jetfixr Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 Has anyone used these yet? http://www.thomasresearchproducts.com/led_drivers.htm#75W Series - Constant Current - 0-10V Dimmable - Long Life . Their drivers seem more scale-able then the meanwells. From their website it looks like they have a driver for just about any size project. On their order page they have only a few items, and the LED drivers aren't one of them. Link to comment
msujeff Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 I believe these are the drivers nanotuners just switched to Link to comment
jetfixr Posted January 21, 2011 Author Share Posted January 21, 2011 I believe these are the drivers nanotuners just switched to All I see on their website is a meanwell driver and it's not even a 60-48. I might give the phone number on the Thomas website a call tommorrow. Link to comment
msujeff Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 They just made an announcement tonight. If you zoom in on the picture you can see. http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=260173 Link to comment
ccjung Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 guilty as charged. we have an exclusive distribution agreement in place with Thomas research products. more details and tons of new drivers on the site tomorrow. Link to comment
Genj Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 this is exciting. I think I'm going to utilize these for my display case project. Link to comment
Meximazing Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 I'm real excited about those Thomas Research drivers. Glad to see you guys stock them Link to comment
evilc66 Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 I have personally been testing these drivers for about 6 months now, and they rock. I'll never touch another Meanwell driver again. They are a little more expensive, but when you consider that they have much longer life, run cooler, are completely sealed against moisture (IP67 rated), have higher efficiency and PFC, have a built in voltage reference for dimming, and are offered in much higher voltage ranges for series operation, the extra cost is totally worth it. They are very stable. Link to comment
redfishsc Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 Looking forward to what you'll offer.. hoping you'll have some that go from buckpuck size/capability up to the bigger 150w dudes. Link to comment
evilc66 Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 Well, with these being all AC drivers, they will never get as small as a Buckpuck. Their 25W 1050mA drivers will run up to 6 LEDs in series though, matching the performance. We will eventually be carrying the majority of them though. Some of the bigger ones may be special order only, but we can get them. We have eclusive access to their entire inventory. One thing to note with these drivers is that you don't get the same voltage range when switching to different currents. For example, that 25W 1050mA driver has a voltage range of 8-24v. The 25W 700mA driver has a voltage range of 12-36v. The 25W 350mA version has a range of 24-72v. The wattage is the constant. The ratio of current to voltage (also known as wattage ) changes to match. What makes that awesome is when you go to the really big wattage drivers, like the 200W version, and go low current. At 450mA, that driver has a voltage range of 266-444v! That's 148 XP-Gs in series, with no silly adjustment, no extra power supply for dimming, and no worries with running in parallel. Link to comment
redfishsc Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 O_O Damn. I was hoping that one of your drivers would be able to run 1 LED at a time (if needed). But that's cool, the 25w versions sound pretty dang good. The Meanwells were just overkill for small tanks if you wanted to run two strings for blue/white. I've seen more than one person fry their LEDs by trying to run 5 or 6 LEDs on an ELN60-48D. The 25w versions you will have are just right. Hurry up and get the damn things on the sight already lol . I can't afford one right now.... but who knows, maybe I'll blow a Meanwell and will need one lol. Hey, as a side note. If you have 1 of these TR drivers, and a handful of Meanwells, can you stack the Meanwell dimmers on top of the TR dimmer voltage (run them all off the 0-10v of the TR driver)? I may end up in that situation. Link to comment
sae647 Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 The ratio of current to voltage (also known as wattage ) changes to match. What makes that awesome is when you go to the really big wattage drivers, like the 200W version, and go low current. At 450mA, that driver has a voltage range of 266-444v! That's 148 XP-Gs in series, with no silly adjustment, no extra power supply for dimming, and no worries with running in parallel. i think you need to clarify this a bit.. wattage is the product of current and voltage, not the ratio. Additionally, running 148 xp-g's at 450mA is kind of silly. I dont think many people would opt to pay for that many diodes only to get so little power out of each of them. Link to comment
evilc66 Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 O_O Damn. I was hoping that one of your drivers would be able to run 1 LED at a time (if needed). But that's cool, the 25w versions sound pretty dang good. The Meanwells were just overkill for small tanks if you wanted to run two strings for blue/white. I've seen more than one person fry their LEDs by trying to run 5 or 6 LEDs on an ELN60-48D. The 25w versions you will have are just right. Hurry up and get the damn things on the sight already lol . I can't afford one right now.... but who knows, maybe I'll blow a Meanwell and will need one lol. Hey, as a side note. If you have 1 of these TR drivers, and a handful of Meanwells, can you stack the Meanwell dimmers on top of the TR dimmer voltage (run them all off the 0-10v of the TR driver)? I may end up in that situation. You can stack them, as long as you don't try to use the on board reference voltage to run all of the drivers. The current capacity is kind of low, and just enough to dim one TRP driver. i think you need to clarify this a bit.. wattage is the product of current and voltage, not the ratio. Additionally, running 148 xp-g's at 450mA is kind of silly. I dont think many people would opt to pay for that many diodes only to get so little power out of each of them. Maybe ratio wasn't the best choice of words, but you get the point. Depending on the desired maximum current, the maximum output voltage is changed to make the total wattage of the drivers the same. The XP-Gs were just as an example. They have one of the lowest forward voltages of all LEDs on the market (of what we would use anyway), so I used it to show what the absolute maximum would be. At 1050mA, you would be able to run up to about 57 XP-Gs. Link to comment
redfishsc Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 I was hoping you could run a few Meanwells off the reference voltage of the TR driver.... oh well . No free lunches in this world anyhow lol. Additionally, running 148 xp-g's at 450mA is kind of silly. I dont think many people would opt to pay for that many diodes only to get so little power out of each of them. Actually, not necessarily the case. Ever seen an XPG at 450mA? I have. Not cornea-friendly. I could easily see someone lighting a big low-light reef, or even a big planted aquarium, and drive them at 450mA. There may be cheaper options out there, but honestly, 450mA is a very efficient drive current for the XPG. Link to comment
jetfixr Posted January 22, 2011 Author Share Posted January 22, 2011 guilty as charged. we have an exclusive distribution agreement in place with Thomas research products. more details and tons of new drivers on the site tomorrow. Hadn't seen any new drivers on the site. You probably just haven't had time to update the website yet. No biggie, just shoot us the prices I think we can get pretty much all the info needed from the Thomas website anyway. Link to comment
stmccool Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 i think you need to clarify this a bit.. wattage is the product of current and voltage, not the ratio. Additionally, running 148 xp-g's at 450mA is kind of silly. I dont think many people would opt to pay for that many diodes only to get so little power out of each of them. I can totally see using a string of 450mA. I actually have my meanwell turned down to about 450mA for my cool whites to get the color I want mixed with royal blues running at 980mA in a 1:1 configuration. Link to comment
blasterman Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 What makes that awesome is when you go to the really big wattage drivers, like the 200W version, and go low current. At 450mA, that driver has a voltage range of 266-444v! That's cool from a design perspective given we no longer have to worry about parallel runs. The higher the voltage the higher the theoretical efficiency. Plus, Mean Well has been coasting without too much competition. However, I've mentioned the drawbacks to high voltage LED drivers, and I feel I should mention them again. The higher the voltage the greater the risks of shorts due to sloppy soldering. Another isssue is safety, and once you start going beyond 24volts with DC current high wattage drivers start to hurt. 24volts has a hard time getting through tje skin even with a lot of wattage behind it. >100volts DC and you need to start being more carefull. Link to comment
redfishsc Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 That's cool from a design perspective given we no longer have to worry about parallel runs. The higher the voltage the higher the theoretical efficiency. Plus, Mean Well has been coasting without too much competition. However, I've mentioned the drawbacks to high voltage LED drivers, and I feel I should mention them again. The higher the voltage the greater the risks of shorts due to sloppy soldering. Another isssue is safety, and once you start going beyond 24volts with DC current high wattage drivers start to hurt. 24volts has a hard time getting through tje skin even with a lot of wattage behind it. >100volts DC and you need to start being more carefull. Even though I'm not a Darwinist, natural selection could do some good work in this situation. Link to comment
kcress Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 I hate to be a wet blanket but I wouldn't dream of offering any driver over 48V to noob builders. And no offense to noobs! Almost every large build I see has at least one short to the heatsink structure. Do you really want 400V lighting up a table top covered with aluminum? That can kill you. Anything over 42V is considered to be hazardous. I suggest reconsidering that idea - unless you have a lot of lawyers. Those type drivers should be going into professionally designed and assembled luminaries built by trained assemblers using a tested design. Link to comment
evilc66 Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 It's a valid concern. If anything over 42v is considered dangerous, then Meanwells should be considered dangerous also. 90% of the DIY builds will not be using super high voltage drivers anyway, but beyond the high voltage DC, everyone has still been working with 110v AC, which personally, I consider much more dangerous. High voltage (relatively speaking) is dangerous under certain situations, like when your hands are wet, or when electricity is exposed to open wounds, or when the skin is punctured by a voltage carrying source. That still typically requires two points of contact though (one point to ground). I'm not trying to play this down at all, as anyone undertaking a DIY project like this should understand the risks. Proper safety precautions should always be taken, regardless of the driver, but provided you aren't doing anything stupid like I mentioned above, then the risks are relatively minimal. Link to comment
Milad LEDGroupBuy.com Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 I hate to be a wet blanket but I wouldn't dream of offering any driver over 48V to noob builders. And no offense to noobs! Almost every large build I see has at least one short to the heatsink structure. Do you really want 400V lighting up a table top covered with aluminum? That can kill you. Anything over 42V is considered to be hazardous. I suggest reconsidering that idea - unless you have a lot of lawyers. Those type drivers should be going into professionally designed and assembled luminaries built by trained assemblers using a tested design. +1 DC is often more dangerous than AC from my understanding, at high DC voltage, you can get little gas bubbles in your blood that go to your brain and boom, your done. also to note, those drivers internals are same as meanwells with different stickers. so they are going to be as good, just stick to the ones under 48V but still be careful. Link to comment
evilc66 Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 It's called electrolysis, and it happens with AC too, just not to the same degree. To say these drivers are the same internally as Meanwell drivers is laughable. Outside of generic features like it's an AC driver, and uses a buck-boost driver topology, these are nothing like Meanwells. These drivers are designed here in the US by TRP, not by some other firm. They use much higher efficiency power supplies that also have a higher power factor correction. Add into the fact that these include a built in DC voltage reference for dimming control, and that none of the output configurations mirror Meanwell configurations, and it's obvious that these are nothing like Meanwell drivers. One thing that we have forgotten to note about the dangers of high voltage with these drivers, is that these drivers have output short protection, minimizing short and shock risk. Link to comment
Milad LEDGroupBuy.com Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 It's called electrolysis, and it happens with AC too, just not to the same degree. To say these drivers are the same internally as Meanwell drivers is laughable. Outside of generic features like it's an AC driver, and uses a buck-boost driver topology, these are nothing like Meanwells. These drivers are designed here in the US by TRP, not by some other firm. They use much higher efficiency power supplies that also have a higher power factor correction. Add into the fact that these include a built in DC voltage reference for dimming control, and that none of the output configurations mirror Meanwell configurations, and it's obvious that these are nothing like Meanwell drivers. One thing that we have forgotten to note about the dangers of high voltage with these drivers, is that these drivers have output short protection, minimizing short and shock risk. Sorry you may be half right and i was also a bit wrong if you think they are made in the US you are wrong. CREEs arent even made the in USA. TRP are same as http://www.inventronics-co.com even thought I cant find a link between them an meanwell, they sure look like the HLG Link to comment
doctaq Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 he didnt say they were made here just that they were designed here , like crees, in durham NC Link to comment
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