Need help with wiring up new strips

Airwalker16 said:

And as far as to "where" to put your wagos, they're just kinda there.. hanging off the side. Unless you make your wires extra long so as to where you could glue the wagos to the angle aluminum or something.

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So I drew out a diagram on paper so I could try to visualize it better and how I'm looking at it is I'm gonna need 8 Wagos per fixture, is that correct? 1 that the driver + goes into and use that Wago for the first 2 strips, then another one for each of the next 3 rows of strips which equals 4 and that covers the positives, then the same thing for all the negatives, correct? Which comes to 8, 4 for - and 4 for +

Airwalker16 said:

Just like it shows here:
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I noticed in the example that the negative wire is quite longer than the positive which is not the case with the wires coming out of the driver. I would like to have the Wagos for the Negatives going down one side of the frame and Wagos for the Positives going down the other side like in this pic, but how do I extend one of the wires like shown? Or can I just connect it to a 2 port Wago, then run it from that Wago to 5 port Wago by the first row of strips, that would work wouldn't it? @diggs99

HardLuck71 said:

I noticed in the example that the negative wire is quite longer than the positive which is not the case with the wires coming out of the driver. I would like to have the Wagos for the Negatives going down one side of the frame and Wagos for the Positives going down the other side like in this pic, but how do I extend one of the wires like shown? Or can I just connect it to a 2 port Wago, then run it from that Wago to 5 port Wago by the first row of strips, that would work wouldn't it? @diggs99

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Sure it would.

I was thinking of splitting the black protective coating and run positive to one side and negative to the other side and use some of the thermal tape I have left over and use it to hold the driver and Wagos in place on top of the fixture, would that be ok? Thanks bud!

HardLuck71 said:

I was thinking of splitting the black protective coating and run positive to one side and negative to the other side and use some of the thermal tape I have left over and use it to hold the driver and Wagos in place on top of the fixture, would that be ok? Thanks bud!

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Just solder or crimp connect a longer piece of wire onto your pos and neg if you want them to reach the sides.

Airwalker16 said:

Just solder or crimp connect a longer piece of wire onto your pos and neg if you want them to reach the sides.

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The positive side is right there and the negative would reach as well so I guess I’ll just do that. Is it ok to do what I asked tho, use my extra thermal tape on the wagis and driver and put them on top?

HardLuck71 said:

The positive side is right there and the negative would reach as well so I guess I’ll just do that. Is it ok to do what I asked tho, use my extra thermal tape on the wagis and driver and put them on top?

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Driver no. Wagos sure.

Airwalker16 said:

Driver no. Wagos sure.

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Oh shit, well wtf am I gonna do now as I already wired it up with the driver on top.
@Rocket Soul . I finished my 1st light earlier and was nervous to plug it in, but it worked and is bright as fuck!

I guess I am still trying to figure out how him using the positive on the other side of the strip to go to the next strip would be putting him in series. Granted i guess the wire in the board that would be part of the parallel circuit couldn't handle the current like the wire between the wagos. but I think he was talking about using the other +, so it would all be + to + to +, thus perallel not series like if he went + to -

HardLuck71 said:

Oh shit, well wtf am I gonna do now as I already wired it up with the driver on top.
@Rocket Soul . I finished my 1st light earlier and was nervous to plug it in, but it worked and is bright as fuck!

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Looking real good! Novel approach on mixing the strips. Everything worked out?

Rocket Soul said:

Looking real good! Novel approach on mixing the strips. Everything worked out?

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Thanks man! Yeah, was a little nervous to plug it in lol, but once I did it actually took a sec which had me thinking “ oh shit” what did I do then they came on and omg is it bright lol. Only thing I’m worried bout now is i wired it up with the driver mounted on top of heat sinks using some thermal tape i had left over to hold it in place but i was told i shouldnt do that, is that a problem? Also, I’m not sure what “novel approach“ means lol but is it not ideal to mix the strips like i have? I figured this way i can use em for full cycle grow

No, that should be fine. It would be different with a board style heat sink where the whole bottom of the driver and heatsink make contact. To assure yourself, try to see if there is any difference in temps on the sinks that touch and dont touch the driver. You dont want sink and driver to heat eachother, for long life of both

HardLuck71 said:

I was thinking of splitting the black protective coating and run positive to one side and negative to the other side and use some of the thermal tape I have left over and use it to hold the driver and Wagos in place on top of the fixture, would that be ok? Thanks bud!

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Just replied to your other thread but couldn't see the back of your fixture on that.
You can mount two lengths of L aluminium from one of your main supports to the other and keep your driver in that space in the middle so its above nothing if that's how you want to roll.