Bridgelux Eb series driver issue

[Mickymouse]

I have already put together a few EB series Gen 2 builds. I used a meanwell HLG 185H- C1050A with 8 1 foot strips. After realising that Digikey was sold out I bought 16 1 foot strips and tried to put together the same set up with HLG 185H-C1050A driver. I'm not really sure why when I've tried switching them on I have got no power to the LEDs. Im just past a beginner level and not to sure about determining the right Amp and wattage. I would of assumed that I'm using the same driver with 2 X the amount of boards at half the size. Shouldn't the driver be able to power the strips. Is it a different Amp needed. Or what reason am I unable to power the 16 one foot strips with this driver. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[DaveJonesFan]

Quick guess on this is that the 280mm and 560mm EB Gen 2 strips are both rated at 19.5V. The nominal current is what is halved. So you indeed have the wrong driver for this particular setup. With 16 strips running in series, you will need at least 312V load on that driver. It's max is 190V.

HLG-185H-C500 has a voltage range up to 400V and would run them. That's a high voltage some would consider a bit dangerous. You may want to look at running 2 drivers each with a 156v capability, maybe 2 HLG-120H-C500's (you would be just over this driver's minimum voltage) or 2 HLG-120H-C700's for max current to those 1 foot strips (more power overall if you have good heatsinks for them you might want that).

Also the HLG-185H-20 family has some constant voltage drivers that could run this setup well with parallel wiring instead of series I suppose.

[Mickymouse]

Thanks for the advice, you are correct. I connected the driver to only 8 of the strips and they powered up. I actually have 32 strips on my fixture and now don't really know what the best option would be as I'll only be able to power half of them using the drivers I have. Any advice on a driver to power all 32.

[Shimbob]

32 in 8S4P?

[Mickymouse]

Sorry I don't understand the abbreviation. I have 32 1 foot strips wired in series

[Shimbob]

8S4P means 8 strips in series, 4 of those strings in parallel. There's probably a video that explains it.

[Mickymouse]

Thanks for explaining it to me, I've looked it all up and by splitting four chains of 8 in series I should be able to end up dividing the power exactly as it would of been when I was using the 2 drivers and the 2 foot strips. In theory it should be the same amount of Watts used with the same amount of diodes. I need to get some different connectors but I will let you know how it goes. If it works I've been saved. Thank you so much for pointing me in the right direction. I wouldn't of known I can do this.

[crazyphil]

Hey !, I'm very new at this game, discovering this world, but if I understand the things well, the 8s4p wont work because of the 1.05 A Max of the driver, 4x(0.35-0.7) = 1.4-2.8 A.
am I right ?
at best , on paper (my newbie one) 9s3p

[Shimbob]

The driver will provide 1.05A, which will then be split 4-ways, so all strips get .26A, at ~19.2V. Works fine. Your understanding may need a little more work

[crazyphil]

I understand it will work but with 30% less courant/watts than nominal 0.26 vs 0.35 am I wrong ?
At least system wont heat