So I have a WhiteRose 240w LED grow light in my 2x4 tent and its great. It covers the square footage perfectly and temps never exceed 80F w/ the lights on - drops to low 70's at lights out (this took some work to maintain the heat, but its done). So, The light is basically two 12x12" panels, bolted together with a reflector. Each panel has about 270 LEDS in it and its own Chinese built 120w driver mounted on top. Both of which have bloom booster switches, that make the other half of LEDS come on, for flower, when needed. I'm really impressed with this light and how it's performed thus far, but I want my driver(s) out of the tent, on a "control board". This is easy enough using the two drivers i have atm, but theres more..... The panels are dimmable, as it was supposed to come with one, but did not (I received a partial refund for this). So I know they can dim, one feature I'd like to have for seedlings. That said, the boards are full of genuine Samsung LEDS and IRs, I've upgraded the heatsink and even added a couple of fans to it. I'm invested in this light.... :lol: Anyways, yesterday I got an absolute steal on a Meanwell ELG-240-AB Driver. So, what I'm trying to do here, is set up the new Meanwell driver, as my driver for the just explained grow light(s). Easy enough really, just run an extended cord that powers the lights to outside the tent, and then mount the driver/dimmer on a control board. My problem lies in the bloom booster feature!! Is there a way to incorporate my own bloom booster switch, that will supply the power to the LEDS/IRs that aren't on, when in veg mode? Like, how do the current drivers on there now do this? It seems to be just 2 wires coming from the driver to the light panel, so how the heck is it able to cut on the other LEDS without an "alternate" power supply (wire)? Any info or advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you!
Youre not giving us enough info to be able to give any advice; take some pics of the original drivers spec label and the new drivers spec label to start with. Am i getting you right: so the only wires going to the drivers is AC power going in, then two wires, DC + and DC- ? If so where do these wires go after leaving the driver; to the board or to the bloom switch? Or is the bloom switch directly on the driver? If on the driver then my guess is no. More photos of the wiring would be helpfull, so that you can follow each wire and see where it goes. Im hopefull that you can just use the same switches but please give some info on how the wires arrive to the board
Ill try to answer your question with what i already know about the light setup.... I've thought about it and I'm not sure how this would work anyhow. So if each light is 120w, that's a total of 240w. The Meanwell driver is 240w, but how would I wire that, so that the power is split evenly between each board? I keep finding conflicting info and I think Maybe I'm just confusing myself? Would I wire them in series or parallel? Any info on that would be great.... right now it's dummy proof, as each driver powers its own light. In a perfect world, I could wire up these two well put together quantum boards to a single Meanwell driver, that is mounted by itself, outside of the tent. That way it's a single power source for both boards and its fully dimmable using their included 1-12v potentiometer. In an even more perfect world, I could wire in my own toggle switch on the same board i mount the potentiometer and driver on, for my own little version of a control board. The switch being used for the bloom booster lights (as I'm pretty sure that's all that's happening inside of these current ballast). I won't really know what I'm looking at, as far as those bloom booster lights go though, until I truly take the covers off the wiring and see where the power is going on the boards themselves. As far as the drivers on there now, I've attached an old photo I was able to screen shot, of what the drivers say on them. They have small fans and heatsink on them now (for heat dissipation) so I can't get a current photo without ripping those off - but you can zoom in on the photo provided and see what they say. Good luck with finding ANY info on anything about the damn things though.... I havent! It seems everything written on the driver was just a sticker or stamp of some sort, put on by whoever put this thing together (WhiteRose). They seem to just be run of the mill, everyday, cheap, Chinese LED drivers. I've also attached a photo of hoe they are now, to show the fans and heatsink I've applied, as compared to how they came (stupid and heat inducing design!). Now, as far as the wiring. Again, I don't know. I honestly haven't taken the thing apart enough to know how many wires go from the driver to the quantum board. All i did was raise the drivers off of the light, so that i could apply heatsink across the top of the boards and keep the drivers as cool as possible. I eventually want to take the drivers off, even if this Meanwell thing doesnt work out, just to lighten up the light fixture and help cooling even more. Maybe doing that is a good first step, as then i would atleast know what i was working with, as far as powering those leds. But other than that, It's the obvious 110v plug going into the driver and then on the other side a wire that goes directly into and powers the board. I'm almost 100% positive it HAS to have more than just the + and - leads inside there, coming from the driver to the board. As there just wouldnt be another way to power the additional lights that the ballast can power. The more I think about THAT fact, the led is probably only getting the full 120w (or whatever it's ACTUAL max output is) from the driver when the bloom booster is on, as that's a lot of extra leds to supply. There's also a 3 prong plug on the driver, next to the wires that go to the board. From what i understand, it was supposed to "daisychain" the lights, to a "master controller/dimmer". The light even came with the daisy chain plugs/wire for it, but no controller. The picture of the master controller that was supposed to come with it is simply a box, that has a dimmer and a switch for the before mentioned "bloom booster" (I will try to find a photo of it). I've tried to test the output of these plugs, to see if a potentiometer would suffice as a dimmer and they have a shit ton of power. Like 100's of volts lol. So that was a no go.... i figured if i found that jumping two of the leads caused a 12v constant current, than a pot in the middle could be my dimmer. No go. Im in over my head it seems there! Because I couldn't get a steady reading or figure out wth was going on, so I just stopped messing with it. The company that made these, either Carambola or Apeila, seems to have gone out of business. You can't get an answer from them, no way, no how. I got this thing for dirt cheap, because it was the last one in stock on Amazon and it didn't come with the controller. Guess you get what you pay for huh? But say I did want to use the Meanwell to power these lights. Hell, let's just say all of them at one time (bloom boosters included). How would I wire the two 120w boards to a single 240w Meanwell driver? That in itself would be a huge help at this point......
Yeah, i think your a bit stuck with this: switch on the driver means it does something internally, no way of replicating that with the ELG afaik. I cant even make out the dc voltage out on the original drivers, so no way knowing if the ELG will work; board voltage and driver voltage must be matched. Do you know what voltage on the board? The only thing i can think of, but this would be totally on your own dime and responsibility: cutting the wire between driver and board, hoping that any wires inside are different colors and then peel cables on both ends, splice in more wire in between them with wagos. I cant really recommend it but its the only thing i can think of. I saw you posting on riu aswell, maybe somebody knows there but id doubt it without more info.
Yea I actually relocated the drivers outside of the grow tent today, onto a board. I think im just going to leave this particular setup alone, as it seems to work well once seeds have started. I have a 1000w light thats dimmable that i start my seeds under now. It Took a while to get those drivers mounted, given i had to rewire the fans and everything, but I got it done! Nonetheless, it's as I expected with the bloom boosters. There is one ground and 2 hot wires going to the board.... the switch on the driver just powers the second hot wire, which is connected to the bloom lights. (IE: their famous "bloom booster") lol. So yea.... I guess I'll just save the Meanwell 240 I just bought for another project, for when I build my own quantum boards or grow light. Maybe I'll just order an official set of Samsung or LG or some other name branded led boards - pair it with the dimmable, superior driver.
Unless thats a full kit, board heatsink and driver, i dont think its that good a deal. If your in the us check out hlg: https://horticulturelightinggroup.com/collections/components/products/qb288-rspec-fr-quantum-board 26$ !
KQO LED grow light PCB https://www.amazon.com/vdp/ecd32e8a5d7244e3996b72f48d13b7cc?product=B08JXBCRCP
Are you on 120V or 240? I think the elg driver derates to lower wattage om 120V. Those boards should work with the 48AB version of the driver. Id still go HLG personally, but i think it may need a different driver. Best of luck
Now that I've gotten the driver, you're correct. At 110v, it's only pushing about 180w. I need 220v to max it out. I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet, but extra drivers and LED boards are always welcomed here! Lol