Thank I have a dodgy set of cobs or driver from cutter electronics

insert username

insert username

Well-Known Member
Idk if I can get any refund or anything for these but frst I tried to run 3x 36v cobs in series on a lcn 200w 180t driver, and they worked good for about 1 minute and then the dimmer stopped working and the light intensity declined to a flicker. No diodes in the cob failed so I figured it wasn't wired properly.. I undid all the wiring and retried this with no avail same thing happend, if I what's wrong. I took one cob out of the series and they did the same thing except I am pretty sure it fried one of the cobs coz like 12 diodes went out. They diddnt burn or sizzle or change colour so I'm unsure if this driver is failing me.here.or what.... just fyi it says on cutter website that you can use 2x cobs with this driver and a max of 3 so I dnt believe I exceeded limit.

Here's some pics of the rig with only 2 cobs atm
 
welight

welight

Well-Known Member
Please return these to us so we can assess the issue, if the driver or COBS are faulty we will be happy to replace. I suspect as the LSD drivers have had some dimming issues, it may be related but we can only know by testing the unit, did you have a resistive dimmer on the driver?
Cheers
Mark
 
insert username

insert username

Well-Known Member
Thank you Mark for the swift reply!! I will send them back asap. I'm unsure whether it's a resistive dimmer, it is a little white 1-10volt dimmer with a small dial that turns from low to high.
Cheers insert username.
 
BobCajun

BobCajun

Well-Known Member
I wonder what the failure rate is on Cutter's drivers, which are rarely if ever Meanwell but instead some other brand. This seems to happen at least once a week here. Might not be so bad if they weren't in Australia. Granted they always take them back but might not be a bad idea just to buy a Meanwell driver from Mouser. Haven't heard any complaints about Mouser stuff not working right. It's always Cutter. Could be no fault of theirs, but seems to happen with alarming frequency. Maybe more people just buy from Cutter, idk.
 
JorgeGonzales

JorgeGonzales

Well-Known Member
BobCajun said:
I wonder what the failure rate is on Cutter's drivers, which are rarely if ever Meanwell but instead some other brand. This seems to happen at least once a week here. Might not be so bad if they weren't in Australia. Granted they always take them back but might not be a bad idea just to buy a Meanwell driver from Mouser. Haven't heard any complaints about Mouser stuff not working right. It's always Cutter. Could be no fault of theirs, but seems to happen with alarming frequency. Maybe more people just buy from Cutter, idk.
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The only other driver problem I remember is PLC shipping out a batch of, you guessed it, LSD drivers that didn't dim. I don't know what kind of idiot company not only fucks up like that, but apparently has no QC in place to catch it, but I'd avoid them like the plague. Not worth saving $10 to end up with some ghetto Meanwell clone. IMHO. Meanwell has their reputation for a reason.

As far as Cutter, they are awesome. Mark sells a lot of different LED products from a lot of companies, way beyond our little community. They can't all be winners, but he is making it right. Honestly @insert username doesn't really sound familiar with basic electronics troubleshooting, so it's hard to know if this is user error or something else.
 
BobCajun

BobCajun

Well-Known Member
JorgeGonzales said:
The only other driver problem I remember is PLC shipping out a batch of, you guessed it, LSD drivers that didn't dim. I don't know what kind of idiot company not only fucks up like that, but apparently has no QC in place to catch it, but I'd avoid them like the plague. Not worth saving $10 to end up with some ghetto Meanwell clone. IMHO. Meanwell has their reputation for a reason.

As far as Cutter, they are awesome. Mark sells a lot of different LED products from a lot of companies, way beyond our little community. They can't all be winners, but he is making it right. Honestly @insert username doesn't really sound familiar with basic electronics troubleshooting, so it's hard to know if this is user error or something else.
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I wonder why he even sells inferior drivers. Doesn't seem worth the trouble but whatever. Maybe people specifically order the other drivers, who knows.
 
Greengenes707

Greengenes707

Well-Known Member
Cutter had the same batch PLC had.
PLC made a public announce and informed LSD. This was over a month ago.
All drivers were replaced free and ASAP. Also didn't ask for the originals back. Which most work perfectly at 100%.
Seems cutter is also making it right too, wouldn't expect anything different. As well as LSD has taken full responsibility themselves anyways and is a still apologizing. And will take care of cutter when he brings it up to them.

Me and @Positivity have been using LSD for 2 years now, dimming and non dimming. As well as the sample 200w dimming that PLC was given were dimming correctly and why bulk was ordered.
It was not until this years big orders that LSD started using different suppliers for dimming to keep up with demand and that is where it went south. But have been addressed and fixed.
They have a 5 year warranty and perform as good and better than meanwells. Cooler and everything else equal. Also there is a size difference. Shorter wider for LSD. Longer and narrow for MW.
LSD can come in any combination of Amps and Voltage
Meanwells are great electronics...shitty company to work with. Have had plenty of MW fail(10 from just my last batch...dimming issues and DOA's)...and good luck getting them to warranty them. It's the resellers that are absorbing meanwells warranty issues...not meanwell.

Here is the thread on the LSD driver...
https://www.rollitup.org/t/lsd-power-drivers.903704/page-4

I have ran both LSD and MW for years. How many years have you been running anything LED @JorgeGonzales?
Have you ever held a LSD driver or better yet, used one, to speak about them how you have? Have you ever ran a meanwell for a month straight? 6 months?A year? 2 years? 5 years? These are serious questions?
Have you grown with anything you go around recommending?
 
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Z

Zulunature

Well-Known Member
insert username said:
All good I live in Australia lol.

Very sorry for calling them.out publicly! Great company, fast delivery and awesome customer service .

Thanks insert.
Click to expand...

Oh now you are remorseful for calling out Mark @ Cutter in a public forum for DIY led builders.

Did you even run any rudimentary tests with a multimeter?

Just wow absolutely amazing that you'd do that before contacting Mark @ cutter through his website and getting the problem sorted as it would have been.

It's good to see others coming forward including GG all these guy's are honest people trying to help us DIYers create our perfect lighting and we owe them many thanks.

Yes from time to time a bad batch of drivers, cob's, whatever may occur, these faults aren't the fault of our distributors but the manufacturer.

If you want perfect I suggest you'll be paying one hell of a lot more as that sort of testing is what you do in places like Space X and even then things go wrong ... (Internal tank struts made outside not meeting standards.) .... see that $65M US blown to pieces for a 10K part.

I'd like to see Mark and some of the truly technical people put together some video's on how to test current, voltage, dimming on these drivers and cob voltage drop.. etc.
I know Growmau has done some on these area's however.

Anyway lucky for the OP that his local, so postage won't be that expensive, and it'll be all sorted within the week.
 
Greengenes707

Greengenes707

Well-Known Member
@insert username...You did nothing wrong. You bought a product, and said you got a bad one after testing it and it failing in front of your eyes...all fact. You didn't say anything directly bad about cutter specifically, or did you imply it. You explained what happen and how it happened. Those facts are true and things are what they are. Nothing more, nothing less.

To all that are trying to bash him for being open about it...he got a dodgy driver...FACT.
Someone could have contacted him before the issue, seeing as it's been know for over a month since it was brought up, and the aussie's had stock 3 weeks prior to that announcement. Didn't happen, and no one is jumping on them for not being preemptive in their issue remedying. It's going to be all is good cause things are being dealt with in the end rightly. All facts.

Lay off him. He is a builder(took initiative and DIY'ed) and an actual user over plants(actually using it to grows danks). And he will continue to buy things from cutter...who will continue to take care of him. So what is all your issues with that?

I root for team LED, don't care who it is or where they came from. Just like seeing great led grows kicking ass. Not sure what team you guys are on...but doesn't sound like team LED from this witch hunt.
 
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insert username

insert username

Well-Known Member
Greengenes707 said:
@insert username...You did nothing wrong. You bought a product, and said you got a bad one after testing it and it failing in front of your eyes...all fact. You didn't say anything directly bad about cutter specifically, or did you imply it. You explained what happen and how it happened. Those facts are true and things are what they are. Nothing more, nothing less.

To all that are trying to bash him for being open about it...he got a dodgy driver...FACT.
Someone could have contacted him before the issue, seeing as it's been know for over a month since it was brought up, and the aussie's had stock 3 weeks prior to that announcement. Didn't happen, and no one is jumping on them for not being preemptive in their issue remedying. It's going to be all is good cause things are being dealt with in the end rightly. All facts.

Lay off him. He is a builder(took initiative and DIY'ed) and an actual user over plants(actually using it to grows danks). And he will continue to buy things from cutter...who will continue to take care of him. So what is all your issues with that?
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Thank you greenegenes707 you have worded that way better than I ever could have. And your 100% right I have built another diy and used it for some danks, with a lcn 200 140t , same driver but a 1400mah version, and I was able to wire that up and run 4x36v cobs with it without any problems and it is still running perfectly but I had just attempted to build a second light at a different current with one less cob and it didn't work so well and I had no idea why it wasn't working. But Mark at cutter was very quick with great service, offering for me to send them back to be tested and replaced if necessary. I will definitely continue to buy from cutter electronics!!!!
 
Greengenes707

Greengenes707

Well-Known Member
insert username said:
Thank you greenegenes707 you have worded that way better than I ever could have. And your 100% right I have built another diy and used it for some danks, with a lcn 200 140t , same driver but a 1400mah version, and I was able to wire that up and run 4x36v cobs with it without any problems and it is still running perfectly but I had just attempted to build a second light at a different current with one less cob and it didn't work so well and I had no idea why it wasn't working. But Mark at cutter was very quick with great service, offering for me to send them back to be tested and replaced if necessary. I will definitely continue to buy from cutter electronics!!!!
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You're very welcome.
And exactly...@welight is on top of it and will take care of you.
Shit happens...but it doesn't have to hit the fan.
 
welight

welight

Well-Known Member
BobCajun said:
I wonder why he even sells inferior drivers. Doesn't seem worth the trouble but whatever. Maybe people specifically order the other drivers, who knows.
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Not sure what prompts you to believe our drivers are inferior, at this point I dont even know if the issue is the driver and will only know when its returned and tested. I can assure you we have sold literally hundreds of drivers to the grow community Pairiu, ZPE and LSD and have had as little or as many issues as Meanwell, based on what I have read here, The only issue that need concern you is if a problem exists we fix the problem as quickly as possible to create as little inconvenience as possible, all driver companies these days have 5-7 year warranty's, if you buy a driver that does not offer that, caveat emptor, our intention is to only sell drivers that offer that as a minimum. We accept many guys here dont have the knowledge to resolve issues that may be actual problems or something they have done wrong in assembly, either way we will do all we can to have happy customers
Cheers
Mark
 
BobCajun

BobCajun

Well-Known Member
welight said:
Not sure what prompts you to believe our drivers are inferior, at this point I dont even know if the issue is the driver and will only know when its returned and tested. I can assure you we have sold literally hundreds of drivers to the grow community Pairiu, ZPE and LSD and have had as little or as many issues as Meanwell, based on what I have read here, The only issue that need concern you is if a problem exists we fix the problem as quickly as possible to create as little inconvenience as possible, all driver companies these days have 5-7 year warranty's, if you buy a driver that does not offer that, caveat emptor, our intention is to only sell drivers that offer that as a minimum. We accept many guys here dont have the knowledge to resolve issues that may be actual problems or something they have done wrong in assembly, either way we will do all we can to have happy customers
Cheers
Mark
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Probably just coincidental that a few people have reported problems here recently with Cutter stuff. Seemed weird, that's all. But why use Pairui drivers in the Mau5 kit for instance. That's a Chinese manufacturer and they aren't even cheaper than Meanwell, so what exactly was the point? Who has posted on here saying Pairui drivers are great? Maybe they're okay, idk. Just why use them instead of Meanwell, the industry standard?
 
sixstring2112

sixstring2112

Well-Known Member
BobCajun said:
Probably just coincidental that a few people have reported problems here recently with Cutter stuff. Seemed weird, that's all. I mean why use Pairui drivers in the Mau5 kit for instance. That's a Chinese manufacturer and they aren't even cheaper than Meanwell, so what exactly was the point?
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maybe he pays less import taxes on other brands coming in from other suppliers ?
 
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