After some unexpected troubles (UPS not finding my address and the like), I finally got two brand new HLG 260 W QB s yesterday.
I wired them like explained in the video on the HLG website. The red wire goes to the brown one and on the “+” switch on the board.
The black wire goes to the blue one and to the “-” switch on the qb. Furthermore I connected plus and minus with a single wire on the opposite side.
Now see what light I get… Only a few diodes are emitting some weak light. What s wrong ? Can you help ?
The driver here appears to be an ELG-240-C2100. Note the slight difference in part numbers. This driver produces 2.1A at 57-115VDC. Another driver they recommend is The recommend driver is HLG-240H-C2100 with 2x QB 288 in series. That driver produces 1 Ampere at 119 - 238 VDC.
So, their website notes that each QB has a voltage drop of around 49VDC with a current of 2.1A. In series we just double the voltage required to obtain 2.1A and we have around 98VDC.
That “should” be fine (ELG-240-C2100), I’d think. Moreso for line voltages greater than 120.
See if you can borrow that volt meter. After looking at the specs, idk at the moment.
You can strip back the insulation a bit so that you can probe the voltage being applied across the LEDs. Being careful not to short anything or brush against the high voltage output, of course.
Edit: I’m also a bit confused as the “A” suffix on the supply denotes a build in current adjustment pot. That usually means it’s dimmable but there isn’t an external control input. I don’t know how they are doing the external dimming. Can you give us a snapshot of the bottom side of the supply along with the input and output wiring into it (e.g. are there three discrete cables, two, something else)?
Edit: I can see the terminals in the last photo now. So, there is no external dimming on this power supply. There is a current adjustment location on the bottom side of the supply under a rubber gasket. It is likely that will need to be adjusted as we don’t know what the factory set this to. A volt meter will be useful for that but you could try to adjust it a small amount to see if affect the intensity of the LEDs at all.
I dont think that it comes pre-dimmed from factory. This makes no sense to me… All the videos at the end of assembly, when they branch it, ALL the diodes are shining very brightliy. Cant say this of mine…
I ll get the volt meter as soon as my landlord has finished milking the cows…
Man, your way of life sounds awesome (despite the light issues)…milking the cows…holy shit…that takes me back to being 4 years old and helping my uncle on the farm in Saskatchewan!!!
Not sure if it’s available to you, but a kill-a-watt meter might help you out…you can program it so that it’ll tell you how many watts your using and give you the costs associated with said wattage. Amazon sells them for $15…it’ll tell you how many watts your light is actually pulling from the wall…
That black dot there is probably hiding the dimmer…marshydro has the same thing…pop that cap off and it should reveal a dimmer…small flathead screwdriver should pump up more light.
I respect your knowledge and wisdom, Tappy. But it just does not make any sense that this set was delivered with a dimmed down driver. One of our mutual friends here is growing with the same setup. He even did nt know that his driver was dimmable…
Furthermore, if the unit is dimmed down then ALL the diodes would emit a weak light. I repost the pict here how my unit looks under current.
Like I stated before, at the end of ALL how-to videos when they put it under current, the WHOLE board is shining very brightly. The way it supposed to be…
So what you propose, Tappy, is not the answer to this riddle…
Edit. It is a riddle indeed. All the wiring is exactly how it s supposed to be. I m still clueless…
It could have been moved during shipment. I would try adjusting it. If the voltage is too low, only a few of your diodes will light up. You could also try connecting just a single board. It sounds like you have low voltage. It could even be a bad connection.
With the wiring, as you’ve verified being correct, the most likely scenarios are:
The IoAdj (e.g. the dimmer) is adjusted low.
There is a high resistance connection somewhere (e.g. bad connection).
A bad or damaged part or
A bad or damaged supply.
You can verify (1) by making voltage measurements with the LED array connected. And also can try twiddling on the IoAdj. Just because someone else had a different result does not guarantee that your unit is set the same.
You can then further verify whether the supply is operating as expected (4) by measuring the voltage open circuit (LEDs disconnected).
You can further diagnose the supply (4) by measuring the current supplied with the LED array placed back in-circuit.
If the supply checks out, there is something going on with (2) or (3). Additional diagnostic steps would be needed.
There are some good sign here with seeing some of the LEDs illuminated. This indicates that the polarity is correct, you are supplying power, and there isn’t a drastic problem with one of the components (e.g. nothing at all or flames/smoke). The most likely scenario starts with (1) as noted above.
Believe it or not, that is actually a good sign. The likelyhood of a component problem being the issue has dropped.
No one knows what it is set at from the factory. There is no guarantee and it is not address in the datasheet. One process change and here we are. Rather, it would be safer to ship units with IoAdj set to low and expecting the end-user to make the adjustment. Who knows…
