DIY leds and profilux 1-10v

[nanotank]

Who has done this and if you have do you have any pics as to how you hook everything up? I am starting a large led build and want to be able to dim everything like my profilux and AI setup at my office. I will be using 14-16 mean well d drivers to do all this for a total of 168 or 192 leds. Any info you could give me and or pics would be great.

Thanks, Jeff

[Chrisrush]

I have my LED arrays hooked up to my profilux but I'm only using 4 meanwell drivers. I have them spliced into a 6 pin RJ12 line that plugs into my L1/L2 port on the back of the profilux.

If you look at the EVG cards, you can use these to hook up directly to the profilux as well. They will save you an outlet on your power strip.

[nanotank]

Thanks. I think I am going to need like 5-6 of those cards. I,think u can hook up 3 drivers to each and then not have to use the power bars but will be able to use the reg wall socket correct?

[fjr_wertheimber]

Hey nanotank, which Meanwells are you going to be using? For that many you need to make sure that you're using PFC drivers or you could end up with harmonics causing pretty nasty heat buildup and possibly a fire... Do a search through the DIY LED thread and you'll see a lot of discussion about it.

[nanotank]

mean well eln-60-48d's, 12 led's per driver...

[fjr_wertheimber]

Yeah, you really don't want to do that... that many ELNs is a bad day waiting to happen...

[nanotank]

Whys that? Not exactly sure why that would be. I am undriving the leds and will be turning the eln's down also. They will be connected to 1-10v circuits on the profilux. Seems this is a standard setup??? Can someone else chim in please? I am coming from 4-400 watt halids and ic660 t5 setup..

[nanotank]

Also if that is the case what other dimmible type drivers could I use that are 1-10v for profilux hookups?

[nanotank]

Also I am going to be running 3 drivers off 1 wall plug and then going to make 3-4 dim channels for whites/ blues and combo setups

[fjr_wertheimber]

To quote kcress from this (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=17806494&postcount=12) thread:
"To answer your PFC question. The Meanwell 60-48D has just diodes on the front-end that charge a capacitor. Capacitors store energy with voltage. What happens is the capacitors charge up to some level and operation begins. Every power line cycle which varies from 170V to -170V can only add power back to the capacitor, (that is continuously drained by running the LEDs), when the absolute value of the voltage exceeds whatever the drained down voltage of the capacitor is at that moment.

This means the power can only be gotten from the outlet in tiny sporadic gulps. Those gulps are large sudden current spikes because all the energy needed by the system has to come in those tiny gulps.

Those gulps can be 10A even though the name plate states 1A or 0.5A. That's because the name plate shows the average current. When you stack up a pile of these things you may have 300A pulses being drawn from your outlet even though the average current is only 10A.

The heating in your breakers and wiring and outlets is only a function of I-squared R. Which means the heating is very sensitive to the current I. Your wiring is set up for "average" current not these repetitive pulses.

In most cases you won't have a problem - you'll get away with it. Your wiring will be running hotter than predicted by the average current values listed on the Meanwells. If you have no weaknesses (today) like a bad connection in your house wiring you probably won't have an issue.

As for the startup problem with the inrush the inrush listed only occurs when you power-on the MW and the power line voltage which cycles, as stated above, is at the maximum values. Any other time it's less. This means you are rolling the dice every time you energize the MWs. You may turn them ON and the first time the breaker trips. Or the 300th time the breaker blows as it all depends on where in the power line cycle the switch gets thrown.

If you always leave the MWs ON but just dim them then your breaker tripping opportunities are obviously reduced.

The aforementioned problems that diode-front-end power supplies cause is so onerous to the power companies and to places where a lot of switching supplies are used, like offices with a bunch of personal computers, that the laws are changing on the subject of switching supply front ends.

Enter the Power Factor Controlled (PFC) front ends. Instead of diodes hooked to capacitors the diodes are replaced with a controlled network of transistors and inductors. The control directs the current drawn from the power source to be drawn smoothly over the entire power line cycle not just in gulps - no gulping allowed. This avoids ALL the current pulsing and wire heating. This same network can provide the bonus of eliminating the inrush too. As the initial energy drawn on start-up can be actively limited.(Note that these PFC Meanwells don't limit inrush much.)

The HLG line is Meanwell's PFC or "active front end" current drivers. They would be the choice for those wanting a "bunch" of drivers.

On a side note:
Running 10, 15, or 20 ELN60s is a gigantic waste of money. Those units are only about 88% efficient at FULL LOAD. Loading them at something like 700mA means you are only running them at about 60% load which is also something like 60% efficient. It's so bad they don't even show you a graph. This means you're paying another %40 percent for your lighting power and dumping %40 more heat into the space. You'd be better off using resistors and a fixed voltage power supply, unless you want dimming.

As for the HLG-185H or HLG-320H since they are more powerful than the 60s I would use them in parallel series setups. There's additional work and a few more parts like resistors and possibly fuses when you parallel. You can read about that in the BIG LED thread. That would reduce the huge pile of under utilized MW 60s too. "

[nanotank]

Might look into the HLG's as profilux has a pwm card coming out. So after reading it my be more capable of doing lightening, cloud cover and stuff off the profi. I will be 6-8 before they test it but I can wait.