Other brand drivers

Been using this search feature and running into pages long of off topic subjects. I want to start looking into other brand drivers other then meanwell. That’s all I’ve ever used but now that I’m getting deeper into strips interested in trying out some different cheaper brand drivers. Any suggestions to look into?

Inventronics are efficient and reliable like mw, their is also harvard&philips that have lower wattage options

I second the above two comments. Inventronics definitely make good drivers.
If you're still looking for other options then I suggest you look at the specs of whichever brand you're considering. The power factor (efficacy) of the driver is important. I believe most MeanWell HLG versions operate at around 94% efficacy, i.e. a 6% loss of power, which is good.

What's possibly even more important is how safe the driver is. I would stay away from any high-power driver that isn't UL certified. CE certification is a start but UL is much more thorough. UL is much more expensive to carry out and maintain so non-serious brands likely skip this altogether. Plus, a poorly built driver wouldn't pass UL's standards.

Supporting UL documents/certification should be available by the manufacturer, like this (see bottom of the page):

Powerland is another brand that gives top performance, problem is that both powerland and inventronics seems hard to find in low numbers, always high MOQ

Im looking at lower wattage options to split up my 660/730/uva strips. I was planning on running them all on one driver. I was going to go with the 120h c350. 4 strips per fixture splitting 100 watts...I’ve been to a couple of those sites and I see it’s a little more complicated then I thought finding a “good” driver that price and specs work for me

budman410 said:

Im looking at lower wattage options to split up my 660/730/uva strips. I was planning on running them all on one driver. I was going to go with the 120h c350. 4 strips per fixture splitting 100 watts...I’ve been to a couple of those sites and I see it’s a little more complicated then I thought finding a “good” driver that price and specs work for me

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Isn't that a high voltage driver? What voltage are you running your strips at?

Each strip is

• Voltage: 58V/200mA-400mA

budman410 said:

Each strip is

• Voltage: 58V/200mA-400mA

Click to expand...

So you're planning to run them in series for high voltages? Personally I would opt for parallel to keep the DC voltages low, or keep them to 2 strips per series max. Getting zapped with 200V+ DC is not gonna be a fun day, even with low current.

Another thing I was thinking about but more so if a random failure happened. I was considering the apc 35 350 too. The supplier suggested the 120 350.

If I decide that the 120 driver is too powerful, would that be a good driver to use with strips or an boards... I need enough drivers for 12 fixtures. So I was thinking of buying 12,120 350C drivers and 12 apc 35 350 or 700. Still figuring out these constant current drivers

budman410 said:

Each strip is

• Voltage: 58V/200mA-400mA

Click to expand...

What strips are you using? Link?

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I got 2 660s and 2 half uva/730 on each fixture. With the uva/730 getting a lower wattage driver

With wiring 2 of these strips in series should I use the apc 35 500 or 700

budman410 said:

If I decide that the 120 driver is too powerful, would that be a good driver to use with strips or an boards... I need enough drivers for 12 fixtures. So I was thinking of buying 12,120 350C drivers and 12 apc 35 350 or 700. Still figuring out these constant current drivers

Click to expand...

Why not bundle all different channels from all fixtures and run it thru the same drivers? Or one driver per 3 or 4 lights? The smaller drivers are more expensive per watt, and with dimmers as an extra as well means you clock in a lot of $ in psus if you want 3x12 drivers.
The xlg series have a lot of really nifty drivers with wide voltage range which means one driver could be used for any channel; if you got say 6x 240 units you could power 6 lights per driver, with individual dimming on each channel, for 40w per channel per light. 300$ and you got the 12 lights done, but in 2 section instead of individual control.

Rocket Soul said:

Why not bundle all different channels from all fixtures and run it thru the same drivers? Or one driver per 3 or 4 lights? The smaller drivers are more expensive per watt, and with dimmers as an extra as well means you clock in a lot of $ in psus if you want 3x12 drivers.
The xlg series have a lot of really nifty drivers with wide voltage range which means one driver could be used for any channel; if you got say 6x 240 units you could power 6 lights per driver, with individual dimming on each channel.

Click to expand...

I was still looking at meanwell drivers, in parallel with a constant voltage driver the highest I seen was 54v. Each strip is 58v.

budman410 said:

I was still looking at meanwell drivers, in parallel with a constant voltage driver the highest I seen was 54v. Each strip is 58v.

Click to expand...

How hard do you want to run each board?

The strips, 2 of the 660s 25-30 watts each. The 730/uva strips 15watts each

So one 58V uv/far red per light, or more in series?
If only 1 per light then maybe the xlg-150-m would be a good match. 2100mA at 62V. It wouldn't do a full 15w per tray but it would do 12.

660: you could either connect them in series and try to match them up with a 116ish driver, I know the xlg-240-m would be a close match, probably also the hlg240-2100 but it might be a bit tight. You could get 8 strips on @30w on those drivers so 1 driver per 4 lights.
Or do the same as with the previous strips; use an xlg150m for 5 strips/2.5 lights @30w or do 3 lights per driver with the strips @25w.

Rocket Soul said:

So one 58V uv/far red per light, or more in series?
If only 1 per light then maybe the xlg-150-m would be a good match. 2100mA at 62V. It wouldn't do a full 15w per tray but it would do 12.

660: you could either connect them in series and try to match them up with a 116ish driver, I know the xlg-240-m would be a close match, probably also the hlg240-2100 but it might be a bit tight. You could get 8 strips on @30w on those drivers so 1 driver per 4 lights.
Or do the same as with the previous strips; use an xlg150m for 5 strips/2.5 lights @30w or do 3 lights per driver with the strips @25w.

Click to expand...

Each fixture will have 2 660s and 2 uva/730..each strip is 58v. Anything past 2 in series would be high voltage. I’ll look those drivers up but I would have to wire them in parallel if I used one driver for 4-12 strips