DIY LED Grounding Question

Hot Diggity Sog

Hot Diggity Sog

Well-Known Member
Hey everyone,

I'm building my 1st LED light and was wondering what everyone's thoughts are when it comes to grounding the heatsinks. My light will consist of (4) heatsinks and the picture shows the 2 outer ones. I'm not really understanding why the heatsinks/metal frame would need to be grounded.

20151124_092022.jpg
 
Banana444

Banana444

Well-Known Member
This is a good time to explain why there is a ground wire and why it is important. Electricity travels in a path on an electrical circuit. If there is ever a point where the electricity leaves the circuit, this is called a short. Electricity always travels the path of least resistance. If you were to become the short in a grounded circuit, you would feel a shock but likely be ok, due to the ground wire giving a shorter path for the electricity to travel out of you body. In other words if i touch a live wire with my fingers, the electricity might only travel in and back out of my hand, via the grounded frame. If it were ungrounded the electricity will look for any way out of your body. If you are barefoot, it will travel through your entire body (posibly your heart, killing you) and out your feet, to the ground. Gfci outlets are a nice safety device that i use, that are an added safety measure to not getting electrocuted.
 
Hot Diggity Sog

Hot Diggity Sog

Well-Known Member
In the event i dont keep the 2 drivers sitting on the heatsinks, then i should ground them it sounds like. Running a pigtail from one of the drivers ground down to the heatsink should be fine, yes?
 
B

benbud89

Well-Known Member
Always getting one step closer to placing my order, thanks to you, guys. Im not ordering till I know how to build it safely, and the driver to power 5 cobs at 50w is out. So Im waiting patiently, then I only have to do it once. Thank you, everyone.
 
robincnn

robincnn

Well-Known Member
Hot Diggity Sog said:
In the event i dont keep the 2 drivers sitting on the heatsinks, then i should ground them it sounds like. Running a pigtail from one of the drivers ground down to the heatsink should be fine, yes?
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Just because power supply sits on heatsink does not mean heatsink is grounded. The meanwell metal case power supplies are anodized. They do not conduct.
https://www.rollitup.org/t/mau5capades-builds-grow-journal.881192/page-3#post-11852964

If your driver does not have a ground wire then do not worry about grounding. If it has the ground wire then connect a wire between heatsink and ground.
If you heatsink is anodized then grounding not required but if you want you can scrape off a little anodized layer and then ground it.
 
SupraSPL

SupraSPL

Well-Known Member
If you have a remote driver, when the heatsink is grounded and there is an accidental current leak from the DC side of your drivers output, the driver will shut itself down, removing the possibility of the grower receiving a serious shock.

If you have drivers on board, when the heatsink is grounded and there is an accidental current leak on the DC side the driver will shut down. If the grounded heatsink becomes live with AC power, the AC breaker will blow, removing the likelihood of serious shock or even death.

If the heatsink was not grounded and was live with AC power, a GFCI could shut the circuit down if the grower touched it.

I do get a positive continuity test from the shell of Mean Well HLG drivers to ground, but I would not depend on that, better to use a dedicated grounding wire and screw.
 
hicpic

hicpic

Member
SupraSPL said:
If you have a remote driver, when the heatsink is grounded and there is an accidental current leak from the DC side of your drivers output, the driver will shut itself down, removing the possibility of the grower receiving a serious shock.

If you have drivers on board, when the heatsink is grounded and there is an accidental current leak on the DC side the driver will shut down. If the grounded heatsink becomes live with AC power, the AC breaker will blow, removing the likelihood of serious shock or even death.

If the heatsink was not grounded and was live with AC power, a GFCI could shut the circuit down if the grower touched it.

I do get a positive continuity test from the shell of Mean Well HLG drivers to ground, but I would not depend on that, better to use a dedicated grounding wire and screw.
Click to expand...
If I'm reading this correctly, I don't need a grounded heatsink. But if I was inclined to do so as an added layer of security, I would just connect the ac side ground wire of the driver with a screw to the heatsink?
 
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Hot Diggity Sog

Hot Diggity Sog

Well-Known Member
hicpic said:
If I'm reading this correctly, I don't need a grounded heatsink. But if I was so inclined to do so as an added layer of security, I would just connect the ac side ground write of the driver with a screw to the heatsink?
Click to expand...
That's my understanding and what I did too.
 
Malocan

Malocan

Well-Known Member
Hi,
i need help, i have a question about grounding.
I use Meanwell ELG-C drivers, this drivers serie dont have a ground cabel on the AC side, only 2 wires (blue and brown).
I checked the datasheet some days ago and noticed the driver is "Class I" . On wikipedia i read that i have to connect Class 1 device to earth cable.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appliance_classeshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appliance_classes

Furthermore Meanwell wrote on the Datasheet from the driver 2 Note on the last side:
◎
Note1: Please connect the case to FG for the complete EMC deliverance.
◎
Note2: Please contact MEAN WELL for input wiring option with FG.

No i wonder what should i do?
Should i just plug a cable with ground wire into the socket from the wall and then connect the ground wire with the metall case of the driver?
 

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benbud89

Well-Known Member
Since we have some experts in on this now, how does this look to you? In my hurry to cut out my messy background, I left out the place where I grounded the HS. hehe. Here it is again. :) Thank you everybody, it's been quite a challenging task to build this lamp
 

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