Should more attention be paid to quality drivers?

Hi.

I bought an Area 51 SGS 160 light and it's worked great for vegging four plants. I just flipped to 12/12 for flowering and we'll see how the stretch goes, but….one of the reasons I bought the light was that it uses Cree diodes. Everyone was very positive about the Crees, so I went that route.

I recently was looking at some aquarium lights and doing a bit of reading. The author of the article brought out the point that while everyone is raving about the diodes, nobody discusses the drivers.

The diodes might be rated for 50K hours, but the drivers might only be rated for 10K hours.

So, I'm curious…Does anyone know what kind of drivers the Area 51 SGS-160 uses?

What are considered the best drivers to look for?

Thanks

Meanwell makes good, reliable drivers. However they do cost 2-4x what a comparable mystery brand china driver would cost. I think it's a worth while expenditure after having a few cheap CFL's fail and catch fire

-MeanWell
-Recom
-Qualtek
-Cincon
-Dialight
-TDK Λ
-CUI
-Excelsys
-PhihongUSA
-Thomas Research
-Triad Magnetics
-TE Connectivity
-Rohm Semiconductor
-Panduit
-Condor
-Magniflood
-Artesyn

..... some of the high quality led driver manufacturers ...

Nice list sds....BUT where is Harvard?? One of the best

PSUAGRO. said:

Nice list sds....BUT where is Harvard?? One of the best

Click to expand...

Yes ,of course ...
And
-Harvard Engineering ...
(truly one of the best ,as PSUAGRO mentioned ... )

I've looked a little into drivers. More the bigger companies...never really into the cheaper options.

I always end up choosing inventronics. They have the wattages, currents, volt ranges...huge selection. Havent had a hiccup yet...hasn't been long though. Every one I have from 200w down to 40w is dimmable...in the easiest way to implement with it's included power output for the pot.

And the case is real shiny

more cheapos...

phillips xitanium
http://www.lighting.philips.com/gb_en/subsites/oem/product_pages/xitanium_overview.wpd

eldoled
http://www.eldoled.com/

lutron
http://www.lutron.com/en-US/Products/Pages/LEDDrivers/Hi-LumeLED/Overview.aspx

...maybe...
HorseFulham?....
http://horse.fulham.com/product-systems/led-systems/

I must have the wrong driver on my Illumitex rig cause my Invetronics driver could cook a steak. Definitley need something better for the summer.

Positivity said:

I've looked a little into drivers. More the

I always end up choosing inventronics. They have the wattages, currents, volt ranges...huge selection. Havent had a hiccup yet...hasn't been long though. Every one I have from 200w down to 40w is dimmable...in the easiest way to implement with it's included power output for the pot.

And the case is real shiny

Click to expand...

is one of the things that I prefer the control box out of the closet... control box its hot ...you can ventilate more or extra ventilate...

...or add sinks and fan/s extra for the drivers... or control box....

in the design of the lamp and control box ... should be taken into account not only the temperature of the LEDs but also the control box too.. and other things...temp and working condition...hours of continuous operation...etc...for my pov

on finished products... modify or tune...be carefull

Inventronics.....hot!? If mine were any cooler it'd start snowing

Positivity said:

Inventronics.....hot!? If mine were any cooler it'd start snowing

Click to expand...

Fran's are running @ 450mA ..
It might be a different model ...
Still ,myself I think it's a bit weird,to get so hot @450mA ...
Maybe ,it is 'pushed' to it's 'limits' ..I mean output voltage ..
(hard guess )

Does sound very weird. I've maxed all of mine out to the point one extra led will shut it down. 2100ma..700ma..1a....most 120w which is larger than most drivers I see around. Some benefit from fans...others less so. They all run cool..

Maybe an old model or something. I definitely wouldn't use them if they got hot

Just to follow up, it's an Inventronics EUC120S045ST, output 160-266 volts at .45A. It's been on for 12 hours so far today and is starting to get real hot. Defective or running at the edge? It is running 24 F1 Illumitex LEDs. They have a max voltage of 11 volts. I gotta get off my ass and find a .5A CC driver. I'm not as happy with my F1 veg rig as the F3s in my flowering tent and I'm thinking that .45A isn't close enough to spec.

FranJan said:

Just to follow up, it's an Inventronics EUC120S045ST, output 160-266 volts at .45A. It's been on for 12 hours so far today and is starting to get real hot. Defective or running at the edge? It is running 24 F1 Illumitex LEDs. They have a max voltage of 11 volts. I gotta get off my ass and find a .5A CC driver. I'm not as happy with my F1 veg rig as the F3s in my flowering tent and I'm thinking that .45A isn't close enough to spec.

Click to expand...

Well,Fran..
I've to say my thoughts about it ...
(Although ,you should take it with a grain of salt,as it is just a hard guess...)

Max V output of the driver is 266 V .
If the F1s have a Vf of 11 V ...Then 24 * 11 = 264 V ..
That's really close to the Vo max of the driver ...
But...
Normally,as the led diodes get hot ,
then their VF should drop a tad /bit ...
Still ,the driver gets hot ...
Two things(at least ) might be happening :

1) Either the 'illumis' are really good cooled ,so they do not drop much of the Vf (total) ...
So ,at this case driver's getting hot ,is actually a sign ,that the cooling of leds is excellent ...

or ...

2) the driver might have a 'defect' (which I really do not think so ...)

Right now,I can't think of anything else causing that 'overheating' of the driver..

Really weird ,though ..
(Inventronics are of best / high -quality led drivers brand...)

Looked at the datasheet...it does have over temperature protection. Surprising that's not kicking in. Might be a good idea to send the manufacturer an email... they have a website last I checked.

Positivity said:

Looked at the datasheet...it does have over temperature protection. Surprising that's not kicking in. Might be a good idea to send the manufacturer an email... they have a website last I checked.

Click to expand...

It states :

" 110°C -Maximum temperature of components inside the case "

Since the case is made of Alum ,a hard guess would be that ,if components inside the case reach the temp. of 110 C, then probably the case ( on the outside ) should be ~ 10 to 20C less .
( Rough approximation )
So if the case outside reaches 90-100 C and the driver still operates at 450mA ,then probably
something's wrong with the driver itself ...
But hey...
90-100 C is REALLY HOT !
Fran,I think you should check/measure the actual case temperature (at the point where manufacturer suggests ),
after at least 6 hours of operation....
If temps are close to 90 C (or more ) ,then-probably- something's wrong with the driver ...
(Thermal protection does not 'kick-in' ..)
If temps are lower than that ,then driver is just working near it's ' max specs ' / Vo max..
(most probably ..)

Still,If you seriously think that you 're going to face 'trouble' during summertime/hot weather with that driver ,
then it would be a nice idea to look for another driver option ..

( Remember : All these are plain speculations ...'Addito salis grano ' ... )

Peace,brother ..

If you have a kill a watt and can check its power draw, we can check to see what efficiency it is running at and if it is out of spec.

Regarding the topic of driver quality, I use dozens of cheapo drivers and so far they have given me no reason to pay more for meanwell. They match the efficiency and performance of the meanwells, but you do have to check to see what current they actually put out once they are warmed up. I got a batch of 900mA drivers that were all putting out 700mA, must be mislabeled. I have a few 1.6A drivers that put out 1.2A.

I have got a few bad drivers over the years, but the seller replaced them. In my experience they either work or they dont and you know it right away, no nasty surprises down the road.

SupraSPL said:

Regarding the topic of driver quality, I use dozens of cheapo drivers and so far they have given me no reason to pay more for meanwell. They match the efficiency and performance of the meanwells, but you do have to check to see what current they actually put out once they are warmed up. I got a batch of 900mA drivers that were all putting out 700mA, must be mislabeled. I have a few 1.6A drivers that put out 1.2A.

I have got a few bad drivers over the years, but the seller replaced them. In my experience they either work or they dont and you know it right away, no nasty surprises down the road.

Click to expand...

No argue about that ...
Still...
About 'nasty suprises' and cheap led drivers' ....
I'll tell you a short story about ...
(Believe it or not ......)

It came to my understanding that except for the extra bucks that a 'brand' label probably costs..
Also in quality/branded electronic equip ,some extra bucks are paid for the certifications ...
(And of course the extra circuitry needed to have those certifications) *
Now...
How's this has any importance / relevance ?

Well...
As we growers evolve our equipment and tech ..
( HPS=> LED ) ...
So does the 'other side' ...
For example...(In fact a real-life example...)

A grow-pal of mine was 'raided' ,not long ago ...
He was not using HPS/ MH but leds ...
Driven by cheap Constant Current drivers ...
Which by the way ,they are all 'Switching power supplies "..
Now..
It might seem weird or even may sound as BS ...
Well ain't (from what it seems,at least )...

He asked his arrestors ,how they discover his grow-op ....

Get ready ,now ....

-"We were notified by the electricity company ..."

!!!!

-'In what way you're notified ? I just had 400 W of leds going on ! "

Only to get the astonishing answer :

"They said that the EMI or something like that,coming from your house was causing trouble in their systems ..
So ,they called us to have it checked ... "

(The el.company actually had personel ,to trace back the EMI that was 'kicking back' in the AC line and they traced the 'EMI signature' all the way to my pal's home ...)

Are those cheap drivers EMI certified ?

( SupraSPL ,please do not take this as an argument ...or a 'versus' thing ....
I'm telling you ,just a personal experience ...
I'm not even sure if it stands as truth ..
-Although,I trust my friend's story-
Truth or not ,personally I'm not willing to risk ...
Neither my leds ,neither my freedom ... )

Just my 1 cent..