Lighting issues

[chief hill]

Out of all of my lights 1/2 being white and the other half being royal blue I came home yesterday to find only my blues are working.
The whites are all REALLY REALLY dim. Almost no light at all? would that suggest my driver / ballast power supply is shot? how can I test to tell if that's the case?

the leds are all 3w bridgelux led's with 2 constant drivers. 24 -10,000k whites and 12 - royal blue

 

[Neopimp]

Are the driver dimmable?

 

[Neopimp]

Either way I would take a soldering iron and re melt all the wiring connections, checking each soldered pad for continuity to the heatsink. 

You either have a bummed dimmer circuit, a short, or bad driver.  My
Money is on the short.

 

[chief hill]

Either way I would take a soldering iron and re melt all the wiring connections, checking each soldered pad for continuity to the heatsink. 

You either have a bummed dimmer circuit, a short, or bad driver.  My
Money is on the short.

The drivers are constant and aren't dimable.  I checked all the wiring with a voltmeter and was getting 2 volts to the whites.

 

[Neopimp]

If there is a short somewhere I will bet that the drivers go into overload protection.

Un solder the connections coming out of the driver and turn it on checking the voltage and amperage.

 

[Neopimp]

While its disconnected from the driver.  Go through each eah led on the continuity or beep setting. Check

1. Each solder pad to heatsink- no beep and no voltage reading.
2. Across each led on the pads.  One way will show nothing and no beep.  Switch the leads on the multimeter to the opposite pads and it should dimly light the led, beep and show about 3-4 volts.


If any of that doesn't work like that let me know.  It won't take long.

 

[KBennett]

If it is easy, and the whites and blues have similar voltage drops, switch the white and blue strings.  If the blues dim and the whites are normal, you know that you have a supply issue.

You should also be able to figure out where the short is by checking resistance from each pad to the heat sink.

D'oh.  looks like I was beat to the punch.

 

[chief hill]

im reading 48 volts coming off the driver is that normal?

 

[chief hill]

actually even the blues are reading 44 to 48 volts on the same test.

 

[Neopimp]

Lighting issues

So that driver is good for roughly 16 LEDs.  The driver is called constant current because it will adjust its voltage to achieve the rated current for the driver.  So with an open circuit with nothing attached the driver will still try to reach its rated current, by raising the voltage.  Up to the maximum the driver can produce. Which is about 48V.  The label on the driver probably says the same thing for max vilatage output.



It seems like the driver is fine to me.

 

[KBennett]

48 volts - is that connected, or not connected to the string?  If you have 48 volts at the power supply, and only 2 volts at the first led, you have a problem.  Make sure you measure from your measuring point to the negative on the power supply.  Measuring voltage from the LED pads to the heatsink might give you bad readings.

 

[chief hill]

I measured the output on the power supply in this case it is 48 volts output max.  I wanted to make sure that that output power was infact accurate and it is 
I am getting 2 volts per led. Or 48 volts if I measure from the 1st one to the last one in series

 

[Neopimp]

Driver is fine from what I see.  Check the leds like I suggested.

I am betting you will find something amiss.

Another thing you could try is jumpering out an led with a small piece of wire. 

 

[chief hill]

While its disconnected from the driver.  Go through each eah led on the continuity or beep setting. Check

1. Each solder pad to heatsink- no beep and no voltage reading.
2. Across each led on the pads.  One way will show nothing and no beep.  Switch the leads on the multimeter to the opposite pads and it should dimly light the led, beep and show about 3-4 volts.


If any of that doesn't work like that let me know.  It won't take long.

Sorry Neo im a little amiss on how to do this one. My multimeter does not beep and im confused as well as "how to do test and what im looking for with no voltage"

 

[Neopimp]

There is not a setting that will beep when you touch the two leads together?

Little speaker symbol,  or a triangle with a line, or diode checker?

You can use resistance setting for the same thing but that beep is meant for diode checking.

 

[TORX]

There is not a setting that will beep when you touch the two leads together?

Little speaker symbol,  or a triangle with a line, or diode checker?

You can use resistance setting for the same thing but that beep is meant for diode checking.

It sounds crazy, but some do not have that symbol and is strictly just a visual # on the display, crazier yet, I had one that did not have the test at all. But I go through them like crazy, I keep loosing them. :S

 

[chief hill]

Let me play with it and see.  Im using a fluke t51000 electrical tester

Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk

 

[chief hill]

Lol OK it beeps but I'm still confused as to what I'm supposed to do I'm not supposed to have any power to the LED's but I'm supposed to listen for beeps

Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk

 

[Neopimp]

He beep is powered from the meter. Remove the power to the driver or disconnect it from the strong all together .  Doesn't matter. 

Using the beep setting touch every solder point with one lead and touch the heat sink or whatever you have the less glued to with the other. It should not beep on any of the connections. It should also not show anything but 0v on the screen.  This we test for shorted to "ground" or heat sink.

The one a single led put on lead on one solder point on star and the ober lead on the other solder point.  It will either light up dimly,probably beep an show a 3 ish volts on the screen, or it will show nothing. 

After that reverse the leads from the multi meter, so move the black one to where the red one was and vice ersa, and you should get the other scenario that I described above.

I am amazing assumptions about your meter but fluke should have what I think it does.


Go through each led, if any of the above doesn't happen that is where your problem is.  I would then take a small piece of wire and simply jumper around the star or fix the shorted connection.

 

[Neopimp]

Sorry about the spelling.  I am on the iPhone so I am not correcting its corrections lol