adding a digi W/mah meter to diy LED,

2cent

Well-Known Member
i found a guy on here put digital moniters for power mah etc on his led, aswel as wifi controls the lot all with Rpi. link
i just wondered if i can add somthing like this digi <-- to my light i dont wana get this as it seems reviews are shite lol, but example,
id like to be able to see my wattage volts Mah etc so i can see what i am dimming and running etc for cost and curiosity,

i dont wana run wifi etc just a moniter on my pannel on the power advice on a good one to get uk ?
 

2cent

Well-Known Member
think im figuring it out, the ring snaps over the cable, and the wires into the +- connection out tryin to see if i do this before or after the driver . il get there llol
 

Cousin_suds

Active Member
you have to split the black and white wires apart. you can't just put it around all the wires. I always put it around the black wire and before the driver. I have meters on all my diy lights.
 

2cent

Well-Known Member
you have to split the black and white wires apart. you can't just put it around all the wires. I always put it around the black wire and before the driver. I have meters on all my diy lights.
@ComfortCreator @Cousin_suds
amazin could one of you posts some pics id love to see them thats awsome!!
do you mean split the wires to run live to live neutral to neutral not all in live right ?
 

MidnightSun72

Well-Known Member
Lol I bought some these but then was too lazy to wire them in. Pay attention what type you get. Like AC or DC because that will change which side of the driver you have to install it on. Getting an AC one will let you know your totally actual wattage draw including driver inefficiency. If you get a DC one then you can only really measure what's going on at the PCBs.
 

ComfortCreator

Well-Known Member
I'm almost positive that they all have directions on the back.
Yes, a basic wiring diagram.
Anybody can do it trust me i am anybody.

There is a positive wire in receptacle.
There is a positive wire out receptacle.
And a negative wire in recptacle.
And a negative wire out recepracle.

In from driver.
Out to boards.

Wired exactly the same as if you never had them...it just gets placed in between as a monitor.
Powered by your inputs.

Use wago style connectors for in and out connections.

That is it. Get them!
 
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ComfortCreator

Well-Known Member
Had them plugs there so temperamental lol. I'll make them in line as it looks cool
I have the kwatt meter.

I dont want that, it displays wattage at the receptacle, not at the lights. It's exactly the same idea though. I want to know how many watts my lights are using, not how many watts are being pulled at the receptacle. A few fans and other things also run off the circuit I use.

So to be clear, both can work but I am not concerned if I am about to blow a circuit. I simply want to know how many watts my lights are using...individually.
 

The Dawg

Well-Known Member
I have the kwatt meter.

I dont want that, it displays wattage at the receptacle, not at the lights. It's exactly the same idea though. I want to know how many watts my lights are using, not how many watts are being pulled at the receptacle. A few fans and other things also run off the circuit I use.

So to be clear, both can work but I am not concerned if I am about to blow a circuit. I simply want to know how many watts my lights are using...individually.
:wall::wall::wall::wall::wall::wall::wall::wall::wall::wall::wall: :wall:

Its the blind leading the blind :roll:
 

ComfortCreator

Well-Known Member
:wall::wall::wall::wall::wall::wall::wall::wall::wall::wall::wall: :wall:

Its the blind leading the blind :roll:
If the outlet is far from the lights and you want to know how many watts each light is using...and adjust it...is the kilowatt meter the best choice? Have you ever used the product being discussed?

Imagine you might learn something while snickering in the corner with the other burnouts lol.
 

Cousin_suds

Active Member
heres my veg box. each row of leds have there own switch, so i can watch the wattage just by looking at the light. depends on my needs i can only turn two rows on. seed starting etc...vegbox.JPGvegbox-detail.JPG
 

CoronaWeed

Active Member
Ah, Ill toss in some more comments. Stay with me, I'm going to hit a couple of points. Some numbers below are semi theoretical as I know meanwell 240watt drivers pull way more at the wall.

A killawatt measures what you plug into it. you can plug an entire strip or just one light. It will tell you the watts being pulled by the light, in general. Those watts are generally what the light is pulling. The light won't pull more power on the DC side than the AC side, so it's generally a good guidance. Just because a driver is 240 watts, doesn't mean that it pulls 240 watts all the time. It pulls whatever the lights need. If dimmed to 50%, it's only going to pull 120 watts if your wiring is correct and your lights can pull that. So easiest would be, buy a killawatt, measure each light at certain knob turns, keep note of the watts it pulls and just use that as a guidance going forward. Plants aren't going to care about 10-20 watt differences and there's no reason to increase by 5-10 watts at a time or anything crazy like that.

The only reason to put a meter on the other side of the driver (DC side) would be to capture the slight drop due to efficiency. I run the below on my lights and honestly it was pretty much a waste of effort for the info it provides. Sure I can get the lights to the exact same watts, but I could have done that with a killawatt and made lines on my dimmer box all the same (at 50w, 100w, 150w, 200w, 240w etc).

1634613175453.png

Now back to the efficiency part. Yes, you lose some watts as the driver converts from AC to DC. Meanwell posts this efficiency on their website. Does this info really matter that much? Who knows, each person is different. If you know the efficiency already, do you need to see it in a part that could fail at any time? I am really debating pulling these little bayite meters as some reviews complain about longevity. It was nice to have but I set my lights and don't look at them again until it's time to flip. I'll use the height adjusters if anything looks stressed or needs more light.

Now using the below graph, as this is one of my drivers, I can confirm that efficiency, as I currently push them at 60watts and efficiency is definitely shit at around 80-85%. Killawatt reads 60watts as I push around 51watts out the driver. (I have 3 sets of lights at different colors pushing different watts, at different stages) You can also see that in the USA, if I push them at 100%, I'm only going to get a max of around 90% efficiency...knowing this, why do you need to know anything else. If the Killawatt is pulling 250watts at the wall, the DC side will only be around 225watts as this would be 90% efficient. Anything over 50% is going to be at about that same 90% efficient output.
1634613461011.png

In the end, your dimmer is in a box. If your light is 50ft from an outlet, move it closer to the outlet while you measure. Measure the watts with dimer at max. If max is 270watts, now dim it to 135 watts and make a mark on your dimmer box and you have 50% power. Now dim to 67.5 watts and now you have a 25% mark to make. This isn't rocket science, dim lights to the plants liking....unless you're so high that your plants tell you how many watts they want, this isn't going to make too much of a difference.
 
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