Help with wiring LED Driver

Discussion in 'Lighting' started by calikevin87, Mar 24, 2018.

  1. Alright, I've got everything else ready to go except for my lights, and I cannot figure out the problem that I'm having. A little background-

    Purchased four Photon Fantom WaVy Boards that are 100W 2800mA MAX, wired in series

    Purchased an HLG-320H-C2800A to run each board at approximately 80W each

    Cut and stripped an old PC power cable, wired to driver
    1521848061050.jpg

    Wired the board using some 18-2 electrical cord

    I've tried multiple different wiring configurations, including-

    Wiring the lights directly to the driver

    Wiring lights to other end of 2 prong plug while wiring driver output to 2 prong outlet
    1521848220754.jpg

    My power meter shuts on and off and doesn't appear to be reading an accurate voltage when it's wired to the driver
    1521848401353.jpg

    And when it's plugged into the driver, the lights do turn on but not fully, and seem dim
    1521848439572.jpg

    When I plug them into an AC outlet, they are super bright and have the obvious flicker from the improper current, but the power meter reads everything just fine and doesn't power on and off constantly
    1521848557368.jpg

    It seems like my issue is that the driver is either not getting enough power from the wall or it's not able to supply enough power, but 80W should be enough according to the Photon Fantom website. Does anyone have any idea where my issue might be? I am stumped as far as this goes and I am essentially ready to get a plant in my pot. If I left anything out please ask questions, thanks in advance Blades!

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  2. not even close dude You need way more wattage
     
  3. But the LED driver should be outputting 320W, not 41... Does it have to do with the wiring somewhere? I'm going to try in parallel instead of series and see if that makes a difference.

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  4. Wired in parallel and the lights seem to work much better, 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... Any ideas?

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  5. I'm trying to remember where the old thread is. All you have to do is wire the boards in two series runs of two boards each and then wire those together. That will result in a 72 volt draw requirement on the circuit putting it right in that drivers range. It will start functioning correctly.

    I made you this drawing on how to wire it right. It's a little crappy.
    wiring.png
     
  6. The driver doesn't go down low enough in voltage to run all four of the boards in parallel. Its only doing 41 because it's wired wrong. It normally wouldn't.

    The voltage range on that driver is 51-114. It won't go high enough for all four in series.

    Those boards are 36 volts each. If you wire two in series it adds the voltage together on the circuit and makes it require 72 volts. That is right in that drivers voltage range. If you wire it like the picture it's going to work.
     
  7. Here's the other thread @Tbone Shuffle-

    Help with my grow tent shopping cart

    I did wire it the way you described in your drawing, but something still seems a little off... Check the other thread for my reply and more pictures

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