DIY LEDs - The write-up

[wld1783]

Need a little help. I've been using buckpucks and just hooking up a meanwell eln60-48D. I have a 10K pot and regulated 9V wall wart. When I hook the multimeter to the POT it reads the 9.2v reading to the 10K Pot. All the connections on the LED's are nice a clean. I have the external pot turned on the meanwell turn all the way down ( clockwise ) and the 10K pot turned all the way up.

When I hook everything up the LED's will on flash every 30-40 seconds.

Can anyone help?

-Dave

How many LEDs in series and what type?

I tried 3 of the XR-E 6 LED strips in parallel. They worked fine with the meanwell LPC35-700. I then swaped out the driver for the ELN 60-48D and got blinking christmas lights. I rewired two strips into 12 in series and everything worked fine.

Bill

 

[DFason]

12 XP-E in a series....

-Dave

 

[DFason]

Ok I have a 10A max multimeter. If I turn it to 10A reading in the series nothing comes up. If I turn the meter to VDC and hook it up to the series it makes one LED turn on VERY lightly and it reads 16.7.

Any clue?

-Dave

 

[wld1783]

With a forward voltage of 3.2-3.5 you should be good with your dirver. If all 12 LEDs are properly connected in series.

One silly thing. The ELN 60-48D will not provide current if the 1-10Vdc input has no voltage to turn it on. Is the driver hooked up to a controller or 9vdc battery?

Bill

 

[DFason]

I have the SVR2 1/4-1/2 turn. The 10K pot is hooked up to a regulated 9v wall wart.

-Dave

 

[FW fugitive]

Supposedly this is what they like. Hard to go wrong with a lot of blue and red

One thing to remember about this plot is that absorbance is

A = -log(fraction of light NOT absorbed)

So the peaks on this plot might correspond to all but 0.001% of light absorbed. The lower areas (green, yellow) might still have half - 3/4 of the light absorbed and used for photosynthesis. So an actual plot of the light absorbed & used might be flatter than this one.

The other thing to remember is that plants can sense the wavelengths and respond differently to violet, blue, red, and far-red light. For example, violet light encourages formation of red and blue pigments (anthocyanins) in plants, blue light encourages growth, red light flowering, far-red can reinforce or mess with the plants day-night cycle. I'm a freshwater lurker, I don't know how corals respond or how well it's understood.

Still - you're right. Hard to go wrong with blue and red.

 

[CJO]

Dave, do you have a picture of how you have it wired? Also, you said that you had the meanwell pot turned all the way down (clockwise). In most pots, turning it clockwise would turn it all the way up!

CJ

 

[DFason]

Hey guys,
I normally use buckpucks but I am using meanwell's for a buddies build. I have read everything multiple times and I am stumped.

I am using...

10K Pot
Regulated 9v wall wart ( On a multimeter I am getting dead on 9.2 )
Meanwell ELN 60-48D
12 XP-E Royals and CW in a series ( I have tripled check to make sure everything is correct and in place )

Here's how I have the stuff hooked up which from other threads is the correct way.

Does anything look out of place? When I hook the multimeter to the 10K pot where the wall wart connects I get the 9.2 reading. When I hook it up to the series of led's to read the mA I get nothing ( I have this set on 10A on the multimeter). If I hook the multimeter to the series of LED's on volts I get ~19.6. If I hook it up to the first LED and the the sixth one down 5 will light up very lightly.

Once I unplug the AC cord all the LED's will light up in 10-15 seconds real quick then go out. I have the SVR2 all the way out ( counter clockwise ) and have even tried it half way out and still the same results. I've tried to adjust with the pot too and nada.

Could it maybe be the other adjustment screw in the meanwell? The voltage one that is?

Any help would be great. I really need to get this project finished for my friend this week and I am STUMPED!

Thanks in advance.

-Dave

 

[DFason]

CJ - Sorry I mean the SVR2. I've tried it all the way out ( counter clockwise ) and half way and the same results. On the pot I've in, out, over , left, right

-D

 

[The Grim Reefer]

One thing to remember about this plot is that absorbance is

A = -log(fraction of light NOT absorbed)

So the peaks on this plot might correspond to all but 0.001% of light absorbed. The lower areas (green, yellow) might still have half - 3/4 of the light absorbed and used for photosynthesis. So an actual plot of the light absorbed & used might be flatter than this one.

The other thing to remember is that plants can sense the wavelengths and respond differently to violet, blue, red, and far-red light. For example, violet light encourages formation of red and blue pigments (anthocyanins) in plants, blue light encourages growth, red light flowering, far-red can reinforce or mess with the plants day-night cycle. I'm a freshwater lurker, I don't know how corals respond or how well it's understood.

Still - you're right. Hard to go wrong with blue and red.

I've had two different people with letters after their name make the exact same point, Effective vs most effective.

Another thing to consider is color rendering. You have to have at least some of all colors of light to get true colors from the tank. A orange doesn't look very orange under blue or green light. What I always see is lack of red in tank lighting. It just gives a washed out look I don't like.

 

[swannking]

For 12 leds in series, you need more than 19.6V, more in the mid-30 to 40V. The SVR-1 is for voltage and SVR-2 for current. You might have it backwards and the LEDS are not getting enough voltage even when the dimming pot is at 100%. I would readjust the SVR-1 to give you max voltage of 48V, but make sure you have the SVR-2 (current dailed back mid way).

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

You can check to see if the voltage limit is coming in to play by disconnecting the LEDs completely from the output side of the driver - get it down to two bare wires not connected to any LEDs. Turn the driver on (careful, those wires are now live) and read the voltage across the output side. This will basically tell you the voltage limit the driver is running at, since with no load, the current limit feature will not come in to play.

 

[TheFishMan65]

There has been some speculation that the ELN P and D models are interchangeable. Meaning you can drive the P with a 0 - 10 volt signal and the D with a PWM signal. Can anyone tell me how positive that statement is?

Thanks

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

I've had more than one person use the ELN shield I designed (which uses a PWM signal) on both models with identical results. Don't have any first- or even second-hand info on an analog signal working with the digital version, but I do remember some threads hinting at it.

 

[Garage1217]

The D series states in the manual you can use DC or PWM. The P series from memory does not state you can use straight DC, but only PWM

 

[TheFishMan65]

Garage, I must have missed that. I assume you mean data sheet. Can you point me at that statement I must have missed it? thanks

 

[Garage1217]

hmmm maybe I am smoking crack, I thought I read it on the block diagram but they do distinguish between the two types. And yes, spec sheet, data sheet or manual. Whatever flavor you like *LOL*

http://www.meanwell.com/search/eln-60/eln-60-spec.pdf

 

[DFason]

Thanks guys. Would it help to try it without the pot and hooking them up directly to the meanwell?

-Dave

 

[TheFishMan65]

I am confused. Hook what up without a pot. Do you have a pot in series with the LEDs - probably not and you don't want it. If you are talking about removing the dimming pot then there must be a voltage applied to dom +/-, With no voltage it will assume you want the LEDs off. IIRC you have a 9v regulator. You could hook that up directly to dim +/- and nothing should get hurt.

As DWZM asked what is your voltage with no LEDs attached to the meanwell? Or did I miss this?

 

[The Grim Reefer]

I finally got a picture of these:

In operation:

It is hard to get a pic of these they are TOO bright!

Gives you an idea of the coverage though.

Now if we could get Grim to go and do a PAR measurement ;-)

Stu

Sorry it took me so long:hmm4::spin3:

The hanging pendants on the light mover

With the sensor at the bottom of the trough about 9.5" below the water surface and the pendant about 17" above the rim so probably what? 19 inches above the water surface. with the driver set to 450 MA PAR was 289 under the center of the pendant. With the side of the heat sink above the sensor the reading was 158 so not much spread, I assume you used pretty tight optics. Increasing the drive to 700ma increased the PAR from 289 to 316. With the sensor just under the water surface PAR was about 550.

With the sensor just under the surface of the fuge with LED's PAR was 43.

With the sensor 2 1/2 inches off the bottom of the small cube tanks the single XPG in the acrylic tube did like 45. You gotta figure with one of those and a royal blue would be plenty good enough to support corals short term.

The tank with the 3 Chinese pendants with the 1 watt emitters had the pendants 10 inches above the water, the sensor was about 15 inches below the water and got 65. Just under the water surface it was about 180. I forget how many LED's were in the thing but it's a bunch. The 1 watt LEDs just don't cut it.

Just for giggles we also measured the front tank with 400 watt 15K Ushio moguls in Lumenmax reflectors with a couple 80 watt T5's. Probably top of the food chain for metal halides without getting into the 1000 watt retina melters.

Lamps are 6" above the water, sensor about 19" below. With the pendant pointed right at the sensor we got right at 500.

Thanks to Mike at Aqua Imports in Boulder for taking the time to play with me