HLG 185 problems

Well , here I am frustrated with this project that should have had no hitches. My HLG185H-C700B is only putting out 56w's from the wall with 4 CXB3590 72v cob's. This is the second driver and same problem leads me to think that the driver is OK. I'm getting 64v dc at each cob. I have two watt meters and both are close. I don't have a lot of hair to pull out so I'll smoke a bowl instead. Any theories are welcome.

Are any of the strings in the cobs out? That could cause the current to be bottlenecked.

If you mean wires than no. It's my 8th DIY cree cob build the only thing different is 72v instead of 36v. I have proper wire ect. and all my others fired with no hitch. It sucks.

Seems like there's something wrong with one of the COBs. I'd try to figure out which one it is by trying string of just 3.

Is the dimmer disconnected? An incorrectly wired dimmer/size could do that

Cobs from kingbrite? Not assuming they are bad or anything..

Problems like that are stressfull no doubt

medicinehuman said:

If you mean wires than no. It's my 8th DIY cree cob build the only thing different is 72v instead of 36v. I have proper wire ect. and all my others fired with no hitch. It sucks.

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I mean are any of the dies on any of the cobs out? If so, it would take a higher voltage drop to get the same current through the diodes in the damaged cob. That higher drop may go over the max voltage of the driver, and thus current is significantly throttled.

I don't think so. they all looked solid white light. I'll investigate that shortly more closely.

I can't see any dies out, but something is amiss here. Maybe I'll just go back to 36v , never had a problem. I'm just fuckstated.

alesh said:

Seems like there's something wrong with one of the COBs. I'd try to figure out which one it is by trying string of just 3.

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Astring of 3? in parallel or the other way. Might need a refresher course on stringing.

medicinehuman said:

I can't see any dies out, but something is amiss here. Maybe I'll just go back to 36v , never had a problem. I'm just fuckstated.
Astring of 3? in parallel or the other way. Might need a refresher course on stringing.

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If I get it right, you're currently running 4 3590s in series on a single HLG185H-C700B. That driver has minimal Vf = 143V so you can safely run any 3 3590s in series. This way you can find out if the troubles are caused by one of the COBs perhaps. You'll also find out what Vf do your COBs need to achieve 700mA. Perhaps they're CXAs and need a higher voltage?
edit: When I think of it, the COBs being CXA3590s would perfectly explain the symptoms.

That driver should be able to go up to 286V max. Your string should only be at 280V at cold startup, so it should not put the driver into limp mode but it seems like something is. What kind of dimmer is hooked up if any? Out of curiosity could you bypass one of the COBs and see if the driver starts outputting the full 700mA or continues to put out a low current?

I hooked up 100k pot and same as nothing hooked up. I'll do 3 in series at a time to find the culprit.

Yahoo! all 4 are up and running now. I had them wired parallel and that didn't work to good so first I ran 3 in series and got about 160w reading, then 4 in series and up to 212w. Thanks for hanging in and helping me all of you led nerds

Parallel...

Lol....glad you got them working. Was starting to worry about ol' kb

They were running in parallel? So it was trying to put ~1/4 of the current through each cob (about 175mA)

That would explain it. Good to know the cobs aren't damaged.

churchhaze said:

They were running in parallel? So it was trying to put ~1/4 of the current through each cob (about 175mA)

That would explain it. Good to know the cobs aren't damaged.

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So when run in parallel do all led's only draw 1/4? Got my HYPER fan hooked up and it is nice.

medicinehuman said:

So when run in parallel do all led's only draw 1/4?

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Think of it like plumbing. If you have 4 pipe segments each with 1-way flow restriction valves (diodes), if you put them in parallel, the current will be divided between the 4 pipes, although not equally. If you put them in series, the same current will go through all 4 pieces of pipe.

churchhaze said:

Think of it like plumbing. If you have 4 pipe segments each with 1-way flow restriction valves (diodes), if you put them in parallel, the current will be divided between the 4 pipes, although not equally. If you put them in series, the same current will go through all 4 pieces of pipe.

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No one ever compared it to plumbing like that to me, that works for me.

Current is only split because it's a constant current driver. If it was constant voltage, it would not split current, you'd simply overload the driver. It would be like trying to turn all the sinks on in your house at once. Source voltage would be pulled down.