Meanwell LDD driver: for those who want to dim to 0 using Arduino

I actually don't know how hot mine get. I can't get to them in the fixture. I meant the fixture as a whole didn't heat up too much, and what it does is from the drivers. It is enclosed. Probably wouldn't be a bad idea to drill some holes in my housing though. FWIW I'm only using LDD-600L as well.
 
the LDDs do have a built in thermal shut down to protect them if they get too hot! so worst case you notice your lights blinking on and off after awhile and have to ventalate things.

I'd be more concerned about your controller electronics not being able to tolerate the temperatures that may occur from the LDDs. one solution, but a temporary temperature probe in the enclosure somehow or just a thermometer since your enclosure is clear, and see how hot it getts.

another idea if you see it getting a little too hot for comfort would be to squeeze a small 40 mm fan into the sealed enclosure, this will circulate the hot air and make better use of the walls of the enclosure as heatsinks effectively lowering the interanal temperature many degrees while maintaing a water proof environment.
 
I have been using the Recom led drivers ( RCD-24-1.00/W/X3 ) for almost 2 years now. They seem to be about the same driver as the LDD's. Mine will shut down if they get too hot with no problems. When I first installed them I didn't set the voltage on the power supply and was letting 2 extra volts through. Came home after work to find my lights going on and off. Thought I had fried my new LEDs. I fixed the voltage and haven't had any problem with them since.
The real differance is the price. I paid $30 bucks each for the Recoms.

Speaking of the LDDs does anyone have parts for a 4 driver board including the pcb. I would need something for 24V at 700ma
Would be interested in building one as I am about to add more leds

shark boy
 
Does anyone have a circuit for a thermistor controlled PWM fan speed control? I'm thinking that's what my PCB is lacking; that and a 36 > 12v regulator for the fan.

I've redesigned my board to use a molex mini-FIT connector header, so I can just solder a connector onto the board, that will save some time and effort. The connector pair is ~$3.50 with pins, a bit pricey but not out of the question. Digikey has a similarly priced sealed connector but I don't want the bother of designing an eagle library for it. I already tried that for a similar-to-the-molex connector and it basically wasted like 3 hours.

edit: I just checked and the pin spacing for the molex mini-FIT is exactly the same as the less expensive TE connectivity Val-u-lok series which I have been using previously.
 
Last edited:
tomservo said:
Does anyone have a circuit for a thermistor controlled PWM fan speed control? I'm thinking that's what my PCB is lacking; that and a 36 > 12v regulator for the fan. I've redesigned my board to use a molex mini-FIT connector header, so I can just solder a connector onto the board, that will save some time and effort. The connector pair is ~$3.50 with pins, a bit pricey but not out of the question. Digikey has a similarly priced sealed connector but I don't want the bother of designing an eagle library for it. I already tried that for a similar-to-the-molex connector and it basically wasted like 3 hours.
Click to expand...

Hi Tom, for the 36> 12v I'm planning on one of these http://www.ebay.com/itm/HRD-Series-Converter-DC-24v-36v-48v-step-down-to-12v-3A-/250850583241 with this resistor http://www.ebay.com/itm/5-pcs-3296-W-High-Precision-Variable-Resistor-Potentiometer-Trimmer-203-20k-ohm-/120856881797

What are you using for a PCB---Rick
 
Rick, I'm designing my own PCB because I want to be able to use two ldd600's or 700's per channel (per chip/board). I'm maybe just getting carried away but it seems like a good idea to just convert the 36v to 12v and why not put a temperature controlled fan option as well, if I have the space? I've found a couple designs that may suit..
 
Too late to edit my post; I spent the last .. bunch of hours re-re-re-re-re doing that PCB.. the end result is I think I'm done. Integrated into the board are 10 LDD drivers; 2 per channel, a 40 -> 12v switching regulator (1A), a thermistor controlled fan speed control (with adjustment trimpot) and a 12 pin header.

I'll post up the files as soon as I'm sure this works, which may need until I build one and test it. I also need to at least print this out and eyeball it, my component placement may be overly ambitious.

Due to lack of space on the board, and my unwillingness to make it bigger because it's a huge pain, I went with linear fan speed control rather than PWM. Plus PWM would have added even more cost. The 12v regulator and fan control come to like $15 in parts I think. Per board... Although there was a design on the forum for one based on a cheap PIC chip; I'll look into programming those as it was low component count.. could be cheaper than the linear one.
 
To answer the question about heat generated by the LDD I ran a small test today.

I connected a 48v power supply, a LDD-500H and one XP-G R5 led. Having one led connected to a 48v power supply is considered to be a worst case scenario. This is the resultant graph:

ldd-graph-jpg.


So, only a rise of around 7 degrees Celsius above ambient and well within the product specifications. The LDD was open to the air so the result may be different in an enclosed space but the result was encouraging.

Obviously, having more than 1 led will reduce the amount of heat generated.
 
To answer the question about heat generated by the LDD I ran a small test today.

I connected a 48v power supply, a LDD-500H and one XP-G R5 led. Having one led connected to a 48v power supply is considered to be a worst case scenario. This is the resultant graph:

LDDGraph_zpscd33ba9b.jpg


So, only a rise of around 7 degrees Celsius above ambient and well within the product specifications. The LDD was open to the air so the result may be different in an enclosed space but the result was encouraging.

Obviously, having more than 1 led will reduce the amount of heat generated.
 
Concerning heating, another issue to take into account is not only voltage but the difference between the current delivered by the power supply and the limit of the LDD (or the limit of the total number of LDDs connected to the power supply). The greater that difference, the greater the warming. I have checked that out.

Also, I would light to ask another question. May be I just didn´t find it, but, anybody knows the current needed by each PWM connection between the arduino and a LDD? In other words, what is the limit of LDDs that an arduino can manage?

Regards
 
Eud said:
O2Surplus! That's great! It's what I want. Is that a 5x5 board?
Click to expand...

Close - It's 48mm X 66mm. That's the smallest I could make and still keep all the components on the same side. Just order the Pcb using the 5cm X 10cm pricing option and you'll be fine.
 
O2Surplus said:
Close - It's 48mm X 66mm. That's the smallest I could make and still keep all the components on the same side. Just order the Pcb using the 5cm X 10cm pricing option and you'll be fine.
Click to expand...

Thanks.

When I get my order of them I'll post here because I'll surely have a bunch of boards left over since it looks like you have to order in 10 packs.
 
O2Surplus said:
Close - It's 48mm X 66mm. That's the smallest I could make and still keep all the components on the same side. Just order the Pcb using the 5cm X 10cm pricing option and you'll be fine.
Click to expand...

Did you hide that resistor under the LDD, then? I figured it would have to go on the other side.

Also, do they trim the board to fit your layout or will it arrive 5x10 and I have to saw it?
 
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