LED Group buy!

[68RUSTANG]

The drivers have arrived. They appear to be made in Taiwan for Meanwell.

The plan so far is:

1ea HLG-185H-48B will run 6 strings of 8 ea. parallel Super Blues
1ea LPF-60D-48 will run 2 strings of 6ea. parallel 10k whites
" " " " " " " " " Blues

Did anyone ever find any difference in color between the Blues and Super Blues?

Thanks,

Tony

 

[that0neguy1126]

The HLG-185H-48B is what I am using. You can actually run strings of 12 leds (3.6 * 12 = 43.2). If you run 6 strings, they will only be running at 650mA(3.9A/6=.65A). I am running 5 strings which is 780mA.

 

[68RUSTANG]

I bought the 185 for flexibility, I'm still debating on how many leds per housing I want to run. I might make it 14" by 14" and add some leds.

Here is the 12" x 12" plan:

24 Super Blues
12 Blues
12 10K Whites

Two 12 x 12 units will be run by the three ballasts.
Each ballasts will be wired into a three position rocker switch for the following:
1. Manual dimming through a 10K pot
2. Off
3. Reef Keeper, etc.

Eventually I will be running four of these units over the 150 for a total of 192 LEDs.

 

[Zooid]

you better put a couple fans on each of those 12x12's
I put 30 LED's on a 10x12 and I can't run them at full power without a fan.

 

[68RUSTANG]

Yes, they will be enclosed with a fan. Still debating whether to stick the drivers in the housing also.

 

[Zooid]

If the fans are good....I'd stick the drivers in the housing

 

[Zooid]

double post

 

[that0neguy1126]

The drivers are pretty big and heavy. But they are water proof. I am going to have mine down in the basement with the rest of the stuff and run the wires up conduit to the tank. The plan is to have nothing but the tank upstairs, everything else will be in the basement.

 

[Crit21]

Don't forget the loss you'll experience by running the lines over that distance. The drivers may be working too hard to make up for the increased resistance. Even a kink in the wire adds inductive resistance. I'd use the bare minimum of LEDs per driver if you have long lines.

 

[that0neguy1126]

The distance on the wire is minimal. Like 12 ft. added resistance is next to nothing.

 

[saltySamurai]

I've lost 2 out of 6 of the Chinese drivers - 1 I thought was a fluke; 2 is sounding like poor quality....

 

[ChrisB]

I've lost 2 out of 6 of the Chinese drivers - 1 I thought was a fluke; 2 is sounding like poor quality....

Maybe you should pay better attention when you set them down and you won't lose them. Don't see how you can blame the Chinese.

 

[hooked]

I have had one driver out of 7 go bad, since February.
Has anybody found a better dimmable driver for replacement?

 

[saltySamurai]

Maybe you should pay better attention when you set them down and you won't lose them. Don't see how you can blame the Chinese.

Because they should have designed in a ringer so that I could page them like when I lose my phone.

 

[QLe]

I have lost one three weeks ago, it wouldn't go on full anymore. I notice that the ones that are running on full are flickering at start up. I think I might have a install a half ohm resister instead of direct wire between the two connections.

 

[KhensuRa]

Any pictures of the finished units?

 

[N-dog]

does anybody have 3 leds left that they want to part with im looking for 2RB, and 1 CW.
Thanks

 

[saltySamurai]

QLE - what would the 1/2 ohm resistor do? I lost another 1 today - that makes 3 failures out of 6. It definitely wasn't heat - they were warm but were in an area that the heat could be dissipated (away from the LEDs). This one had been on 12 hours a day for 3 months. I'm running 18 LEDs in series on each of my drivers. Did we get a bad lot? I count at least 5 failures out of what, 17?

 

[saltySamurai]

N-dog - I have 2CoolBlue and a Cool White that you can have. I'm also thinking of placing a small order for additional LEDs...

 

[ZenMan]

QLE - what would the 1/2 ohm resistor do? I lost another 1 today - that makes 3 failures out of 6. It definitely wasn't heat - they were warm but were in an area that the heat could be dissipated (away from the LEDs). This one had been on 12 hours a day for 3 months. I'm running 18 LEDs in series on each of my drivers. Did we get a bad lot? I count at least 5 failures out of what, 17?

I think you have too many LED's in each string. I know the specs say you should be able to run 20 LEDs in each string, but I'm running 9 LEDs per string and haven't had any driver issues. I bet your drivers will last if you could rewire your strings so that you don't have more than 14 LEDs per....