Replacement driver

First of all, I understand I bought a budget light from a budget company but I am where I am lol. Over the last year I have purchased a few Mars hydro FC 6500 lights. I had one driver go bad on me last fall and I actually had a good experience getting the driver covered under the warranty and getting it sent out in a timely manner. I just had another driver fail on me and am not getting as quick of response. Question is does anybody know if I could find an aftermarket driver that would work for these lights? There is obviously a quality issue with the drivers.

I shopped around and ended up getting this driver.

Get the specs off the failed driver, you should be able to match it up.

Phytoplankton said:

Get the specs off the failed driver, you should be able to match it up.

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Here's a picture with the specs off of the driver. The one that was suggested above is 600 watts. I went on to inventronics website and they do have 680 watt drivers. I don't know which one I should pick though. Nothing seems to match the numbers exactly and I'm not sure which numbers would cause problems with the fixture.

If they have an e-mail contact send them the picture and I bet they can recommend one. Luckily I've never had one fail.

Phytoplankton said:

If they have an e-mail contact send them the picture and I bet they can recommend one. Luckily I've never had one fail.

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Good call ill try that.

Struck out with both inventronics and meanwell. I could not get somebody at either company to help me choose a driver based on the numbers printed on my driver.

terpsareforme said:

Struck out with both inventronics and meanwell. I could not get somebody at either company to help me choose a driver based on the numbers printed on my driver.

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Id try a regional distributor instead, they are usually keen to sell and help.

terpsareforme said:

Here's a picture with the specs off of the driver. The one that was suggested above is 600 watts. I went on to inventronics website and they do have 680 watt drivers. I don't know which one I should pick though. Nothing seems to match the numbers exactly and I'm not sure which numbers would cause problems with the fixture.

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Thats a constant power driver with voltage range of 38-56V. Afaik meanwell dont make anything like that but you could maybe splitt the fixture in two section and use 2x xlg-h drivers, i think theres some 320w with meanwell that should be compatible.

Otherwise just hit the inventronics datasheets on their website and look for that voltage range (or larger) Their web isnt as user friendly as meanwells, i dont know their drivers aswell as meanwell.
The other thing you could do is to ask Mars about the forward voltage of their strips and match them to a MW.
Or maybe try with an inventronics distributor, allways better to go to someone who will sell it to you direct, they will be a lot more helpfull as they will want to sell it directly.

would recommend 800 watt upowertek TLD-800-C18A-XYZ.
or

Typical of Mars product support IMO.
Looks like a Sosen driver which I'm not a fan of. I'd suggest a couple smaller drivers also and split the load of half the LEDs but I like availability too.
The uPowerTek product is probably impossible to source around the US and it looks like a Sosen driver so I'd avoid it on looks alone lol!

Terpsareforme, do you have a voltmeter with which you could measure the voltage that's being output on one of your lights thats working? This would help narrow down the actual voltage your LEDs need.

sfw1960 said:

Typical of Mars product support IMO.
Looks like a Sosen driver which I'm not a fan of. I'd suggest a couple smaller drivers also and split the load of half the LEDs but I like availability too.
The uPowerTek product is probably impossible to source around the US and it looks like a Sosen driver so I'd avoid it on looks alone lol!

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How come you're not a fan of Sosen?