Pics of your driver panel mounting (w timers, dimmers + power strip).

Hi everyone

Wanted to get some ideas for how to clean up my pile of drivers and power strips. i keep my drivers outside my tent, so i currently have just been using a shelf with drivers resting on bakers racks, and running the cord for the dimmer underneath to make it easy to get at. the pot pokes thru one of the holes so i can dim it. power cords go down the back and into power strips on the ground, and dc wire runs out the back to the lights in closet/tents.

I have seen some super clean setups when people have multiple drivers mounted to plywood with really nice cable management.

im trying to figure out a nice layout for say 4 drivers each running into a power strip. each driver gets its own timer. (bc I like to offset the lights a tiny bit to minimize inrush) each driver also has a pot for dimming. and ideally i'd like to wire in those LCD screens for my parallel builds that are under 100V.

i was thinking maybe to build this inside a metal toolbox or something to clean it up and hide wires and just have the dimmers and LCD on the outside. could stick a little PC fan inside to keep cool. then was thinking, maybe a zombie PC case would look nicer? can find those for super cheap and would rather have an old PC sitting in my room than a pile of wires and wagos.

what do you all think? is there anything off the shelf that is easily modified?

give me some ideas please and thanks!

oh and for bonus, if anyone is properly running a grounding wire from your fixtures back to the AC ground wire on the driver, i would love to see how that is factored into the design. i do not currently have that on some high voltage series builds and realize its divine mercy that has kept me alive for the last 2 years. in the process of rebuilding everything now and doing it right which is why I ask.

dont ground your frame.
if that should be done menawell would have written some about it in a datasheet and prob would have released a propper application note,
as also would had foreseen a connector on the unit for it.
in contrary, menawell take quite some effort to isolate the primary from the secondary side as good it can.

on the input is a isolation transformer working anyway, the DC out have no tendency at all to float over the your AC ground.
so, grounding the frame adds no further protection in this case.
" Transformers that have a ratio of 1 to 1 between the primary and secondary windings are often used to protect secondary circuits and individuals from electrical shocks between energized conductors and earth ground. "

to ground your frame could cause more harm then good, imagine your neighbour drill in to the wall and hit your cable connecting a phase to gnd....

My driver is mounted to a wall. I located some plastic bushings about 1/4" thick. The driver is mounted on the bushings to where there's an air gap behind the driver to help cooling. My driver runs about 100°F.. Heavy duty power strip with 8 outlets. Intertek timer with two outlets mounted next to it.

cobshopgrow said:

dont ground your frame.
if that should be done menawell would have written some about it in a datasheet and prob would have released a propper application note,
as also would had foreseen a connector on the unit for it.

on the input is a isolation transformer working anyway, the DC out have no tendency at all to float over the your AC ground.
so, grounding the frame adds no further protection in this case.
" Transformers that have a ratio of 1 to 1 between the primary and secondary windings are often used to protect secondary circuits and individuals from electrical shocks between energized conductors and earth ground. "

Isolation transformer - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Isolated or Non-isolated?

With the rising awareness of energy saving and the significantly dropping cost of LED fixtures, LED fixtures have become more and more prevalent.

www.meanwell-web.com

to ground your frame could cause more harm then good, imagine your neighbour drill in to the wall and hit your cable connecting a phase to gnd....

Click to expand...

cool makes sense to me. figured it didnt matter for anything lower voltage but maybe was worth it for builds > 100V. my electrician buddy pretty much said the same as you, since i was extra careful w all my wiring/wagos and am using junction boxes and stuff that I am probably fine as is.

i just had that suggested to me by a few growers that saw I was using high voltage series drivers for a few fixtures (240H-C1050B). when the 2nd person randomly said it to me I figured it was worth looking into. glad to have further confirmation that i dont need to worry about it.

no prob .

same for drivers above 60V, "high voltage", no grounding of the frame.

the same transformer protection and optocoppler is used in these driver too.
"AC side will not flow to the secondary/DC side directly, "
even the voltage is higher, there will be still no tendency going that route, the DC out just looks after his coresponding partner.
therefore its btw not so easy to get a shock from the DC output.
you want to keep with what meanwell does, isolating the primary form the secnondary side with all their drivers.
epanding the AC side ground to your DC side output is a bit contraproductive, while it shouldnt cause harm in most cases (as long your ground is clean).

Beehive said:

My driver is mounted to a wall. I located some plastic bushings about 1/4" thick. The driver is mounted on the bushings to where there's an air gap behind the driver to help cooling. My driver runs about 100°F.. Heavy duty power strip with 8 outlets. Intertek timer with two outlets mounted next to it.

Click to expand...

air gap is good idea.

youre on 115V and pushing the driver hard (100%) i guess?

here is some good read.
"

• For the relation between lifetime and load, when the ambient temperature is 55℃ and load is operated at 100%, lifetime is about 35Khrs; however, if the load is reduced to 75%, the lifetime can be 1.6 times longer.

"

most meanwell is saw perform best at about 80% when using 115V, at 230V its a diff story.
the mentioned transformers resistance is a bottleneck at high A loads (115V means twice the A then 230V needing to go through the transformer windings).

Its a 56volt driver. Currently running at 49.1v. The actual temp of the driver in a room that's heated to 84°F is 98.6°F

I'm no where near a 100%.

safe temp then for sure, far below 50c, (da... Cs n Fs, just made to confuse the world).
sounds like all fits well in your setup.

still if ones drivers is running hot, above should be considered.

Cob faces, 114°F. 133mm sinks ~98°F

CXM22 chips. I made the mistake first buying COBs and got 120mm sinks. Cheaper. Out of 8 chips, I cooked one. I wasn't past the maximum case operating temperature but I was close. 20°. It was no biggie. Replaced a chip. But it cost $18(?).

Learning.... It took a a couple hundred bucks to replace the 120mm's with the 133mm's. I already had two 133mm out of 8. I've added two more pods for a total of 10. All 133mm. This stuff has to run as cool as you can get it.

I had grand thoughts of running fans on the sinks. But that's three more plug ins for three fan drivers that'll cover all 10 chips on mine. I don't have the power outlets to do as I can dream.