[Medicine, Man]

Annnd here we are 3 months later! After a few delays and disappointments on our end, we've finally gotten LED strips and 2 of the power supplies in, as of a couple days ago!

The HLG-480H-C3500B is still apparently on backorder or something. I've got an email out to Kingbrite to see if they have them in stock or not, and may end up grabbing from him if it's going to be a lot quicker.

I've got the fixtures framed up, the 18/2 solid stat/doorbell wire, some drivers, but I'm looking for advice on a couple parts I'm still chasing.
I know I still need potentiometers of some sort, because these are B version drivers. What should I look for, and where? Without doing it online, within the next couple days? Would a regular wall dimmer work, if I had an extra one sitting around?
Radio shack's site says they have a couple of different kinds of pots, I think for "stereo volume" control? Look like they need to be soldered. Would spade type connectors work? ...
Leading to the issue of connectors...We haven't ordered Wago connectors yet, so are there other acceptable temporary connectors for between the fixture and driver?
The bloom fixture will have the most series of lights, with 5 sets of 6 strips, so I *think* I'd want a 6 port Wago, right? Would regular wire nuts work to test? What about bypassing the dimmer wires to test?
I know that's a bunch of questions, and there will be more, I'm sure, so thanks for any advice beforehand. Please let me know if there's anything else I'm missing before I power these things up!
It's good to have something to update here again, and it should get more interesting in the next few days...

[AvidLerner]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/6x-100K-OHM...72.m2749.l2649
I use spade connectors for everything. I use wago's various types available. You can also use connection blocks

[Medicine, Man]

Cool, thanks for checking in, Avid!

I see you're recommending basically the same radio shack knob pots, so that's simple enough. I hooked up the 6 strip clone light last night, wrapping the dimmer wires together to bypass, and it worked alright for the few seconds I tested it, so I'd assume a household wall dimmer would work alright for testing too? I probably wouldn't go out and buy one, just because of the price compared to a pot., but I wouldn't mind hooking one up to test, if there's already one laying around.

I seem to recall you having some pretty sweet digital controller/display things on your fixtures, maybe homemade,- What are those, and what did they involve, if DIY?

I should have both the 6 strip horizontal, and 12 strip vert veg fixture running sometime tonight, if I can grab the bits and pieces I need today.

Hopefully I'm not overlooking anything huge!

[ReikoX]

No, a wall dimmer will not work for testing. If you read the spec sheets you will realize that you need a potentiometer of a specific ohm rating. The formula is 100k ohm for each driver you want to control with the knob. So if you have three drivers, you need a 300k ohm. Test without dimming until you have the proper potentiometer.

[Medicine, Man]

Thanks Reiko- I couldn't find a dimmer around anywhere anyway, so I just tied the dimmer ends together with a wire nut for testing. I just checked out your Ancestral Skunk thread, and am pulling for you! (And the others who grabbed the beans) Those are definitely on my wish list, with/after some more Ace stuff.

Last night, I just laid the 6 strip seed light out bare for a minute or less, wired in series, and it lit up great. Today, I mounted it to an aluminum reflector, powered it up, and only 3 strips lit up. The strip with the initial + lit, and the end - strip lit, along with the strip just before the last, but the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th strip didn't light.

I took it apart, and checked the 3 that didn't light, individually, and they all worked. Wired them back up, nada....

So, moving along, I wired the 12 strip light up, 3 parallel sets of 4 strips, wired in series...only 3 strips lit. These were the + leg of each of the 3 sets.
Anybody have any ideas as to why all aren't firing?

[AvidLerner]

You might be talking about these. I use these, they are made for power panels work great for us as well.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/AC-80-260V-...72.m2749.l2649

[AvidLerner]

For each additional driver divide 100k in half. For two drives use a 50k pot for four drivers use a 25k pot. Also the resistor has to be resized as well. A 10k resistor for one driver a 5K resistor for two drivers, etc

[Medicine, Man]

Originally Posted by AvidLerner

You might be talking about these. I use these, they are made for power panels work great for us as well.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/AC-80-260V-...72.m2749.l2649

Yeah, that's it! Very nice- I'll have to think of adding them for peace of mind.

So, I went to the only electronic supply I could find in the area to grab a couple of POTs (1 for each driver), but was talked out of it by the sales guy. They were 100k, but the guy said they're only good for like 5w, and I would need a rheostat, even for the smallest fixture, which they were out of stock.

Now, I'm pretty sure the main dimmer I've seen recommended by others here is just a 100k potentiometer, nothing too fancy or detailed...but with my limited electrical knowledge, I just left without any sort of dimmer. A dimmer is about the last thing I need to have these finished, so is there something I'm missing, or would those standard POTs at the electric shop have worked after all?

With help and a meter, we figured out that the issue with the intermittent light was the strips shorting out on the frames, which were screwed together.
(These were the horizontal 6 strip, ~100w seedling light, and the vertical 12 strip, ~200w veg light.)
So, a $20 roll of tape later, I got the strips remounted, and fired them up for testing. They all worked!

Thing is, they don't really seem all that bright...not as bright as I guess I imagined them, or they look in pics here, anyway...and not even as bright looking as some 10w household screw-in LEDs
Could it just be that they look dull because they're 3500k, and the other LEDs and CFLs I'm used to seeing are a cooler white?
Obviously I haven't grown anything under them yet, and don't have a meter to get any numbers, but they just don't seem super bright, even without a dimmer!

I'll try to get some pics up soon, but they're not the prettiest fixtures yet. As I said, they're functionally hooked up, but not finished.

Thanks again for stopping by

[Medicine, Man]

I got the POTs wired in today, cleaned the wiring up a bit more, and soldered things together on the clone and veg lights.

Doing this, I found out a few things I had asked about before:
With the dimmer wires wired together, like first tested, the light was definitely dull...about as dull as the lowest setting on the POTs I just installed!

Now they're WAY brighter with the dimmer on at about 75% power or so. With no dimmer, and the dimmer wires disconnected, the light was brightest, but it was only like this for a second.

The plan so far is to run both of these in a 2x4 veg tent, with the 6 strip light over clones and the 12 strip light vertically between 4 plants, in a 2x2x4 or 5...
....Although, just judging by the veg light hanging in a 4x4 tent at about 75% power, their final home will probably need dimmed down even more.
The vert flower fixture should be ready around the end of the month, and should be ridiculously bright in a 4x4 too

They actually turned out pretty decent, and it'll be nice to see live results sooner than later!

I can post pics as soon as I remove any personal data.
Anyone got any good app suggestions?

[AvidLerner]

ncie work