Help with Driver and COB

Redoctober

Well-Known Member
Okay so this isn't my first COB setup but it's not a kit this time, I assembled all the parts myself, and it's not working.

Here are the basics:

Driver: Mean Well HLG-240H-C1050B [output voltage 236v, constant current]
COBs: Citizen CLU048-1212C4 36v (actually it the Fv is 34.6v but let's round up to 36)
COB holder: Ideal 50-2204CT (With silicon thermal pads)
Wire: 18awg solid core 600v
COBs are wired in series
No Dimmer currently

According to my calculations, this driver should power 6x 36v COBs in series right? [236v/36v = 6.55]
It only powers 5, and barely.
I have 2 banks of 3 COBs, and when I add more than 3, like 4 or 5, they get way dimmer with each additional COB. Is this supposed to happen?
I thought constant current meant that it delivers the same current to each COB until the entire chain doesn't have enough power to light up at all - like all or nothing. Is that not how it works?
I'm going crazy, what have I done wrong?

Update: Just did the same experiment and swapped out the Mean Well Driver for my MAU5-V driver (ZPE PF-P250CC-C140-S-DM) which I know for a fact runs 5 CXB3590s, and it wouldn't even light up the 5 Citizen COBs, and only dimly lit 4.
I'm going insane over here! Can't figure this out!
 
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Redoctober

Well-Known Member
Edit: Okay, I figured it out. So the COBs are actually 52v COBs not 36, I meant to order the 36v ones and my mouse made a mistake ;)

So the moral of the story is, don't order COBs at 4am!

Interestingly, I now have a HLG-240H-C1050B 1.05 amp driver powering 3 of the 52v COBs
and the ZPE 1.4 amp driver powering the other 3 COBs and the brightness is visually, nearly identical.

The outputs should be 72.8w vs 54.6w, but I can barely tell the difference. Makes me wonder if I should always opt for the lower amp drivers from now on
 
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