LDD Driver board mounting location

[sfsuphysics]

Ok so I'm kind of tired of my current setup of LEDs, more specifically the huge octopus of a mess that is all the wires from my LDD drivers which are the wired versions

So those with LDD driver boards and the LDD-h series, where exactly do you mount your boards? I seem to recall reading you don't want your current to go very far from the drivers to the LEDs, which for me would easily be 2 meters if I mount them where all the electrical is mounted. But I have had bad experience with mounting electrical components on the heatsink, tend to get galvanic corrosion with any sort of terminal blocks connected to DC power, I'm guessing the more humid air is the cause of this above the tank.

Also anyway to reuse the wired LDD drivers with the boards? I have so many of them that it may get pricey to replace them all.
Or if someone has an idea on how to clean up the wired LDD drivers that maybe I'm not thinking of. Again I tried to clean up by using terminal blocks, but the power side always corroded like crazy.

 

[sfsuphysics]

Ok scratch that, just did some math on this and unless my math is wrong, there's only about 0.2V voltage drop over 5meters (10m round trip) of distance with 18 gauge wire, which the LDD driver should overcome that drop. So looks like I can keep my drivers far away from the "action" of the aquarium?

 

[lingwendil]

They'll be just fine at that distance.

 

[oreo57]

LDD-h's work w/ voltages between 2.5-6V and AFAICT current isn't affected..
You'd have to cut the voltage > 1/2 of 5V to be an issue..

Resistance does not cause current loss from a wire. Instead the current flowing in the wire produces some power.Some of this power is dissipated in the form of heat energy.

Wire temp does increase though..but w/ the mA and normal wire sure its not an issue..

OPP's you are talking about power transmission from the LDD...Never mind..
18ga is fine as is 20 ga..

24Ga will only drop 1.6V approx..@ 66ft total 1A 48V
https://www.rapidtables.com/calc/wire/voltage-drop-calculator.html

 

[sfsuphysics]

Hmmm maybe I'm over engineering this with 18gauge then. I was thinking of using thermostat wire, mostly because I can get 8 conductors in one insulated cable, but the solid nature of it worries me on my lighting rack that may go up or down if I need to dive into the tank. While something like Cat5 would be super easy, I'm not too comfortable running power through that regardless of what the online calculator says

 

[oreo57]

Hmmm maybe I'm over engineering this with 18gauge then. I was thinking of using thermostat wire, mostly because I can get 8 conductors in one insulated cable, but the solid nature of it worries me on my lighting rack that may go up or down if I need to dive into the tank. While something like Cat5 would be super easy, I'm not too comfortable running power through that regardless of what the online calculator says

https://www.pacergroup.net/unshielded-multi-conductor-cable-20-awg/