current usa led true lumen pro strips

Yeah my kit came with a heat sink. And yes I wired mine in series. You will probably want to runn all of your whites on driver and the blues on the other. And then you decide on the Uvs and reds.

oh ok i see, what is the best kind of solder to use for this?

what kind of solder should i use 60/40 or 63/37

In my experience of soldering to me it wouldn't make a difference

but if you want to get technical 63/37

Ok got it thank you

One more question should I put a inline fuse in as well if so how many amps thanks for all the help?

I'm not running one. I'm not sure on how much amperage. Maybe jimmy could join in.

How do I find jimmy lol

Just checked FedEx should get my package Monday only took a week can't wait

Nice. Hope everything works out cant wait to see pics.

reefer87 wrote:I'm not running one. I'm not sure on how much amperage. Maybe jimmy could join in.

Power head man wrote:How do I find jimmy lol

Here I am

Power head man wrote:Ok got it thank you

One more question should I put a inline fuse in as well if so how many amps thanks for all the help?

Not sure what type of protection the drivers have inside of them but it's always a good idea to protect your circuit. With LED's you'll want to have a fast burn fuse inline of each series circuits (string of LED's). If one string of LED's were to go out the forward voltage will increase across all other LED strings that are still on which will overload the LED's and ruin them.

The common LED used for reef tanks usually run 500-700mA at 3.5V each, what I would recommend is an 1 Amp fast burning fuses to protect your DIY project.



This fuse will go in line of your LED's strings.

Oh ok got it so should I place this from the driver to my led?

looking at the kit you bought, if you plan on 4 strings of 9 LEDs, you'll want to have a fuse in line of each string.

I'm not familiar with those drivers they may have circuit protection built in.

Derrick Olson may know more about those drivers.

So can I run all my whites on one line and then on my second driver run all my blues I'm also adding two more LEDs extra

Or would it be smarter to run 4 strings of 9 LEDs instead of 2 strings of 19 leds

That's going to be determined by what the drivers voltage and max amperage rating is.

Lets start by understanding a few basics of how current (amperage), voltage and resistance work together.

Voltage is the force (Potential difference) that moves electrons from one atom to another across a closed conductor in a circuit. Current flow is the actual movement of those electrons moving from one atom to another. The whole purpose for having voltage and current is to move the electrons across something such as a light bulb or a motor...something that does "work" (we call that light bulb or motor a load). For example, lets take a load such as a light bulb, if electrons move across the light bulb the light bulb illuminates, which was the whole purpose of the circuit.

However, any time voltage has to push electrons across a load, it is met with resistance, resistance is the opposition to current flow, meaning that it doesn't allow those electrons to move through freely, it restricts it.

Anytime that happens the voltage weakens (loses momentum) to push those electrons.

Lets put that into practice: If there's a starting voltage of 12 volts, one light bulb:

12v+, +BULB-, 12v-

It's going to take all 12 volts to push those electrons through that bulb. We call that voltage drop. Lets say the current flowing through that bulb is 600mA. In that circuit, voltage drop was 12v @600mA.

Now if we use the same scenario but add 1 more light bulb that is exactly the same as the other, and put it in series (in line):

12v+, +BULB-, +BULB-, 12v-

The applied 12v across both light bulbs is shared, meaning the voltage drop across the first bulb is 6v and the second is 6v equaling a total of 12v, but the current flow stayed 600mA throughout that entire string. We had to sacrifice voltage to light up the bulbs but the amperage stayed the same.

What would the voltage drop be across this series circuit?

12v+, +BULB-, +BULB-, +BULB-, 12v-


Now the exact opposite is true when you have a parallel circuit.

......./...+BULB-...\
12v+....+BULB-....12v-
.......\...+BULB-.../

These 3 bulbs are no longer connected end to end (or + to -), each bulb is directly connected to the applied voltage (above is a simple parallel circuit), meaning the voltage drop across each bulb is 12v, but now we have to sacrifice amperage, the current has to be shared through all bulbs. We simply divide the total number of parallel circuits by the applied current (600mA) 600/3 is 200, so each bulb is getting 12v and 200mA.

Semiconductors such as diodes or light emitting diodes (LED) don't have voltage drop, instead it has forward voltage. Although it's not the same, for the sake of what you're doing we could consider it the same. Each LED needs a forward voltage of roughly 3.5v and needs approximately 700mA to light up, we definitely don't want to apply more than 3.5v or 700mA to that LED or it may shorten it's life span or simply burn up and never work again.

Armed with the information above, if we have a driver that will supply 21v @ 700mA, how many LED's can we have and how do we wire them up?

simply divide 21 by 3.5 (21/3.5=6)

so 6 LEDs in 1 string (series):

21v+, +LED-, +LED-, +LED-, +LED-, +LED-, +LED-, 21v-

Each LED received 3.5v @ 700mA

Now what if the driver was 21v @ 1400mA?

You would combine series and parallel to get 2 strings of 6 LED's.

Just like the math above if you had 1 string of 6 LEDs that would get 3.5v through each LED but you'll have 1400mA, you don't want that, so you have to divide the applied amperage to determine how many 6 LED strings you must have.

1400/700=2..


21v+, +LED-, +LED-, +LED-, +LED-, +LED-, +LED-, 21v-
21v+, +LED-, +LED-, +LED-, +LED-, +LED-, +LED-, 21v-

Above is an easy way to determine how you have to wire up your DIY led strip according to the particular driver you're using. Usually the instructions detail exactly how to do it but if it doesn't come with any, you can use this info to safely wire up your LED's and avoid a catastrophe.

I realize that to a lot of people this may seem like greek, I tried to keep it as simple as possible, if you still need help, don't hesitate to ask questions. If you want to provide me with the driver information such as volts and amps I can easily devise a plan for you.

HTH
Jimmy

all i can say is wow jimmy that helps out im understanding a little more on how all this works thank you so much for your time on that.

here is my driver info im receiving 2 of the meanwell lpf-60d-48

MeanWell LPF-60D-48

Built-in 3 in 1 dimming function (1~10Vdc or PWM signal or resistance)



Input Voltage: 110-240V AC

Output Voltage: 28.8-48V DC

Output Current: 1.25A

Rated Power: 60W

Waterproof IP67

Dimension: 162.5*43*32mm (L*W*H) (5.8"x1.6"x1.2")

Specification: LPF-60D-48


and here is my led info


Bridgelux 3W LED White 10000K

Color temperature: 10000K
Forward voltage: 3.7V @700mA
Lumens: 180-200
Max. current: 700mA
Lens beam angle: 120-140 degree
Operational temperature: -20C ~ +70C

all the leds are the same ratings but like i said i want to add at least 2-3 more that i also purchased
I would really appreciate any help on the best way to wire these with the most power thank you for your time

it's easy to know that you will have 2 strings of LEDs. Each string receiving 625mA or 0.625A.

As for how many on each string?
.. I need to know couple other things. And you'll have to forgive me, I am not familiar with those particular drivers. Is there two dials on those drivers?

One to fine tune the voltage and the other to control the pulse width (dimming the leds)?

or is it one for the pwm?

if you can't find that out I can look it up later.

so do you think i should purchase another driver so i can get the full 700ma?



see if this may help you a little more

http://www.meanwell.com/search/LPF-60D/default.htm

So it looks like you can fine tune the voltage, Looks like if you wanted to, you can get 12 LED's on each string, total of 24 per driver. it's very close to get 26 but I doubt you'll want to loead the driver to its max.

12 X 3.7 = 44.4

Which means you will have to adjust the voltage out put of the driver to 44.4v.

But lets do this exactly to what you want.

How many LED's did you purchase (total)?

And what is your plan for having them separated? i.e. all the blues on one driver and all the whites on another... or mix and match...etc

Then we can nail it down now.

Power head man wrote:so do you think i should purchase another driver so i can get the full 700ma?



see if this may help you a little more

http://www.meanwell.com/search/LPF-60D/default.htm

No 700mA is max, running it lower will make the led's last longer.

There is a trim pot inside the drivers, you need to hook up a multi meter to dial it in

so the total amount of leds im receiving is 44 i wanted to put 38 to 40 but i want the best results with out over loading the driver and the led. i was hoping on wiring the blues on one driver and the whites on the other adding two uv leds as well. what do you think is the best way to wire them?

is it best to go white blue white blue etc on my heatsink

Power head man wrote:so the total amount of leds im receiving is 44 i wanted to put 38 to 40 but i want the best results with out over loading the driver and the led. i was hoping on wiring the blues on one driver and the whites on the other adding two uv leds as well. what do you think is the best way to wire them?

break down how many of each color? are all the whites the same and are all the blues the same color?

Ok so I ordered 4
420nm Actinic Violet / Super Actinic 3W LED

Wavelength: 418-420nm
Forward voltage: 3.8V @700mA
Efficiency: 10 lm/w
Max. current: 700mA
Beam angle: 120-140 degree
Operational temperature: -20C ~ +70C

4. Epileds 3W LED UltraViolet(UV)

Max. wavelength: 398nm
Forward voltage: 3.8V @700mA, 3.6V @500mA, 3.44V @350mA
Lumens: 10-15
Max. current: 700mA
Beam angle: 120-140 degree
Operational temperature: -20C ~ +70C
 
18 Bridgelux 3W LED Royal Blue

Wavelength: 452-455nm
Forward voltage: 3.6V @700mA
Lumens: 30-40
Max. current: 700mA
Beam angle: 120-140 degree
Operational temperature: -20C ~ +70C
Part No.: BXCE4545452-F2-B
Data Sheet DS-C10


18 Bridgelux 3W LED White 10000K

Color temperature: 10000K
Forward voltage: 3.7V @700mA
Lumens: 180-200
Max. current: 700mA
Lens beam angle: 120-140 degree
Operational temperature: -20C ~ +70C

I will problay take some of the royal blues out and I'm not sure If I even will use all the Uv LEDs what do you think on that?

Sorry for all the questions I'm new to the salt water world

 

 



 

 



 

 

OK so you're definitely going to want to have the royal blue and white 10000K on separate drivers, the question is where do you want to put the other 8?


RB=Royal Blue
W=White
A=Actinic
UV=Ultra Violet

Driver #1 (Adjusted to 43.8v)
RB,RB,RB,RB,RB,RB,RB,RB,RB,A,A,UV
RB,RB,RB,RB,RB,RB,RB,RB,RB,A,A,UV

Driver #2 (Adjusted to40.9v)
W,W,W,W,W,W,W,W,W,UV
W,W,W,W,W,W,W,W,W,UV

That's just one example, if you wanted you can put those UV that are on driver 2 onto driver 1 which will be 47.6v.

You can play with them just make sure that you don't exceed the 48v max.

Wow ya that works do you think I should run that many uvs?

My other questions are what light do you need more of?
And the other is how would you seaquinse them on the heatsink what order thank you for all your help

To get the voltage on my multimeter where to I place the positive prob and negative prob?


And will that same fuse you gave me earlier still work

Power head man wrote:To get the voltage on my multimeter where to I place the positive prob and negative prob?


And will that same fuse you gave me earlier still work

At the wires that are going to go to the LED's. V+ and V- (Red and black)

For this test you wont want any of the leds hooked to it. set the voltmeter to it and adjust it to the proper applied voltage. this will give you a good starting point then once you have the strings built and lit, you can fine tune the forward voltage across the string of LED's to ensure that they are set to 3.7v.

Oh and you don't need those inline fuses, the meanwell drivers have a protection device internally

Ok got it thank for all your time I just didn't want to do it wrong and screw it up

Ok just received my package from FedEx I can't find any way to ajust the driver I don't understand I opened the bottom of the driver and it's all syilconed up can't see anything. I read there instructions it say just to plug everything up nothing about the voltage so now what?

It also says for 36 LEDs kit please connect 2strings of 9 LEDs in parallel can I still do it the way we talked about HELP please

well plug in the driver and test the voltage out of the red and black wire? report back with that reading.

Ok plugged it in and tested I have 48.1 v coming out?

Power head man wrote:Ok plugged it in and tested I have 48.1 v coming out?

This may help
https://www.elfa.se/elfa3~lt_lt/elfa/mime?file=tmp/en_meanwell_drivers.pdf

So I got it all together looks good I can't get the current but I'm getting readings on the volts how come I can't get the current

Thanks for the PM, I missed your post completely,

What type of multimeter do you have? Normally there will be 2 settings for testing current, a large rating and one down in the mA range. What you want to do is set it on the larger setting, (usually 10A)that way you don't ruin your meter. If your mA setting is greater than 750 then you can use that one. what you want to do now is open the circuit, it doesn't matter where, the red wire will be fine, and place the red lead of the meter to the red wire of the driver and the black lead of the meter to what was hooked to the red wire of the driver, and turn the LEDs on.

This will give you the current reading in amps, 0.75 is where you want it. if you have it set to mA then you'll read 750.

Now all multimeters have internal fuses to protect the meter, especially in the amps selection. If you tried to hook up the red and black lead to the red and black wire of the driver you more than likely blew the fuse(s). When you test amperage you always set the meter in series of the circuit. The meter will still work in all the other settings, V, Ohms etc... just not in A.

Edit: Actually where I told you to test the circuit you will get 1.5A or 1500mA. SO SET IT TO THE 10A SELECTIONIf you test each individual series circuit then you will see it share the 1500mA and they should be roughly 750mA.

So the light are on when I'm testing do not unplug the lights right

yes the LEDs will have to be on to measure the current through them, It's like you setting the meter in line allowing the electrons that flow through the circuit flow through the meter so that it can count how many electrons there are running through the circuit.

Ok got it let me try it out and I will get back to you thank you

Do you think i should keep the optical lens on or take them off

It's up to you. If they create a spot light effect in the tank I would take them off.

reefer87 wrote:It's up to you. If they create a spot light effect in the tank I would take them off.

Do you loose the quality of you lights when you remove them or it really doesn't make a difference

It only changes the intensity from a narrow beam to a broader beam.

So I take it you have it up and running???