DIY LED Retro - Troubleshooting

[richgoose]

Good Evening! I am ready to wave the white flag on my BC29 retro. Here's what I'm working with.

250w 48v 5.2a dc power supply (led groupbuy)

Coralux 5-up - (2) LDD-1000H (3) LDD-700H

Typhon Controller

Built a tubular heatsink with the blower fan from steve's. Covered it with luxeon M's and ES's, also 5 Semiled Violet. Soldered my connections, thought i was all good... went to test it and nothing. String by string, I found some shorts, some cold-soldered joints etc. At this point I have spent several evenings trying to simply get one string to light, with little luck.

I've got one string of (4) RB M's, no shorts whatsoever, all joints looking good. My PSU is putting out 48v, and it also measures out on the terminal block of my 5 up board. If I check voltage from one of the (+) outputs of the 5-up back to the incoming neg from PSU i see 48v. If I test voltage drop across the 1st led, it show a vf that I expect (11.4) and lights dimly.

I did electronics in the service and I do refrigeration work now, I repair AC circuits all day long and (felt) electrically proficient; this is kicking my behind.:headwallblue:

Thanks in advance for any advice on how to troubleshoot this. this rebuild is soooooooooooooooo ready to get wet but not until I has light.

 

[richgoose]

I am fairly certain you can simply supply a constant 5v signal say from an old Cell charger to run them full power in place of the controller's pwm signal, no dimming that way though.

Yea so I read this and grabbed an old moto cell charger (5.9vdc) and hooked it into my 5up.

Now my ceiling is blind.

My typhon is only putting out ~ 1 VDC on 100%... doh. Is there anything I am missing with the controller or is it bad?

 

[oreo57]

Yea so I read this and grabbed an old moto cell charger (5.9vdc) and hooked it into my 5up.

Now my ceiling is blind.

My typhon is only putting out ~ 1 VDC on 100%... doh. Is there anything I am missing with the controller or is it bad?

If you are referring to the PWM "out" on the Typhon.. it should be 5V regardless of dimming setting in the code (except at ZERO) .. It "pulses" 5V to the Meanwell.. At 100% it is solid 5v..


You have a controller no need for a separate wall wart to the PWM circuit..

You need to tie the PWM grounds and the PS together.

http://www.ultimatereef.net/forums/showthread.php?t=666610&page=2

 

[Meldrath]

That's bad advice, you never want to tie grounds of different voltages together. You can get bounces and feedback.

 

[Stlouphil]

That's bad advice, you never want to tie grounds of different voltages together. You can get bounces and feedback.

Uh? 1-4 are for the PWM and 5-6 are for the power supply.

 

[Meldrath]

"You need to tie the PWM grounds and the PS together."

There should be seperate grounds for each type of voltage.

 

[Stlouphil]

"You need to tie the PWM grounds and the PS together."

There should be seperate grounds for each type of voltage.

I don't want to :deadhorse:, but there is a separate ground for the PWM and for the PS.

 

[Meldrath]

Ok, I understand that, I'm just trying to warn the person that you were giving the advice to, to not take that literally, and they should follow your diagram. That's all.

 

[Stlouphil]

No problem. I was just confused about where you were coming from, which easily happens with me. :spin2:

 

[richgoose]

If you are referring to the PWM "out" on the Typhon.. it should be 5V regardless of dimming setting in the code (except at ZERO) .. It "pulses" 5V to the Meanwell.. At 100% it is solid 5v..


You have a controller no need for a separate wall wart to the PWM circuit..

You need to tie the PWM grounds and the PS together.

I only used the wall wart with the controller disconnected, to prove my 5up + led's are wired correctly.

The PWM ground and the dc PS v- tie together on the 5up. it has 3 G terminals that are all electrically similar. I understand that it is a square wave pulse will always run 5vdc. If its working, which its not. With no load on the typhon I can test 9.88vdc on the 10v out and 4.8 on the 5v out, but when hooked up I get 1v or less at the terminal block on the 5up. When I tie the wallwart + & - to V & G all my strings light 100%. I emailed steve's, and my heart sank when I read the 2nd sentence of their reply.

"Sometimes if the Typhon is handled without being properly grounded an ESD can cause an explainable malfunction."

So they are setting it up to be my fault from jump street... I know alot of people may try DIY LED with little or no experience; I however spent 2.5 months training in the Air Force Electronic Principals course. ESD and grounding safety were week one stuff. If they can't fix or replace I'll prob just go with the Storm controller instead.

 

[richgoose]

That's bad advice, you never want to tie grounds of different voltages together. You can get bounces and feedback.

This is how both Coralux and Steve's literature show to wire their controllers, with the PWM - and DC PS - on the G terminals, which are tied together in the board.

I don't want to :deadhorse:, but there is a separate ground for the PWM and for the PS.

Separate terminals yes, (3 total G terms on the 5up) but they are all common.

 

[zachts]

"You need to tie the PWM grounds and the PS together."

There should be seperate grounds for each type of voltage.

not to confuse things but this is the most mis comunicated point on these builds "ground" is the wrong term here. DC negatives should all be tied to gether.

The ONLY "Ground" wire is on the PSU on the AC side that connects to your wall outlet and should NOT be tied to anything on the DC electronics side.

Hope this clarifies things a bit.

:beer: