The Cheap and Efficent LED Lighting Thread

All the above and still not working I’m going to try a new driver with a warranty so if it doesn’t solve the problem I can return it.

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looks like you’ve gone through the base methods, and seems like the driver is working or at least getting voltage to the strip connection points, really unless the strips burnt out something is funky could be the driver is putting out voltage just at no amperage to light the strips.

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I am surprised how cheap are led lights there in comparison with EU.
For leds that I’ve been looking there’s normally a 75% increase here.

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Whats the temp and humidity in the tent?

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I agree with @Mr.Sparkle . I also think the driver is working and suspect the strips.

Can you reconnect the dimmer, set it to 50% and hook just one strip/ board up at a time?
Do those red and black wires disconnect at the ends of the strips?
I’m confused on why they would use a constant current driver wired in parallel. Seems like it would burn up a strip if one was to fail. Wouldn’t it be better wired in a series?

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The temp was good at 80°f and 65%rh. When I first purchase the light and tent I wasn’t familiar with the small tents and the heat, I went from a 4×4 to the 2×4 ×5 so it was a learning curve I have a 6" exhaust fan so it was properly ventilated.

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Ok thanks for the help, I’m just not experienced in this kind of thing. If it was an engine I’d know exactly how to fix it

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How do I test if it has enough amperage?

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What size light are you trying to run? I’m sorry I jumped in. Harbor freight sells a very cheap meter. You plug it into the wall. It will let you know what you’re running. If you need to know how many amps you can look at the light. You can also look in your breaker box and see what size your breakers are. I’m curious to know what you’re talking about.

A constant current driver will automatically adjust its output in the event that an LED or a bar fails. Otherwise, if a board failed, the other boards would be over driven.

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That depends on your meter… and…

This is moving into intrinsically ‘not safe’ category as you could potentially come in contact with lethal voltages/currents.
So basic stuff, don’t do this high… double check before applying power, a few more points in the same vein (leads are secure etc).
I won’t bore you with my usual speech that I used to give to the new guys (…to scare them into listening… :wink:)
Assuming that your meter can read DC current it will need to be ‘in series’ between the + lead of the driver and the led light bar to measure the current. Be sure you have selected the correct settings & lead locations on the meter.
Apply input power once you have double checked everything and you are standing clear.

If everything is working as it is supposed to be you should see a current reading something between 1.4 and 1.9 amps.

If you don’t feel comfortable assuming this level of personal risk I fully understand and would not encourage you to do so.

Cheers
G

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Could this be the problem? To me it looks like the solder popped off or got hot and splattered if you see the circled areas… lmk what you think :face_with_monocle::thinking:

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Hi @Strainger , check the 0R3 resistor. It is a “jumper”, and from the image it appears to be blown.

Also, it appears to be connecting the 12V with Dim…
Can be replaced by a small wire to check.
But if it is blown, perhaps there is another thing not working that caused that blown.

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It does look like the 0 has a scrape or something, but I’m not sure it looks failed. It’s easy enough to test in circuit. Powered up, if there is a voltage (DC) across it, it’s probably bad. If it’s very close to zero volts it’s good.

The solder splatter looks terrible, for sure, but I don’t think that’s your issue.

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The yellow circle around the empty pad is probably for a different version on the switch with a second wiper (1 pole 8 position vs 2 pole 4 position). Switch manufacturers tend to keep the same footprint for all the variations of a “family”.
The red circle is solder balls from the manufacturing process (sloppy work).
The zero ohm jumpers can be checked with your meter. Just check the resistance across them, should be very similar to just shorting the leads together.
The surface mount parts are soldered by passing through a reflow oven.
The wires are hand soldered
The switch and connectors are probably hand soldered or maybe selectively wave soldered.
You can get those solder balls from either process (but you are supposed to clean them up… :smirk:)

I was wondering where they were getting the +/-12 volts from, do they have an external controller that plugs into that ethernet style jack?

Cheers
G

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It does appear to be blown, thanks :+1: can I replace this piece with an external dimmer from Amazon?

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I don’t know. I am only seeing some parts of the circuitry and not seeing all the “picture”. It depends. on how is the other dimmer you think to pick

For me this appears a fixed stepped dimmer (sorry for the bad translation). The knob rotates freely or steps?

The gray and violet wires to where are connected?

Perhaps you could try to disconnect it and test with lower voltage (not connected to leds nor the inverter (connect to 12v or so). And check with voltimeter for output values. Disconnected from all, I would solder a small wire to both ends of that resistor and check again. Probably put a 12V bulb at output and try. Probably due to the resistors used you can barely see the light dim (or not) but sure at 0 will be off and at 100% should be on.
But I don’t see all the circuit and probably what I’m supposing is totally wrong. I don’t have any led fixtures like that.

I talk about connecting to lower voltage, because I think you are not electrician, and it is my recomendation for you to be safe.

I think that I did not express very well, and I probably would make things other way, but although I’m not expert on electronics, I am electrician (have the studies, but not my job) … Sorry, spanish here.

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The only issue with this test is there could be caps in the circuit that could throw off his readings. The quick way to test that is to set the meter to the Ω scale, measure across the resistor and if the reading increases, swap the leads and see if the reading decreases. If he powers the circuit up and measures the DC voltage across the resistor, any capacitor in the circuit should already be charged and holding steady state.

I agree with Gpaw and Piter though, if you don’t feel comfortable taking measurements with the device powered up, you shouldn’t.

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kinda rabbit holing

If voltage was measured at the strips in the DC setting and was done with the dimmer disconnected, any normal driver would be supplying the outputted amperage or set to output if it was adjustable and apart from measuring amperage directly which one shouldn’t do if you don’t know how or the dangers then from what we know at this point the strips are not being powered, and thats where one should look whether its the connection or they burnt out a chip cascading a failure onto the other strip due to possible bad array design.

So apart from testing a new driver or actually measuring voltage at the strips themselves which typically is possible and not the connection points at the end then theorizing on random “issues” of the dimmer when there was voltage without the dimmer then theres no sense going down that rabbit hole.

Confirmation of voltage at the strips themselves and look over for burnt chips is where id start.

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I would say more like troubleshooting out of sequence. I thought he already determined he had output voltage earlier in the thread?

I do agree with looking for the obvious first, burnt chips, the smell of burnt chips, loose connections, etc.

I will say that if I had a dollar for every bad IC I’ve found on a board that had no physical damage, I’d be a rich man.

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