Lights aren't all that bright, can you help?

[OntarioGro17]

I have recently built my own LED strip perimeter light for two of my tents. I did some research on reddit and came across a diy build and i copied his serials and bought the same things, I purchased 12 LED MOD FSERIES GEN3 3000K STRIP part number SI-B8V261560WW, and 2 Meanwell HLG-240H-C1750B drivers. I have them wired one into the other in a rectangle patter. I have 10k omh pot for dimming. i run 6 lights per driver. It was my understanding they are 23 watt strips and that i have a 240w driver. I would assume 23w x 6(lights)= 138watts more than enough power I would think but i'm a noob. I would definitely not say they are blinding by any means. compared to my blurples the light seems to only travel a few inches before dissipating, and advice would be super.

[LEDG]

I have recently built my own LED strip perimeter light for two of my tents. I did some research on reddit and came across a diy build and i copied his serials and bought the same things, I purchased 12 LED MOD FSERIES GEN3 3000K STRIP part number SI-B8V261560WW, and 2 Meanwell HLG-240H-C1750B drivers. I have them wired one into the other in a rectangle patter. I have 10k omh pot for dimming. i run 6 lights per driver. It was my understanding they are 23 watt strips and that i have a 240w driver. I would assume 23w x 6(lights)= 138watts more than enough power I would think but i'm a noob. I would definitely not say they are blinding by any means. compared to my blurples the light seems to only travel a few inches before dissipating, and advice would be super.

If you have a 10K ohm pot and that's not a typo, that's where your problem is. It needs to be 100K or you're only going to get 10% power. You can unhook it for max power also.

[Aolelon]

Yep definitely unhook them until you can get 2 100k ohm potentiameters. Or if you want to dim them both together. Get one 50k ohm linear taper potentiameter.
The 10k ohm potentiameter means that youre dimmed to 10%

[OntarioGro17]

thanks guys i cut the bum ones off and boom so much brighter. I'm gonna order some 100k pots but to ne honesy i might just leave it, ?I was under the impression I had to have those wires hooked to a pot.

[LEDG]

thanks guys i cut the bum ones off and boom so much brighter. I'm gonna order some 100k pots but to ne honesy i might just leave it, ?I was under the impression I had to have those wires hooked to a pot.

Good stuff. It’s fine to leave the dimming leads with nothing on them if you don’t want to change the pots.

[J.R.R.]

[quote=LEDG post_id=7368 time=1529732029 user_id=2

If you have a 10K ohm pot and that's not a typo, that's where your problem is. It needs to be 100K or you're only going to get 10% power. You can unhook it for max power also.
[/quote]


LOL...I must be getting better. As soon as I saw the one, 100K potentiometer, I "knowed" right away that was the problem!