Hi there, I have a few questions regarding an LED setup that I'm going to be building myself. I have been researching this for a while now but just have a few questions:
First of all, the cree LEDs. Why is it that on sites like ledgroupbuy or rapidled that the price of a typical cree LED is around ~$3 but on ebay you can get the same ones for about ~$1 or so. Granted they come from HK/China, I guess there is no guarantee that what you're getting is genuine or the advertised bin...?
If I want to run a bunch of xt-e crees for example which are 1.5A 5W, why would I want to get a led driver that only does 700mA? I have come across some forums and youtube clips where they get 5W cree leds but run it on a 700mA driver, which means you're not getting as much light as what you could have with a bigger driver. I undrestand that you shouldn't run these at the maximum rated amps but if you're going to get a 5W 1.A then why not run it with at least a 1A or 1.2A driver?
I would like a driver that can do dimming. I understand that there are different dimming types such as PWM or using a potentiometer. PWM is for interfacing with a microcontroller right? Where as using a potentiometer it's just a basic dimmer. Are there any drivers that support both (PWM plus internal dimmer or external potentiometer)? I would like to start off with a driver that can do basic dimming but with the option to interface to an Arduino board. In fact it looks like the Mean Well drivers all have an internal current adjustment and optional PWM module so I guess they would be good.
Ok thanks for any replies! I have done so much research so far on lights... feels like information overload at times!
First of all, the cree LEDs. Why is it that on sites like ledgroupbuy or rapidled that the price of a typical cree LED is around ~$3 but on ebay you can get the same ones for about ~$1 or so. Granted they come from HK/China, I guess there is no guarantee that what you're getting is genuine or the advertised bin...?
If I want to run a bunch of xt-e crees for example which are 1.5A 5W, why would I want to get a led driver that only does 700mA? I have come across some forums and youtube clips where they get 5W cree leds but run it on a 700mA driver, which means you're not getting as much light as what you could have with a bigger driver. I undrestand that you shouldn't run these at the maximum rated amps but if you're going to get a 5W 1.A then why not run it with at least a 1A or 1.2A driver?
I would like a driver that can do dimming. I understand that there are different dimming types such as PWM or using a potentiometer. PWM is for interfacing with a microcontroller right? Where as using a potentiometer it's just a basic dimmer. Are there any drivers that support both (PWM plus internal dimmer or external potentiometer)? I would like to start off with a driver that can do basic dimming but with the option to interface to an Arduino board. In fact it looks like the Mean Well drivers all have an internal current adjustment and optional PWM module so I guess they would be good.
Ok thanks for any replies! I have done so much research so far on lights... feels like information overload at times!