LED driver questions

[dendrodude]

Sry found it here
http://www.meanwell.com/search/clg-150/clg-150-spec.pdf
B and C are dim and A is not

 

[hvacman250]

Which exact drivers are you going to use and how many? Do you care about controlling things separately?

Typical practice is to stick with 48v drivers max, which means your string lengths are limited to about 12 - 13 LEDs. So if you are going to have more than 12 of a given color, and you want to run them in a single group, you'd probably get a driver with higher current and run parallel strings.

For instance, using the counts you just posted and assuming everything will be run at 1A, you'd want:

24 NW: two parallel strings of 12 series LEDs on a 48v 2A driver
12 CW: one string of 12 in series on a 48v 1A driver
48 RB: four parallel strings of 12 series LEDs on 48v 4A driver
12 B: one string of 12 in series on a 48v 1A driver

Of course you can bunch things together if you don't care about controlling each LED separately.

For instance, you could put all 36 whites on a 48v 3A driver (three parallel strings of 12 series LEDs).

Following kcress's advice:

Prolly what I'd do:

XPG 12 NW
XPG 12 NW HLG80-48

XPG 12 CW ELN60-48

XPE 12 RB
XPE 12 RB
XPE 12 RB
XPE 12 RB HLG150-48

XPE 12 B ELN60-48

Prolly what I'd do.

This way I can dim each color separately. The 2 12's in series are simple; like I did before + to -, + to -, and so on.

How do I wire in parallel?

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

How do I wire in parallel?

You make a bunch of series strings as normal, and then connect them all to the driver "next" to each other. So, the "+" from each string goes to the "+" on the driver, and the "-" from each string goes to the "-" on the driver.

The fuses and resistors go in series in each string.

 

[firechild]

Interestingly, I'm actually doing a 96 emitter build at the moment, using:

18x XP-G NW
24x XP-G CW
18x XP-E Blue
36x XP-E RB

I'll be using 8x ELN-60-48D drivers simply because I do not want the hassle of parallel strings. I will be using a Flora-Mate 4 channel controller for automated dimming of the 4 different colours. There is no cost saving by going with HLG drivers on parallel strings and there is more work. The only advantage of the HLG drivers with parallel strings is less drivers.

 

[hvacman250]

Interestingly, I'm actually doing a 96 emitter build at the moment, using:

18x XP-G NW
24x XP-G CW
18x XP-E Blue
36x XP-E RB

I'll be using 8x ELN-60-48D drivers simply because I do not want the hassle of parallel strings. I will be using a Flora-Mate 4 channel controller for automated dimming of the 4 different colours. There is no cost saving by going with HLG drivers on parallel strings and there is more work. The only advantage of the HLG drivers with parallel strings is less drivers.

I originally thought that, but heard the inrush of current from 8 drivers produces masses amounts of current. Only for a moment, but enough to trip breakers ???

If so, are you relying on firing them at different times to avoid this?

The deeper I get into this, the more confused I get...

 

[firechild]

You could always use the Thomas Research drivers that nanotuners are selling. They offer drivers of 40/75/120W at either 700mA or 1050mA (or 1400mA at 75W). I have seriously considered these drivers as they would reduce the number of drivers I require to 4. They also have a built in 10V reference voltage for dimming. A 120W driver @ 700mA gives 171V, you could run up to 50 emitters with a forward voltage of 3.3V in a single string. It also means you are not limited to multiples of 12 for each colour.

 

[firechild]

As for inrush current, I will likely split the drivers to 2 separate timers which will reduce the inrush current at any given time. Since the whites will not start powering up for some time after the blues, I can split the times easily, even if it is simply by 15min.

 

[kcress]

Electrical beginners should not attempt builds with any drivers that deliver more than about 48V. Most builds we see have various shorts to ALL the aluminum.

 

[dendrodude]

The 150w meanwell I mentioned has built in dimmer pot as well the model c has two rubber stops on top take them off insert screwdriver.

 

[alonglongtime]

It would be interesting to see a diagram/schematic of some of these designs that are posted. For those of us who are just beginning to explore LED's all of the names and references are a bit confusing. Thank you