F Series driver recommendation

@Prawn Connery

http://www.wago.us/products/pluggable-connector-systems/connectors-for-special-applications/connectors-for-lighting-and-electrical-equipment/lumi-nuts™/

i used them before ,they work good,better to tin the stranded wire with them.

Prawn Connery said:

Not easy to find in Australia unless I import from the US via eBay at about $40 per 10. I need to find something reliable a bit closer to home . . . or get better at soldering, lol!

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Why would you not be using cutter if your based out of Australia?
http://www.cutter.com.au/categories.php?cat=Grow+Light

As far as I'm aware, he doesn't have them. I haven't emailed him, but they're not listed on his site.

Prawn Connery said:

As far as I'm aware, he doesn't have them. I haven't emailed him, but they're not listed on his site.

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We talking about the same thing here, I thought you were talking about wago connectors? Cutter has them
http://www.cutter.com.au/proddetail.php?prod=cut2989

No, I've got the Wago hookup wire connectors - we were talking about the Ideal Powerplugs. The Wago Luminuts are also hard to get here.

Right now I've got an XT90 female plug from the driver to a male plug on 5m of 14awg insulated wire going to the LED array. But I got a bit heavy-handed with the soldering and burned the plastic a bit and, while it works, it doesn't look too flash. I was looking for another power cable connector that doesn't use soldering. Either that, or I just get another XT90 and do it again; maybe fold the wire over to fill in the gap in the brass solder terminal a bit more before I solder it.

Those XT90s are HUGE! 8ga! They'd be awesome if you were running parallel and twisted and tinned all of the 18ga leads together, but still... they're huge! LOL. And rated for up to 90 amps.

Do they make something like an XT20?

Prawn Connery said:

Not easy to find in Australia unless I import from the US via eBay at about $40 per 10. I need to find something reliable a bit closer to home . . . or get better at soldering, lol!

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Soldering is really mostly about having good equipment. I've been soldering for well over thirty years, and with a good Ersa iron, I can make it look like it was wave soldered - but if you put a $15 40W soldering pen in my hand, its gonna look like rabbit shit.

Rider509 said:

Those XT90s are HUGE! 8ga! They'd be awesome if you were running parallel and twisted and tinned all of the 18ga leads together, but still... they're huge! LOL. And rated for up to 90 amps.

Do they make something like an XT20?

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Oh hell, if those are 8 g terminals, you'll need 130W of heat or more to solder them properly. I did not realize they were that big.

Here is what you need

All you need is a heat gun to use them.

nfhiggs said:

Soldering is really mostly about having good equipment. I've been soldering for well over thirty years, and with a good Ersa iron, I can make it look like it was wave soldered - but if you put a $15 40W soldering pen in my hand, its gonna look like rabbit shit.

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Yep, that's what mine looked like. More like kangaroo shit . . . I just need connectors I can snap in and out - that's the idea of having a remote driver and separate led array/cord. I'll figure it out.

One could use this waterproof car crimp connectors to avoid soldering. They are cheap to get on e3ay and available with up to five pins. With awg18 gauge max. rating is 14A at 24v, so they could handle at least 300watts max..

Crimping is a bit frickie but should be easy enough for everyone. I've used them also for a 135v/1,05mA (4 CXB3590's in series)connection and they don't heating up but I can not safely recommend to everyone to do it. But theoretical, if you stay below their limits(300w) they should work. BTW, I've aditionally soldered the crimp connections, LOL!