LEDgardener

Since this is my first build and I am still a DIY noob I wanted to get some confirmation that this all looks ok before firing it up and possibly frying the boards. I am trying to run 4 Atreum 144.2 off a Meanwell HLG-240H-36B driver. My main concern is the wiring. I tried to base it off of this graphic from HLG https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1538/ ... 1489455430 on this page https://horticulturelightinggroup.com/p ... oard-guide.

The frame is just 2 pieces of angle aluminum that I drilled and tapped holes to connect via 5/8" threaded metal rod.

If you notice anything wrong here please let me know, otherwise really looking forward to seeing what this thing can do. Only thing left is to wire up a potentiometer. I really want to run a wireless pot off of a ESP8266 device but haven't found much good information on that.

PS. the plastic connection pieces on the Atreum 144.2's kinda suck. One fell off in transit and another one while wiring. The one that fell off in transit was completely shot but I was able to snap the other one back on. Atreum sent me a new board for the completely busted one right away so that was good. Is there any way to make these connections more safe? They really seem like the weak link in all of this. Some of the metal is still exposed under the plastic piece.

Welp, 30+ eyeballs without any complaints was enough confirmation for me to at least fire this rig up. It did not disappoint. It damn near blinded me in broad daylight. I realize nobody really wants to give the green light on something like this, I was pretty confident things were looking ok but can never be too safe.

With that being said I still need to figure out a good way to protect these connections and the exposed metal. Also need to wire up a potentiometer. I haven't tested with a multimeter yet but pretty sure its running near full tilt.

If anyone has suggestions on a wireless pot or ways to shore up those connections it would be much appreciated.

If you read that page you linked for the diagrams, it recommends not to daisy chain the boards like that. I believe all the current is running through the first board. You need to wire all the positives to the positive lead of the driver, and all the negatives to the negative lead of the driver. So, 4 positives wired directly to the 1 positive lead, and 4 negatives to the 1 negative lead. This is where 5 port wagos come in handy. = )

ah crap, was really hoping to avoid that type of setup. It seems so much worse for cable management but if the first board is getting hammered with all that current then it seems like the only option. I only fired it up for a few seconds and all boards seemed to be the exact same brightness.

Maybe someone else can weigh in to confirm before I rewire this. I don't plan to use this until I figure out the dimming and need to get either some eye nuts or eye bolts attached with a thread coupler.

Tip: Avoid daisy chaining multiple boards as shown in the 2nd image below. This causes first board to handle a large current and can reduce life of board's electrical trace. Wiring as shown in 1st image is preferable.

Talk about confusing. The way I see it all of the images are virtually the same. That is if you consider one image to be more than one image in the first place so not even sure they are referring to this image or the ones further down the page.

miketoasted wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 30, 2018 3:04 am

ah crap, was really hoping to avoid that type of setup. It seems so much worse for cable management but if the first board is getting hammered with all that current then it seems like the only option. I only fired it up for a few seconds and all boards seemed to be the exact same brightness.

Maybe someone else can weigh in to confirm before I rewire this. I don't plan to use this until I figure out the dimming and need to get either some eye nuts or eye bolts attached with a thread coupler.

I will try to help clarify some of this. Since the 144.2 boards run at lower power than our 288.2 (and QB288), the current running through each board is also lower. You are fine connecting the boards in a 4-board daisy-chain, but I wouldn't recommend chaining any more than 4.

The way to think about current when daisy-chaining boards is that the first board will handle 100% of the current coming from the driver. In the case of a HLG-240H-36 driver, maximum current output is 6.7A so the first board will see the full amount. Each board consumes ~1.7A, so the second board handles ~5.0A, third handles ~3.3A, fourth handles ~1.7A. The other consideration is the amount of copper in the board (specifically, the copper thickness and trace widths). The 144.2 board uses 1oz copper PCB, and the trace widths can handle 6.7A with no issues.

It's effectively the same idea as current limits in electrical wires (you can only run so much current through an 18-gauge wire before you have to rearrange something, for example).

I apologize for the connector issues you had. We started with a new fulfillment service, and they probably have not been packing them securely enough. We've given them the feedback and they will pack future orders better.

Hope that helps!

Awesome, thanks for clearing that up. Glad I can stick with the daisy chain.

Do you recommend running the 144.2 at the full 1.7 amps? I see on the website it says

No heatsink required for operation up to 60W

so I am assuming that isn't full throttle. What would be the absolute max amps allowed? Is there a data sheet?

Update: I let this light run for a few hours and I noticed that all 4 boards seem to put off different amounts of heat. They should call this the goldilocks approach to wiring b/c it can heat porridge to 4 different levels. I might try to find a good way to go with a more traditional parallel wiring to try to minimize this, especially when running it without a pot at 240 watts. That first board might be getting a bit too toasty for my liking. Will continue to monitor and test.

miketoasted wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 01, 2018 5:08 am

Update: I let this light run for a few hours and I noticed that all 4 boards seem to put off different amounts of heat. They should call this the goldilocks approach to wiring b/c it can heat porridge to 4 different levels. I might try to find a good way to go with a more traditional parallel wiring to try to minimize this, especially when running it without a pot at 240 watts. That first board might be getting a bit too toasty for my liking. Will continue to monitor and test.

Ha, though in this case golidlocks wants the lowest temp porridge What kind of temps were you seeing on the first board?

You can also try wiring them like in our guide: https://atreumlighting.com/pages/atreum ... ring-guide, or connect each board directly to the output of the driver.

You can run the 144.2 boards at 1.7A no problem. Max current, based on the Samsung rating, is 2.4A which is 80W+ at the board.

I don't have a good way to measure the heat coming off the board but the first board is at least 2 times hotter than the last board and maybe 3 or 4 times as hot. The driver also gets extremely hot. Pots arrived today and will be installing that tonight to run it at about 200 watts or so. Will also reconfigure the parallel wiring. I really like the temperature of the last board, would love to have them all run like that.