LEDgardener

I have found out about a German quantumboad-a-alike they have LM301B diodes on it.

The idea was to build a 4 board HLG550 style fixture with a Meanwell HLG480-42-B (couse of the dimmimg capabilities)

My question is what driver should be the best choice for driving those boards in parallel?
The voltages are and amp's are't matching when using a dimmable Meanwell I think..

Here is the link to the board mentioned and it's specifics:
https://www.led-tech.de/de/ZEUS-308-Hig ... tine-4000k


Thanks in advance.

Hi, and welcome to the forum!

I'm not sure how long you've been lurking, but you should really watch at least a couple of these great vids that explain usage and the pros and cons of using each driver type, constant current or constant voltage.

How hard are you planning on running the boards...75% of max? 100%? The general consensus on the sweet spot seems to be aiming for 75% of maximum, for both energy efficiency and longevity of diodes.

Here are those videos, in case you missed them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdLeA2BFT0A&t=4s

HLG-320H-36A goes up to 39V which is enough to drive them just over nominal (38.6V at 2A) each.
it has slightly more wattage (320W) than 4 boards at 2A each (308.8W)

I was aiming for 2 amps per board. Thats somewhere in the 50% mark as they can handle 3.5 amp.

4 boards at 38,60 V needs 8 amp? I don't get it.. If the board is driven at a higher voltage than the 38,60 V the amperage will rise way to much.

These toughts are based on a search for a Meanwell driver +(dimming if that's possible)

tazztone wrote: ↑

Tue May 08, 2018 5:37 pm

HLG-320H-36A goes up to 39V which is enough to drive them just over nominal (38.6V at 2A) each.
it has slightly more wattage (320W) than 4 boards at 2A each (308.8W)

maybe using a A-type driver will fit the system better because of the ajusting pots.. but then there isn't a option for dimming or pwm in the future.

Biological wrote: ↑

Wed May 09, 2018 1:44 am

I was aiming for 2 amps per board. Thats somewhere in the 50% mark

i would rather call this 100%

you can also take B-type, but A type is neat because u can just set the voltage to 38.6V and let the boards pull their 2A each.
also, you can't overpower them with this driver because it only goes to 39V.
to dim you can just downregulate the voltage. at 32V i don't think they'll be pulling any current.

please anybody correct me if i'm wrong. i haven't owned any HLG CV CC drivers before. but this is how i understand they're working.

Since these boards are running pretty low voltage, I’d go series on an HLG-480H-C2800.

I can’t read the data sheet but it looks like 39.5V at 3A so 4 in series on 2800mA would be about 158V which would fit that driver.

tazztone wrote: ↑

Wed May 09, 2018 5:57 am

Biological wrote: ↑

Wed May 09, 2018 1:44 am

I was aiming for 2 amps per board. Thats somewhere in the 50% mark

i would rather call this 100%

you can also take B-type, but A type is neat because u can just set the voltage to 38.6V and let the boards pull their 2A each.
also, you can't overpower them with this driver because it only goes to 39V.
to dim you can just downregulate the voltage. at 32V i don't think they'll be pulling any current.

please anybody correct me if i'm wrong. i haven't owned any HLG CV CC drivers before. but this is how i understand they're working.

You can still overpower LEDs on CV drivers even if the voltage tops out at a voltage the diodes can handle. This is because as the diodes heat up, they will pull more current at the same voltage. So, if you had voltage locked st say 39V, they may only pull 2A to start, but there’s nothing stopping them from pulling more and more current at the same voltage and this is what ultimately kills them.

You can somewhat mitigate this by setting your current level as well, but you still have no control over how that current is divided among the lights in parallel.

okay but in this case the LED's current consumption likely wouldn't spiral out of control because at 39V 2A enough heat would dissipate through the board into the air right?