LEDgardener

Try doubling the 16awg between driver and panel, that's equivalent to 13awg and might work as a hackish fix.

Shimbob wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 05, 2018 9:40 pm

Try doubling the 16awg between driver and panel, that's equivalent to 13awg and might work as a hackish fix.

According to the calculators I will still be at about a 2 percent loss if I double up the 16awg. I went ahead and ordered 10ft of cable for 16 bucks.

I had some solid core 10 awg laying around. This stuff really sucks to work with. I left about 2 inches of the 16awg on the first strip to connect the solid 10awg. At this connection I am at 23.8T. After the first LED strip I am at 23.5-6. After the last LED strip I am at 22.9. Is this what you guys are seeing or is this still way to much voltage drop?

I am now pulling 314watts.

Stranded 10AWG isn't much easier to work with than solid
On my system with an HLG-600H-42A (up to 14.3A according to spec, dunno actual yet), I measure 44.7v at the driver and 44.4v at the end of ~14 feet of 10AWG.

Can you run the 10AWG all along the frame and make the last wire to the strip as short as possible?

I did this to minimize wire loss:

Keep in mind, not all wire is created equal.
Is your 16awg good quality/reputable brand?
Cheap bottom barrel wire could actually measure less than what it's labeled as, and could potentially even be a different allow.

Hydrofood wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 06, 2018 6:03 am

Keep in mind, not all wire is created equal.
Is your 16awg good quality/reputable brand?
Cheap bottom barrel wire could actually measure less than what it's labeled as, and could potentially even be a different allow.

The 16 and 18awg is just cheap stuff off of amazon.

Right now I I think I will connect the new 10awg where the solid core 10awg is. Then I will also attach the left over 16awg and run that to the other side of the strips to help balance things out.

Alright, I added the new 10awg at 5ft and ran the 16awg from the 10awg/ first strip to the last strip. Now I am pulling 337w from the wall. I am happy.