Alright, a few weeks, two vacations and a hospital visit later I'm finally nearly done with the light fixture. What I need now is a little help with the wiring... I got some white 18-2 electrical wire, is that even right? I figure that the main wires go from the driver to the dual +/- connector, but as far as connecting each board together after that I'm a little lost. Do I just need to wire plus to plus and minus to minus from boars to board? What about the last board, does it need to be wired differently or the wires brought back around to the first board? Any help is appreciated @Tbone Shuffle maybe you can explain better or draw me a diagram in paint? Sent from my HTC U11 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Here's what the completed fixture looks like for reference Sent from my HTC U11 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
You're going to hook in series. The positive output of the driver goes to the positive input on the first board in the series. The negative output of the driver goes to the negative input of the 4th board in the series. The negative terminal on that first board then goes to the positive terminal on the 2nd board. The negative terminal on the 2nd board goes to positive on 3rd board. Negative on 3rd board goes to positive on 4th board. That's it.
Thank you. So it sounds like I won't be using any of the dual connectors this time, is that correct? Are those only to be used if I'm running just one light? And I do not need to connect all the positive terminals from board to board, only the first board and then the negatives, correct? Sent from my HTC U11 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
You can use either the dual connectors or the ones on each side. Just don't use both on one board. All you need is a positive and negative terminal on each board.
Testing, testing.. So bright my camera can't even take a good picture. I have it wired to a standard 2 prong plug so I can plug it into a dimmer switch, and it seems to work plugged into a standard outlet on a power strip I used to test it just now... Is there any reason I can't just use the dimmer switch I got instead of the 320H-C2800A, or is there a specific reason the Meanwell power supply should be used instead of the wall plug? Sent from my HTC U11 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Okay, I think I see why I need the Meanwell driver, the light almost has a flicker to it when running on the standard wall outlet, almost like a frequency flicker. Only problem is the lights seem extremely dim when I wore them to the driver, and the voltage meter I have hooked up is reading at this level and the backlight keeps flickering on and off. When it's plugged into the wall outlet, the lights are super bright and the voltage meter reads like this and stays on- Any ideas where my wiring might be off for the driver? @Tbone Shuffle Sent from my HTC U11 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
LOL!. This is a little crazy. You wired the board directly to the wall plug? It won't run off of the wall plug because that is AC. Alternating current. The board runs off of DC electricity. You need the driver because that's the only way for you to get proper current and voltage in DC to the board. What it basically does is convert the wall plug electricity to what your board actually needs.
Yeah I figured that last night lol, originally I wired the AC plug to it just to test that I did the wiring from board to board correctly, never really planned on keeping it wired that way. I mean... It works, lmao, but there's definitely a frequency flicker from the current not being correct. I bought a dimmer switch so it would be easier to dim and turn the lights on and off without having to unplug the driver, and was planning on putting it between the driver and the lights.. But I have to wire an AC plug to the driver so it will plug into the dimmer. Last night I tried with just the driver and it didn't seem like it was giving me the proper current and voltage, but I was running on fumes from finishing up mounting the lights, fans and ducts that I didn't put very much time into the power, I'll re-wire and try the driver again in a few minutes. Sent from my HTC U11 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
You should not have the input of the driver on a dimmer. The driver has a built in current pot dimmer. That's the only correct way to dim these lights. Your dimmer on the input of the driver is messing everything up. It's a voltage dimmer and it's causing the driver to get lower then the voltage it should. The dimmer on the driver is under the rubber plug that says i/o out. It's a small phillips screw.
I was actually planning on using the dimmer on the output side of the driver not the input, but after wiring an extension cord outlet to the output side and trying it, no power went through. I did find that pot dimmer, but like I said when I have the driver 'properly' wired to a voltage meter and the lights, the meter isn't reading correct values, it looks like this Voltage Meter Video Clip And the pot dimmer has no effect while this is going on. Sent from my HTC U11 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Wired in parallel and the lights seem to work much better along with the meter, well enough that I'll be able to use them for growing now, but something still seems off somewhere.. My power meter is reading a max of about 3.6 amps, when the driver should only be outputting 2.8A or 2800mA. I was also expecting the lights to be drawing the full 320W from the driver, seeing as they are 100W max and I have 4 of them, but all four seem to only be drawing about 180W. I am able to dim the lights by using the pot dimmer to lower the amps to 2.75 manually, but this also lowers the wattage output and voltage, which should be higher... @Tbone Shuffle Any ideas? Sent from my HTC U11 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
You should wire that driver in series. That's the way it's intended to be hooked up being a constant current driver. Hook the positive output of the driver to the first board's positive input. Hook the negative output of the driver to the negative terminal on the last board in series. Then the negative on that first board goes to positive on the second board. Negative on the second board goes to positive on the 3rd board, Negative on the 3rd board goes to positive on the last 4th board. That's it for wiring them in series. If you wire like that the driver will put out 144 volts to be able to power each board to 36 volts each. If you do the math on 144 volts divided by 320 watts you get 2.22amps.
For whatever reason wiring the lights in series was not working with the driver, I don't know if the driver is faulty but when I had the lights wired in series, the driver was supplying only 0.03 amps, and like 19W. I changed nothing else except the wiring from series to parallel and the driver seems to be functioning properly now. I don't know why the series wiring isn't working, on the Photon Fantom website it states- "The WaVy Boards are 35.44V at 2100ma, making them easy to wire in series with (or replace) any 36V COB. The WaVy Boards may be wired in parallel with other WaVy boards, but not with anything else or you will get thermal runaway. " So they will work if wired in parallel, but yea I don't understand why series isn't working. I even had my electrician buddy take a look at it, all my wiring was correct but he's never seen an LED driver before and it didn't come with schematics so he was a little confused too. Wired in series- Wired in parallel- Sent from my HTC U11 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
I figured it out. You should have got the 2100a for series. You got an HLG-320h-c2800a. If you look at the specs on that driver the max voltage it can do is only like 114 volts dc on the output. That's not high enough to run 4 x 36 volts in series. You need about 144 volts. The 2100a is capable of that higher voltage. The 2800a maxes out too soon. The problem with running four boards parallel is the voltage output of the driver is too high. You can see on your display it's 49 volts. That's not right. The low end of output on that driver is 57 volts. In parallel with 4 boards it should run 36 volts to supply them correct power. I have a solution for you. If you split the positive output wire from the driver and wire two sets of two boards in series the voltage needed will be 2 x 36 volts or 72 volts. That's right in the drivers range. Wire two in series and then wire the other two in series. Put both series strings of two boards in parallel. It will draw full power like that. I'm awaiting you finally seeing them light up all the way.
Sorry to confuse you but if you figure that out it will work. I didn't realize you were running wavy boards. I keep losing track of what driver we're talking about. Had to go back and recheck what model you have. I thought it was the 2100a.
It does make sense the way you explain it, but I'm still confused as to why, if the lights are 2800mA max, would a 2100mA driver be better suited for them? Is it due to me wanting to run multiple lights off the same driver? Sent from my HTC U11 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
It's because of the maximum voltage output of the driver. In series voltages in a load add together. If you have four 36 volt loads then you need 144 volts to supply all four of them. The max voltage output of the 320h-2800a model is 114 volts. When you lower the current output the maximum voltage the driver will put out goes up. That's why the 320h-2100a will go up to 152 volts. However you can hack this voltage output like I was saying. You can get all four boards to get 2800mA. All you have to do is wire two in series then attach it to another two ran in series. Your voltage requirement would then be 72 volts and your 320h-c2800a would have no problems supplying that since the max is 114. You just have to manipulate the load by running two in series and that will make that driver function perfect. Actually if you would have bought the 320h-c2100a they would work great with 4 in series but they would be limited to 2100mA. If you wire it like I said you'll be able to get 2800mA to each board. The 2100a is not a better driver then the 2800a but the way the load works with the voltage needed the 2100a is the only one of the two capable of running 4 boards in series. The 2800 can do 2 boards in series twice though.
You wire it like that and it will light up like the sun. You may even have to back off on the i/o current dimmer a little if they're too warm for you or add a small fan blowing on the boards.