Mean well hlg 185h driver does not go beyond 50 watts

I have a problem with my self-built LED

I use the Mean well HLG-185H-20B with 15 x Bridgelux eb series gen 2 - 19.5 volts - 1400 ma max - 560mm

1 x Mean well HLG-185H-20B
10 x Bridgelux EB series 2.0 - BXEB-L0560Z-35E2000-C-B3 - 19.5 volts - 560 mm - 3500k
5 x Bridgelux EB series 2.0 - BXEB-L0560Z-50E2000-C-B3 - 19.5 volts - 560 mm - 5000K

The driver draws no more than about 50 watts from the wall, no matter how many strips i connect to it.
I have used several other combinations 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 strips 15 strips
While when I turn 1 on it,.... it runs at 38 watts, so at max


Is the driver broken?, ore do I have the wrong one (on the driver see pic; for north america only, and i'm using it on 220v europe)….. have really tried everything hard wire, soft wire, + & - one side, + one side – one side, ect


The only thing I do not use is the dim wire, so I did not connect a potentiometer

Who can help me?
I did it with translate, sorry for mistakes in the text.

Thanks!

I have connected them in parallel with plus and minus on one side.




Driver, results below



See here results;

1 strip running at 38 watt





2 Strips running at 52 watt




15 strips running at 49 watt

no, they just hang loose, see image

Not sure as no decent pics of connections from driver. Should be:
+ Driver to + on strip and vice versa for negative side.

Yes I did that, see images

Input 20v to led


input 220 to driver

ground that sucker before you get zapped

Yes when it work, I don't have ground contact where i'm building it. its a old house

But they light up, right? Could it all be an issue with your watt meter? Ive seen them give funny readings, especially on un grounded frames. But usually give a higher watt reading

Yes they just work (see image), only they do not get warm at all. And if I connect one to it, it is much brighter and quickly warm to hot. The meter works well with other devices on the indicated amount of watts, I have tested it with other devices without ground. is it not because I do not use a potentiometer?

I think you should hook up a pot/dimmer and see what happens.
My next thought with this is that the driver is dimming itself to 50w because there's nothing on the dimmer circuit?

yes I think I will order that.

It only remains weird.
I read everywhere that without a potentiometer it just has to run at 100%

wezzel said:

yes I think I will order that.

It only remains weird.
I read everywhere that without a potentiometer it just has to run at 100%

Click to expand...

Yes its supposed to, i have digital dimmers and my lights go to 100% when they lose power.
It was just a thought about that being an open circuit there or something. I cant recall seeing anyone use them without one.

yes I'll also order them, thanks for your info.
Maybe somebody else knows something else and if not, I'll have to call digikey where I bought them.

Typical Fv at 700ma is 19.5v. max is 21.1v. The drivers capped at 20V

Should always allow extra voltage when using btype drivers.

Each strip should draw about 1050 ma at 20v. 700ma x 15 strips in parallel = 10.5 amps.

It should work unless there is significant voltage drop in the wire or connections. Voltage checks would really help! You should probably get a cheap DMM if you don't have one. Double check all wiring and connections. Post a diagram or good pics of the wiring if you can.

wezzel said:

yes I think I will order that.

It only remains weird.
I read everywhere that without a potentiometer it just has to run at 100%

Click to expand...

Correct, should be 100% with the dimmer leads not connected. 100k ohms or higher on the dimmer wire should give 100% power.

1212ham said:

Each strip should draw about 1050 ma at 20v. 700ma x 15 strips in parallel = 10.5 amps.

It should work unless there is significant voltage drop in the wire or connections. Voltage checks would really help! You should probably get a cheap DMM if you don't have one. Double check all wiring and connections. Post a diagram or good pics of the wiring if you can.

Click to expand...

I agree, you need to check amps and voltage on the DC side to figure this out.

Are you jumping from strip to strip instead of a run from the driver lead to each strip. Bc if you did. You lose voltage. Significant voltage actually.

Each strip is only getting 620mA that driver is maxing out. 7.8A 7.8 ÷15=0.62 so they will work. You need to run from the driver to each post and neg. From each strip. You cant go in one side and then out the other to the next strip of you are. There will be almost 3vdc drop if you run through the strips. Usually they last strip or half strip doesnt light. So if you are change it to each strip connected to the driver leads. I know theres 15. Just step it down. To like 5 each going to the driver with wagos.

Yeah I agree with everyone else as well. You need a meter to check the drivers output voltage.

Sorry for the late response, I had to buy a multimeter like you said

the problem is that the more strips I connect to it, the more the voltage goes down.
see pictures

1 2 3 strips

1 strip 20.12 volt
2 strips 19.79 volt
3 strips 19.37 volt

15 strips

10 strips 3500k & 5 strips 5000k 18.49 volt

amps on 15 strips

1 strip 3500k 099.8 mA
1 strip 5000k 0.137 A, so 137.0 mA

10 strips 3500k & 5 strips 5000k 2.24 A

This is why the lamp only draws 50 watts from the wall.
The voltage is too low.

The driver should still just give 20 volts 9.2 amps right?




I had contact with digikey today. they are going to send me a new one

Does anyone use the 20b driver for the bridgelux eb gene 2 series 19.5 volts?