Light issues help pls Led

Things go bad.
I have a 325 watt LED whose dimmer went bad, and I can't get it above 50%.
Try different outlets without the extension cord to make sure the light is still good.

 

Try plugging it into the wall directly without the timer, check brightness and wattage draw if you have a plug in watt reader, if this checks out normal I would be looking at the timer and possibly the switch top that toggles it from timer on / outlet only


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Does it light up at all when bypassing timer?

If anything else is plugged into the same circuit and not working than possibly check your breaker panel, it may have tripped a breaker.

Also many more things it could be though


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If the time wasn’t rated for the watts that your fixture puts out you could have very well blown your light. sry bro Good luck ~ vape

 

Try to check for any burnt wiring at your connectors, possibly learn to test the driver....or unwire it on the panel side, plug the main power side into the wall and than test the positive and neutral wire with your multimeter leads set to the proper range/ setting, I think this would be an easy way to see if your driver is putting out proper power, and if so than it should just be the LED panel that has been fried


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#1
3 things in the loop that can go bad. A timer, a driver, and a QB.

A)
Remove the timer.

- If light doesn't come on then you've most likely narrowed the issue down to the driver or the light. Goto #2.

- If the light comes on, then your timer or timer wiring was the issue and either needs replaced or re-wired.


#2
The next step is to test the voltage on the driver. You'll need a multimeter for this (they run like $10 at Wal-Mart if you don't have one).

A)
Probe the output power leads (DC) while they are plugged into the QB in order to measure voltage (the driver needs to be plugged into wall AC and on for this step). Just touch the metal part of each probe to any exposed piece of conductor/wire coming from each power lead. Most times you ended up stripping the ends of the wire a bit too much when you first put it together, so there's often a bit of exposed wire protruding out from where its been pushed into the terminal on the board. Just touch these bits of exposed wire to your multimeter probes to determine what voltage your driver is outputting (don't forget to rotate the dial on your multimeter to the selection that measures the range of DC voltage, VDC, that you anticipate).

- If you get a Voltage reading on the multimeter then skip to #3.

- If you don't get any voltage reading, or it reads 0V, then continue below.

B)
Remove the dim leads from the WAGO or connector they are inserted into, and while keeping the dim leads apart and kept from touching each other (perhaps use tape if they don't want to naturally stay separated), probe the board again for voltage.

- If you get a V reading but the light doesn't turn on goto #3.

- If you get a voltage reading and the light turns on then your dimmer or dimmer WAGO was the issue.

- If you still measure 0V then continue below.

C)
Remove the driver power leads from the board terminals and test for V again but this time obviously without the board in the mix (while still keeping the dim lead tips from touching).

- If you read voltage on this step (after removing the power leads from the board and testing), then your board is shorted and needs to be replaced.

- If at this point you still read 0V, then continue below.

D)
Remove the WAGO and jumper wires attached to the power leads and test for V.

- If you get a voltage, then your driver lead WAGO/jumper wires need replaced.

- If at this point you still read 0V, then your driver is no dice.


#3
Now that we know that the driver is outputting V, we have to work on the current side of things.

A)
First double check to see that the driver + is going to the board +, and the driver - is going to the board -.

- If this is not how it is aligned, then swap the wires to make them match up with the board polarity and then check to see if issue is fixed and light comes on.

- If it is aligned correctly, then continue below.

We know the driver is supplying V, so we've now narrowed it down to a few remaining possibilities. Either current is flowing through the board and all the LEDs are shot (not likely), or current is flowing and bypassing all the LEDs (possible but also not likely), or theres a break in the loop and current is not flowing (most likely). Either way you'll most likely need a new board.

B)
To determine the cause of the failure, probe a string of LEDs. You're targeting a bit of conductive metal on the side of each LED. One probe on the first LED in the string, and the other probe touching the last LED in the string. This is done while the driver is on and the power leads are plugged into the board like a normal installation.

- If you don't get a V reading then there's a break in the loop somewhere. You can try to find it to repair it, otherwise the board traces/solder joints are shot and you'll need a new board.

- If you get a V reading then your LEDs are shot and you'll need a new board.

 

@bkarnaze
The more resistance between the 2 dimmer leads the greater the brightness. If you can only get 50% brightness, try adding 50kΩ of resistance in series with your dimmer to boost it back up. Just an idea if you wanted to try.



@Hadtodoit
Sometimes your dimmer wires can touch each other or short out, and if that happens the resistance drops to 0Ω, and at 0Ω the driver is trying to dim as much as it can. That's why one of the steps was to remove the dimmer and seperate the dimmer wires. If the dimmer wires can't touch, then current can't flow. It's essentially like adding a giant resistor (essentially and realistically. Air is a good resistor, a 1mm gap is ~1,000kΩ, a 2mm gap is double, and so on and so forth), much larger than 110kΩ. This tells the driver to then blast as much as it can.

 

Just curious but what brand board is this?

 

Looks like you'll need a new WAGO. Unplug the driver. Then try twisting the driver power leads & jumper wires together, instead of using a WAGO to connect them. Keep the exposed ends of the twisted pairs from touching each other so they don't spark when you plug the driver back in. Then plug the driver back in and see if it lights up.

If it lights up then your WAGO is broken. We can see that your WAGO is melted. The melting could have caused the short, or it could have been a result of the short. If it doesn't light up then you still have issues, just somewhere else. It could be a faulty/glitchy jumper wire insert, so just pull them out from the board and re-insert to make sure, and if that doesn't solve the issue you possibly have faulty jumper wires, or a intermittent driver.

If you're using too skinny of jumper wires, then the jumper wires can heat up with time as the current flows. This heat can melt a WAGO which then leads to short circuit possibilities as the metal & plastic parts shift from the melting. If it gets hot enough, some of the plastic may end up melting away where its needed to insulate and the metal may shift enough to conduct and short out. This would be an example of the melting causing a short. The remedy would be buying a new WAGO, and increasing the gauge of the jumper wire used.

Sometimes the WAGO is just faulty to begin with and if its held a certain way or bumped ect then the metal pieces inside end up conducting to each other. If this happens the WAGO will end up taking pretty much all the power that the driver can produce, and 250W dissipated about such a small device will most definitely melt it up. Perhaps if you jammed too much jumper wire into the slots of the WAGO, they'd bunch up and somehow find a way to touch each other, which would also create the same scenario. These would be examples of the melting action being a result of the short. The remedy would be a new WAGO or connector, and/or less jamming of jumpers into slots (if applicable). I like wire nuts because they're cheap and work well (but they don't look as nice imo).
*I've never used WAGOs so I'm not sure on how they isolate ect. The jamming of too much wire might not be cause of possible shorting depending on the design, it was just a guess.

What gauge wire are you using for your jumpers? I reccomend 18awg for 5A and under, or if using a 240H-48. Check the amperage rating of the WAGO or connector you use to make sure they can handle 5A.

Wire nut...

 

Ya. Just cut enough off so that the end is back to looking like good shiny fresh copper.

 

I would try to get some better quality wires, preferably something rated for 300v or even better 600v, last thing you want is wires melting on you mid grow and shorting the whole lamp.

 

Always good to be on the safe side, but in this case the driver only pushes 48V.

 

When dealing with low frequency currents, in this case 0hz steady state frequency (non-pulsing DC, just constant DC), the only thing that matters is the crossectional area of the conductor, ie gauge, and the thickness of plastic jacket that surrounds and insulates the wire. The wire thickness or cross sectional area will determine how many amps you can safely flow, and the thickness of the plastic insulation will determine how much voltage it's rated for.

With high frequencies there's a phenomenon called the "skin effect" where current is pushed to the outside layer and only flows on the outer wall of the wire. In this case you'd want a specialized wire called "litz" wire. Otherwise wire is just wire (for the most part). It's mostly always a blend of copper and aluminum. Stranded wire is nice for bending and ease of positioning, while solid core wire is more stiff and has applications its better suited for. Other than that just find the cheapest stuff you can find that will also satisfy the electrical parameters (amps and volts) your devices require.

There's a bit of difference in conductivity between Aluminium & Copper, but they're both very good conductors and for general purpose they are interchangable. Most wires are a blend of the 2.




Find the max amount of current you'll be flowing, along with the total wire length (positive wire length + negative wire length = total wire length), then check to see what gauge it correlates with...