led driver question

[amirk48]

hello everyone
i want to start a LED light build and was wondering if i could wire three dimmable channels, all coming from one driver/power supply
im short on space and trying to get a clean look

thanks

 

[Daniel@R2R]

bump for any of you #DIYwizards

 

[SALTYMOPAR]

To answer your question without knowing anything about what you have in mind yes and no. MEAN WELL LDD-600H is a Buck driver that has a small foot print that will give you the ability to control each channel . You will need a power supply which will not be so small to power the buck drivers. LDD-600H can only support 12 3-watt leds per driver. depending on on how many watts you want to run mean well has some small led drivers available

 

[Diyreef8401]

To give you an idea of the size these are my lights I built. They are 6in by 6in with 5 dimmable channels

 

[User1]

As said better above the short answer is yes, you can. Just depends on the LED's, layout, and how they are deployed. I've gone the route of LDD's with single LED's to multi channel using LDD's, and more recently multi channels using custom drivers in a smaller form factor. You have some options but the main thing is the package and mounting - that may help steer you to something specific for a cleaner look.

@Diyreef8401 - good setup.

 

[Ratherbeflyen]

I run several TC420 and TC421 led crontrollers on my tank. One driver will power up to 5 separate channels.

 

[oreo54]

hello everyone
i want to start a LED light build and was wondering if i could wire three dimmable channels, all coming from one driver/power supply
im short on space and trying to get a clean look

thanks

You always need one driver per channel if you want them seperate.
Drivers can be quite tiny from blueAcro or others.

blueAcro - AcroIQ LED Driver

blueacro.com

The AcroIQ MicroDriver driver is a mere 2.6 x 0.7 inches

, offers two current adjustable channels with PWM dimming, and can mount right next to your LEDs on T-slot or other heatsinks. Capable of 48V supply voltages, the driver is fully compatible with any 3.3V or 5V PWM dimming signal from off-the-shelf controllers

Only need one power supply and one cable going to the light w/ the tiny drivers on them.

 

[amirk48]

hi guys thanks for the help!

to give you a better understanding of what im aiming for,
im building a 24" X 24" rimless tank that will have a 12" X 12" hanging fixture over it.
i have five(5) 12" X 1" heatsinks on the way and my plan is to put six 3w leds on each one, which brings me to a total of 30 LEDs.
4 UV
11 royal blue
6 blue
9 cool white

i guess the UV should be on a separate channel since i dont need to dim them,
whites on a dimmiable channel, and blues on a dimmiable channel

i would love to be able to put all the drivers i need inside the the light fixture and just have one cord going from the fixture to the outlet

those buck drivers setups looks exactly like what i need but i have 0 knowledge when it comes leds, could you point me out to what i need to get run the setup i mentioned above?
from taking to LED sellers they recommended on HLG-60H-48B but i wanted to check other options

 

[amirk48]

To give you an idea of the size these are my lights I built. They are 6in by 6in with 5 dimmable channels

To give you an idea of the size these are my lights I built. They are 6in by 6in with 5 dimmable channels

do you have a build thread for this lights?

 

[Diyreef8401]

do you have a build thread for this lights?

Sorry I am not very good about taking pictures while I am working. But the heat sinks are makers slim I got them at rapid led. I bought the drivers at mouser and I bought the ldd 5 up board from led group buy. There is a local store called cables and connectors that I got the miscellaneous stuff from. I am using a bluefish mini to control them

 

[Diyreef8401]

Sorry I am not very good about taking pictures while I am working. But the heat sinks are makers slim I got them at rapid led. I bought the drivers at mouser and I bought the ldd 5 up board from led group buy. There is a local store called cables and connectors that I got the miscellaneous stuff from. I am using a bluefish mini to control them

Here is the previous 1 foot fixture I made

 

[amirk48]

what power supply are you using?

 

[Diyreef8401]

It is a mean well lrs 350-48. I am also using a scw 05c 12. To step down the 48 volts to 12 in order to run the fans and power the bluefish. In the old 12 inch light I only had 2 wires going to it.

 

[Diyreef8401]

It is a mean well lrs 350-48. I am also using a scw 05c 12. To step down the 48 volts to 12 in order to run the fans and power the bluefish. In the old 12 inch light I only had 2 wires going to it.

 

[amirk48]

thanks

could you explain me how to choose the correct buck driver for my needs?

lets say i want 9 of these LEDS on one dimmable channel

Solderless CREE XP-G3 Cool White LED

.

www.rapidled.com

what is the calculation i need to use?

thanks so much!

 

[Diyreef8401]

thanks

could you explain me how to choose the correct buck driver for my needs?

lets say i want 9 of these LEDS on one dimmable channel

Solderless CREE XP-G3 Cool White LED

.

www.rapidled.com

what is the calculation i need to use?

thanks so much!

Just a heads up those G3’s are really powerful but anyhow. They have a 2.83 forward voltage. So you would want run them in series 9(number of leds) times 2.83(turn on voltage would be the voltage that you need to supply. 25.47volts. So you are looking at a 36 volt power supply. The xp-g3 can pull up to 2 amps or 2000mA. So you need to find a driver that is rated that high. As far as meanwell ldd drivers I think they only go up to 1500mA maybe 1800 I don’t really remember. So if you use those you will underdrive the led a little bit. Which is a good thing for longevity but it won’t be as bright as it could be. BTW. LDD-500 is rated for 500mA. LDD-1000 is rated for 1000 mA and so on.

 

[Diyreef8401]

As long as you run the leds in series the amperage won’t change just make sure all the leds you are running have the same requirements or else you could burn them out. Look into the Cree XTE. Same size LED but only runs 1500 mA

 

[amirk48]

great thanks!

As long as you run the leds in series the amperage won’t change just make sure all the leds you are running have the same requirements or else you could burn them out. Look into the Cree XTE. Same size LED but only runs 1500 mA

i was looking at the XT-E2 too, but wont i get more bang for my buck with the XPG?
especially when i dont have too much room for more leds

 

[oreo54]

thanks

could you explain me how to choose the correct buck driver for my needs?

lets say i want 9 of these LEDS on one dimmable channel

Solderless CREE XP-G3 Cool White LED

.

www.rapidled.com

what is the calculation i need to use?

thanks so much!

2.83V @ 1000mA..

So if you use 1000mA driver.. 2.83 x 9 = 25.47 volts to the string.
Most buck drivers need about 3 volts overhead so power supply would need to output 25.47V + 3 = 28.47V
36V will do fine.
One string is 25.47W
add number of strings together to get total watts..

Driving them w/ more or less current will increase your voltage or decrease it .

V(f) @ selected current X driver current(in amps) = watts

 

[Diyreef8401]

The xp-g3 is definitely more powerful but you will have a hard time finding a small buck driver that will be able to fully realize that power. You would probably need to run an HLG driver they are much larger and much more expensive and use 10 v dimming. A plus is you won’t need a power supply but I still don’t think you want to go that route.