another question regarding my new supplement lights. the back bars (5) will be running 3 gen 7 vero13 4ks at 500mA each. I am powering my lights using meanwell ldds. I want to avoid running 15 500 mA drivers just to power 16 watt white leds. I have extra 1500mA ldds so I was planning on running the 3 vero 13s on a parallel circuit. I have ordered 600 mA fuses and inline holders for the fuses to protect the emitters from running on too high a current. does this sound doable? thanks, steve
parallel circuit gen7 vero13s.
- Thread starter surgeon1
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I strongly don't recommend paralleling any LED (just use more volts on the driver input). If you must, try to use balancing resistors to linearize any differences between the three COBs.
surgeon1
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was worried you would say that. the problem is that the fv on the cobs is 36 I think so I don't know what driver has that kind of voltage. at least I now know that I have plenty of control channels.
bblumberg
Well-Known Member
Depends on whether you are comfortable having high DC voltage around your tank. You can easily get high voltage DC power supplies from Meanwell and others, e.g., the HLG-320H series can do in excess of 400V at 500 mA. However, I am not convinced that this is an inherently safe setup around our tanks.
I had the bright idea some years ago to get the so-called DreamChip COB LEDS (3 in series) and power each channel with a single HLG dimmable driver (HLG-80H-C700B). It worked briefly, but the chips were not the best quality (some dead channels) or colors and I had a lot of trouble getting dimming to work properly. I wasted a lot of time and money playing with this, in contrast with how easy my first LED build was (using single LEDs and LDD-H drivers).
After a lot of frustration with this setup, I was persuaded by O2surplus to get rid of the high voltage around my tank and replaced the LEDs with BlueAcro COB LEDs, running 3 on each channel of Meanwell LDD driver boards and controlled by a Bluefish Mini. All powered by a single Meanwell HEP-600-54. An expensive lesson, but this has been working well for almost 2 years.
In your case, I'd probably go with the Meanwell LDD solution, with each chip on its own LDD at whatever current you prefer (those chips can handle a lot more than 500 mA). You can get LDDs a lot cheaper from Mouser and other electronics suppliers than from the usual LED vendors.
I had the bright idea some years ago to get the so-called DreamChip COB LEDS (3 in series) and power each channel with a single HLG dimmable driver (HLG-80H-C700B). It worked briefly, but the chips were not the best quality (some dead channels) or colors and I had a lot of trouble getting dimming to work properly. I wasted a lot of time and money playing with this, in contrast with how easy my first LED build was (using single LEDs and LDD-H drivers).
After a lot of frustration with this setup, I was persuaded by O2surplus to get rid of the high voltage around my tank and replaced the LEDs with BlueAcro COB LEDs, running 3 on each channel of Meanwell LDD driver boards and controlled by a Bluefish Mini. All powered by a single Meanwell HEP-600-54. An expensive lesson, but this has been working well for almost 2 years.
In your case, I'd probably go with the Meanwell LDD solution, with each chip on its own LDD at whatever current you prefer (those chips can handle a lot more than 500 mA). You can get LDDs a lot cheaper from Mouser and other electronics suppliers than from the usual LED vendors.
Kampo
Active Member
why not run one bigger vero instead of 3 in parrell? or BETTER look into luxeon "fresh fish" cob. very even spectrum I use one over my fresh tank and its the best White cob i've ever used.
