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

crsswift70 said:
I am planning on running 50 Bridgelux 3W LED's that are all rated for 700ma. I just stumbled on these LDD drivers last night and have tried to cram in some reading. I am not going to dim the fixture at the moment but want the option in the future. Would these items work for running 4 strings of roughly 12LED's? Can these be dimmed with something other than a arduino or other contoller?

1x http://www.powergatellc.com/mean-well-se-200-48-power-supply.html
4x http://www.cdiweb.com/ProductDetail/LDD600HW-Mean-Well-USA/71321/pid=468#.UcIYo9hemUM
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, i can't find the ldd600hw's anywhere in stock. :mad2: Anyone have a secret supplier?
 
So I'm ready to order some of RRasco's very nice v.3 LDD-Hx4 boards from itead, and was wondering if anyone would like to share shipping costs / split an order with me?

I need 12 of the boards, and will probably toast a couple while trying to learn how to solder, so I was going to order 20x of them. With the UPS shipping at $29, that's $73 for 20 boards, or $3.65/each shipped. I've seen a few posts from people looking for spare boards, so here's your chance to hop on an order if you want. If we can get to 50 pieces, the price drops to $2.63/each shipped (plus reshipping costs after the order is divided up state-side).

Any interest?
 
Got a query for the electronic fundis here. The LDD drivers supply a constant current right, so the 700H series will supply a constant current of 700mA.

What controls the output voltage of the drivers? If I connect say one LED it I'll need 3.5V, and connecting 10 you will need 35V.
How does the LDD know how many volts to output? (how does it now how many LEDs I have in the string?)

What am I missing?
 
Think of it this way, The current makes the LED light up the voltage is the fuel for LED to light up. The voltage has no relevance to the LED ie. if you supply 700mA 10V through an LED whose max ratings are say 70-1000mA @ 3fV the returning reading from the negative point of the LED will be 700mA 7V. The LED only uses the voltage it requires the rest passes through so when determining the string you must calculate how much fuel each LED will take (voltage). The current remains constant.
I hope that clarifies your question
 
driver will increase voltage until current will be 0.7A. once the level reached 0.7A - voltage stay. If current for some reason (overheating) goes up - voltage will go down until current will be 0.7A.
So the driver does not care about voltage - it changes all the time as needed to adjust the current.
 
Hey guys!

I am looking to buy some 5 up boards. Does anyone have any or want to go in on a build?

Also, might be a bit off topic, but is it possible to make the Typhon controller output 5 outputs? I am sure it is possible, but wondering if anyone has done it and has a sketch I could snatch?
 
6up LDD-H board design

6up LDD-H board design

This thread has inspired me to try to learn PCB layout. I probably botched some things I don't completely understand, but attached are copies of the .brd, .sch and gerber files I created for a 6-UP LDD-H board with pull-down resistors activated by jumpers. It's pretty tight to fit everything on the 100x60 cm board, and the labeling is a bit weak; but if anyone with more experience wants to take a look and see if they spot any reason why it wouldn't work, I'd be grateful for the input.

Areas I'm concerned by: spacing between the screw terminals, spacing between the LDD-H devices, spacing between the jumper headers.

Also, in the mac version of Eagle, the polygon ground pours don't show up when I open the file until after I run ratsnest. They're present in the Gerber files. Not sure if that's a setting problem, or an error in my method of saving.

6UP_LDDH_Board.png
 
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I have ran into a problem. I am using o2's 3up board I got six of them from him. I am using three meanwell se-350-48 power supplies. I have some of my leds and started building the refugium light. I ordered 200 more leds from steves LEDs. I mounted my refugium lights and wired them up but I get nothing from them. I'm doing something wrong, I have one of my psu hooked into a ld700h running 11 LEDs 3 nw 3 rb and 5 deep red. I have the vin and vout hooked up right, but nothing lights up. Am I missing a common ground somewhere. I have a controller for these, but I was trying to test them at 100% before hooking up the controller.
 
is that one of the boards with the pull down resistor? so many versions, I forget. If so that is why it won't light up, it will need the controller hooked up. Otherwise triple check all your connections, something is wired wrong.
 
Welp my Meanwell SP-320 just died on me, so now I need to research a new power supply. It says 3 year warranty although I have a feeling they'll find some reason to get out of it. It's not like the thing was over the tank either, and was WELL out of any splash distance, perhaps ambient humidity in the 50+ range is enough to kill it, I checked out inside and didn't see anything that would scream to me that something ugly happened.

Finding power supplies that are encapsulated, at least 48 volts, and a few hundred max watts, and somewhat inexpensive is a bit tricky. Anyone have any ideas?
 
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