DiY LEDs - How to Power Them

sforza

sforza

Well-Known Member
lemmy714 said:
I have the artic alpine 11 plus and I was wondering what a good power source would be. Connection looks like this on it...
View attachment 3360502
Click to expand...
I just cut off the connection and spliced positive to positive and negative to negative. As I read in these forums, you can use just about any DC power source you have laying around to run the fan. I dug around and found some old cellphone chargers and a power block for an old cordless phone. I cut the end off of the power blocks and connected the wires to the exposed wires on the fan and hit the power and they all caused the fan to spin up. Look at the block on any old power sources you have laying around to see what voltage and amps the power supply is rated at. The power supplies that are 12 volts cause the fan to turn faster than the power blocks that are rated at a lower voltage, such as 7V or 5V. If the fan runs slower, it also runs quieter. I have read on this forum that 5V will run a fan fast enough to cool your heatsink. SupraSPL has posted pictures and links to a cheap open fan driver that he says work fine. I got a DYI LED kit that came with a similar open fan driver. You just hookup AC power to one end and out comes DC power for your fans on the other end.

Here is the link to the DIY LED kit. http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-shipping-DIY-LED-Grow-KIT-100W-full-spectrum-grow-led-chip-waterproof-led-driver-heat/1637606957.html
Look at the item and it has a picture of the little 12V 1.25A fan driver that they included with the kit. It drives the fan just fine.

SupraSPL made this post:
https://www.rollitup.org/t/diy-led-cree-cxa3070.789575/page-123#post-11215566

With links to various power supplies that could run mulitple alpine 11's.
 
SupraSPL

SupraSPL

Well-Known Member
sforza said:
This is what the vendor of the CREE cxa3590 is recommending for a driver:
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/12W-LED-Driver-Transformer-free-shipping-1000pcs/557414469.html
Is the 1.2 amps going to be pushing the COB too hard? I see .5 or .7 amps being recommended. Would the 1.2 amps cause the COB to burn our faster or are lower amps being recommended because at lower amps the light is more efficient? Is the idea that at at 1.2 amps one is not getting twice as much light as being run at .5 amps, but you are going to get more light out of the COB by running at 1.2 amps?

I think I have seen data sheet for the CXA3590 that shows the COB being run at 77V and it is different than when the COB is run at 36V. Is that correct?
Click to expand...
That is a nice driver, although expensive for what it can do. The .95 marking means that it is power factor corrected but driver efficiency could be 88-93%. At 1.2A the 77V class CXA3590 would be 77.9, dissipation 93.5W. The Cree vendor may not realize the intended application is to run the COB 12-20 hours/day, in which case you might want to run it at a lower current to get higher efficiency. It is not in danger of burning out at 1.2A as long as it is sufficiently cooled. But even more importantly, those high dissipation levels are probably Vero29 territory where you could use a $30 driver like this.
 
SupraSPL

SupraSPL

Well-Known Member
Ya I just cut the ends of the fans and make my own connectors but you can use these adapters to fit most 3 pin and 4 pin fans and make your fans quick connect. I recommend the smallest 5V adapter you can find, without going above the max current. I use these. But if you are running really hard on a Alpine11, you can bump it up to 7.5V and it might be a net gain in efficiency.
 
Greengenes707

Greengenes707

Well-Known Member
lemmy714 said:
I have the artic alpine 11 plus and I was wondering what a good power source would be. Connection looks like this on it...
View attachment 3360502
Click to expand...
I don't like to cut off the connector if I don't have to. Very small guage with few strands...it's hard to work with imo. When I use the pre installed connectors I always have a good connection. When soldering every fan together on a bigger build I have made some poor connections.

This is what I do/use.
-Get 3pin fan to 4 molex adapters...usually come 6"long, but get the open ones on the fan side...the closed ones will only work with 3 pins with out modification...the open work on 4pin too.
image.jpg
Pic above you can see what I mean by open...the pins are exposed and no side flanges...just one bottom one(or top based on how you looking)
- cut off one fan side connectoi so that you can solder it directly to you power leads. Now you will always have a quick connect on the fan supply and future installs will be seconds.
image.jpg
You can see the heatshrink where I soldered it direct to the supply. It's connected to one fan in that pic.
- connect the adapters to the fans...and then to the power supply. It's all in parallel. Just keep adding as long as you supply can handle the amps

image.jpg
3 fans in this one.

So instead of having a bunch of soldered small connections. There is only one solder point(per polarity) to have an issue with. And then quick changes anytime in the future.


EDIT: the connectors supra linked are nice...they are closed but accept 4 pin(hard to find). And nicley priced too.
 
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OldGrower

OldGrower

Well-Known Member
Newark discount code.

For anyone planning to order from newark before the end of march I
received this 15% off code for my last order. So as a thanks to all for the info
here is the code

THANKS44M

Gl all, OG
 
lemmy714

lemmy714

Well-Known Member
Thanks guys. My vero 29 is running perfectly. I'm now building a new vero 18 5000k for a 2x2 mother/clone tent. Any suggestions on a driver?
 
lemmy714

lemmy714

Well-Known Member
I went ahead and got that driver. If it is not efficient for the vero 18, please let me know so I can change it before I build it.
 
UKpeanuts

UKpeanuts

Well-Known Member
Looks okay, See if you can find the datasheet for it, that will tell you the PF correction ratio / angle etc..

Question to all: The driver above states 700mA @ 42Vdc. If the COB only requires 36V whats happening to the other 6V?
Can the driver 'decide' what voltage is best?
 
Greengenes707

Greengenes707

Well-Known Member
UKpeanuts said:
Looks okay, See if you can find the datasheet for it, that will tell you the PF correction ratio / angle etc..

Question to all: The driver above states 700mA @ 42Vdc. If the COB only requires 36V whats happening to the other 6V?
Can the driver 'decide' what voltage is best?
Click to expand...
It automatically puts out the right voltage if it is a constant current driver and within the voltage range of the driver. The driver pushes current through the cob at a fixed/constant amount(700ma,1400ma...), and the cost of going through it is the Vf of the cob.
You could think of it as the cob pulling from a possible 42v...only taking what it needs(~36v). So it's more like the cob deciding what to take, not the driver deciding what to give.
 
AquariusPanta

AquariusPanta

Well-Known Member
Greengenes707 said:
It automatically puts out the right voltage if it is a constant current driver and within the voltage range of the driver. The driver pushes current through the cob at a fixed/constant amount(700ma,1400ma...), and the cost of going through it is the Vf of the cob.
You could think of it as the cob pulling from a possible 42v...only taking what it needs(~36v). So it's more like the cob deciding what to take, not the driver deciding what to give.
Click to expand...
And if it is a constant voltage and current driver, at 42V at 700mA? I can't tell what the driver in question offers in terms of potential range because the photo isn't well-defined on my screen but if it is 42V constant, wouldn't that mean that the Vero would have to deal with too much potential, thus possibly cooking it?

It's my understanding that we don't wire COBs to wall inlets because 120V is too much for them, thus the need for a driver to break it down into more suitable ranges or bites.
 
Greengenes707

Greengenes707

Well-Known Member
AquariusPanta said:
And if it is a constant voltage and current driver, at 42V at 700mA? I can't tell what the driver in question offers in terms of potential range because the photo isn't well-defined on my screen but if it is 42V constant, wouldn't that mean that the Vero would have to deal with too much potential, thus possibly cooking it?

It's my understanding that we don't wire COBs to wall inlets because 120V is too much for them, thus the need for a driver to break it down into more suitable ranges or bites.
Click to expand...
where to begin

He listed the driver a few post up...it's constant current.

Leds are a current driven device...and why we use constant current drivers. AC power is a constant voltage source and why we don't use it also like tou said that voltage is too much for most leds. But you could wire up in series close to 115/120v and it might light up(let's not call it working).
using a constant voltage driver is just wrong from the beginning. But the concept of lighting up will happen. But the current and output will not be as steady as if cc and effect performce and life

If you put a cv driver of 42v to a vero29 it would want to draw the corresponding current to that voltage...off the top of my head over 2.5amps for the vero29. If the driver can supply that then things are fine and simply unsteady current operation will be all that happens. But if the driver can't supply that corresponding amperage it will have to adjust somehow...and when well out of parameters, it is never an adjustment that makes it better or even close to what just getting the correct type/size driver would be. But AC power will not adjust like a cv driver could.
 
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AquariusPanta

AquariusPanta

Well-Known Member
Greengenes707 said:
where to begin

He listed the driver a few post up...it's constant current.

Leds are a current driven device...and why we use constant current drivers. AC power is a constant voltage source and why we don't use it also like tou said that voltage is too much for most leds. But you could wire up in series close to 115/120v and it might light up(let's not call it working).
using a constant voltage driver is just wrong from the beginning. But the concept of lighting up will happen. But the current and output will not be as steady as if cc and effect performce and life

If you put a cv driver of 42v to a vero29 it would want to draw the corresponding current to that voltage...off the top of my head over 2.5amps for the vero29. If the driver can supply that then things are fine and simply unsteady current operation will be all that happens. But if the driver can't supply that corresponding amperage it will have to adjust somehow...and when well out of parameters, it is never an adjustment that makes it better or even close to what just getting the correct type/size driver would be. But AC power will not adjust like a cv driver could.
Click to expand...
Would it be correct to assume that six drivers wired in series to a single power cord, each pulling around 30V, wouldn't work here in the United States (120V standard) but that by wiring three drivers per power cord (in series, ~90V) could be accomplished?

My understanding is that 120V AC is supplied per inlet/outlet and that the components drain away the available current provided per room; essentially every outlet/inlet is ran in parallel from the main power line.

If I'm asking too many questions, please feel free to stop me ;-).
 
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