Finally built

G

Gorillaglue4u

Well-Known Member
I finally got my led light built using 9 cobs and 3 mean well drivers. This was my first time building one. Also this is my first time ever seeing led lights like this (I have some blurple lights). What should I keep an eye out for if the lights are not functioning proper? Such has humming sounds or lights dimmer or brighter then others. Also how do I know if the driver is turned up or down?
 
V

Viceman666

Well-Known Member
Gorillaglue4u said:
I finally got my led light built using 9 cobs and 3 mean well drivers. This was my first time building one. Also this is my first time ever seeing led lights like this (I have some blurple lights). What should I keep an eye out for if the lights are not functioning proper? Such has humming sounds or lights dimmer or brighter then others. Also how do I know if the driver is turned up or down?
Click to expand...
Id turn them on for few hours while youre at home the first few times just to see if everything works fine.. there is no moving parts so not likely to stop working if right now everything is good.. you may want to monitor the temperatures as well depending on how hard you run them but thats pretty much as simple as it gets.. good job! And would be nice if you can share a picture of your set up :-)
 
G

Gorillaglue4u

Well-Known Member
Viceman666 said:
Id turn them on for few hours while youre at home the first few times just to see if everything works fine.. there is no moving parts so not likely to stop working if right now everything is good.. you may want to monitor the temperatures as well depending on how hard you run them but thats pretty much as simple as it gets.. good job! And would be nice if you can share a picture of your set up :-)
Click to expand...
They have been going since 8 this morning it's now 2pm and still going I been in there a thousand times checking on it lol but so far so good. They don't seem as bright as I expected it to be compared to my 1k. And the temps have been staying around 74. Yesterday it hit 88 with my hps on.
 
V

Viceman666

Well-Known Member
Gorillaglue4u said:
But you don't want to see a picture lol it's nothing pretty compared to what some of the people here are doing.
Click to expand...
Lol its still light porn sometimes simple set up give idea to other! How hard do you run your cob (watt?) what drivers are you using? and also which cob did you use? Maybe that would help understand why they dont seem as bright as your hps.. but yes the heat difference is pretty noticeable lol
 
G

Gorillaglue4u

Well-Known Member
I'm running 9 cxm22 gen3 3500k 80cri with 3 mean well hlg-185h-48a
As far as how hard I run them I didn't adjust anything I plugged them up and that's what it is I don't have a way to test what the watt is at the wall
 
nfhiggs

nfhiggs

Well-Known Member
Gorillaglue4u said:
I'm running 9 cxm22 gen3 3500k 80cri with 3 mean well hlg-185h-48a
As far as how hard I run them I didn't adjust anything I plugged them up and that's what it is I don't have a way to test what the watt is at the wall
Click to expand...
Those are 52V COBs. Most likely the Meanwell came from the factory adjusted to 48V so I would guess that you are running them pretty soft at the moment. The driver is capable of only 3.9 amps and your COBs can take up to 2.25 amps each, so the driver can't over power them if all three are connected. Turn the voltage adjustment up until they stop brightening, then back it down to dim them just slightly so you have just a little headroom as they warm up. The Meanwells tend to run best when they are just under their max capacity
 
Last edited:
G

Gorillaglue4u

Well-Known Member
nfhiggs said:
Those are 52V COBs. Most likely the Meanwell came from the factory adjusted to 48V so I would guess that you are running them pretty soft at the moment. The driver is capable of only 3.9 amps and your COBs can take up to 2.25 amps each, so the driver can't over power them if all three are connected. Turn the voltage adjustment up until they stop brightening, then back it down to dim them just slightly so you have just a little headroom as they warm up. The Meanwells tend to run best when they are just under their max capacity
Click to expand...
I was looking at it yesterday trying to see what I had to do in order to see if they are dimmed down. There are 2 different things it looks like I can adjust. Would I adjust both of them?
 
Randomblame

Randomblame

Well-Known Member
There are two poti's on MW CV/CC drivers, the left one is for voltage and allows you to adjust it within ±5v, the right one is for current dimming and allow adjusting between 50 and up to 108%.
At first, you adjust the voltage poti to the point of max. brightness and let it right there.
For dimming use only the current poti on the right side. Turn clockwise to the end for max. brightness.
Do the same with the all 3 drivers.
A kill-a-watt meter is useful and cheap to get, so you can check the consumption of each driver. One HLG-185 fully turned on should pull at least 220w from the wall, maybe a little more.
Below is the datasheet.
You could also measure and compare the COB / heatsink temperature of each COB, they should be the same within a few degrees. This way you can determine if there are thermal runaways or not and if all COB's get the same current. Sometimes brightness differences are not visible with the naked eye.
From paper each CXM22 should need ~53v at 1,3A depending on Tj. which means each COB should run with ~69w.
 

Attachments

G

Gorillaglue4u

Well-Known Member
Randomblame said:
There are two poti's on MW CV/CC drivers, the left one is for voltage and allows you to adjust it within ±5v, the right one is for current dimming and allow adjusting between 50 and up to 108%.
At first, you adjust the voltage poti to the point of max. brightness and let it right there.
For dimming use only the current poti on the right side. Turn clockwise to the end for max. brightness.
Do the same with the all 3 drivers.
A kill-a-watt meter is useful and cheap to get, so you can check the consumption of each driver. One HLG-185 fully turned on should pull at least 220w from the wall, maybe a little more.
Below is the datasheet.
You could also measure and compare the COB / heatsink temperature of each COB, they should be the same within a few degrees. This way you can determine if there are thermal runaways or not and if all COB's get the same current. Sometimes brightness differences are not visible with the naked eye.
From paper each CXM22 should need ~53v at 1,3A depending on Tj. which means each COB should run with ~69w.
Click to expand...
I don't have a kill a watt and was looking online and don't see anything for 220v. But thanks alot I'm gonna give it a try when I get home. See if it gets any brighter
 
ANC

ANC

Well-Known Member
Gorillaglue4u said:
I finally got my led light built using 9 cobs and 3 mean well drivers. This was my first time building one. Also this is my first time ever seeing led lights like this (I have some blurple lights). What should I keep an eye out for if the lights are not functioning proper? Such has humming sounds or lights dimmer or brighter then others. Also how do I know if the driver is turned up or down?
Click to expand...
I'd make sure they are not run under voltage, if you turn down the voltage and look at the cob you will see it starting to flicker and light unevenly, that is a bad state for a COB to run in.
 
G

Gorillaglue4u

Well-Known Member
ANC said:
I'd make sure they are not run under voltage, if you turn down the voltage and look at the cob you will see it starting to flicker and light unevenly, that is a bad state for a COB to run in.
Click to expand...
I'll give it a check when I'm messing around with everything later today
 
Randomblame

Randomblame

Well-Known Member
Last edited:
InTheValley

InTheValley

Well-Known Member
The minimum for these cobs is 50 volts,

how are you even running them without the min volts? Im confused. I was told you cant run without the proper volts.

Im running 4 of these same cobs, but with 2x 185H-C1400Bs

they are rockin, love them,

Good luck bro.
 
Last edited:
InTheValley

InTheValley

Well-Known Member
you can only get 38watts out of each COB, 342 total watts from your setup..

I think i have the right, lol..
 
Randomblame

Randomblame

Well-Known Member
InTheValley said:
you can only get 38watts out of each COB, 342 total watts from your setup..

I think i have the right, lol..
Click to expand...
Nope!
You can turn up the voltage of an HLG-185H-48A to 53vdc, that's enough for 1.3A per COB, so up to 70w should not be a problem. Only with an HLG-185H-48B(no voltage regulator, fixed 48vdc) you would be right.
 
nfhiggs

nfhiggs

Well-Known Member
InTheValley said:
The minimum for these cobs is 50 volts,

how are you even running them without the min volts? Im confused. I was told you cant run without the proper volts.

Im running 4 of these same cobs, but with 2x 185H-C1400Bs

they are rockin, love them,

Good luck bro.
Click to expand...
They will light up well before 50 volts.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top