Novahobbies official 110g rebuild thread

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
Yep. Bad driver. They flash like a rave dubstep party, man!!
I'm doing the Harlem Shake over here. I swear.
SO, yeah. I'll need to order a new driver (sorry, Richard, your heart was in the right place man!)
Hey, everyone go look at the weird-arse thing I posted on the hitchhiker forum. What kind of nudi to YOU think it is?
 

2quills

Well-Known Member
What's going on with your driver? Led flash is common, most times it's just a bad connection or solder joint that can easily be fixed.
 

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
OK, well this might help! Here's what I get:
I have 8 LEDs wired up in series along 2 bars. When I test with a wall-wart set to 3 volts...I get power across all 8 bulbs (the greens are dimmer, but the reds are very bright and there's a red all the way at the end of the string). When I wired up the driver and plugged it in...I have a disco party.
The only connection that is not soldered is the power cord to the driver. Those are twisted and taped for now. I wanted to test the driver BEFORE I soldered those.
 

2quills

Well-Known Member
You mean you're testing the leds individually to see if they light up?
There's one of two things going on here...
Either there is a less than optimal solder joint somewhere.
Or the driver is power cycling itself. This can happen if the load is barely meeting the minimum requirements of the driver. Are you able to post any voltage specs of the leds and the driver you're using?
If you have a multi meter there's a very easy way to check and see if your driver is good.
 

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
No..... I mean that I tested each one individually....then I tested each set of 4....then I tested all 8 together. All with the multi voltage wall wart set to 3v. Looked good w wall wart.
I was looking for my multimeter tonight. Can't find it. Will look again tomorrow.
please excuse the shotty text I'm typing from my phone. Lol. Hate texting.
 

2quills

Well-Known Member
10/4, I'll check on ya tomorrow. All you need to do is disconnect the + and - wires of the driver from the leds and test the voltage across those wires while power is applied to the driver. If the driver is rated for a maximum of 48 volts then that's what you should see on your meter.
The 8 led minimum is a generalized recommendation that has probably been thrown around a little too long by some of these vendors. It was typically used as a guide for folks who were simply looking to run just blue and white leds that both have forward voltage requirements of over 3 volts a piece for most of the 3 watt capable leds out there. Greens typically require more voltage than whites or blues but reds actually use far less than either of the other colors. If you couple that with the fact that what you actually test doesn't always jive 100% with what can be read in descriptions then we can run into issues.
So sometimes it's still important to do the math. You may be standing right on the minimum line when you should be one or two steps over it. Simple fix would be to add one or two more leds to the circuit. Maybe run 2 rows of 5.
HTH
 

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
Thanks man! I'll check in and let ya know the led specs and multimeter test tomorrow.
Ya I hate most texting fields. I'm 6'4" and husky. Big feet, big hands, fat thumbs, etc. Was not built to text on these tiny buttons. Heh.
 
S

siptang

Guest
Strange that driver was new... I will check what is the min amount of led you can put on the driver.
 

2quills

Well-Known Member
Sip, there should be a min/max output voltage rating printed somewhere on the driver itself.
There should also be a min/max voltage requirement for the leds themselves. The different colors have slightly different requirments.
If we had that info then it should be pretty easy to check the math.
Also what current do these drivers run at?
 

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
The driver DOES have that printed on...I'll check on it when I get home tonight. Here's the LED specs.
Red LEDs:
Forward Voltage: 2.2 ~ 2.6V
Forward Current: 750mA
Green LEDs:
Vf: 3.0 ~ 3.8V
If: 500mA
UV LEDs:
Vf: 3.2 ~ 3.6V
If: 700mA
Just to total, there are 4 reds, 2 greens, and 2 UVs on this circuit in this combination: R--G--U--R-------R--U--G--R
 

2quills

Well-Known Member
Kewl, kewl...
Actually just checked out my meanwell drivers and they don't have the minimum voltage listed on there, just the maximum which is 48v or rougly 12 - 3watt leds.. So you may have to get that info from your drivers data sheet, or perhaps the supplier where you purchased it from has it listed.
Example: we'll look at one of my drivers...
Meanwell LPF 60-48. It has an output voltage of 28.8v - 48v in the constant current region. Remember, these are constant current drivers, different from a constant voltage power supply like your wall-wart. Constant current drivers do as they sound, they always put out an even and constant rate of current but the voltage automatically adjusts to the load (led count). A wall-wart works just the opposite.
Depending on how much current (amps/mA) is being pushed through the led's determines whether or not a Red led for instance operates at 2.2 volts or 2.6 volts. If you're only pushing 350mA (milliamps) through them then they will operate right around 2.2 volts. If you drive them at their maximum rating then they will be operating at around 2.6 volts.
By my math...your string of 8 leds even if they were running at their maximum would fall just short of the minimum requirement load of my meanwell LPF 60-48 driver. But your driver is probably a little different. So I can't say for sure unless I know everything about what you're using. If I used your string of 8 leds (same type) I would end up with a total forward voltage requirement for that string of 25.2 volts when what I need is at least 28.8v for my drivers to operate the leds correctly.
So it's important to remember, especially if you want to have dimming capabilities, that you're going to need to meet your minimum requirement for when you're leds are dimmed way low and that you don't exceed the maximum (48v in my case) when the leds are being driven at 100%.
I've ready probably at least a dozen cases of hearing guys run into the same issue. Using the Red leds throws a lot folks off because they require so much less voltage than the others.
In my case, when I was testing my equipment I experienced led flash but it was because of a weak/loose contact in one of the pins in a temporary connection that I had hooked up while I was taking the electrical readings. Drivers do weird things like that when there is a call for power but something is not quite right with the circuit.
HTH
 

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
Well I didn't go searching for the multimeter tonight...decided to break from fiddling and actually sit & enjoy my tank. I did, however, grab the info off the driver:
Input: AC 85V - 265V 50/60 Hz
Output: (8-12) x3W LED 600mA +/- 10%
That's all it says.
In Other Tank News......I transferred my Pipe Organ from the horse tank into the big tank tonight. At some point soon I'm going to move the green pagoda from the horse tank as well...the horse tank MAY at some point in the future become a FOWLR tank for some non reef safe fish, depending on what (if anything) I decide to do with my lone female horse.
 

2quills

Well-Known Member
Sounds like tonight is a beverage of choice night. Anybody know any good beverages? :)
In regards to hobbies I've come to learn that when ever it starts feeling too much like work it's best just to take a step back for moment and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Some work is good but too much work when you're not getting payed for it, maybe not so good lol.
Yeah, the driver itself isn't telling us the one key thing we wanna know. If you want or have time later shoot me the model and brand that you have and I'll see if I can dig it up for ya. If nothing else it would give us a more definitive answer if that's the problem or not.
 

kiefers

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2Quills http:///t/391428/novahobbies-official-110g-rebuild-thread/1140#post_3515407
Sounds like tonight is a beverage of choice night. Anybody know any good beverages? :)
In regards to hobbies I've come to learn that when ever it starts feeling too much like work it's best just to take a step back for moment and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Some work is good but too much work when you're not getting payed for it, maybe not so good lol.
Yeah, the driver itself isn't telling us the one key thing we wanna know. If you want or have time later shoot me the model and brand that you have and I'll see if I can dig it up for ya. If nothing else it would give us a more definitive answer if that's the problem or not.
I think I will pay you to build mine. That was all chineese language to me. No speakish Engrish! lol.....
So, doing any LED builds for clientel yet? I'm first! I called it, shot gun and all that jazz.
 

2quills

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kiefers http:///t/391428/novahobbies-official-110g-rebuild-thread/1140#post_3515411
I think I will pay you to build mine. That was all chineese language to me. No speakish Engrish! lol.....
So, doing any LED builds for clientel yet? I'm first! I called it, shot gun and all that jazz.
Sorry, I get carried away with this stuff lol. People don't realize how similar building a led fixture can actually be to HVAC work. You have low voltage transformers (drivers) and thermostats (programmable controllers) that are all wired up to control multiple channels (led strings).all running to a mother board with relays that handle switching power to your other various components in the system in order to run your heating and cooling, sometimes in different zones as well as different stages. I guess it comes a little easier to me.
But no, no side work yet. :(
Still can't even finish my own stuff lol.
 

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
LOL, I checked this just as I was heading to bed. As it happens, I have the driver next to my bedside table.
Doesn't everyone??
There's no manufacturer info. Just "LED Driver." There IS a model number though. Here ya go.
Model BX220V-A025-1105
I know what you mean about beverage of choice. Personally, I had fruit salad for dinner tonight.
Well, just the grapes.
Fermented Grapes.
I had wine for dinner.
 

2quills

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by novahobbies http:///t/391428/novahobbies-official-110g-rebuild-thread/1140#post_3515415
There's no manufacturer info. Just "LED Driver." There IS
a model number though. Here ya go.
Model BX220V-A025-1105
Argg...I googled but got no hits. Can I get a fact check on that number? You were nursing the grapes there a little heavy last night ya know. :)
Then again, this could be my pet peeve with the cheep stuff and the lack of real raw data available to users.
 
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