DIY led light for school project

[NewbieReefer11]

not without modifications. Those are built for constant voltage arrays..
2 MAIN ways of driving LED's
1)Constant voltage (ok for low wattage diodes (sub. 1A)
2)constant current (preferred)

already listed the power supplies depending on IF you run each puck alone or 2 in series..

Assuming each puck is 50W
24V 200W switching power supply..
If you want to be safe or think you might add a puck in the future go w/ 24V 300+W
Meanwell LRS-350-24
https://www.alliedelec.com/product/...VjJyzCh2qgAA3EAkYASABEgIY0_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds


Guesstimating one will never drive the total puck at more than 67W..or shouldn't..

Again.. the difference between needing the 200W and 350W is based on things you control not what "is"...

How would I go about dimming with this powersupply and how would you wire if?

 

[NewbieReefer11]

How would I go about dimming with this powersupply and how would you wire if?

I saw you had this further up would this wireing work? What is the board you solder the drivers to called? And would the ldd-1000h drivers be ok? And would 5 be enough for the 200 watts? Or would I need more boards?
Thabks

 

[oreo54]

Well, technically you don't dim the power supply..
LDD's are dimmed using Pulse Width Modulation..
Normally 5V since this is easy from the "logic" part of the dimmer/programmers (3.3V as well)

The driver is rapidly turned on/off at a certain time frame simulating dimming..
50% PWM means the lights are on 50% of the time, and off 50% of the time.
So it's a control circuit..

Easiest way is to find a dimmer that natively outputs 5V PWM.
Corallux storm, Steves LED Hurricane, Bluefish and bluefish mini.
As mentioned earlier most of the OTHER types like you listed actual do the same thing BUT do it to the ACTUAL power going to the diodes using MOSFET "switches"
This isn't done w/ constant current drivers in general..

Inside is a logic circuit you can program that uses 5v PWM (usually) onto the gate of a MOSFET.
The "hack" just adds a wire to that gate (bypassing the use of the MOSFETS to tap off the 5V and use it directly on an LDD..

you need either 10 drivers or 20 drivers.. mA determined by what the diodes can "take"
1000mA on the violets would, more than likely, make them very short lived..

Most list the board as an LDD drive board..
Again Ijust recommend the HW ones so you can just direct solder them and not use the boards..for now.

 

[NewbieReefer11]

Well, technically you don't dim the power supply..
LDD's are dimmed using Pulse Width Modulation..
Normally 5V since this is easy from the "logic" part of the dimmer/programmers (3.3V as well)

The driver is rapidly turned on/off at a certain time frame simulating dimming..
50% PWM means the lights are on 50% of the time, and off 50% of the time.
So it's a control circuit..

Easiest way is to find a dimmer that natively outputs 5V PWM.
Corallux storm, Steves LED Hurricane, Bluefish and bluefish mini.
As mentioned earlier most of the OTHER types like you listed actual do the same thing BUT do it to the ACTUAL power going to the diodes using MOSFET "switches"
This isn't done w/ constant current drivers in general..

Inside is a logic circuit you can program that uses 5v PWM (usually) onto the gate of a MOSFET.
The "hack" just adds a wire to that gate (bypassing the use of the MOSFETS to tap off the 5V and use it directly on an LDD..

you need either 10 drivers or 20 drivers.. mA determined by what the diodes can "take"
1000mA on the violets would, more than likely, make them very short lived..

Most list the board as an LDD drive board..
Again Ijust recommend the HW ones so you can just direct solder them and not use the boards..for now.

So would this work? But x2 (one set for each 2 pucks?)
.350A (violets will last a LOT longer)
1.00A
.750A
1.00A
.500A

(This stuff is way more complicated that I thought it would be)

 

[NewbieReefer11]

So would this work? But x2 (one set for each 2 pucks?)
.350A (violets will last a LOT longer)
1.00A
.750A
1.00A
.500A

(This stuff is way more complicated that I thought it would be)

I costed it out and it will be at least $100 just for the drivers wow this is going to be expensive

 

[oreo54]

Yea.. 4 pucks $140 US
10 ldd-hw $60
36V 350W power supply $34
Controller $25-$100
Heatsinks $40 (est)

asst parts..heatsink plaster (thermal silicone), wire $20

>$300US for about a real 200W light..

comparison unit w/ some pluses some minuses.
https://sbreeflights.com/sbox-reef-lights/10-sbox-extreme-32-wifi.html

you could switch to plain 3W emitters and cheap drivers off eek bay
https://www.ebay.com/itm/10x-50x-DI...hash=item2617fbe30e:m:mmF5cUP69X4TnBxd4q4jnTw

20W worth for$2.37

 

[NewbieReefer11]

Yea.. 4 pucks $140 US
10 ldd-hw $60
36V 350W power supply $34
Controller $25-$100
Heatsinks $40 (est)

asst parts..heatsink plaster (thermal silicone), wire $20

>$300US for about a real 200W light..

comparison unit w/ some pluses some minuses.
https://sbreeflights.com/sbox-reef-lights/10-sbox-extreme-32-wifi.html

you could switch to plain 3W emitters and cheap drivers off eek bay
https://www.ebay.com/itm/10x-50x-DI...hash=item2617fbe30e:m:mmF5cUP69X4TnBxd4q4jnTw

20W worth for$2.37

Hi again sorry for the delay. I have decided to instead use the 32 inch sbox design from sbreeflights. I have already priced the LEDs for it but don't know what drivers or power supply I will need. Thanks

 

[oreo54]

Yea.. that sort of complicates things..
You have 2 choices ..1)High DC voltage output drivers which generally use 10V dimming
As an example.. take this driver series.
http://download.siliconexpert.com/pdfs/2018/11/1/15/1/9/351337/mwe_/manual/hlg-185h-c-spec.pdf
"B" is dimmable "AB" series is current adjustable AND dimmable
(Note: AB drivers are not easy to find)
https://www.trcelectronics.com/View/Mean-Well/HLG-185H-C700AB.shtml
Note the output voltage ranges.
Say you choose a HLG 185-c700B
Strings wil be run at 700mA and need to be long enough to fit into the 143-286 voltage range..
So like a minimum of 36 diodes per string..
2 drivers would be a minimum though you could run them all on one driver..
hlg 185h-c500B. . w/ it's very high voltage output at 400V maximum it can power 111 diodes w/ a 3.6V(f) each.
NOTE: I'd never recommend this method unless one is VERY confident w/ these high of DC voltages..
Besides the high voltages it is very difficult to troubleshot large series strings of LED's
It's very hard to find exact retail equiv. to what's inside the "black boxes" (max 100V -ish DC @ 550mA)
You picked 110 diodes.. how you want to divide them into channels determine if you run like above..
or below.

2)Dc/ DC drivers and a power supply but you have many smaller strings..

 

[NewbieReefer11]

Yea.. that sort of complicates things..
You have 2 choices ..1)High DC voltage output drivers which generally use 10V dimming
As an example.. take this driver series.
http://download.siliconexpert.com/pdfs/2018/11/1/15/1/9/351337/mwe_/manual/hlg-185h-c-spec.pdf
"B" is dimmable "AB" series is current adjustable AND dimmable
(Note: AB drivers are not easy to find)
https://www.trcelectronics.com/View/Mean-Well/HLG-185H-C700AB.shtml
Note the output voltage ranges.
Say you choose a HLG 185-c700B
Strings wil be run at 700mA and need to be long enough to fit into the 143-286 voltage range..
So like a minimum of 36 diodes per string..
2 drivers would be a minimum though you could run them all on one driver..
hlg 185h-c500B. . w/ it's very high voltage output at 400V maximum it can power 111 diodes w/ a 3.6V(f) each.
NOTE: I'd never recommend this method unless one is VERY confident w/ these high of DC voltages..
Besides the high voltages it is very difficult to troubleshot large series strings of LED's
It's very hard to find exact retail equiv. to what's inside the "black boxes" (max 100V -ish DC @ 550mA)
You picked 110 diodes.. how you want to divide them into channels determine if you run like above..
or below.

2)Dc/ DC drivers and a power supply but you have many smaller strings..

I was thinking just doing it like on viparspectras with two channels (one white one blue)
However I found this would two of these work and have 6 channels total?

 

[oreo54]

That's a constant voltage power supply.. Black boxes are run at constant current..
General configuration is 50-100V DC 550mA to run 28 or 27 series diodes

27 x 3.6-ish = 97.2V