parallel wiring led strips without wago's?

gddg said:

ok tried the d cell battery with the 240H 36B driver and the 4000k strips. They definitely burned brighter, instead of 7,2 watt now it was 28,7 watt, so the 42AB driver will probably be the solution!

tried the same driver and battery with the 3000k strips but it didn't make a difference.

i borrowed a manual digital multimeter to look if the drok multimeter works properly. I see a small difference the drok meter gives a 0,15 to 0,45 higher voltage reading then the manual multimeter.
I disconnected all the drok meters and used the manual mutlimeter to measure everything again

240H 36B driver without drok meter's measured with manual multimeter
1 row off 3000k strips is 36,2V and 3,69A and 2 row's are 35,7V and 5,94A

240H 36B driver readings from drok meter.
1 row off 3000k strips is 36,37V 4,3A and 2 row's are 36,16V 6,87A


I still don't get it why when i'm using 10 strips instead 20 the Amp drops almost half

theoretically the 6,7A from the 240H-36B driver should be evenly distributed and is doesn't need to matter if you're using 10, 20 or 100 strips, the more strips you use the less watt and heat they put out and the more efficient they will be, am i right??

very frustrating all of this

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gddg said:

i did some more testing.

connected the + and - opposing each other but as expected didn't make a difference

disconnected 5 strips and connected only 5 to the 480H driver they now max out at 70watt
potmeter closed 0% they burn at around 48 watt when i turn the potmeter 15% open they're at 70 watt. 15% to 100% full open they stay at 70w.

so i connected 10 strips at 0% they burn around 48 watt when i turn the potmeter 25-30% open they're at around 127w. 25-30% to 100% full open they stay at 127w

next i connected 20 strips at 0% they burn around 48 watt when i turn the potmeter 40-45% open they're at around 224w. 40-45% to 100% full open they stay a 224w.

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cobshopgrow said:

great to see it working.
seems youre allready around the sweet spot.

as long you have all strips connected and not only a few you should be fine going full throttle as the driver is the limit itself this will always limit the voltage somehow.

you can squeeze some more watt out of the driver by opening the voltage srew all the way.
dont think its needed in your case.

seems you have the voltage screw not fully open now and the drivers are working in contant current mode at about 100%.
simply keep it like that and make the rest with the potentiometer.
to not open the v. screw fully gives you a little safety when some strips get disconnected or else.
maybe even close the v. srew a tiny bit till you see a slight reduction in the watts/volts.

you can do the same afterwards for the current screw, turn it back as long it shows no reaction, if thats the case.
its hard to explain atm for me, both values influence each other always.
rule of thumb, take what you need form the driver and limit it a bit over the screws afterwards.

if you think you want the last watt out of your fixture you can open the voltage screw more/full later on.

congrats, fixture finished would say, ready to grow.

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gddg said:

Do you mean like this? and then the same with the 20 x 3000k strips and 480 driver ?

(please don't judge my paint skill's )

View attachment 4620872

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metic said:

Did you build this? What is the frame made out of, looks very clean!

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gddg said:

sorry for my late reply!
Yes i build the frame. It's made from aluminium U shaped profile's, dimensions 25mm x 25mm x 25mm and 2mm thick, in the middle just a flat 20mm x 3mm alu strip for firmness and at the ends i used L shaped profile's 25mm x 25mm 3mm thick. At both ends and the middle off the U profile's i used rubber cable grommets for wiring and too keep the wire's in place.



I want to thank everyone for their support, i probably couldn't have pulled this off without you guys help!
Last round the plants where unfortunately already too big to change my old cob frame for the new strip frame without damaging the plants.

This new round the strips are finally in use.
Started with 2 packs off sannie's jack herer reg ended up with 16 female's, selected the 12 best looking.
They are 15 days in flower, hope they will grow/stretch at least another feet.

View attachment 4729150
View attachment 4729151

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