Mars SP3000 Driver too hot to touch !!!

Canadian Joe

Canadian Joe

Well-Known Member
Delps8 said:
"I also have it at 100%." - that's one reason why it's so hot. You're running it right at the limit of its safe limit so I'd expect it to get pretty warm. As other posters have recommended, you can aim a fan at the driver to help cool it and you might want to move the driver out of the tent. I grafted a long extension to the cable that goes from the driver and to the light. It worked out quite well.

Canadian, eh? I went to Mt A but live in SoCal now. Slight change of climate! :-)
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Ah, Sackville, long way from home. I’m on your side of the map, West Coast.
 
coreywebster

coreywebster

Well-Known Member
Canadian Joe said:
This light is really nice but that driver is so damn hot it’s making me nervous. It replaced the old style Mars lights with the fans built in and I’m pondering putting those blurples back in although I don’t want to. I may try a fan specifically for the driver. The Amazon ad said the driver is MeanWell but mine came with one that is MarsHydro brand. Are these drivers supposed to get too hot to touch?
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Not sure if Mars mount the driver to the top of the light but if so a lot of heat gets transferred from the light to the driver. If that's the case unmount it.
I suspend mine about a foot above lights and my fans blow across them. But even then the 320w meanwell driver gets pretty hot, the 240s not so much.
 
Mr.Head

Mr.Head

Well-Known Member
MarsHydrofactory said:
:hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug:
please do not worry, Mars Hydro Team has upgraded SP 3000 led grow light in 2022. The newest driver comes with a mars hydro logo.

And the new driver has a higher quality and longer lifespan:
1. High efficiency, up to 95%
2. The components are made of high-quality materials, with stronger heat dissipation. And the temp of the driver is lower than 60℃.
3. with a longer lifespan
4. stronger safety and more reliable, and it has passed the corresponding safety certification: ETL, CE...
5. It is specially customized for mars hydro led lights, which is more suitable.

Why not use the 300W Meanwell power supply? There are the following reasons:
1. The power of this Meanwell power supply cannot be adjusted too high when the voltage is low, it will reduce the lifespan.
2. When the current is too large, the heat generated by the internal components increases. It is easy to trigger over-temperature protection and burn out the power supply.

The newest driver is more suitable for mars hydro led lights. Hope you will like it.

Hope the above information is good for you and hope we could do some help for you.
We are here to help.
Best Regards! :hug::hug::hug::hug::hug::leaf::leaf::leaf::leaf:
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You make better drivers than what is arguably the industry leader? That's quite the claim. Prove it.

So you built a driver without the specific heat and safety limitations Meanwell deemed appropriate for a 300watt driver? 149 degrees is too hot. You can cook an egg on that.

They got a good name selling quality components after years of selling rubbish. Now they are doing the ol'bait and switch as shipping costs are increasing and inflation is kicking everyone's ass. Gotta keep them profit margins up.
 
D

Delps8

Well-Known Member
Canadian Joe said:
Ah, Sackville, long way from home. I’m on your side of the map, West Coast.
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The name threw me off a bit but I got a decent education there.

Now that the statute of limitations has (long) kicked in, I stayed there over one summer (1976) and planted a seed from a bag of weed. I must has grown it in a cup or something like that and I put it in the window sill of my room in the dorm. The Mounties wouldn't come on campus but someone saw it and I got a visit from RA and I had to take the plant down. I put it in a pillow case and threw it in the dryer. No doubt, there was no THC but, come to think of it, it probably wasn't that much different from the street weed back then.

Re. the hot driver - can you drop the wattage a bit?
 
Canadian Joe

Canadian Joe

Well-Known Member
Star Dog said:
I've a different light but it's a 300w led the meanwell driver is running at 100% and it's measuring 44/46c after running for hours.

The reply from Mars says the "upgraded driver" has the Mars logo does that mean its not a meanwell driver?
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Delps8 said:
The name threw me off a bit but I got a decent education there.

Now that the statute of limitations has (long) kicked in, I stayed there over one summer (1976) and planted a seed from a bag of weed. I must has grown it in a cup or something like that and I put it in the window sill of my room in the dorm. The Mounties wouldn't come on campus but someone saw it and I got a visit from RA and I had to take the plant down. I put it in a pillow case and threw it in the dryer. No doubt, there was no THC but, come to think of it, it probably wasn't that much different from the street weed back then.

Re. the hot driver - can you drop the wattage a bit?
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I think I’m going to raise it above the light and put a fan blowing on it. Mars said it can get up to 194 degrees Fahrenheit max and I’m at like 150 so I guess it’s lower than it’s max. It’s not affecting my temperatures in the tent at all. My main concern when any electronics that get hot is fires. Sometimes I leave over the weekend for days and let the system go and I’ve never had an issue and don’t want one.
 
D

Delps8

Well-Known Member
Canadian Joe said:
I think I’m going to raise it above the light and put a fan blowing on it. Mars said it can get up to 194 degrees Fahrenheit max and I’m at like 150 so I guess it’s lower than it’s max. It’s not affecting my temperatures in the tent at all. My main concern when any electronics that get hot is fires. Sometimes I leave over the weekend for days and let the system go and I’ve never had an issue and don’t want one.
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150 seems pretty hot but you're well under the 194 (!) max temp. If the SP 3000 maxes out at 150 then, assuming nothing else changes, then you should be in the clear.

An FYI — I unmounted the driver on my SP 3k and the dimmer had to be removed at the same time. One of the screws holding the dimmer was torqued pretty high and I ended up stripping the head of the screw.
 
Oddjob

Oddjob

Well-Known Member
I was going to pull the trigger on an SP3000 until I did some research and found out many units weren't even pulling 300w at the wall, more like 260-280! Now they aren't using Meanwells has prompted me to go with another company.
 
Oddjob

Oddjob

Well-Known Member
MarsHydrofactory said:
If there is any problem with the lamp, you can contact us and we will try to solve the problem of the light for you.
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No, I was thinking about buying the SP3000 but didn't when I found out when plugged into 120V outlet they were not pulling even close to 300W. Thank you for the reply tho...
 
PopAndSonGrows

PopAndSonGrows

Well-Known Member
Oddjob said:
No, I was thinking about buying the SP3000 but didn't when I found out when plugged into 120V outlet they were not pulling even close to 300W. Thank you for the reply tho...
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Consider the TSL 2000, it's cheaper anyway and it's just a "long" version of the TSW 2000 (wide version) that i use. Mine pulls 304watts, I can't imagine the TSL would be much different. They're hella discounted too since technically it's their older model. Get a clip fan to blow onto the drivers.
 
Oddjob

Oddjob

Well-Known Member
Billy the Mountain said:
I have an SP3000 and it pulls 300w as indicated by a Kill-A-Watt meter.
Iirc, it pulled ~ 285w before adjusting the pot on the power supply.
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Correct, you could adjust the pot on the Meanwell driver, however it's been replaced by the LG driver. I don't know if this has a pot or not.

mars-LG.jpeg
 
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