the MW driver and turn the current down to 0. You don't want to overdrive the LED's. Then there is a procedure, again found all over the web, that you can use to adjust the current in order to operate the Cree within it's normal specs.
That still doesn't affect your voltage, you still can only run 12 LED's, perhaps one or two more, with the 48 volt driver. Now that only accounts for voltage. What about Current.
Current is also "additive" in a sense. So if you have a 48 volt power supply and 1 amp you can only run 1 string of LED's. Now if you have a 48 volt power supply at 2 amps you can run two strings of 12 LED's in a parallel circuit. You basically divide the current by the number of parallel strings and do not exceed the maximum current needed to drive the LED's
What's the dimmer circuit? On the MW as well as most other dimming drivers, there is a 0 - 10 volt very low current signal line that you can use to adjust the current the driver outputs. That's standard and doesn't have anything to do with your control circuit. So your Proflix is capable of manipulating a 0 - 10 volt signal you can use any dimming driver that utilizes 0 - 10 volt signals. Essentially this has nothing to do with your Proflix
So you have options:
1. Run multiple MW low voltage drivers and connect no more than the recommended 12 LED's per circuit.
2. Use a higher current driver, 2 Amp or more, and run the lines in parallel which requires some additional balancing and other difficulties.
3. Run a high voltage low current power supply and run all your LED's in series. My build option.
4. Buy a commercial light fixture
Which do you do? I can't even begin to recommend one. I can however not recommend my option of high voltage in series. The high voltage option should only be done if you are completely comfortable with the concepts and you have DC voltage experience and based on your questions, it doesn't appear that you are comfortable with these parameters.
There are several things you must be sure of when doing a HV setup.
1. You must use the right driver with all the necessary protection built in. You can't go cheap on the driver.
2. You MUST make sure your wiring is sound and up to standards. Wire must be HV rated, connections must be HV rated, and most important, you MUST insulate your LED stars to avoid arcs, creepage and clearance issues. The LED's and stars are designed to have a maximum voltage when the contacts are exposed. As I did, you will exceed that maximum voltage when you run HV drivers. But there are a few very simple things you can do to remove the dangers from HV and all of them have to do with INSULATION.
3. You never want to hook up the HV to your LED's until you are 100% sure you have no ground faults, shorts and alike. That means triple checking every connection, which is what I did. The build will be sound if you take your time and are good at soldering. Out of 138+ LED's I did find one short on my bar but it never affected my build because I found it immediately by checking for ground faults.
4. You have to design your build to allow you to "Pot" your LED's with special epoxy designed to pot and insulate electronic circuits. This provides protection from shorts, ground faults, and shock hazards.
I have a personal theory and only my own opinion on building LED light fixtures. There is a point where it's not worth doing. I experienced this point because my son has a 40 Gallon rimless cube that he wanted to light with LED's. At first he thought it would be cool to build the fixture. Actually I would be the one building the fixture, not so cool. But it really was not cost effective.
I think these rigs become cost effective when you get into large tanks and large fixtures. Ultimately he purchased an "Acam??" light. It's really cool and very effective not to mention cost effective. For me the light I built for just over 2k would have cost me 4.7k so I also did well for myself.
Seriously, if your not comfortable with Electronics and Electricity, reconsider the build. Quite a few people confuse DC voltage with household batteries and just think of them as a non-issue. That couldn't be farther from the truth. In reality high voltage DC current will kill you easier than AC current will. AC current has a unique feature of throwing you back from the voltage, in most cases, disconnecting you from the circuit. DC has the opposite effect, it's a clamping voltage on that you can't typically let go of.
Remember, very small voltage or current can still kill you. Know you limitations and be safe. I purchased the sump for my build because I know I am technically challenged when it comes to sump building and I don't want 150 gallons of water all over the floor and thousands of dollars of livestock and coral dead. Electricity is no for everyone.
