Parallel Wiring Samsung Strips. And Voltage Hogging

MidnightSun72 said:

150W LG driver 3.2 amps split over the strips in a 2S 4P configuration.

so for option two I don't really understand how you mean to go from + to - the red line at the bottom is already connecting the two strips in series is it not? Are you saying using the two inside connectors + and - is different to using the ones to the outside of the board?

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Prawn Connery said:

No, the bottom strips are NOT connected in series – you have bypassed both bottom strips by connecting the outer tracks so that neither strip will light up because neither strip is getting any current.

I think you need to have another look at those strips to see which terminals are which. The two inside connectors at the bottom are reverse polarity to the two outside conectors. From left to right they are: – + – +

My blue-line diagram shows the current entering the lower-right strip at the top + terminal, exiting through the bottom – terminal, entering the lower-left strip via the bottom + terminal and then exiting via the top – terminal in a series connection.

In your diagram the current follows the green line and does not go through any of the LEDs.
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I dont know why you drew it like that because you have the correct terminals connected in the pair of strips above it. Each pair of strips should be identically wired. The only difference is the top pair are fed by the driver, and the bottom pair are fed by the top pair in parallel.

Trust the guy who's done this before. In fact, trust the guy who designs these things

The strip frames I posted were drilled by hand. I used washers under the screw heads to hold the strips down. The trick is not to tighten them too much or they will warp the strips. Tighten them just enough so that the strips lie flat on the extrusion. FR4 does not conduct heat that well to begin with, so the best you can hope for is to have all the strips mounted fairly flat and not run them that hard.

So you are planning to run 8x strips off that 150W driver? That would be about right.

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Prawn Connery said:

Note the green line crosses the LEDs in this image – which means the current passes through the LEDs before jumping to the next strip. This is what you want. Does it make more sense now? You had it right to begin with but I think you got your + – terminals back-to-front when you drew the red lines at the bottom. You want to go NEGATIVE to POSITIVE at the bottom, and not + to – as you have drawn.
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MidnightSun72 said:

Yes I get it now. I was cutting the LEDs out of the path basically?
Edit: basically jumpering around them.

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Prawn Connery said:

Yes! You've got it!

The reason there are two + terminals on one side of the strip and two – terminals on the other is because those outer tracks are used to connect strips in parallel. The current enters the first + terminal and goes through the LEDs, but the current is also carried to the other + terminal so that it can be passed on to another strip. Once you know how the strips are wired it all starts to make sense. I will admit, it is a bit confusing until you wrap your head around it. I just said "trust me" coz it's a figure of speech . . . and because I've done this a few times before

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Prawn Connery said:

I've built a few of these H-Series strip frames in the past and this is how I did it with side-by-side strips. I wired two strips in series for 48V, and the rest in parallel.

Option 2 is almost correct. But what you need to do is at the very bottom, run – to + (instead of + to – as per your wiring diagram). This will provide one pair of series strips (48V) connected in parallel to another pair of series strips (48V).

If you use my example below, take the first pair of strips on the very far right, move it directly below the second pair of strips to the left. You can see now how the white (–) and red (+) wires from the strip on the left line up with the – and + terminals on the strip below, which is being fed by the driver.

Have a look at the image I have drawn at the bottom. Delete the red lines and insert the blue lines.

View attachment 4934271

This will work. The current flows from the driver through the first strip at the + terminal where it is connected in series to the strip next to it with the current flowing back to the driver through the – terminal. However, the bottom of this pair of strips is also feeding current to the pair of strips below which are wired exactly the same as the strips above. The current is being carried through the outer + track and returned by the outer – track.

Does it make sense now?
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