DIY led lights - bridgelux EB series gen 2

[Mr_Motion]

Hi mate, just some initial thoughts.

The strips have a max voltage 21.6V so you may want to use the 24V driver rather than 20V to be on the safe side. 2.5A across 6 strips is still 0.42A per strip.

If you had an option to only use 3 strips, you'd need to be *very* careful to ensure the driver was dimmed off far enough to make sure you didn't blow them up. I'd personally be inclined to go Gardro's route and plan to use all 6 all the time. If you want a flower option you could add a second circuit with some single diode reds in the future, as there should be space in the case either end of the strips.

How will you dim it? Potentiometer? Or does that hlg driver have an internal dimming pot?

If they're anything like my sammies aluminium angle is more than sufficient, screwfix do a 20mm U profile that's nice and easy to work with. Will there be decent airflow over them? That's the only reason I'd say it's best to leave space between if you can, a couple of mm should do it as long as there's air movement above.

Raising/lowering might just take up space I'd have thought, maybe easier to fix the lights high and raise/lower the plant?

Yeah I think I'm going to ditch the switch for veg/bloom and just go with all 35's and tbh if I reduce the gap between them from 10mm - 5mm I can fit in another strip (dimensions inside weren't exact just simplified I have 5 - 10mm more to play with)

The data sheet for the gen 2 strips say the fv is 19.7v and the hlg-60h-20c is 17-22v is that not enough headroom?

Are the diode you are talking about the little single stars?

There are pots on the mentioned driver for both current and voltage I think 50-100% on both, are these sufficient?

As for air movement the case was going to have a passive meshed intake and a DIY carbon filter from 3/4 computer fans/axial fans (DIY post somewhere, basically use a fan at each end with fan casings filled with carbon pellets sandwiched between both fans)

I'll figure out the best raising/lowering solution when the light is built lol, tbh it will more than likely end up in a fixed position.

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[Mr_Motion]

CC driver FTW

Not a lover of parallel or CV

Not criticising just curious as to why buddy?

Only parallel as i haven't got a lot of experience with series wiring (stick with what you know haha)

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[gardro]

Not criticising just curious as to why buddy?

Only parallel as i haven't got a lot of experience with series wiring (stick with what you know haha)

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Mentioned above

If you want expandable then parallel /CV will be easier

Upto you what you do mate

[Mr_Motion]

Worth checking, but I thought the hlg series were cc drivers?

There is a risk with parallel wiring isn't there that should one strip blow or disconnect itaelf for whatever reason the others suddenly have a much higher current running through them and may follow suit and all blow up in quick succession.

I personally went with a cop out half way house of 2 parallel strings of 3 in series, since the strips I'm using are rated to easily take double the normal current if something does happen. Might not help Mr Motion much though using a more powerful driver.

You think series wiring might be a better shout?

Now I'm confused lol, on digikey it says that driver is both cc & CV, it has two pots on the casing with adjustments of 50-100% I believe?

Also I'm starting to think I haven't understood how these things work....I've always thought LEDs will draw how ever many amps they need so if I have more amps available it won't matter as the strips will only draw what they need? So at 350ma X 6 that's 2.1A and the driver can supply 3A so .9 spare or have I got this all kinds of wrong?

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[thelastrebel]

Yeah this is what I was thinking, just ditch the 5's and get all 35's

I thought the driver would be ok since at 350ma and 19.7v each 6 strips would be drawing roughly 40w. The 60w is £25 and the 80w is £29 worth the extra £4?

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The problem you'll have there, if I'm reading the hlg dataseet right is that within a particular voltage range it oerates as a constant current driver, which means it's the driver that dictates current, not the strip. The strips are rated 350mA nominal, 700mA safe max I think, but if the driver is pushing more than that through them you'll just end up with dead diodes, not a lower output. LEDs take a pretty flat voltage across operating currents, between about 19-21.6V in your case, and the current you push through them is how you can set the brightness.

You could maybe wire in 2 sets of 3 and use the hlg 60h 700, which would give two strings operating at about 60v and 350mA. That would limit you to ~40W through the strings you've got but would have headroom to add more strips if you ever wanted to. Since its cc output is 700mA as wel, it should be just about safe for the strips if one string is broken.

Running all 6 in series, at ~20V each, would mean around a 120V output driver. Now, that's not to say it's anything like as dangerous as 120V AC mains circuits, but it does seem pretty high to me in a little wet box! I dunno. Gardro what do you think mate?

[Mr_Motion]

The final part of the code tells you

If its 20/24/48 as in volts then its CV ( with CC but thats a bit complicated for here)

If its 1000/2100/2800 (as in mA) at end then its CC

Yeah you need to make sure all the paths can take the full current with CV

Why does it say on digikey that the driver I mentioned is both cc & CV? And do the pots on the housing actually account or anything?

Starting to think that I need to look more into drivers.....

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[gardro]

Now I'm confused lol, on digikey it says that driver is both cc & CV, it has two pots on the casing with adjustments of 50-100% I believe?

Also I'm starting to think I haven't understood how these things work....I've always thought LEDs will draw how ever many amps they need so if I have more amps available it won't matter as the strips will only draw what they need? So at 350ma X 6 that's 2.1A and the driver can supply 3A so .9 spare or have I got this all kinds of wrong?

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Yes in terms of dimming really

A true cc driver will have a wide voltage range over which it limits the current. Voltages are much higher

HLG c series for example

[thelastrebel]

Yeah I think I'm going to ditch the switch for veg/bloom and just go with all 35's and tbh if I reduce the gap between them from 10mm - 5mm I can fit in another strip (dimensions inside weren't exact just simplified I have 5 - 10mm more to play with)

The data sheet for the gen 2 strips say the fv is 19.7v and the hlg-60h-20c is 17-22v is that not enough headroom?

Are the diode you are talking about the little single stars?

There are pots on the mentioned driver for both current and voltage I think 50-100% on both, are these sufficient?

As for air movement the case was going to have a passive meshed intake and a DIY carbon filter from 3/4 computer fans/axial fans (DIY post somewhere, basically use a fan at each end with fan casings filled with carbon pellets sandwiched between both fans)

I'll figure out the best raising/lowering solution when the light is built lol, tbh it will more than likely end up in a fixed position.

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Datasheet says the 17-22V is an "adjusted range" for the A series only, I'm not entirely sure what that means to be honest but I think yours tops out at 20V how I'm reading it.

For single diodes yeah, something like the star pcb type. Just something you could play with in the future.

[Mr_Motion]

Thank you very much for the input guys especially @gardro and @thelastrebel 🙂

The problem you'll have there, if I'm reading the hlg dataseet right is that within a particular voltage range it oerates as a constant current driver, which means it's the driver that dictates current, not the strip. The strips are rated 350mA nominal, 700mA safe max I think, but if the driver is pushing more than that through them you'll just end up with dead diodes, not a lower output. LEDs take a pretty flat voltage across operating currents, between about 19-21.6V in your case, and the current you push through them is how you can set the brightness.

You could maybe wire in 2 sets of 3 and use the hlg 60h 700, which would give two strings operating at about 60v and 350mA. That would limit you to ~40W through the strings you've got but would have headroom to add more strips if you ever wanted to. Since its cc output is 700mA as wel, it should be just about safe for the strips if one string is broken.

Running all 6 in series, at ~20V each, would mean around a 120V output driver. Now, that's not to say it's anything like as dangerous as 120V AC mains circuits, but it does seem pretty high to me in a little wet box! I dunno. Gardro what do you think mate?

So say I did go with the hlg-60h-c700 and wired the strips in 2p3s would I not need at least 1.05A per parallel section not 350ma? And overall 2.1A from the driver minimum?

If I split 700ma between 2 sections they each get 350ma, but then that would mean each strip only gets 112/113ma.....so I'd be driving them at about 1/3 nominal current?

Or have I looked at this completely wrong haha?

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[Gaz]

Lol yeah Im never building one of these lol far to complicated for me lol.