Diy led actinic lights not working

Biglurr54

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Hey guys. I need some help. I built a diy led bar to supplement my 400w halide. It worked great for 3 months. Then a couple of lights went out and it was dimmer than normal. Now only some leds on the channel come on and the others are various degrees of dim/ bright.

The light is as follows:
Channel 1
16 luxeon royal blue leds on a eln 60 48d

Channel 2 is
4 410nm leds
8 430nm leds
On a eln 60 48d

Both drivers are wired wired to 1 variable port on my apex.

I'm using the hd heat sink from Steve'sleds which boasts no active cooling needed. It's a big heavy hunk of fined aluminum.

4 rb leds won't light and the others are at different brightness.

The uv channel is hard to tell but most of the time it's not on. When it's on It's hard to tell if everything is the right brightness.


I've checked the solder joints and things look good. Not perfect as the heat sink absorbs too much heat to get a good hot solder joint. But none are lose.

Any idea what could make some work at various brightness and others not at all?
 

McPikie

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Hey guys. I need some help. I built a diy led bar to supplement my 400w halide. It worked great for 3 months. Then a couple of lights went out and it was dimmer than normal. Now only some leds on the channel come on and the others are various degrees of dim/ bright.

The light is as follows:
Channel 1
16 luxeon royal blue leds on a eln 60 48d

Channel 2 is
4 410nm leds
8 430nm leds
On a eln 60 48d

Both drivers are wired wired to 1 variable port on my apex.

I'm using the hd heat sink from Steve'sleds which boasts no active cooling needed. It's a big heavy hunk of fined aluminum.

4 rb leds won't light and the others are at different brightness.

The uv channel is hard to tell but most of the time it's not on. When it's on It's hard to tell if everything is the right brightness.


I've checked the solder joints and things look good. Not perfect as the heat sink absorbs too much heat to get a good hot solder joint. But none are lose.

Any idea what could make some work at various brightness and others not at all?

If the LEDs are on a string and one blows, it's likely to add load to the rest of the string and overload those too.

Have you checked the LEDs have not burnt out?
 
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Biglurr54

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How do you check to see if the led blew out?
 

McPikie

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I used a crude method. 2xAA batteries at oposite ends with a copper coin over one end so the + touched the -, then wires from the other end to the LED. It should then light up
 

McPikie

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Apply some tape to both batteries to hold them together and to hold the coin in place

tester.jpg
 
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Biglurr54

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Oh I have one of those testers. I was expecting some test with the multimeter. I will test the leds and see if any popped.
 

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