If the lights are dimming as well that's not good. I'm sure you already knew that though. I would go back through the system and check each connection religiously. If all my connections are secure and correct I would contact a mean well rep. They warranty their drivers for 5 years I believe.
Cheers and good luck
Bridgelux strips not working
Even though the probe may wiggle in the wago the clamping pressure is very strong and there’s solid metal metal contact.
It will be a lot easier to help If you provide a drawing showing exactly how you have this wired up and showing exactly where the multimeter probes are placed in the circuit.
It will be a lot easier to help If you provide a drawing showing exactly how you have this wired up and showing exactly where the multimeter probes are placed in the circuit.
I made a rough drawing of my frame, hopefully this helps and is clear enough, I don't have much drawing skills in real life let alone using a laptop trackpad as a pen. I know the wiring isn't very neat, I've never done it before and ran out of 12 AWG wire and can't get any IRL, so I did the best I could while I'm waiting for the wire to arrive.
I did some testing today to compare the voltage/current Im getting to what the datasheets say I should be getting and its really weird. First of changing the current doesn't seem to do anything unless I turn the voltage all the way which is apparently 22 volts. But if I turn both the current and the voltage until I start to feel resistance (voltage adjust stops and is easy to tell it's fully turned, where as current just gets slightly harder to turn, and if you go past that it dims back down and turns with no resistance again, as if it was turned all the way down, if that makes sense) I've determined that I get .54 amps testing current how I show in the photo. Then I reduced voltage and tested current every -.05V. At 21.5 V current is .31A, at 21 V .14A, at 20.5V .04A and at 20V it's at .01. The light goes off if I reduce it below 20V.
This is obviously way off everything the datasheet says, and there isn't even any noticable pattern as far as I can see. So I'm super confused. I think either my driver is faulty, my multimeter is faulty, or I'm testing current wrong. I'm leaning more towards the latter 2, as the lights seems super bright and warm at full strength, leading me to believe it's way above 500ma, since I was planning on running at 700ma since I heard that doesn't get warm, so I doubt it's at 500ma if it almost blinds me and has lots of heat coming off it.
Any advice anyone can give is greatly appreciated. I just started a grow before I noticed this issue, so I can't return the driver at the moment f that is the case, unless it's a safety hazard, I'll just add more strips to make up for the lost power.
I did some testing today to compare the voltage/current Im getting to what the datasheets say I should be getting and its really weird. First of changing the current doesn't seem to do anything unless I turn the voltage all the way which is apparently 22 volts. But if I turn both the current and the voltage until I start to feel resistance (voltage adjust stops and is easy to tell it's fully turned, where as current just gets slightly harder to turn, and if you go past that it dims back down and turns with no resistance again, as if it was turned all the way down, if that makes sense) I've determined that I get .54 amps testing current how I show in the photo. Then I reduced voltage and tested current every -.05V. At 21.5 V current is .31A, at 21 V .14A, at 20.5V .04A and at 20V it's at .01. The light goes off if I reduce it below 20V.
This is obviously way off everything the datasheet says, and there isn't even any noticable pattern as far as I can see. So I'm super confused. I think either my driver is faulty, my multimeter is faulty, or I'm testing current wrong. I'm leaning more towards the latter 2, as the lights seems super bright and warm at full strength, leading me to believe it's way above 500ma, since I was planning on running at 700ma since I heard that doesn't get warm, so I doubt it's at 500ma if it almost blinds me and has lots of heat coming off it.
Any advice anyone can give is greatly appreciated. I just started a grow before I noticed this issue, so I can't return the driver at the moment f that is the case, unless it's a safety hazard, I'll just add more strips to make up for the lost power.
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You're measuring the current to 3 strips, which if everything were working correctly should be around 2.6A but you're getting 0.31?
The way it should work: turn the voltage pot to the max clockwise, dim with current pot. Does that not work? Something's fishy with your voltage pot, it should be the same smooth rotation with hardstops as the current pit.
The way it should work: turn the voltage pot to the max clockwise, dim with current pot. Does that not work? Something's fishy with your voltage pot, it should be the same smooth rotation with hardstops as the current pit.
Haha no offense taken, as I said I had to make some 18AWG wire longer than preferred, and I had some trouble converting all the wire over to a flat service and having it all be visible. Basically each strip from the top down is just running to the closest port of each wago. So the first 4 strips are connected to the first wago, then the 12 AWG to the 2nd wago, then the next 3 strips connected to that wago, then a 12 AWG to the next wago etc, with both outsides being positives and the 2 insides being negatives. If you have any suggestions to make it clearer, Ill happily re draw and upload it.
Yeah, I know its really weird, I didn't know I was measuring across the 3 strips though, that makes it even weirder.
I have to turn the voltage all the way clockwise before adjusting the current does anything (I thought this was weird as the video I was watching suggested dimming and then turning the current up first, where as adjusting current for me does nothing unless voltage is at max) and then dimming works with the current adjust, but I can only adjust from .37A to .54A with current. Trying to go either above .54A or below .37A just resets the dimming (if I get it down to .37A and try to turn counter clockwise slightly, it goes back up to .54A and starts dimming down to .37A again. If I go above .54A it dims down to .37 and then I can turn it up to .54A again) continuously. It's almost as if the current potentiometer stops adjusting halfway through the turn, like it feels like it raises from .37A to .54A in half a turn, then does nothing for the other half of the turn until I go past the spot of resistance again. I can get it to go below .37A by lowering the voltage, but it maxes out at 22 Volts/.54A and the light completely goes out below 19V.
Yeah, I know its really weird, I didn't know I was measuring across the 3 strips though, that makes it even weirder.
I have to turn the voltage all the way clockwise before adjusting the current does anything (I thought this was weird as the video I was watching suggested dimming and then turning the current up first, where as adjusting current for me does nothing unless voltage is at max) and then dimming works with the current adjust, but I can only adjust from .37A to .54A with current. Trying to go either above .54A or below .37A just resets the dimming (if I get it down to .37A and try to turn counter clockwise slightly, it goes back up to .54A and starts dimming down to .37A again. If I go above .54A it dims down to .37 and then I can turn it up to .54A again) continuously. It's almost as if the current potentiometer stops adjusting halfway through the turn, like it feels like it raises from .37A to .54A in half a turn, then does nothing for the other half of the turn until I go past the spot of resistance again. I can get it to go below .37A by lowering the voltage, but it maxes out at 22 Volts/.54A and the light completely goes out below 19V.
I meant to say no offense earlier.
Not ‘so offense’. Just wanted to clear that up!
You said the strips feel hot already, how hot exactly? Can you hold your thumb on the back of the strips for at least a few seconds?
Definitely measure current of just one strip. Then do this for different strips around the build and compare findings.
Not ‘so offense’. Just wanted to clear that up!
You said the strips feel hot already, how hot exactly? Can you hold your thumb on the back of the strips for at least a few seconds?
Definitely measure current of just one strip. Then do this for different strips around the build and compare findings.
Haha yeah, I figured that was a typo. All good haha.
About 5 minutes after turning it up to max, It's already uncomfortable as soon as I put my thumb on the back of a strip. It doesn't feel like it will seriously burn me, but it's definitely very uncomfortable and I'd have to remove my thumb after 5 seconds or so. It raised the temperature of my tent by 2 degrees C. I'm not sure if this is hot or not, i just imagined since people say you don't need a heatsink at 700MA, that .16ma less than that wouldn't be close to this warm.
Also how would I measure just one strip? Just do what I did, but with only one strip connected to the last wago? Thank you again
About 5 minutes after turning it up to max, It's already uncomfortable as soon as I put my thumb on the back of a strip. It doesn't feel like it will seriously burn me, but it's definitely very uncomfortable and I'd have to remove my thumb after 5 seconds or so. It raised the temperature of my tent by 2 degrees C. I'm not sure if this is hot or not, i just imagined since people say you don't need a heatsink at 700MA, that .16ma less than that wouldn't be close to this warm.
Also how would I measure just one strip? Just do what I did, but with only one strip connected to the last wago? Thank you again
Exactly. You can also measure the current on one of the two leads coming out of the driver and that would be half the current coming out of the driver. It looks like you have 16 strips on each lead?
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WhiteRecluse
- LED Enthusiast
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- Joined: Thu Feb 14, 2019 11:08 am
How can you have 4 strips connected to the first wago? If using 5way wagos you should have the first hole with driver lead, the next 3 holes to 3 led leads, and the last hole to the next 5 way wago. If using 16 that would leave you with 1 led on it's own wago. That is how you have it?
Cheers!