Installing a Dimming Potentiometer on a Mean Well HLG-B Driver

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20 Comments

  1. matt

    Hi im new to led growing.
    Im trying to make my led micro grow using 4 (or maybe 5 to get better light spread) CLU048-1212. My goal is to underdrive cobs to get total wattage range of 25-100w.
    What would be my best choice for one dimmable driver to run 4-5 cobs with dimming range from 25 to 100w??

    • LEDGardener

      If you need a max of 100W total, shared between 4-5 COBs (20-25 watts each), go with an HLG-120H-C700. You can dim this down to about 25 watts total.

      • Anonymous

        Thanks

  2. Brad Voltero

    Hey dude, thanks doing all this stuff. I’ve been following this site since Feb or so and although there are others doing what you’re doing, it was thru this site that I got the fundamentals and subsequently the confidence to build a light and finally start growing indoors.

    So, thank you!

    • LEDGardener

      Hey Brad,

      Thanks for the feedback! Reading comments like this one is what motivates me to continue producing content. I’m glad to hear you’ve gotten some useful info from the site and made the leap to DIY. What components did you end up going with?

      There’s more and more information becoming available out there on DIY LED, but my aim is to really hone in on the basic stuff that might be glossed over by the LED geniuses like Growmau5 and co. who are discussing a lot of higher-level stuff. I’m sure you’ve seen Growmau5’s video tutorials already, but if you haven’t, I always recommend people check those out as well, because they’re incredibly well done.

      • Brad Voltero

        For sure, bro. Keep going. I can see myself doing something like this in the near future, cuz I’m completely hooked. Both on indoor-growing and on LEDs.

        So, really simply, I picked up the Vero 29 kit from RapidLED:
        – 3 Vero 29s, extruded bar heatsink, Angelina optics… and my first mistake (and certainly not the last), I chose the HLG 240 2100B.

        If I had known then how quickly I’d turn into an efficiency snob or more importantly that watts have nothing to do with growing, I would have chosen to run it softer. Although… listening to Growmau5 (and his buddy GreenGene from pacificlightconcepts.com) Vero 29 (at least the C or SEs) at high currents might be worth a second look. He’s coming out with a 600w, 6 Vero 29 commercial fixture for short $ (it’s currently sold out).

        But hey, man, who cares – there are so many more builds to come.

        The Samsung lights you just highlighted… that was awesome, cuz these new chilledgrowlights.com are using those strips with insane results. (Also currently sold out)

        So I feel like, with my technical background and people like you – and those other guys, around to spoon feed me, I know just enough to be dangerous. Lol.

        Hey man, seriously, I hope I get the chance to talk to you again… unfortunately for me, in my small world, just uttering “micromole” caused people to check-out. Thanks again.

  3. LEDGardener

    Awesome. I actually just recommended that exact driver for a handful of Vero 29s to somebody else today. If it were me, I would have picked the same one myself… 2,100mA is 50% of those Vero’s max current so there’s nothing wrong with pushing them that hard. Plus, you can always dim it and get that low current efficiency anyway. Definitely wouldn’t call that a mistake.

    I was in mau5’s last stream where he was doing research for his Vero video and him and GG had a look at some test results for that PLC 6 light you’re talking about. His test results showed the driver used for testing was an HLG-600H-54, so that means he’s using the B version Veros (50V chips). Those chips will pull all the current that driver can produce (about 2 amps each) and will have a voltage of ~51.5V across them at that current, so he’s pushing about 100W per chip.

    The LM561Cs are definitely all the hype right now. There are Chilled boards, Quantum boards, WaVy boards, DIY builds… you name it. I think we’ll see a lot of new LM561C-based boards hit the market very soon.

    I feel your pain regarding finding other people interested in this stuff; our hobby is certainly a niche. I could chat about this shit all day though so shoot me an email any time you’d like – just use the “Contact” button on the menu at the top.

  4. Matt

    Hi.
    Lets say I have a configuration of 4 cobs and one driver to run them. Is there any way to adjust the wattage of each cob separately using one driver? maybe some device between each cob and a driver that could change the current ?

    • LEDGardener

      That’s a tough one with constant current. What do you need different powers for?

    • LEDGardener

      Hmm, that’s a bit of a tricky one with a series circuit. What’s the idea behind sending different power to certain COBs?

      • Matt

        Im thinking about 2 cobs with more blue in spectrum and 2cobs with more red in spectrum in micro grow. I was wondering if changing the ratio of kelvin temps through out the grow(veg/flower) would make any difference, Lets say cobs with higher Klevin maxed and low kelvin cobs minimised in veg and opposite in flower. I dont know if it would make any real difference, maybe its not even worth it, but its more of curiosity. I know i could buy two drivers for that but I was curious if its possible with one driver.

        • Matt

          of course i could simply chcange cobs to one driver but that is not convenient

        • LEDGardener

          Sounds like an interesting experiment. I would just do 2 drivers. You could do this with one driver by paralleling the 2 low power COBs together so they split the current, but it’d be hard to get any finer control over how much current they get.

          • Anonymous

            I think its better for me to keep thing simple especialy with electric stuff. Two drivers sounds more reasonable. Thanks

  5. Brad

    Hey Matt,

    I wouldn’t get too hung up on the individual COB temps. If you’re new to LED growing, I would say… stick with 3500K COBs. They offer a great middle-of-the-road spectrum.

    Also, I’d be willing to wager that this will NOT be the last light you build. So, first get a feel for all they can do for your garden, then you can experiment with “light recipes”.

    Happy growing!

  6. Matt

    Thanks Brad, I will try with 3500k first. Do you have any reliable info about 80 vs 90 cri ? I did some reading on the internet nad some say that 90cri might be better even though it emits less photons but has better spectrum.

  7. Brad Voltero

    Hey Matt,

    So here’s the deal with CRI: the higher the number (like 90 vs 80), the more likely the light put out by one chip will match the color of all other (90 CRI) chips. This accuracy comes at the cost of total light output. (These might be used in big hotels, museums, etc.)

    The only 90 CRI COBs I would consider in my build are 2700Ks… this is because of the deep/far red spectrum. Although, I think our host might want to weigh in on this to confirm my veracity.

    Thanks guys.

    • LEDGardener

      CRI is a tricky subject. I’m going to just blatantly copy and paste wikipedia’s definition: “Color rendering index (CRI) is a quantitative measure of the ability of a light source to reveal the colors of various objects faithfully in comparison with an ideal or natural light source”. So it’s not really about how consistent chips are with one another (that would likely be more of a Macadam Ellipse/binning thing), but more about how well they reproduce colours compared to an ideal emitter.

  8. Tyler

    Hi, is there any way to get more dimming from an A series driver. I have the 320h-c2100A powering 4 × QB132’s. Dimmed all the way down with the internal potentiometer it is still to intense for young plants. Any ways to dim down more with other dimmers or a wifi controller? Thank you

  9. Kevlin

    How do you monitor how many amps you’re lowering the potentiometer to by turning the knob?
    —–
    Say I wanted to run 6 bridgelux strips with a 1400mA driver, but wanted to run them at around 1050mA during the vegetative stage only. VEG STAGE: 1050mA , FLOWERING STAGE: 1400mA

    or

    Say I wanted to use a 1400mA driver to run those 6 strips @ 1400mA per strip, but found out that 1400mA get’s way to hot so now I would like to lower them to 1050mA and get a more reasonable temp.
    —–
    How would I gauge what the strips are being run at depending on how the knob is turned?
    I assume a kill-a-watt device could monitor wattage, therefore you could use that to gauge the output your turning to potentiometer to?

    Would this work using a constant-current driver?
    —–
    Sorry if this is a noob question and thanks for doing this video. Really learning a lot from your site.

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