I guess the discussion should come up on drivers and what can be paired with these EB series strips.
The Bridgelux EB Series Gen 2 strips run at two voltages
19.5v for the 280mm and 560mm ones
and 39v for the 1120mm ones
So your drivers must be capable of that as a base.
Now how many strips vs what driver your selecting or have this is how it breaks down.
The 280mm strips are 19.5v at 350ma nominal
560mm ones are also 19.5v but at 700ma “just a doubling of the 280mm essentially on the current side”
and the 1120mm are 39v at 700ma which again just another doubling but of the 560mm ones but on the voltage side.
So lets throw up some scenarios
Say you decide on a XLG-200-L-AB
Its stats are that its a 700ma driver but can run between 350ma-1050ma potentially
Its voltage range for constant current mode is 142v-285v
Insert math…
for the 560mm strips 285v / 20v = 14.25 strips rounded down to 14 "why 20v when the strips are 19.5v, im factoring in potential over driving and safety margin "
But base at max that driver could run 14 of the 560mm strips at there nominal current of 700ma, and because the driver can be pushed hard “if desired, but not necessarily recommended” it could even run them at 800-900ma each. The wiring for these strips though would be just a straight series connection.
On the minimum side not that any of us would be doing so with a 142v it could run 7 of the 560mm ones in series.
Now lets say we wanted to use the 280mm ones, them being at 350ma a piece and still 19.5v, we would need to parallel chain two series strings together to get up to that 700ma the driver put out, so those 14 strips max and 7 strips min of the 560mm ones now becomes 28 and 14 respectively, they would be wired up where you have two equal chains of strips that connected in series on the respected sides, but those two chains are connected in parallel to the driver causing the amperage to split between the two. Now side note say one strip utterly fails or gets broken completely causing all the current to go to the other operational chain, even though they are rated at being able to take double the current, and could potentially take more you have a chance of burning out a strip on that side as well. Would i be worried no, but its a minute possibility and even still if you have to replace two 280mm strips what’s the cost $6 ?
So lets continue on and say you wanted to use the 1120mm ones, at 39v at 700ma nominal, you could use 7 of those strips run in series to 4 on the low end as we have to round up to get over the voltage threshold of 142v.
So what about old drivers you may have kicking around such as the HLG series
Well so long as they can output that base 19.5v for the 280mm and 560mm ones or 39v for the 1120mm one you will be able to use them.
Examples would be any of the HLG-_ _H-20A or B series or HLG-__H-42 A or B series drivers , with the 36A’s and less likely the 54A’s possibly being able to be used, but they would have to be measured. Saying that specs sheets list that the voltages on those later ones will put out less than what we need, but and a big one here, the HLG drivers specifically the A series are capable of being over driven with the internal Vo potentiometer screw. So there is a possibility that they can supply the voltages we need for these strips and is really easy to figure out if you have a multimeter and a small phillips screwdriver. You just crank the voltage screw and measure the output.
Now saying that the HLG drivers in order to figure out how many we can run it comes down to division of the rated current range, which is no different than the XLG drivers but just on the voltage side.
So say we had a old HLG-240H-20A driver, voltage range is 18.6-21.4v with 6-12a current adjustable range.
insert math… 12a / 0.7a “700ma” = 17 strips of the 560mm, factor in some potential over driving if so desired at say 0.8-0.9a and we have 15 -13 strips
Wiring for these would be a straight parallel configuration for the 560mm ones and if using the 280mm ones which you would have essential double the amount of aka 12a/0.35a = 34 strips.
Redundancy wise if a strip got broken completely like the previous example, the current that that strip used would just be dissipated to the other strips evenly which wouldn’t be much 17 strips minus 1 = 16, and 700ma / 16 = 43.75ma increase to each strip, again minor, but the downside is the high amperage your running at “think big sparks” if shorted
So saying that yeah always keep safety in mind and do you best to avoid potential issues if your building an array.
But there are a few drivers out there capable of running these strips, i suggest the XLG series specifically the L format of them.
Also with any step up converter the amount of amps you can output is dependent on the step up… so the less you step up the voltage the more juice you can squeeze out of them…
