1-10v Dimming issue with DIY LED

amnesiac · Sep 27, 2017

Hey guys. So I have a really goofy issue with a DIY LED set up. I mounted 72 stars split equally between 2 60" heatsinks. I used thermal paste and screws with plastic washers to mount the stars and wired everything in series to a Meanwell driver with 3 in 1 dimming. Before after triple checking everything I wired up a potentiometer to the dimming wires and powered it up. ALL GOOD. Now here's where it gets goofy. I mounted the fixture above my tank and desoldered the pot and soldered the leads from my 1-10 port off the Apex. I set up my ramp profiles and again triple checked everything. I power it up and only half the LEDs fire!!! So desolder the 1-10 and wire the pot back on and of course it fires all the LEDs no problem. I test the 1-10 port with a multimeter to make sure I was getting 10v and I was. I tried a different cable and 3 different ports on my Neptune. I'm at a complete loss for what to do next. Please help!!!!!

Reefing Madness · Sep 28, 2017

Axe · Oct 1, 2017

Do the leds dim when connected to the apex? Not really familiar with the apex controllers and I'm sure you checked but the signal is DC, right? Does the controller have a transformer powering it? I work in the hvac controls business and when we use a 0-10v signal powered off of a DC x-former, we have to run a wire from the 0volt terminal to the negative terminal on the x-former. It will do really weird things if not. Hope you get it figured out!

amnesiac · Oct 1, 2017

Thanks for the help guys. I finally just took the fixture down and started back tracking from where the LEDs didn't light. Looks as though while screwing the LED (1st one that wouldn't light) into the heatsink the threads actually ripped up the star pretty good and may have been shorting current to the heatsink. Still don't know why this was stopping the rest of the LEDs from firing while connected to the APEX. They all fired just fine when using a potentiometer. I insulated the area where the screw and the LED were making contact and sure enough the fixture works just fine now