Driver of a Mars Hydro 300

Greenginko

Greenginko

Member
IMG_20171227_184133.jpg
A friend got an old mars 300 and i wanted to reuse his fixture and drivers and swap out the led board for some citizens. I found 4 drivers in the fixure which all say 50W. But the voltage and the Ampere are only given in an interval. The amp range is minimal but the voltage range looks a little big...
Should I just plug it into the wall without the led panel hooked up and measure the ampers and volts with my multimeter?
Thanks in advance!
 
Ginger Viking

Ginger Viking

Well-Known Member
Looks like a cc driver. One driver will run at least 2 1212s or 1216s in series. You may be able to max the driver out with 3 but you will be cutting it close on the voltage. I think a better fit would be the new 2ft gen 2 EB strips. 5 will fit on each driver and they would be running slightly under nominal amps for the strips with a higher lm/w than the cobs.
 
Ginger Viking

Ginger Viking

Well-Known Member
The Veros would be very underdriven and you would have fewer of them than the citis. The Veros are a better chip but the citis are a better match for the drivers.
 
whitebb2727

whitebb2727

Well-Known Member
Ginger Viking said:
The Veros would be very underdriven and you would have fewer of them than the citis. The Veros are a better chip but the citis are a better match for the drivers.
Click to expand...
Not much difference in the new citi and then 7 Vero.

Ill give the edge to Vero but not much and as you said the citizen are a better fit.
 
Ginger Viking

Ginger Viking

Well-Known Member
After looking closer at the Vero numbers you can max out the driver with the B version veros. Luminas will be good on it too. All options are better than the mars as is. The key is maxing out each driver.
 
Ginger Viking

Ginger Viking

Well-Known Member
I don't know if you plan on using the existing fixture for cooling or if you are just using the drivers and building you own fixture with heatsinks. That will probably come into play also. Although pretty much any COB you pick will be running very soft and shouldn't take much to cool them.
 
Yodaweed

Yodaweed

Well-Known Member
Greenginko said:
View attachment 4064898
A friend got an old mars 300 and i wanted to reuse his fixture and drivers and swap out the led board for some citizens. I found 4 drivers in the fixure which all say 50W. But the voltage and the Ampere are only given in an interval. The amp range is minimal but the voltage range looks a little big...
Should I just plug it into the wall without the led panel hooked up and measure the ampers and volts with my multimeter?
Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
are you reusing the heat sinks too?
 
Randomblame

Randomblame

Well-Known Member
I would use 2 Citi1212 on each driver for ~68v/600mA as recommended above.
That's ~41/45w per driver nearly the same as when you use one Bridgelux Vero29c per driver but with better spreaded heat.
The mars heatsinks are usually small, sometimes its only a metal sheet with two fans, better spreaded heat would be much easier to cool.

With 8 1212 COB's it would be ~180w at the wall which is nearly the same as the original 300w Mars units takes.
 
Moflow

Moflow

Well-Known Member
Randomblame said:
I would use 2 Citi1212 on each driver for ~68v/600mA as recommended above.
That's ~41/45w per driver nearly the same as when you use one Bridgelux Vero29c per driver but with better spreaded heat.
The mars heatsinks are usually small, sometimes its only a metal sheet with two fans, better spreaded heat would be much easier to cool.

With 8 1212 COB's it would be ~180w at the wall which is nearly the same as the original 300w Mars units takes.
Click to expand...
Here's one I made earlier.....
20171230_115703.jpg 20171230_115739.jpg
I was able to fit 3 x 1212s on this driver as it's slightly different but you get the picture.
There's probably no need for active cooling but I'd bits n pieces lying around.
An uber efficient veg light @Greenginko !
20171230_115905.jpg
 
GreenTools

GreenTools

Well-Known Member
The only gripe with all of those chinese lights is that the drivers,etc. are low quality and usually die much sooner than a more reputable manufacturer item would. Had my experiences with those type of lights in the past...always contacting the manufacturer for replacement parts ......getting parts and then another piece would die....
 
Kkesu

Kkesu

Active Member
Ginger Viking said:
Looks like a cc driver. One driver will run at least 2 1212s or 1216s in series. You may be able to max the driver out with 3 but you will be cutting it close on the voltage. I think a better fit would be the new 2ft gen 2 EB strips. 5 will fit on each driver and they would be running slightly under nominal amps for the strips with a higher lm/w than the cobs.
Click to expand...
Running them at .55-.6 amps though, you may need 3 just to fire with the 36v chips, you could probably even fit 4 on it.
 
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