Can someone with electronics skills help me how to wire this up?

Strainhunters

Strainhunters

Member
Good evening fellas,

So I've got the all the materials I ordered,

40x 12vdc fan heatsinks
40x 1212 Cob's
40x power supply (1 per cob)

Questions:

  1. Basically what I wanted is to run these cobs at 1400mA (which will be 55W according to the table on the driver), is this the best option too in your opinion ?
  2. The yellow arrow pair (SEC) goes to the COB +/- right? Could I put a potenziometer in between these wires to adjust the power to the cob?
  3. Vaux is 12V right?
  4. The red/white/black arrow pair (PRI) goes to the wall 220V, correct? Would it be best to connect all these with wires between drivers or in some other way? Is it possible to put a dimmer for the cobs as well?
  5. Would it be better to just get longer wires and place these power supply's outside of my grow room, or doesn't it make a big difference?
  6. what is the (D) NC, (E) NC in the 6 pin plug for ? (I labeled them A,B,C,D,E,F)

I accidentally posted this topic before I finished it, sorry.
Thanks for all your help in advance!! :-P
 

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loftygoals

loftygoals

Well-Known Member
1. Your COBs are 36V. If you run them at 1400mA you get 1.4 * 36 = 50.4W. I think that is the max light you can get out of this combination of driver and COB.

2. SEC goes to the COB. I have no idea about a potentiometer. Maybe someone else knows?

3. Yes

4. Yes to the mains. You can connect them however you like. I would use several mains terminal boxes. Remember high voltage should not be exposed. I don't think you can put a dimmer here.

5. It will barely make any difference. Only 10% of your heat comes from the drivers and 90% from the COBs.

6. Not connected. They do nothing.
 
S

Site

Well-Known Member
With the drivers I'm guessing it depends if it's constant current or constant voltage...im guessing the potentiometer will just adjust the voltage, as V=IR if it's constant current...so the voltage may drop below the minimum required...and if it's a constant voltage driver, the will regulate the current to match the resistance...

I could be wrong but that's what logic tells me...migght be worth a Google :)
 
Strainhunters

Strainhunters

Member
Thanks for your anwsers!

I tried to google it, but could not find anything at all about this driver and how it's connected.

Any good source where I can get my anwsers from regarding the dimming of the fans and cob-power?

I watched @Growmau5 video's, but couldn't find my anwser there. Any other good sources of info about this? People always seem to use MW drivers..
 
loftygoals

loftygoals

Well-Known Member
Easiest option for dimming with those drivers (IMO) would not be dimming at all. It would be having half COBs on a circuit off the mains with a simple on/off switch, and the other half on another circuit.

That way you could switch off half your COBs at a time. You could wire it up so that alternate chips turns off when you flip the "dimming" switch.

You're only going to add 10% efficiency max by dimming these so I wouldn't bother personally. Too much effort for too little gain.

Other people are using Meanwell drivers with dimming features included. Your selected driver was much cheaper than the Meanwells but you've traded out having dimming included.

That said... you may be able to add a potentiometer in series with each COB. I would have thought that would dim the lights although it would also sap power and mean you're not really gaining any efficiency.
 
welight

welight

Well-Known Member
The driver appears to be constant current otherwise it would not have current table related to the DIP switches, the only way you may be able to dim it is on the primary side with a triac or phase cut dimmer, cant guarantee it would work without data on the driver, but you could try one and see, certainly a pot on the secondary wont work as it is does not appear configured for this
Cheers
Mark
 
S

Site

Well-Known Member
loftygoals said:
Easiest option for dimming with those drivers (IMO) would not be dimming at all. It would be having half COBs on a circuit off the mains with a simple on/off switch, and the other half on another circuit.

That way you could switch off half your COBs at a time. You could wire it up so that alternate chips turns off when you flip the "dimming" switch.

You're only going to add 10% efficiency max by dimming these so I wouldn't bother personally. Too much effort for too little gain.

Other people are using Meanwell drivers with dimming features included. Your selected driver was much cheaper than the Meanwells but you've traded out having dimming included.

That said... you may be able to add a potentiometer in series with each COB. I would have thought that would dim the lights although it would also sap power and mean you're not really gaining any efficiency.
Click to expand...
this makes sense but i suppose it may not give an 'even' spread of light over the space hes lighting...but would be much easier to just as you said wire in a switch or relay that can turn off half or even a third....
 
Strainhunters

Strainhunters

Member
loftygoals said:
Easiest option for dimming with those drivers (IMO) would not be dimming at all. It would be having half COBs on a circuit off the mains with a simple on/off switch, and the other half on another circuit.

That way you could switch off half your COBs at a time. You could wire it up so that alternate chips turns off when you flip the "dimming" switch.

You're only going to add 10% efficiency max by dimming these so I wouldn't bother personally. Too much effort for too little gain.

Other people are using Meanwell drivers with dimming features included. Your selected driver was much cheaper than the Meanwells but you've traded out having dimming included.

That said... you may be able to add a potentiometer in series with each COB. I would have thought that would dim the lights although it would also sap power and mean you're not really gaining any efficiency.
Click to expand...
Makes perfect sense!
I will go this route, and build a switch on 50% of the lights.
The 20 cobs will light a little over 1m2, so thats easily manageable with 10 cob's too.

I'm not yet sure tho if im gonna need this dimming feature yet as I had the idea to just SKIP veg, go straight into BLOOM. Consequtive 30-45 day runs. Do you guys have experience with this?
 
CobKits

CobKits

Well-Known Member
welight said:
The driver appears to be constant current otherwise it would not have current table related to the DIP switches, the only way you may be able to dim it is on the primary side with a triac or phase cut dimmer, cant guarantee it would work without data on the driver, but you could try one and see, certainly a pot on the secondary wont work as it is does not appear configured for this
Cheers
Mark
Click to expand...
couldnt you just flip the dip switches to dim?
 
Strainhunters

Strainhunters

Member
Dipping the switches on 40 drivers, yes technically I could..but I think I will prefer to toggle half the cob's with an on-off switch :-P

What would you wire in series and what would you wire paralel on this set-up?
I have 1.5mm flexible cable wire, will that do btw?
 
CobKits

CobKits

Well-Known Member
are you on the input side? that only 5A there are tons of toggles and rocker switches that would work
 
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