Trying fix LEDs and I have no idea what I'm doing

[Seguragr]

So a while back I got some LED lights off eBay.





They have been decent lights, but the quality is terrible. Two of the three lights have had a channel burn out. At first it was the blue lights. The first time it happened the seller replaced the light under the warranty, no questions asked. The second time, he refused. First, he sent me replacement power supplies (which appear to be constant current) and required that I disassemble the light and replace the power supply. I tried all of the replacements he sent with no luck.

After the power supply replacement was a failure, he finally agreed to "repair" the light, so I paid postage and sent it back. I received the light back and plugged it in to test it. Originally, the blue LEDs had stopped working. When I tested the light, the white lights no longer work. The seller told me that he replaced a blue LED and the power supply and that everything was working. He subsequently blocked me from his ebay and I now have no option but to try to fix the light.

The problem? I have read and read and I still have no idea what I'm doing.

I am looking to replace the power supply with a quality dimmable driver, and to replace any bad LEDs. My issue currently is that I cannot figure out what driver I would need in order to power the LEDs.

The light has 55 LEDs total, 23 blue and 22 white. I can't seem to find any driver that says I t can power more than 14 LEDs.

Can anyone here give any insight or advice into what kind of driver I need and why? I know that there is a difference between working the LEDs in parallel vs. series, and I know that there is a minimum number of LEDs that have to be connected in series depending on the driver to prevent LED burnout.

What I don't know is if a driver says it can run 14 LEDs, can I use it to power two parallel series of 11 LEDs?

I took a picture of the power supply that runs the blue LEDs and attached it below. I haven't seen anything like this when looking for LED drivers.



Would you guys be willing to help me figure this out so that I can get my light working again? My corals don't seem to mind being under just blue light, but I don't like it.

 

[perkint]

Personally I'd swap it to 4 strings, get a 100W power supply (assuming it currently has two of those pictured? If not, get a 50W one) capable of at least 35V (best to test the voltage across the LEDs if you can) and them run them on meanwell LDD500s (one for each string).

Tim

 

[oreo57]

So a while back I got some LED lights off eBay.

View attachment 275043
View attachment 275044
View attachment 275045

They have been decent lights, but the quality is terrible. Two of the three lights have had a channel burn out. At first it was the blue lights. The first time it happened the seller replaced the light under the warranty, no questions asked. The second time, he refused. First, he sent me replacement power supplies (which appear to be constant current) and required that I disassemble the light and replace the power supply. I tried all of the replacements he sent with no luck.

After the power supply replacement was a failure, he finally agreed to "repair" the light, so I paid postage and sent it back. I received the light back and plugged it in to test it. Originally, the blue LEDs had stopped working. When I tested the light, the white lights no longer work. The seller told me that he replaced a blue LED and the power supply and that everything was working. He subsequently blocked me from his ebay and I now have no option but to try to fix the light.

The problem? I have read and read and I still have no idea what I'm doing.

I am looking to replace the power supply with a quality dimmable driver, and to replace any bad LEDs. My issue currently is that I cannot figure out what driver I would need in order to power the LEDs.

The light has 55 LEDs total, 23 blue and 22 white. I can't seem to find any driver that says I t can power more than 14 LEDs.

Can anyone here give any insight or advice into what kind of driver I need and why? I know that there is a difference between working the LEDs in parallel vs. series, and I know that there is a minimum number of LEDs that have to be connected in series depending on the driver to prevent LED burnout.

What I don't know is if a driver says it can run 14 LEDs, can I use it to power two parallel series of 11 LEDs?

I took a picture of the power supply that runs the blue LEDs and attached it below. I haven't seen anything like this when looking for LED drivers.

View attachment 275047

Would you guys be willing to help me figure this out so that I can get my light working again? My corals don't seem to mind being under just blue light, but I don't like it.

If there are 2 power supplies (one for w one blue ) then they are running the led's in series..

Which is where your problem will come in..
finding PS and drivers that high of DC out is problematic.. For one DC at that high of voltage is dangerous..
ROUGHLY speaking a 36V 2A PS and an LDD-1000 could run 2-11LED strand in parallel..Ideally cut the LED strands down to 10........so 10x2 (assuming 3-3.6v (f) and running each at 500mA x 2= 1000mA driver (OR a separate 500mA driver per string avoiding the parallel strands altogether))
You were right though the "PS" is a PS/driver w/ dimming unit.. Until China gives up on cheap capacitors.... err never mind........
Not sure, short of just disassembling the whole thing, that it is worth it.. but..
Good luck.

Just an example.. no dimming.. and underpowered mA wise but cheap:
310940215526 fleabay number

considering the problems you have had it is more like multiple issues...

 

[Seguragr]

I don't have a problem disassembling the light. I want to do it right. The issue is that I don't want to have to try to stuff two extra drivers into the housing. If I need to I will, but if I do that, would I have to have a potentiometer for each driver?

 

[oreo57]

I don't have a problem disassembling the light. I want to do it right. The issue is that I don't want to have to try to stuff two extra drivers into the housing. If I need to I will, but if I do that, would I have to have a potentiometer for each driver?

I'd run an external power supply feeding the Meanwell-ldds those PWM dimmable drivers are only
32x20x12mm.. (in english they take up 1/2 cu inch in space. 9838mm cubed).........Get the HW ones and attach them inside the light on the heat sink or wherever..
I don't know how much room you have or how big those ps/drivers are..but the only way around it that I see is the external power supply.
See spec sheet:
http://www.meanwell.com/search/LDD-H/LDD-H-spec.pdf

 

[Seguragr]

What kind of power supply would be needed?

I have enough room to use a Mean Well ELN-60-48D dimmable driver, and with some re-wiring I might be able to stick 2 in the housing.

I like the idea of the tiny drivers, but I'm hoping to be able to use the power cord and switch that came with the unit because both of the switches are wired to the power supply that runs the fans.

 

[Seguragr]

Also. I'm still not clear on whether I would be able to use a single potentiometer to dim two drivers. It seems like that would be impossible, but I know very little about this so I know I could be wrong.

 

[oreo57]

Also. I'm still not clear on whether I would be able to use a single potentiometer to dim two drivers. It seems like that would be impossible, but I know very little about this so I know I could be wrong.

You use PWM.. no pot necessary..You'd need to add a new controller.. AS I tried to say.. it is more complicated than you thought.. IF you go outside the orig "parts".........

 

[Seguragr]

Ok. So I am not familiar with the concept of using pwm to "dim" LEDs. You said I would need to add a new controller. What type of controller would be required?

 

[oreo57]

Ok. So I am not familiar with the concept of using pwm to "dim" LEDs. You said I would need to add a new controller. What type of controller would be required?

Typhon comes to mind..

 

[Seguragr]

Trying fix LEDs and I have no idea what I'm doing

Ok. So, this

http://www.boostled.com/product_p/typhon.htm

(I hope that isn't a banned site)

says that it has 4 independent channels, and that 2 drivers can be wired to a single channel.

It does not appear to be compatible with the LDD drivers recommended earlier, but for the sake of an example, I could put two drivers in, each running a single string of 11
LEDs in series, and I could connect both drivers to one channel of the PWM controller so that both drivers are dimmed with a single adjustment?

I think I understand the concept, but I have no idea how to wire that. I also like the idea that a single pwm controller could be used to control the white and the blue lights independently, though I wasn't currently planning on messing with the blue lights.

I also have no idea how adjustments to a pwm controller like this are made, but I barely started reading the manual.

 

[oreo57]

Ok. So, this

http://www.boostled.com/product_p/typhon.htm

(I hope that isn't a banned site)

says that it has 4 independent channels, and that 2 drivers can be wired to a single channel.

It does not appear to be compatible with the LDD drivers recommended earlier, but for the sake of an example, I could put two drivers in, each running a single string of 11
LEDs in series, and I could connect both drivers to one channel of the PWM controller so that both drivers are dimmed with a single adjustment?

I think I understand the concept, but I have no idea how to wire that. I also like the idea that a single pwm controller could be used to control the white and the blue lights independently, though I wasn't currently planning on messing with the blue lights.

I also have no idea how adjustments to a pwm controller like this are made, but I barely started reading the manual.

This crude drawing may be more confusing than necessary.. but I have it on hand: Each 1, 2, 3, on the coralux board is an Ldd...Line voltage to ps not shown and my PS has a seperate 12V "out" You could just use the "wall wart" that comes w/ it. It is quite simple really..

 

[Seguragr]

Trying fix LEDs and I have no idea what I'm doing

Ok. So in the example above, it looks like there are four LDDs (1, 2, 3, and 5) powered by a single power supply (54v) that also powers the typhon (12v). My question would be, since the typhon pwm controller says that you can connect two drivers to one channel, could it be modified like this



So that two drivers are controlled by a single pwm controller channel and two drivers are controlled by another pwm controller channel?

If I can do that, then I may just want to completely do the blue LEDs anyway, even though they are currently working.

The coralux board also has these LED outputs:



Assuming I put an LDD in 1, 2, 4 and 5, I would wire a string of 11 LEDs to the LED output for 1, same for 2, same for 4, same for 5? (Except that these lights actually have 23 blue LEDs)

Am I correct in assuming that they would be wired like this:



Only with 11 LEDs in series?

If I am correct, what power supply would you recommend, and do you happen to know which typhon is compatible with the meanwell LDDs?

 

[Seguragr]

Also, the LDDs come in different current outputs, 300H, 350H, 500H, 600H, 700H and 1000H. How so I figure out which I need?

 

[Seguragr]

Nevermind on which typhon. I see there's only one. The website does not specifically state that the typhon PWM controller is compatible with meanwell LDD drivers, but you are telling me that it will?

 

[perkint]

The typhon works fine with the LDDs

Yes, you can set it up with the PWM output from the typhon controlling more than one LDD so connecting one PWM signal to two LDDs will simply control both strings in one go.

You'd need a power supply capable of putting out enough volts for your highest voltage string - highest number of LEDs in one string will be 12 so probably 12x3 and then 3V for the LDD, so about 39V but it does depend on the LEDs.

Does the driver you pictured power all the LEDs or just one string? It puts out just over 500mA so assuming that is only powering one string of LEDs you would want the LDD500s to get the same.

Tim

 

[oreo57]

just to reiterate the orig:
Uses a 65-80V DC out constant current driver @ 520mA
Uses some sort of "pot" dimming"..
I suggested using an external 48V 7.3A 350W since the other option:
48V 3.3A 150W is a tad too small for 45 LED's..........

It has a 1-22 and 1-23 LED serial string, which short of finding a large driver like the orig, needs to be broken up.

One possibility is eliminating one "blue" and creating 2 11 LED strings which can either be run singly (1 500mA each) or combined into a series parallel string needing a 1000mA driver. Though some steer clear of series parallel in this case even feeding 1000w through one sring will probably not be instantly fatal..
IN THEORY the added odd LED is sort of a blessing. Count 11 blues and remove the next, giving you a solder point for new wiring and creating the 2 strands.Not sure how you are going to divide the white one as easily, though you just have to de-solder the 11 , then reattach it w/ new wiring and insulating from contact w/ the next new string .

The first choice is 2 drivers or 4 drivers? (4-500mA or 2-1000mA)
How you hook them to the Typhon is not really an issue. Gang 2 or run each separate..Makes little difference.

The retrofit will cost somewhere around $100-$150...........guessitimate.
That is assuming your ONLY problem is bad drivers.. Add more for new LED's.
THIS is all to the best of my understanding and subject to revisions..

Using the above and starting from scratch w/ Chinese LED's and aluminum barstock would only add $100-$150 or so to the project and give you more "colors" and "designs" to choose from..