LED Constant voltage driver wiring question?

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metic

Well-Known Member
Hi Rollitup, I've purchased myself some 24v Samsung Led strips along with a "ELG-200-24" and was wonderin if i could wire them in parallel like this? as they have 2 sets of molex connectors on each strip 2x negative and 2x positive. (im thinkin this will reduce the amount of wire connectors? is this okay to wire up like this?)

Thanks guys!

pic attached.
 

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M

MedicinalMyA$$

Well-Known Member
metic said:
Hi Rollitup, I've purchased myself some 24v Samsung Led strips along with a "ELG-200-24" and was wonderin if i could wire them in parallel like this? as they have 2 sets of molex connectors on each strip 2x negative and 2x positive. (im thinkin this will reduce the amount of wire connectors? is this okay to wire up like this?)

Thanks guys!

pic attached.
Click to expand...
 
Rocket Soul

Rocket Soul

Well-Known Member
I wouldnt advice to go that route. It means that you have 200w going thru the first strip (hot connectors!). And if the strips are closely matched to 24V you may see some voltage drop; light intensity diminishing the longer you go down the daisy chain. Try dividing them in at least 2 groups of parallel connections. If you see intensity dropping then go up to 3-4 daisy chains.
For 24V strips: a nifty trick is to use a 48V driver 2 two strips in series. Also a 48 V driver would have secondary uses for other voltages; a 48V driver can do 2 24V strips but a 24V driver can never do more than one, no matter how you connect it
 
Prawn Connery

Prawn Connery

Well-Known Member
I concur with @Rocket Soul . But if you must use that 24V driver, then I would suggest you wire the last strip in the chain back to the driver to feed the strip chain at both ends. That will reduce voltage drop, as well as high current over the connectors. Molex connectors usually have a rating of 9A and that ELG-200-24 will put out close to that (or more), so you run the risk of over-currenting (burning out) the first connectors in the chain unless you also wire the last connectors in the chain back to the driver to form a loop.
 
Rocket Soul

Rocket Soul

Well-Known Member
metic said:
Hey champs! thanks for the replies, i've gone back to the drawing board and decided to move the positive and negative wire onto separate strips instead on going directly into one strip to try and stop the chance of the first strip gettin 200w of power directly through it, would this make any difference? Thanks!

@Prawn Connery @brazzik25 @Rocket Soul
Click to expand...
No. You still got about 9 amps going thru the first positive connection and the last negative connection. Im not sure if it would solve the voltage drop. Maybe but i dont think so. If this is the way you wanted to go you shoulda gotten a cc driver for serial connection.

Wait....
its a bit late here so i might be dumming; but i think youll actually end up worse than originally. I think youll have around 9 amps passing thru each of the strips. The closer to the first strip in the daisy chain the more power going from positive to positive connector: on the first strip youll have 1/10 of the power going thru the diodes, 9/10 going from positive connector to other end positive connector to feed the rest of the strips. First strip negative side: just that 1/10 of the power that went thru the diodes. Next one in the chain you have that 9/10 coming from positive from the first strip: 1/10 goes thru diodes the rest 8/10 going from one +connector to the + connector on the other side of the strip. 2nd strip negative side : takes the 1/10 from the first strip and the 1/10 from second strip diodes for 2/10 of the amps. See the pattern? 9+1, 8+2 etc: each strip seems like it takes the full amps of the circuit thru the trace connecting the connectors if you add the positive and the negative sides together. Is it me or does this look like the worst way possible? Sorry, no shade, i know your trying to get your cables management right which is a good endeavour. I hate huge parallel connections, made several rats nests of cables myself. But i think this aint the way.

just get one big wago, 6 or more. Then do what you did on the first but only 2 strips per daisy chain. Or prawns suggestion.


Edit: thought about it a bit more; no, its not the worst way just another bad way. First connections being the worst. Also like to compliment OP on doing the exact right thing: try first with your own reason and creativity, but then getting someone to check up on it. Kudos. Sorry if my original reply sounded savage.
 
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Prawn Connery

Prawn Connery

Well-Known Member
Rocket Soul said:
No. You still got about 9 amps going thru the first positive connection and the last negative connection. Im not sure if it would solve the voltage drop. Maybe but i dont think so. If this is the way you wanted to go you shoulda gotten a cc driver for serial connection.

Wait....
its a bit late here so i might be dumming; but i think youll actually end up worse than originally. I think youll have around 9 amps passing thru each of the strips. The closer to the first strip in the daisy chain the more power going from positive to positive connector: on the first strip youll have 1/10 of the power going thru the diodes, 9/10 going from positive connector to other end positive connector to feed the rest of the strips. First strip negative side: just that 1/10 of the power that went thru the diodes. Next one in the chain you have that 9/10 coming from positive from the first strip: 1/10 goes thru diodes the rest 8/10 going from one +connector to the + connector on the other side of the strip. 2nd strip negative side : takes the 1/10 from the first strip and the 1/10 from second strip diodes for 2/10 of the amps. See the pattern? 9+1, 8+2 etc: each strip seems like it takes the full amps of the circuit thru the trace connecting the connectors if you add the positive and the negative sides together. Is it me or does this look like the worst way possible? Sorry, no shade, i know your trying to get your cables management right which is a good endeavour. I hate huge parallel connections, made several rats nests of cables myself. But i think this aint the way.

just get one big wago, 6 or more. Then do what you did on the first but only 2 strips per daisy chain. Or prawns suggestion.


Edit: thought about it a bit more; no, its not the worst way just another bad way. First connections being the worst. Also like to compliment OP on doing the exact right thing: try first with your own reason and creativity, but then getting someone to check up on it. Kudos. Sorry if my original reply sounded savage.
Click to expand...
For a 24V/8A driver (192W - he says he'll run the XLG-240 at around 200W) the theoretical distribution of current will be:
first connector gets 8A
second connector gets 8A-0.8A=7.2A
third connector gets 7.2A-0.8A=6.4A
fourth gets 5.6A
fifth gets 4.8A
sixth gets 4A
seventh gets 3.2A
eighth gets 2.4A
ninth gets 1.6A
tenth gets 0.8A

However, because the parallel circuit is not even – it gets longer with each additional strip – the path of least resistance means there will be voltage drop-off towards the end of the circuit with a consequent drop-off in current, which will not be evenly distributed to each strip. It will also depend on the thickness of the trace of each strip (thicker trace = less resistance)

The moral of the story is for the OP to do what's already been suggested. Try to keep parallel circuits as even as you can.
 
Rocket Soul

Rocket Soul

Well-Known Member
Prawn Connery said:
For a 24V/8A driver (192W - he says he'll run the XLG-240 at around 200W) the theoretical distribution of current will be:
first connector gets 8A
second connector gets 8A-0.8A=7.2A
third connector gets 7.2A-0.8A=6.4A
fourth gets 5.6A
fifth gets 4.8A
sixth gets 4A
seventh gets 3.2A
eighth gets 2.4A
ninth gets 1.6A
tenth gets 0.8A

However, because the parallel circuit is not even – it gets longer with each additional strip – the path of least resistance means there will be voltage drop-off towards the end of the circuit with a consequent drop-off in current, which will not be evenly distributed to each strip. It will also depend on the thickness of the trace of each strip (thicker trace = less resistance)

The moral of the story is for the OP to do what's already been suggested. Try to keep parallel circuits as even as you can.
Click to expand...
Yes, and on the minus side he would get the same bu in reverse order. Thats a lot of power just going thru a small copper trace which i dont think is really meant to take that much, even if its only 24V.
 
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