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Old 09-12-2012, 02:42 PM
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Default DIY LED meanwell driver issue.

So I purchased a couple of meanwell 60-48p drivers from modular LED and I am having issues with them.

I have an arduino Uno setup on a basic sketch to output PWM at full tilt

with no LED's hooked up, my volt meter will not read above 33 volts, even when the driver is cranked up to full. To top that off, it took almost an hour for it to climb to 33 volts from the 18v it started at.

what am I doing wrong?

Thanks in advance.
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Old 09-12-2012, 02:49 PM
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sphelps sphelps is offline
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Arduino is 0-5V PWM signal, meanwell for some strange reason is 0-10V PWM. You'll need a transistor to convert the signal from 5V to 10V.

This is an option or you can use a 9V power supply and forget the regulator (10V don't really exist).

Last edited by sphelps; 09-12-2012 at 02:55 PM.
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Old 09-12-2012, 02:57 PM
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Here's another

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Old 09-12-2012, 02:58 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by WindowMaker View Post
So I purchased a couple of meanwell 60-48p drivers from modular LED and I am having issues with them.

I have an arduino Uno setup on a basic sketch to output PWM at full tilt

with no LED's hooked up, my volt meter will not read above 33 volts, even when the driver is cranked up to full. To top that off, it took almost an hour for it to climb to 33 volts from the 18v it started at.

what am I doing wrong?

Thanks in advance.
Very interesting that your voltage is climbing the longer they're plugged in. I'm trying to work through a similar issue: one of mine is at 18V and the other is at 24V when the drivers are plugged in with no LEDs attached. I never left them plugged in to see what the voltage did over time. I haven't made any adjustments to mine.

I've yet to hear back from Martin with regards to the voltage out of the drivers, but it does seem odd.
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Old 09-12-2012, 02:58 PM
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thanks for the input. does this explain why the driver is only outputting 30v?
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Old 09-12-2012, 03:02 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by WindowMaker View Post
thanks for the input. does this explain why the driver is only outputting 30v?
I would assume so unless it has internal adjustment to accommodate different array sizes. What power supply is the Arduino on now?
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Old 09-12-2012, 04:12 PM
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the arduino was just running off USB, that could have been the issue.

Ive done some testing and consulting with my dad (40 yrs electrical engineer) and we decided to just feed 12v into the pwm input to test.

The drivers are working well now. Im running 2 of 4 bars and it is ridiculously bright. I may have overdone it when I designed the setup.

Just testing some break in now to see what temperatures are like.

Ive ordered some components to fix my PMW voltage issue.

Thanks!
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Old 09-12-2012, 04:34 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Enigma View Post
Very interesting that your voltage is climbing the longer they're plugged in. I'm trying to work through a similar issue: one of mine is at 18V and the other is at 24V when the drivers are plugged in with no LEDs attached. I never left them plugged in to see what the voltage did over time. I haven't made any adjustments to mine.

I've yet to hear back from Martin with regards to the voltage out of the drivers, but it does seem odd.

it seems like this is how they behave when

A) its not under load
B) there is now dimmer source attached

with my LED's hooked up I am pulling 51v and they are ridiculously bright
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