Mars Reflector 96 COB conversion - drawing more power than expected

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DamnSonDanson

New Member
Hey I need some help if anyone can provide it. Here's the story:

I modded a Mars Reflector 96 with six 3000k CXB2530s, two in series per 55w driver, and it works amazingly well. It draws 136w from the wall which is the number I'd expect (6 cobs and 2 fans), no problems there. But I did the same upgrade on two more Mars 96 units and both of them turned out far brighter and are pulling around 350w from the wall with the same amount of lights and fans, and putting out a lot more heat as well. This discrepancy concerns me.

The drivers in these two (the revision with 5w LEDs) are different to the ones in the first mars (original with 3w LEDs) but the output ratings are roughly the same according to the stickers (50-86v, 0.6a/0.665a), although they seem to be running at least twice that because the current meter is measuring a 1.4a draw and more than double the wattage of the first unit.

Are these just incorrectly labelled drivers, or have I done something wrong? All three of the Reflector 96 have been wired identically and use the same CXB2530s, the drivers being the only difference. What's the best way to lower this output? I want the chips to be running at lower wattage for better efficiency and heat management.
 
freemanjack

freemanjack

Well-Known Member
DamnSonDanson said:
Hey I need some help if anyone can provide it. Here's the story:

I modded a Mars Reflector 96 with six 3000k CXB2530s, two in series per 55w driver, and it works amazingly well. It draws 136w from the wall which is the number I'd expect (6 cobs and 2 fans), no problems there. But I did the same upgrade on two more Mars 96 units and both of them turned out far brighter and are pulling around 350w from the wall with the same amount of lights and fans, and putting out a lot more heat as well. This discrepancy concerns me.

The drivers in these two (the revision with 5w LEDs) are different to the ones in the first mars (original with 3w LEDs) but the output ratings are roughly the same according to the stickers (50-86v, 0.6a/0.665a), although they seem to be running at least twice that because the current meter is measuring a 1.4a draw and more than double the wattage of the first unit.

Are these just incorrectly labelled drivers, or have I done something wrong? All three of the Reflector 96 have been wired identically and use the same CXB2530s, the drivers being the only difference. What's the best way to lower this output? I want the chips to be running at lower wattage for better efficiency and heat management.
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Hey DSD, would need to know where you are measuring that 1.4A (at the wall socket or on the dc circuit) and wot mains supply standard you are using (240-110), sounds like a measurement problem or possibly a mains setting problem, if you are on 240v supply and you have 110 drivers you will be 'double driving' the input voltage. which on some types of driver will double the output voltage.
 
superfreak86

superfreak86

Well-Known Member
The draw is measured at the wall and we run 240v mains standard

-I was with DSD when we did the conversions today- :cool:
 
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DamnSonDanson

New Member
Yeah just using a simple wall power meter, we have 240v mains, tested each modded 96 one after the other and only the first one had the lower wattage and amperage readings. All the drivers have 110-240v written on them, and they were working fine previously with the original mars LEDs. Annoyingly, we didn't take a measurement prior to the conversion, but I wouldn't expect such a drastic increase over the original converted Mars.
 
freemanjack

freemanjack

Well-Known Member
DamnSonDanson said:
Yeah just using a simple wall power meter, we have 240v mains, tested each modded 96 one after the other and only the first one had the lower wattage and amperage readings. All the drivers have 110-240v written on them, and they were working fine previously with the original mars LEDs. Annoyingly, we didn't take a measurement prior to the conversion, but I wouldn't expect such a drastic increase over the original converted Mars.
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Ok, hmmmm, see your confusion, those drivers should run on any input. Are the power draw figures the same on both units that are drawing too much current? If you had a bad cob drawing excess power it would only be on one unit, or at least 2 bad ones might draw too much but unlikely the same amount of too much. I'd hazard a guess at the cob's being a higher draw but even that don't stack up right, I mean those drivers are only capable of 55w each flat out, I would test driver output off load, test to see if the dc output is over value. Any cheapo multi-meter will do for most measurements.
 
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DamnSonDanson

New Member
There was a few watts difference but both units sat right in the 350w ballpark when all the lamps were turned on. I kept the wiring so that the veg and bloom switches still disable some of the lights, with just the two cobs on the bloom circuit it measured ~110w, and with just the four (plus fans) on the veg circuit it was ~230w so each driver definitely seems to be pushing more than 100w.
We'll run the multimeter over everything tomorrow and report back.
 
freemanjack

freemanjack

Well-Known Member
DamnSonDanson said:
There was a few watts difference but both units sat right in the 350w ballpark when all the lamps were turned on. I kept the wiring so that the veg and bloom switches still disable some of the lights, with just the two cobs on the bloom circuit it measured ~110w, and with just the four (plus fans) on the veg circuit it was ~230w so each driver definitely seems to be pushing more than 100w.
We'll run the multimeter over everything tomorrow and report back.
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I'd take a very careful look at the similarities and differences in the wiring of the switches on the one running expected watts and the two running too high, if there is a bunch of selection switches it may be a simple hook wiring within the circuit. That is the main reason I use parallel as opposed to series wiring where possible. If you need replacement drivers I can highly recommend my Chinese suppliers brightstar leds, you can email glen wong here; sales16@brightstarleds.com, he is unerringly helpful regardless of if you are ordering 100 drivers or just enquiring about a single unit, they are the cheapest meanwell equivalent and it took us 6 months to find them, all 12 drivers we have received so far have been ace quality @ less than 1/2 meanwell prices. Tell Glen, jack sent ya, he will appreciate that.
 
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DamnSonDanson

New Member
Tested it again today, both of the units that measured high are now at 160w 0.7a on the meter. No idea how it happened, and we couldn't replicate the issue no matter what we did. Problem solved, I guess.
 
superfreak86

superfreak86

Well-Known Member
We got to the bottom of the problem. Well kind of, they're testing at the correct wattage today. We believe it was a glitch in our meter.

Here's one of the two finished fixtures.
I'll be running two of them in a 4x4

Thanks to DSD for his smarts and skills! I'm happy as
 

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superfreak86

superfreak86

Well-Known Member
All the information you need is here on the forums.
Recommend Growmau5's clips on YouTube. If you read this Mr Mau5 I'd like to thank you too for all the info!

Next project has already started. This DIY business is heaps of fun. Again I can't take much credit for this build either
 

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freemanjack

freemanjack

Well-Known Member
superfreak86 said:
All the information you need is here on the forums.
Recommend Growmau5's clips on YouTube. If you read this Mr Mau5 I'd like to thank you too for all the info!

Next project has already started. This DIY business is heaps of fun. Again I can't take much credit for this build either
Click to expand...
For the win! metering can be fraught with potential pitfalls innit? And seconded BIG UP DA MAU5.
 
freemanjack

freemanjack

Well-Known Member
Evil-Mobo said:
I have a light I could hack if I could figure out the drivers lol............
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I got a 'how to' vid series on converting a spider cob style unit, dunno if that helps but it does cover conversion of the drivers to accommodate the new voltages;
that's the short 'lite' vid, see 'assembly and dissasembly' vids fer full conversion blow by blow
 
sixstring2112

sixstring2112

Well-Known Member
freemanjack said:
I got a 'how to' vid series on converting a spider cob style unit, dunno if that helps but it does cover conversion of the drivers to accommodate the new voltages;
that's the short 'lite' vid, see 'assembly and dissasembly' vids fer full conversion blow by blow
Click to expand...
thanks for that video,i subbed to your channel and also gave the thumbs up :)
 
superfreak86

superfreak86

Well-Known Member
Some more progress has been made on one of these Mars reflector conversions.
This one just received some reflectors and optics to help focus the light and even the spread.

These panels have been amazing since adding the cxb2530's, thoroughly recommend this upgrade to any old blurple fixtures
 

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