Total Newbie to indoor&led needing advice.

Hey All. Been a while.. family life been nuts.Kids no longer kids,heading off to Uni next yr, so will finally have time to get back into my hobbies.
Been growing outdoor for years, and the RIU crew always helped me out then,hoping you can do the same here.(Always had enough outdoor each yr to get me thru till next yr,but was given an led light not too long ago,so figured give it a go

I was given a nice (Illumitex NeoPar) 7 bar light . It has 2 * HLG320-24B drivers (with a dimmer cord,but not hooked to anything).I can't remember the type of led's.

.Prob is tho,only half the light works.(not just one side out other side work,but sporadic).
For the last week I have been googling,watching videos,reading forums,learning specs,how to build,and even how to use a wire tester.lol


I am gonna try to type out all the diagnosis things a person who hasn't had a clue about leds last week (that would be ME )did so far,and hoping someone can read and tell me if I did it right or wrong,and what next possibly.learning as I go here.
First thing I did was take cover off to find manufacture # and googled it ..

I then disconnected each led strip except 1 that I know works. I used the working plug into each strip,they all worked,so leds are good.
Then I disconnected 1 driver completely at both ends.(no in ,no out wires attached). and tried the light. I using the logic,if one is bad and I unplug the good one,the light shouldn't work at all.Still only half. Tried it with the other driver,disconnected first ) same half stayed lit.

So, took shrink tubing off "terminal thingy",to look for any burn marks on board or fuses,didn"t notice any but not good with that stuff anyways, So I've been spending the last 3 days trying to get a grasp on ohms/amps resistors/fuses,testing circuits..and I think I need to walk away for a day or two,Overwhelming and confusing myself more.

From what I THINK I learned its connected parallel (wires go from each led strip,then to a "terminal hub thingy" with fuses(resistors??) that are 2 amp) then back to the drivers.one attached to bottom,one to top. It has jumpers in between each fuse,which is leaving me confused. ...The 2 drivers each run 320 wts 24 vlts. I'm not sure so far,correct me if wrong please,.
I've been coming to MY conclusion,that its either the driver gone or that board thingy blew some fuses.
This is a fairly large light and I dont think it was meant for my buddy's tent,but thats where he had it.I think it overheated,casuing some type of thermal runaway..popping fuses(but lucky enough to not pop led's) OR driver (from what I read about those types), going into a "failsafe"type mode and only letting certain amount of power thru but not enough to light whole thing.
I'm gonna order a replacement driver and try it (will be handy to have with these having 2 anyways...never know). But if its not the driver,I havent a clue about the other thing.even where to get a replacement one of those..so may need help to build one.
Also thinking.... if got 2 drivers..14 strips of 3 ft led bars,already wired with clips. It may be a good idea to make 2 smaller lights out of it. Far from rich at the moment,so can't get into buying whole bunch new things. or I'd look into others as well
Thanks for time to read all this..and throw any suggestions ideas you have.

You're off to a very good start here.
You are correct about parallel circuits.
Those are in fact 24V drivers.
You had a good thought about making 2 smaller lights. It basically is two already, just on one frame, or so it appears....
Sporadic, intermittent failing is often a connection issue. Loose connection somewhere, maybe even a bad solder joint.
Sometimes extremely elusive, and aggravating.

From what I can tell, there should be two individual parallel circuits, with 7 strips running on each driver. Based on the picture of 7 strips on/7 off.

Looks like each driver split onto 7 strips, with red/black leads, and one with blue/white leads???

Chip Green said:

You're off to a very good start here.
You are correct about parallel circuits.
Those are in fact 24V drivers.
You had a good thought about making 2 smaller lights. It basically is two already, just on one frame, or so it appears....
Sporadic, intermittent failing is often a connection issue. Loose connection somewhere, maybe even a bad solder joint.
Sometimes extremely elusive, and aggravating.

From what I can tell, there should be two individual parallel circuits, with 7 strips running on each driver. Based on the picture of 7 strips on/7 off.

Looks like each driver split onto 7 strips, with red/black leads, and one with blue/white leads???

Click to expand...

Thanks
it's definetly been a learning curve.
I guessed the same thinking blue and white on 1 and red/black on another driver,but not the case.its definetly sporadic.blue and white go to the left side,r/b on the other.I did find the wires fairly loose on the connection terminals.
I'm going to totally disconnect everything..lay it all out,and build 1 that will work for sure,and then putt around with other later..
I'm curious tho. Do I need to get another one of those terminal board thingys with the fuses, or can I direct wire them together with soldering a fuse directly on the wires itself.
Also, I'm having a little confusion figuring out the system. If I'm not mistaken ..is this run in parallel,with the leds themselves in smaller series sets.
I'm guessing that from the jumpers in the middle between the fuses,which makes me think its parallel and in series of 2 strips,but what leaves me confused is that each one is wired direct to the board.
Thaks for the time to reply,btw. Appreciate the feedback
.

You have 2 drivers, 7 bars and 7 "half bars" out which would make me think one of the drivers is out. Although its less likely that the drivers are connected asymmetricaly i would start by ensuring your power supplys are working properly before tearing it apart.

I have to agree, testing the drivers would be my first first step. I don't see any fuses, the green devices on the board appear to be resistors for current limiting. It looks like the soldering isn't the best, better pictures may help. I suggest buying a digital multimeter. One with a clamp-on ammeter is very handy, just clamp the jaws around a wire for current measurements. Among others, I have one of these...

Rocket Soul said:

You have 2 drivers, 7 bars and 7 "half bars" out which would make me think one of the drivers is out. Although its less likely that the drivers are connected asymmetricaly i would start by ensuring your power supplys are working properly before tearing it apart.

Click to expand...

I've pretty much had it apart already(nothing unbolted,)but everything disconnected and tried seperately.
If I disconnect 1 driver completly, only 7 lights work (expected),which by process of elimination,the other one lights(or doesnt) the other side.
So ,disconnect /hook up other driver... but same 7 work.So if both drivers run the same 7 lights, drivers work..correct?
If I flip the board and hook the driver up to the other leads,the other seven come on. (each driver connects to a terminal at each end of that board),.
but hook up both and still same 7 only. So I am now stopped,walked away..and researching for rest of weekend before attempting anything else. I'm learning about possibilities of a dead short somewhere(which got me googling what that means..which leads me to something else I havent a clue about,so even more reading..and so on.. down the rabbit hole I go. ) Worse case,Its pretty straight forward and easy to put together take apart now.
I've been googling testing led drivers all morning. I'm definetly not a rip it apart...then ... opps guy.. will wait till I know or have replacement already avail for screw ups.. ol Thnks.

1212ham said:

I have to agree, testing the drivers would be my first first step. I don't see any fuses, the green devices on the board appear to be resistors for current limiting. It looks like the soldering isn't the best, better pictures may help. I suggest buying a digital multimeter. One with a clamp-on ammeter is very handy, just clamp the jaws around a wire for current measurements. Among others, I have one of these...

UNI-T UT203 Digital Handheld Clamp Multimeter Tester Meter DMM CE AC DC Volt Amp | eBay

AC current (A). DC current (A). 35.6mm x 18mm. The item in the actual use of the process of quality problems. Frequency (Hz). Gift box, English manual. Batteries, test leads, carrying bag. Standard accessories.

www.ebay.com

Click to expand...

I have already bought a new set of 2 amp Picofuse lf ( Exact same as ones on board) I took the whole board,and a pic of the lights specs to Electronics place nearby to match it for me(not just a teen from the Source). Just no where near knowing that much yet to attempt that. Worse cases I can identify each light out back to that port,replace the Pico,and check again.
I learned over the weekend if I wanna get into this hobby even a bit..got a lot more learning to do about ohms current draw,resistors,relays,etc I heading to get a multimeter tomorrow,but gonna learn to use it first.