LED bar not lighting

[Ligershark]

I am having some issues after setting up a diy led accent bar that I have wired to a 4up coralux board and storm controller.

The problem started when the first switching power supply blew out immediately (I did not have it grounded...at all).

The replacement power supply is humming very loudly and the lights do not power on.

My led strings are wired as the following:

ch1 700ma ldd 6 cree xte royal blue
ch2 700ma ldd 6 cree xte royal blue
ch3 350ma ldd 3 uv
ch4 350ma ldd 4 cree xte royal blue (as moonlights)

Power supply is 24v 2a. I have ordered a 24v 2.5a supply from China which should be coming in a few weeks cause I was advised the 2a supply may not be powerful enough.

I tested for continuity with my multimeter and nothing sounds. I also tested each led with my battery tester and they all lit up so they're not burnt out.

If my 4up board is grounded will this stop the led bar from lighting up?

Any help/advice is appreciated.

[pwreef]

Pictures of all the wiring will help. If your power supply blew up and the new one is humming, you are likely shorting it out by connecting it to wrong (same?) inputs on the board.

[zachts]

I agree you are shorting something out, either on the boards or at the PSU.

Your setup is only going to draw between 1 amp and 1.5 amps so the 2 amp supply should be all you need.

Check all your connections, check that you are not mounting the board to a metal surface that could be shorting out the solder joints on the bottom of the board, check that your LEDs are all wired correctly and not shorting out to the heat sink.

[Ligershark]

thanks for the replies. ill try to get some photos tomorrow, I am almost positive I am shorting out my board. I was very careful when wiring the light but i'll double check the connections when I take the photos. It is a modded sun power.

[Ligershark]

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/02/28/ysa7y6ud.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/02/28/e5ube5uh.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/02/28/aryvesud.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/02/28/panaga3a.jpg

[Ligershark]

power wire comes via cord for electronic ballast i removed. it is on its own. the other 2 ballasts are wired to their own power
cable.


the first time i wired everything i did not have the blue ground wire involved and the power supply immediately blew out, puff of smoke and poof.

[Ligershark]

im not sure why the photos won't upload.

[zachts]

They did, but it never works from tap talk for some stupid reason......


http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/02/28/ysa7y6ud.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/02/28/e5ube5uh.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/02/28/aryvesud.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/02/28/panaga3a.jpg

[Ligershark]

thank you

[zachts]

everything looks fine from these pics. Did you have that acrylic under the LDD board before or was it sitting on the aluminum housing? that would have smoked the PSU.........and very possibly the LEDs too, lucky it didn't. Hopefully the LDDs are all still ok also.

Let someone else chime in also, they may see something I'm missing in the pics.

[Ligershark]

the wires that go to the storm controller are soldered, I'm waiting on 24 gauge heat shrink to come in so they are temporarily protected with electrical tape

[Ligershark]

the acrylic wasn't underneath but i had made standoffs using 4-40 ss screws and nuts with nylon washers on both sides of the board

[Ligershark]

any clue how to test the ldd's?

[zachts]

any clue how to test the ldd's?

Nope, powering them up is the only way I know of to know if they will work or not.

Was the PSU also insulated from the housing of the fixture? some PSUs cannot have the housing in direct electrical contact with an AC ground, which you light has via the Blue wire and the grounded plug on the fixtures power cord, the PSU housing often conducts a DC ground and it is very bad to mix the two. pricier PSUs come with a warning label about this.......

[Ligershark]

i removed the psu so it would fit in the fixture thought i had insulated it. however it clearly wasn't and thats why it blew out. this one makes the same noise, with the acrylic under it or not.

does the problem with mixing the grounds (dc and ac) disappear as long as I have the psu safely insulated?

[zachts]

DC ground is not the right term.... it is DC positive and DC negative. "ground" is really only for the AC side. The terms get mixed up easily, my bad for lending to the confusion on that note. The DC negative and the AC ground should never be connected......

anyway....

On a second look please post a pic of the terminals and wire connections on the PSU and PWM terminal side of your LDD board. I can't see clearly in any of the pics but it might be you have your DC- wire from the PSU attached to the DC + terminal. There are two of each on the Board.

The two on the far upper right in your close up above are DC +.......if you lucky and it's hooked up wrong all you've done is trip the short circuit protection, but that may have failed on your first PSU smoking it.

[Ligershark]

So I shouldn't be sharing a common ground for these? At the moment the t5 ground and dc ground share the same wire, however I have never had them both powered at the same time...yet, which I am now fearful of. The new psu which is rated for 2.5amps came in the mail today. I'm going to try that tomorrow morning.

[Ligershark]

it'd a coralux board and i have it wired as posted on their website.
http://coralux.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/connection_diagram_011-125x125.png

[Ligershark]

black is v- red is v+

[zachts]

it'd a coralux board and i have it wired as posted on their website.
http://coralux.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/connection_diagram_011-125x125.png

THAT DIAGRAM IS WRONG!!!!!!! IT IS THE THREE UP BOARD. YOU HAVE THE 4 LDD BOARD.
Not yelling just stressing the point you have it wired wrong which is the source of all your issues. look at the board notes next to the terminals it says
pwm inputs
[1 2 3 4 g g v v]

'g' equals DC negative from the PSU and to the arduino negative ( negative pwm pin or arduino PSU negative, it really doesn't matter)

'v' equals DC positive from the PSI powering the LEDs only. the multiple terminals just allow daisy chaining boards together.

You have it right, they F'd up thier images on the site, send them a nasty email, maybe they'll be nice and send you some free stuff or at least fix the image on the site.

[zachts]

So I shouldn't be sharing a common ground for these? At the moment the t5 ground and dc ground share the same wire, however I have never had them both powered at the same time...yet, which I am now fearful of. The new psu which is rated for 2.5amps came in the mail today. I'm going to try that tomorrow morning.

Forget about the grounding issue, just don't let metal from different components touch metal from anything else and you will be just fine.

There is no DC ground.......... your refering to the AC ground wire powering the AC input side of your AC to DC power supply.

[Ligershark]

ill try it tomorrow. thank you. i knew the photo was the 3up board but i didnt know there was a difference in the terminals. inwas wondering what was up w the extra ground

[zachts]

when in doubt use your multimeter and continuity setting. if two test points/terminals beep they are connected electrically........

Also never hurts to ask us on RC most people will respond with thier experience. As they say "there are no stupid questions"

When your not sure just ask and be patient for the answer.

I sent Coralux a message about their site and the bad image FYI, just because that kind of stuff ticks me off!

[zachts]

Just as an example and lesson in electronics. if you test the DC - terminal with the continuity setting on your meter it should beep if you touch the other DC - terminal. It should also beep if you touch the DC - pin on the bottom of the mounted LDD driver under the board.

Same goes with the DC +

I buy lots of really cheap boards off ebay all the time and usually the only way to determine what does what for sure is to do a little testing before powering up.

Coralux will hopefully fix their site documents.

[Ligershark]

ben has provided excellent customer service so far and answered any questions ive had. ill test and report back tomorrow.

[Jim Z.]

I have been wondering about that diagram. Zachts-- Please explain how the connection should be made regarding a "common ground". How would a correct diagram look? I'm in the middle of my build and have experienced some problems related to this situation.......Jim

[zachts]

It should look like this.

[Ligershark]

its lighting up, silent no humming or buzzing. all channels working perfectly. thanks zachts! ill post some photos when its completely finished

[Jim Z.]

Thank you zachts!--just as I had thought. Ligershark--Glad you got it working. I'm waiting for my Storm X and hope to get the rest of the soldering done tomorrow...................................Jim