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LED MeanWell power supply?


zingtaw

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No. At 98% of the pot travel, it's at 100% duty cycle and stays there through the remainder of the pot travel.

 

Still got to get the new pictures for you guys, but it will be kinda moot if we can't get the dimmable drivers.

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I have two that were shipped. they should be here late this week, or early next week. I will let you know how it works out, if all the other components arrive also. I am planning to see how running ~24 LEDs in two strings, and then each string running on their own powersupply/driver to see the difference. I will just dial down the constant current when using one supply per string.

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How did you manage to get the adjustable ones? Powergate (and Meanwell USA) don't stock them. Just the non-adjustable versions.

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I assume I am getting the non-adjustable, not great, but for the money if it works, I will be happy. I will let you know when they arrive. If we do plan to push of a group purchase, I will commit to buying a couple. The ones I ordered were special order, because I am unable to return, but based on all the info, I am sure they are not adjustable. We shall see. I am enjoying the journey either way.

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Ok I have been following this thread. For the electrically challenged is this Meanwell the way to go? I am look at running all white 3 watt Crees. I only need 8 LEDs for this project. I will need dimmability. Would my best bet be just to go with 2 buckpucks and putting four on each? The size doesn't matter to me. But if I need to create a board to dim the meanwell that is probably out of my skill level. Dimmability is the most important function for me as this will be required for my tiny nano. But if I upgrade and do something else I will want them to run full blast.

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If you need something brain-dead easy to hook up and is dimmable, go with the Buckpucks. The Meanwell drivers will require you to get your hands dirty with electronics to be able to dim them (provided we can get them).

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I got off the phone with Powergate, and the saga continues. Seems like for small orders out of California, they hand modify them to add the dimming control, and they add the $20-ish dollars on top of the cost, no matter what. ~$50 isn't too bad for a line voltage 60W driver I guess. It just now makes it less atractive cost wise to a Buckpuck setup. Lets see how this works out. Two different scenarios to drive 24 LEDs (12 white, 12 blue)

 

Buckpuck:

4 x 1000mA Buckpucks $79.96 ($19.99 each)

1 x 24v 4.2A power supply $14.95

Total - $94.91 + shipping

 

Meanwell:

2 x ELN-60-48 $100 (assuming $50 each)

2 x Dimmers $20 (assuming you can build them for $10 each ordering online)

Total - $120 + shipping

 

Is the $20 worth it? If we can get the drivers for the $30-ish cost that the standard ones are, it's totally worth it.

 

The next peice of the puzzle is to find out if they can be made at the factory dimmable, and what costs are associated with that. Powergate said they can expedite from the factory in one week, but at a cost I'm sure.

 

Stay tuned.

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I bought 12 pwm led drivers from sure-electronics for $6, good for 22v at 700ma about 6 months ago. they worked great but they have been burning out one by one. The max I run them at is 600ma at 18v(4 rebels) and I am out of back-ups. I also built my owm currunt contllers from transistors, but the heat is crazy. Then I tried lm3410 which work great, and they are cheap, http://www.newark.com/national-semiconduct...r-ic/dp/78M7736

but you would have to build a surface mount board and reflow oven. I was thinking about buc pucks, but for the price, its not worth it just to have them fry. Is their a low cost, worry solution?

And I was wondering about these power supplies? at 0 pwm, is the output cut-off? at 1% pwm do the leds blink(like the ones from sure-electronics)? What's the warrenty ?

I love my LEDs, I never had my corals grow so good, but its getting to be a full time job designing, building and maintaining these!

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We aren't sure what the response will be at low pwm frequencies, but according to the datasheet, turn on is at 15%. How it reacts below that is an unknown.

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nd I was wondering about these power supplies? at 0 pwm, is the output cut-off? at 1% pwm do the leds blink(like the ones from sure-electronics)?

 

What does pwm stand for? Is this something similar to duty cycle?

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PWM=Pulse Width Modulation. It's a square wave signal that has a fixed frequency (period), and you change the amount of on time and off time in that period. It's used for things like motor control and dimming to simulate using analog devices like a potentiometer for the same functions.

 

This might explain things a little better.

 

2005-10a-001.gif

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Hopefully you don't have the same trouble finding the dimmable version.

 

Too bad.

After 2 emails and one call finally manage to get the distributor for Meanwell in Singapore.

But same as you they to not stock ELN series here in Singapore.

It is under indent basis.And I think it is expensive.I am quote USD 45 for ELN60-24/48

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Thats pretty high for just the standard version. I found a site in Australia that will order the dimmable versions for a decent price, but they still have a 6-10 week lead time on them.

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I received the two I ordered last night, they are not dimmable, I am still waiting on more LEDs, and I will be hooking these up this weekend. Evil, any idea how to make them dimmable? If PowerGate can do it, I would assume the board probably already has the connections to make it dimmable. Welcome your thoughts.

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Having never seen them, I have no idea how they could be modified. One of the first differences will be the output cord, as your model has two wires, and the dimmable has four.

 

Any chance of you snapping some pictures of the drivers? Maybe some of the internals?

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Here are 3 pictures of the guts, One from the bottom of the PCB (I circled the two Dim solder joints. One from the AC in side and One from the LED out/ Dim side.

post-41939-1233930095_thumb.jpg

post-41939-1233930103_thumb.jpg

post-41939-1233930110_thumb.jpg

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Seems like there are parts missing leading back to the IC. Could be a somple mod if we can find out what parts are truely missing. This might be an alternative. I thought the units were potted and this was going to be near impossible.

 

Hmm. Gears turning ;)

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I have now done some experimentation with these, First I connected 12 LEDs (6 cree White and 6 cree Royals) in series to one EN60-48v. I turned the internal Potentiometer that adjust current down all the way. Should be -25% so ~ 1000ma. This setup was dimmer than I thought it should be. I have not hooked up a multimeter to measure the actual current however, so I decided to connect two 12 LED strings in parallel- so a total of 24 (12white, 12 Royals), and turned the current to the max on the internal potentiometer, this produced a significant amount more output. I have decided for now to stay with one supply pushing the two strings of 12 LEDs. I probably could bump up the number of LEDs by 1 per string, and I might do that. I also might put a multimeter on it to see what current it is pulling with one string on a single EN60-48 and then adjust to ~1000ma.

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I would suggest using the multimeter to verify the current. They may put a pot on that will dial it down beyond the suggested -25% on the data sheet. Likewise when you crank it all the way up. You may do some damage to the PS by doing this. My powersupply that I use to drive my buckpucks is like this.

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I had a little time, so I hooked up the multimeter and as was stated above, the current was higher than specified. Full pot = ~1.6 amps, so I dialed it back to 1.4 amps for running two 12 led strings in parallel. This is a little higher than spec, but I thought I would try it. Also for note the minimum current when adjusting the Pot, was 300ma or so. If anyone uses this device, they will need to use a multimeter to dial in the proper current. At this point I am happy with the device.

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