Need help with wiring up new strips

Hey guys, so I finally got everything in to build my fixtures ( 4 of them at 2ft x 4ft ) and wanna make sire I wire it up correctly as I’m new to this and don’t wanna F anything up. So I’m doing 8 strips per ( strips from Cutter ) 4 strips are 3000k 90cri and 4 are 5000k 80cri and I’ll be using Mean Well 320H-48A per fixture running in parallel. Do I run the + and - from the driver to the 1st led strip and at the other end of the strip use a connecting wire to connect to the next + and - and continue that way ( daisy chain ) till the last strip? Or do I need to use Wagos or is there a better way to wire in parallel? If this is a stupid question then I apologize, like I said, this is all new to me and I’ve never done anything like this b4 and don’t wanna fuck anything up as I’ve invested a lot of money. Below is a pic of my strips and my layout will be 20” wide with four rows of 46” heat sinks with 2 strips per heat sink. Sry for long post and I’d really appreciate your help, thanks!!

In simple terms, you need to have a positive and negative BOTH from the driver, going to each and EVERY strips neg and pos connectors.

|- _____ +|
|- _____ +|
|- _____ +|
|- _____ +|
|- _____ +|
|- [===] +| driver


Imagine a wire going up both ends of these "strips" from the "driver", basically connect all the pos and all the negs, and that's what you need to do.

Airwalker16 said:

|- _____ +|
|- _____ +|
|- _____ +|
|- _____ +|
|- _____ +|
|- [===] +| driver


Imagine a wire going up both ends of these "strips" from the "driver", basically connect all the pos and all the negs, and that's what you need to do.

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So I can’t run to the 1st strip then daisy chain to the rest? Damn, woulda looked cleaner wiring that way. So would it be easiest to use a Wago? Honestly, I’m still a little confused, sry. I’ve never built a light or wired anything up. I appreciate ur reply man!

I was just reading ur thread bout ur free Mars light and then u commented on this lol and wow. Gene has it out for u huh. Crazy. I have a Mars TSW 2000 and its working pretty damn well.

I guess its a good thing I ordered big ass rolls of wire lol. Im totally bummed out now and trying to figure out how to wire this and make it look clean as possible

Ya you're explaining series wiring which is fine with a constant current driver. Your driver is constant voltage. So the total amperage is split to all the leds. In series, they all get Daisy chained together and the current is regulated at an exact value to everything.

It shouldn't be hard man. Wagos will be used for sure.
Just make sure you have a wire coming from the drivers positive AND negative to EVERY STRIP. Rather than in positive to the first strip, then a wire connecting the next strip to it and so forth.
Every strip needs to have a wire comin to both connectors.
In series wiring, positives connect to negatives and vice versa.
In Parallel wiring, positives ONLY connect to positives and negatives ONLY connect to negatives.

HardLuck71 said:

I guess its a good thing I ordered big ass rolls of wire lol. Im totally bummed out now and trying to figure out how to wire this and make it look clean as possible

Click to expand...

Daisy chain is bad, get some 5 wire Wago's or other connectors.

1212ham said:

Daisy chain is bad, get some 5 wire Wago's or other connectors.

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DIY LED strip builds have become very popular recently. The mid-power section of our forum is full of threads created by DIYers looking to build their own custom lights, and new builds and ideas are surfacing every day. If you don’t live somewhere where you have easy access to premade lights...

ledgardener.com

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this!!!!

daisy chaining isn’t good, use the wagos like 1212 is saying. That’s what I did.

this was my biggest obstacle when I wired mine in parallel. Unless you solder and shrink wrap everything or wire in series. Getting a clean final appearance is difficult.

All positives connect together and then back to the positive driver lead and same with negatives.

diggs99 said:

this!!!!

daisy chaining isn’t good, use the wagos like 1212 is saying. That’s what I did.

this was my biggest obstacle when I wired mine in parallel. Unless you solder and shrink wrap everything or wire in series. Getting a clean final appearance is difficult.

All positives connect together and then back to the positive driver lead and same with negatives.

Click to expand...

There are so many different ways to explain parallel wiring hahaha

1212ham said:

Daisy chain is bad, get some 5 wire Wago's or other connectors.

DIY LED Strip Build Designs for Samsung H-Series, F-Series, Q-Series, and Bridgelux EB Gen.2 - LED Gardener

DIY LED strip builds have become very popular recently. The mid-power section of our forum is full of threads created by DIYers looking to build their own custom lights, and new builds and ideas are surfacing every day. If you don’t live somewhere where you have easy access to premade lights...

ledgardener.com

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Daisy chaining is not ideal but makes for a cleaner build. The problem is that the current going thru the first wires of the daisy chain will have all the current of the driver going thru them which might mean these wires get a fair bit hot.

Its also possible to use a mix of the 2 variants: have a wago that goes out to the strips and have it 2 strips daisy chained together: that way you would only have the power of 2 strips going thru the first connectors and eliminate half of the wires coming from the wago.

Hey hardluck,


heres the thread i started and was given massive amounts of advice in. It helped get me through the wiring portion of the build.

diggs99 said:

Hey hardluck,


heres the thread i started and was given massive amounts of advice in. It helped get me through the wiring portion of the build.

CUTTER Strip build wiring questions

Hey, getting ready to build these lights, want to have everything ready when the strips show up. I plan to run 18 strips per 480w driver ( 3x4 fixture) i will be building 3 of them. So 9 x 48" heatsinks per fixture, I was originally gonna solder my wiring, but now thinking i may just go with...

www.rollitup.org

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Thanks brother! I’ll need some 10 wire Wagos then cause I’m sure they don’t come in 8 lol.

Thanks everyone for your replies! Much appreciated!!

So I would be able to use these? Thanks

Those will work just the same. They are just push in types, rather than lever release. It's slightly more convenient for removal with lever types, nothing more.
Any sufficiently rated connector, including plain ol' wire nuts can be used.
It would likely be difficult to find a connector that is not sufficiently rated for the circuit you are creating.

Edit: most hardware, home improvement type, stores will likely have those on the shelf...

Chip Green said:

Those will work just the same. They are just push in types, rather than lever release. It's slightly more convenient for removal with lever types, nothing more.
Any sufficiently rated connector, including plain ol' wire nuts can be used.
It would likely be difficult to find a connector that is not sufficiently rated for the circuit you are creating.

Edit: most hardware, home improvement type, stores will likely have those on the shelf...

Click to expand...

Shoot, now that I think of it, an 8 port Wago won’t work cause I have 8 strips plus the driver and I can’t find a 10 port Wago?

@diggs99 , @Chip Green , @Rocket Soul , can I put 2 wires into one port? Hope thats not a stupid question but I know nothing bout electrical. I can’t find a 10 port connector anywhere and 8 is the biggest I can find

HardLuck71 said:

@diggs99 , @Chip Green , @Rocket Soul , can I put 2 wires into one port? Hope thats not a stupid question but I know nothing bout electrical. I can’t find a 10 port connector anywhere and 8 is the biggest I can find

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Yes you can double up the ports if you have too. Not ideal but works just the same.

diggs99 said:

Yes you can double up the ports if you have too. Not ideal but works just the same.

Click to expand...

Ok cool, thanks.

HardLuck71 said:

@diggs99 , @Chip Green , @Rocket Soul , can I put 2 wires into one port? Hope thats not a stupid question but I know nothing bout electrical. I can’t find a 10 port connector anywhere and 8 is the biggest I can find

Click to expand...

5 port is the max for lever type Wagos, though i have seen 8 port knock-offs.
I think you can get 4 wires in one port on the lever type Wago, but twist the wires together before inserting them into the Wago.