Wow 1.4 A is the highest your LED can run.But if the heat is not dissipate well your LED life will be greatly reduce.
Or am I over react??

evilc66 do not really understand how the pwm function as a dimmer.
From the illustration look like it only on or off at a set duration.

Right. You chop the voltage at a high frequency, and the stutter from it being turned on and off turn into controlled brightness. You can only use it in devices that can be switched on and off very fast, like LEDs. For a driver like this, this signal does not directly drive the LEDs. It just an input signal into the chip that controls the brightness.

Did you ever go back to one string at 1A to see if the LEDs look bright?

Evil, Any ideas on how we can get an external pot on this?

The 1.4 amps is across two strings, so ~700 ma per string, well within the LEDs specs. I have not had a chance to connect only one string yet. I was thinking about really studying the Driver/powersupplys PCB to see if by some chance the mod is obvious, just add the wires, or if other mods are needed. It might be worth ordering one that dims to see what the difference is. Both Analog and Digital.

Ok now I get it.Thank You so much evilc66

I see. I thought you pump 1.4 amp into each rung

This was my thinking too.

Could you tell me what the numbers are on top of the chip in the bottom right corner of the third picture you posted? Could you also get a better/bigger picture of the right side of the board?

yahooooooo...I have finally ordered the 2 pcs of ELN-60-27-P (with PWM function) today from our local distributor, Singapore at the cost of USD35/pc . The price is indeed cheaper compare to US with PWM function .

However...the lead time is abit long which is estimated around 4~6 weeks so I'm expecting the item to be delivered before this April .

Thats good to hear. At least we know the price from the factory is better than from Meanwell USA. I will have to bug Powergate today about this (they are horrible at getting back with me).

Curious question Evil.

On my 29g FW planted, I have 15 LEDs being driven @ roughly 700mA using a computer PSU (12v) and 5 of these http://www.instructables.com/id/EK2XAPS11GEWOF2YSD/

Whats to stop me from building the PWM controller and hooking it into the input before it gets to the DIY drivers. Am I missing something here?

You could. You would have to change the frequency to something much higher, say around 500Hz-2KHz. No chance of flickering there. The only thing with this is that you aren't really changing the current to the LED, just turning it on and off really fast (the Meanwell drivers will vary the current output based on the incoming signal). If the frequency is high enough, you will never see the difference, but the thermal characteristics will be similar to if you just ran the LED on all the time. Not saying it won't work, just a different way of doing it.

Care to share where you order from.
That is cheap compare to the quote I receive so far

So far, thats also a lot cheaper for small volume sales than I have been getting.

So if I order one of the standard drivers from meanwell, I just wont be able to dim my lights? I dont really care about dimming, I just want a cheap, relible driver.

Right. Cheap we know, but reliable is still in question. I have no doubt that it will be fine, but you never know.

Depending on how things shape up, the standard drivers may be able to be modified to be dimmed. Time will tell.

going to order 3 so I can start my led adventure. would 3 be enough to power 30-36 leds or could I get away 2. I have a 24 gallon aquapod so I thought that would be enough light.

Technically you would only need two. The ELN-60-48 should do 13 LEDs comfortably.

ok thats good. I will keep researching to see what I need but at least I know which powersupply and leds to get.

You mean at 24 volt ?

Either or. Depends on how you wire up the LEDs. The 48v will allow you to run them all in series. The 24v would have you run two strings of 6 in parallel.

Hey Evil, the above link the PWM, that schematic is wrong, Or at least it was for me, had to use this one http://www.discovercircuits.com/PDF-FILES/SIMPLEPWM2.pdf, though I need like a 10K pot or something.

While I don't necessarily think it's wrong, it is another way to do it. I actually ended up building my version the same way as the one you linked to (I couldn't find the link to my original). I have built that one that I linked to earlier and it worked. The square wave output wasn't as tight though.

It may be another way, but for some odd reason it didn't work for me.

Now that schematic looks just like the motor controller I use at work all the time.

Hi evilc66,

Do have any PWM circuit which can controller the dimmer dim down and off at a specify time?

Thanks.

You could do it with just timers, but you will be constantly be playing with it to get the right delays. The best way to do it is to have a microcontroller deal with the timing, but thats a lot harder to impliment.

Another option is to get one of the reef controllers like the Profilux, Reefkeeper, or Aquacontroller. Most of these have 0-10v outputs that can be programmed to ramp up and ramp down. Not cheap though. The Reef Keeper Lite that is about to come out could be the most affordable way to do this.

Wow...all controllers you mentioned are expensive..although Reefkeefer is the cheaper but close to US500 lol !

Any alternative way beside buying from off the shelf controller ?

The Reef Keeper Lite is only starting at $150

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem~cat...y~FITEMOMI.html

There are lots of alternatives to off the shelf parts, but it's a lot more work. There are some nice developement boards out now that are cheap and powerful.

I have the ReefKeeper Elite and it is a pretty cool controller. I think for ramp up/down for LED's though you would need to add the Advanced Light Controller (95 bucks) and then connect to the module the way Aquailluminations connects via serial port, (I'm not sure how that can be done though...). Also, the ReefKeeper Lite is limited in the modules you can connect to it, and the ALC is not one of the modules you can connect to the Lite version.

Here's a link to the full skinny on the RKE Lite,

http://www.digitalaquatics.com/m_product_i...ber=30-0012-001

That throws that idea out the window.

Any news on the Mean Wells?

I ordered both versions of the ELN60-48 today. Should see them late next week.

SWEET!
Did they rape you on the $$$? Did they indicate any chance for a bulk rate discount?

The price for the single dimmable was a little high, and there is quantity discounts. All versions have the same pricing, but there is a difference between the 30W and 60W versions. I didn't get quotes on the 30W version. Didn't seem worth it, and only a few dollars difference on the standard non-dimmable versions. This is what I was quoted:

1-5 $50.47
6-10 $35.54
11-20 $33.00
21-50 $29.75

There was no indication as to what the limit was on the hand modified units coming out of California before they had to move the order out to the factory in Asia. If it's out of California, turnaround time is about a week. It's 10-12 weeks out of Asia

I'm sure if we do a group buy on this we can get in to the $35 range without too much difficulty. I still want to see the differences on the drivers to see if we can mod the non-dimmables for a reasonable cost.

THANK YOU!!! for doing this.

I'd probably be interested in 4-5 if they turn out to work.

Wow...big drop in price between 1-5 and 6-10. Are those the prices for the dimmable versions? Not bad if your getting 6 or more.

That's for the dimmable version. I agree it's not a bad price once you get past the initial 5.

If I'm wrong, the PS come from Taiwan and mod will done at Taiwan too before shipping out. For US, the lead time of delivery will be abit long compare to Asia .

Meanwell USA is hand modifying them to cut down the lead time. I just don't know how many I have to order before they tell me I have to get them from the factory.

I think is from China.
Not from Taiwan

I wonder what kind of bulk discount they offer on the non-dimmable drivers. If it is anything like the dimmable versions and if they are easy to modify this could take a major cost out of building arrays (especially larger ones.) Hopefully when evilc66 gets the dimmable versions he will crack them open and find that the standard versions are just missing a few components that need to be soldered in to make them dimmable.

Yes, I too am keeping my fingers crossed on this. I'm holding out on my plans and waiting to hear about this. If we can get the dimmable ones for cheap I will definitely be down for two.

I should know by this weekend. The non-dimmable version should be at my house (I'm out of town), and the dimmable shipped today.

Awesome, I will send Powergate an email inquiring about volume discounts on the non-dimmable versions so we can have a price comparison between the two.

Crossing Fingers

i would also like to get two dimmable ps.

Powergate replied with the following quote for ELN-60 non-dimmable versions:

ELN-60 series 1-24 pcs $31.90 each
25-99 pcs $29.08 each

LEAD TIME: Stock to 8 weeks

Not much better then the volume discounts on the dimmables.

Right, but you would always be able to get the non-dimmable quicker. It will be a much faster solution if they can be modified easily.