-boring 'ol 230w 154lm/w led strip build

Dave455

Well-Known Member
More playing around. Have one of these lighting some seedlings. Forgive the crap cable management.

View attachment 4093693


4 power levels using supplied driver..measured with a killawatt:
26w
24w
19w
17w

Also... measured back of supplied driver temps... 120F in the center of the driver... Hot!

Not sure it's a great idea to lay the drivers directly on the heatsinks that are cooling the strips.
might lower light a bit
 

psychedelicdaddi

Well-Known Member
I'm still slightly confused as to how the switches work, or rather how I know what mode they're in without having a way to measure.
All of my driver's switches are in this position, so I'm assuming that will be the '26w' mode?
(I realise it's difficult to see in the picture, but both switches are pushed up as you look at it in the picture.)
Fully pushed into the center of the board is all on, fully away towards the edge is minimum drive, then idr the in betweens.
 

psychedelicdaddi

Well-Known Member
More playing around. Have one of these lighting some seedlings. Forgive the crap cable management.

View attachment 4093693


4 power levels using supplied driver..measured with a killawatt:
26w
24w
19w
17w

Also... measured back of supplied driver temps... 120F in the center of the driver... Hot!

Not sure it's a great idea to lay the drivers directly on the heatsinks that are cooling the strips.
What power are you using? I didn't have any issues until I turned the drivers to max
 

psychedelicdaddi

Well-Known Member
It's on max power.. 26w. It's one section on the driver that's 120F+, with most of it still above 100F.
i see, i never measured the temps but a day or two of having it on max with no pc fans on the heatsink, i noticed it was very hot so i turned it down, bought a few large pc fans 180mm or 200mm. Installed them and a 12v power supply. Now i dont worry, everything is cool to the touch, even on max.
 

Lucky Luke

Well-Known Member
Mine came in today and I have a simple wiring question for you guys.

The black and red go to the strips id assume? Reds positive id also presume?
'
That leaves a Blue and Brown at the other end. So I wire this to, lets say an extension cord with the end plug cut off? This would have 3 wires though a Blue brown and the yellow/green one. Just ignore that or can I purchase extension cords with just the two plug pins? or am I better off just purchasing a few meters of cable and plugs that doesn't have the yellow/ green?
Can I run multiple drivers off the one power cable. (240V were I'm at)

Sorry if its a confusing question. I'm confident to do whatever hook ups I need to do but I haven't done much electrical work, so I'm after a little bit of guidance and would rather do the one trip to the hardware/electrical store rather than my usual 3 or 4...

Thanks in advance.
 
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Hairiest_Stamen

Well-Known Member
Mine came in today and I have a simple wiring question for you guys.

The black and red go to the strips id assume? Reds positive id also presume?
'
That leaves a Blue and Brown at the other end. So I wire this to, lets say an extension cord with the end plug cut off? This would have 3 wires though a Blue brown and the yellow/green one. Just ignore that or can I purchase extension cords with just the two plug pins? or am I better off just purchasing a few meters of cable and plugs that doesn't have the yellow/ green?
Can I run multiple drivers off the one power cable. (240V were I'm at)

Sorry if its a confusing question. I'm confident to do whatever hook ups I need to do but I haven't done much electrical work, so I'm after a little bit of guidance and would rather do the one trip to the hardware/electrical store rather than my usual 3 or 4...

Thanks in advance.
yes... black and red to the strip.
other end to AC.
Yes you can run a bunch off of one power cable. You just need to size the wire correctly. I'm going to probably run 10 on one frame and they will all be tied together from one 110v source.

You can use the 3 wire bundle, but one of the wires is your "earth ground", usually a different shape, and that will be left unconnected. Probably a good idea to eventually tie that ground wire to your metal racking system. Or you can just pick up some 2 conductor wire/plugs.

Here's my sloppy wiring for some seedlings, you can see the earth ground is left unconnected because I just repurposed a cable with a 3 prong.

U should get yourself a cheap meter if you don't have one already.
 

Attachments

Lucky Luke

Well-Known Member
yes... black and red to the strip.
other end to AC.
Yes you can run a bunch off of one power cable. You just need to size the wire correctly. I'm going to probably run 10 on one frame and they will all be tied together from one 110v source.

You can use the 3 wire bundle, but one of the wires is your "earth ground", usually a different shape, and that will be left unconnected. Probably a good idea to eventually tie that ground wire to your metal racking system. Or you can just pick up some 2 conductor wire/plugs.

Here's my sloppy wiring for some seedlings, you can see the earth ground is left unconnected because I just repurposed a cable with a 3 prong.

U should get yourself a cheap meter if you don't have one already.
Awesome!
Thank you.
 

SonsOfAvery

Well-Known Member
Personally speaking I would highly recommend grounding/earth the whole thing with the third wire.
I'm not an electrical expert when it comes to these kind of things and a simple mistake with the wiring could be costly, so I tend to be cautious with DIY electricals and ground it as best I can..
 

Lucky Luke

Well-Known Member
Personally speaking I would highly recommend grounding/earth the whole thing with the third wire.
I'm not an electrical expert when it comes to these kind of things and a simple mistake with the wiring could be costly, so I tend to be cautious with DIY electricals and ground it as best I can..
So you would recommend the 3rd wire (green/yellow one) run from the wall socket and ground it on the light frame?
 

Hairiest_Stamen

Well-Known Member

Lucky Luke

Well-Known Member
Yes, That's the best/safest option. If a wire comes loose you're covered as long as all of your frame is connected electrically.

This is what I'm using:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XT6LK7Q/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Then just grab some pc power cables from ebay and makes it a bit more modular.
I didnt even think of using something like that.

I just got back from the hardware store, I should have everything I need. I'm going to use 4 of the strips in a 450mm x 450mm frame and save one strip for another application, either a mother light or for clones.


Thanks everyone for the help and tips. Ill post a pic when its done (probably a few days).
 

Lucky Luke

Well-Known Member
Frame came up OK, ive made a bit of a mess with the wiring so far. But everything can be taken apart preety easily and I think ive over engineered it. Just have to wait for the silicon to cure on the drivers (I'm using hi temp gasket silicon here- don't know if it will work but we will see). Zip tyres holding them in place whilst it dries.
Then tidy the wiring up as best I can and then glue strips in place.

Damn even one strip is bright!!!!

Q. Can you easily remover the connecting wire when its in place? I wanted to remove this strip after I tested it but it held pretty firm and didn't want to do any damage.
DSC01002.JPG DSC01003.JPG
 

Hairiest_Stamen

Well-Known Member
Frame came up OK, ive made a bit of a mess with the wiring so far. But everything can be taken apart preety easily and I think ive over engineered it. Just have to wait for the silicon to cure on the drivers (I'm using hi temp gasket silicon here- don't know if it will work but we will see). Zip tyres holding them in place whilst it dries.
Then tidy the wiring up as best I can and then glue strips in place.

Damn even one strip is bright!!!!

Q. Can you easily remover the connecting wire when its in place? I wanted to remove this strip after I tested it but it held pretty firm and didn't want to do any damage.
View attachment 4098210 View attachment 4098212
yeah... there is a small nub/button on the connector that you push in to release the wire.
 

SonsOfAvery

Well-Known Member
Frame came up OK, ive made a bit of a mess with the wiring so far. But everything can be taken apart preety easily and I think ive over engineered it. Just have to wait for the silicon to cure on the drivers (I'm using hi temp gasket silicon here- don't know if it will work but we will see). Zip tyres holding them in place whilst it dries.
Then tidy the wiring up as best I can and then glue strips in place.

Damn even one strip is bright!!!!

Q. Can you easily remover the connecting wire when its in place? I wanted to remove this strip after I tested it but it held pretty firm and didn't want to do any damage.
View attachment 4098210 View attachment 4098212
Nice! Looks like a pretty sturdy construction, what size space are you going to be lighting with it?
 

psychedelicdaddi

Well-Known Member
Frame came up OK, ive made a bit of a mess with the wiring so far. But everything can be taken apart preety easily and I think ive over engineered it. Just have to wait for the silicon to cure on the drivers (I'm using hi temp gasket silicon here- don't know if it will work but we will see). Zip tyres holding them in place whilst it dries.
Then tidy the wiring up as best I can and then glue strips in place.

Damn even one strip is bright!!!!

Q. Can you easily remover the connecting wire when its in place? I wanted to remove this strip after I tested it but it held pretty firm and didn't want to do any damage.
View attachment 4098210 View attachment 4098212
Question, where is the fifth strip? Also, looking goooood
 

Hairiest_Stamen

Well-Known Member
You guys are way ahead of me, time to kick it into 2nd gear!
Here's the start of my first panel (of 3 total) ... hit the heat sinks with some 240 grit, followed by some 600 grit. Probably going to use tape anyhow, so doesn't really matter.
Going to mount the strips and wire this up and do some PAR measurements to see if the 8 strips are going to do the job... then neaten up the wiring. The sinks are mounted to some 24" long 8020 extruded AL strips I had laying around. I can squeeze two, maybe 3 more strips on there if have to.
20180228_225110.jpg 20180228_221652.jpg
 
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