Double check before assembling my light

I have two 36" heatsinks and 4 Cree cxb3590 for each. I tried hooking my light up with my B version meanwell 185w, and thought it should all be connected right, well i never could get it to work so some wiring must be wrong. I'm asking for some help on wiring since I apparently forgot some things since my last diy led build. If there are any informational videos, links, or diagrams that might help me just feel free to post that up. Thanks

Is the first connection on the DC side negative-negative and positive-positive? cant really see much from the picture, but thats a common mistake.The rest should be normal series connections

I circled the first positive in the series here, this one is connected to the red positive from mean well driver.

Make sure that no cobs are reversed in the holders, if that's possible, and the wiring is like this:


Without better pictures, and seeing the reverse side it's hard to say what's up, but this is easy stuff. You'll get it working.

Silly question... is the pot turned all the way to the left? I can't tell if you have a resistor on it or not.

Thanks for that diagram, that helped a lot. Here's my potentiometer, not sure if this is correct.

Might even be a bad pot or driver. Got a spare drive to try?

GroDank101 said:

Thanks for that diagram, that helped a lot. Here's my potentiometer, not sure if this is correct. View attachment 3777944

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i think you have those flipped.my notes from growmau5 say blue dim lead on center post and black or white to the left post.try flipping those 2 wires on the pot,it cant hurt to try it.but i think before i try that i would remove pot and cap the positive lead and try it like that just to see if your rig works at all.it could def be a faulty pot,those things are the weakest link in our builds imo.

check this video @ the 6.10 mark

that helps a lot, @sixstring2112 thank you very much

GroDank101 said:

that helps a lot, @sixstring2112 thank you very much

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let us know if that fixes it for ya

you can disconnect the potentiometer and the light will just be at 100%. If it comes on with the dimmer disconnected it is the dimmer wiring. If not it is a bad connection at one of the holders, make sure your COB's and Holders and properly seated together. good luck, should be too easy. Only five parts to check, each COB, the dimmer and the driver connections. take your time. peace

So I got my driver working great. That means my problem lies somewhere in the light fixture.

GroDank101 said:

So I got my driver working great. That means my problem lies somewhere in the light fixture.

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What do you mean your driver works,do the lights come on now?did you cap your dimming leads or flip them around?

The dimming leads are soldered in the correct location now, and the driver works with another cxb3590 light I have. So the problem has to be one of the cobs or the holders, or wrong wiring on somewhere on the heatsink.

I had a cob not seat in the holder correctly. Easy fix but required me to check each cob for integrity.

I understood that it really doesn't matter which leads ones uses to dim with, just hook the wire to the middle one and either of the others.

First light is a pretty cool feeling...

Yeah i think you need to take each cob off the heatsink and check to see if the cob is positioned properly in the holders and also that none of the wires are touching the heatsinks where they enter the holders

Like check that the positive marking of the cob is lined up with the positive side of the holder

Couple of suggestions to look for:

1. Check for bare spots in your wires. The aluminum provides a great conductor and would kick off the driver's protection mechanisms.
2. The the insertion of the wires into each of the connectors. Maybe you didn't strip enough to get a good connection.
3. Faulty wire or solder joints.

It's usually a bad connection with one of the holders. Can't tell if that's solid core wire or not but that's the kind you should use. Just wiggle each connection around to make sure it's seated solidly. If the connections are all good it must be one bad COB. Depending on the current output of your driver you may be able to hook up only 2 or 3 at a time to find the bad one. Apparently the higher current ones have a wider voltage range, the 1400 ma could power as few as 2 at a time and the 1050 ma could power as few as 3. The 700 and 500 would need all 4 connected at once. At least that's from the data sheet for the C version, probably the same with B.