MEAN WELL HVGC-1000 1000W Constant Power Mode

Anyone had any experience or know anything about these drivers?

I’m thinking of using them to power my Samsung f series strips
And also my own custom strips of Cree far red and royal blue

Am I understanding the driver correct when I think the driver will automatically provide the correct voltage and current depending on how many leds I connect?

SamWE19 said:

Anyone had any experience or know anything about these drivers?

I’m thinking of using them to power my Samsung f series strips
And also my own custom strips of Cree far red and royal blue

Am I understanding the driver correct when I think the driver will automatically provide the correct voltage and current depending on how many leds I connect?

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Not quite. Correct current is not something that is defined by your strips, its defined by your choice of how hard to run them.

I cant speak for this driver, havent tried it, but i have tried the xlg--ranges constant power driver (for example the L or M versions).

At a basic user level perspective:
These units come with a fairly wide voltage region, your setup or string in case you want to use series/parallel circuit must fall within this region.
Theres a dimmer on the unit with a fairly wide dimmer range. The unit will try to compensate the output voltage to what current youre trying to output. If you turn up current to far the driver shuts down when it cannot provide a voltage and current high enough.
So basicly you make sure your setup is within the right voltage range, turn up current slowly eventually youll first see how the light intensity dont really change, then how the light starts flickering and then it just goes out. Just adjust it downwards a bit where its stable and your good to go.

Having a look at the datasheet, most versions of these combine high voltage and high current. I would avoid these unless you are really sure of what youre doing cause a shock from these might really hurt you.

Rocket Soul said:

Not quite. Correct current is not something that is defined by your strips, its defined by your choice of how hard to run them.

I cant speak for this driver, havent tried it, but i have tried the xlg--ranges constant power driver (for example the L or M versions).

At a basic user level perspective:
These units come with a fairly wide voltage region, your setup or string in case you want to use series/parallel circuit must fall within this region.
Theres a dimmer on the unit with a fairly wide dimmer range. The unit will try to compensate the output voltage to what current youre trying to output. If you turn up current to far the driver shuts down when it cannot provide a voltage and current high enough.
So basicly you make sure your setup is within the right voltage range, turn up current slowly eventually youll first see how the light intensity dont really change, then how the light starts flickering and then it just goes out. Just adjust it downwards a bit where its stable and your good to go.

Having a look at the datasheet, most versions of these combine high voltage and high current. I would avoid these unless you are really sure of what youre doing cause a shock from these might really hurt you.

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wont be shocked as the drivers will be insulated and earthed and no exposed wires
Obviously the current would be determined by the number of leds used when Wiring in parralel.

so say I have 1000w on the driver to play with
I should be able to wire 100 Samsung f series 560mm strips in Parralel connected to this driver for around 10w each right?

the driver would automatically give the correct voltage and the current would be provided as per the Parralel circuit?

SamWE19 said:

wont be shocked as the drivers will be insulated and earthed and no exposed wires
Obviously the current would be determined by the number of leds used when Wiring in parralel.

so say I have 1000w on the driver to play with
I should be able to wire 100 Samsung f series 560mm strips in Parralel connected to this driver for around 10w each right?

the driver would automatically give the correct voltage and the current would be provided as per the Parralel circuit?

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No. You would have to setup your strips in strings of a few strips in series in order to land within the voltage range of the driver, which depends on which version you go for. Then you duplicate the string as many times as you like and connect them in parallel. Have a look at the datasheet for info on volttage ranges.
Just imagine this as a constant current driver and that youre making connections in series. Then duplicate the string connected in series as many times you need.
What you describe is how it would work using a Constant voltage driver.

You will have to make sure it matches your diodes. It wont sense if leds are over driven. It simply automatically changes the voltage within a certain range to keep desired or rated current constant. It could not work at all or burn your diodes. Check datasheet of driver and leds. I would look for current vs voltage graph of leds and drivers voltage range and current. If it does not match you could still be in luck and perhaps connect leds in series if it adds out.

Rocket Soul said:

No. You would have to setup your strips in strings of a few strips in series in order to land within the voltage range of the driver, which depends on which version you go for. Then you duplicate the string as many times as you like and connect them in parallel. Have a look at the datasheet for info on volttage ranges.
Just imagine this as a constant current driver and that youre making connections in series. Then duplicate the string connected in series as many times you need.
What you describe is how it would work using a Constant voltage driver.

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Oh yeah your right. I looked into these a few days ago and worked that out. I had just forgotten the details when I replied to you.



my thoughts were this:

l version
380v
2640ma
380v split in series of 15 25.3v each
6 paralel strings on each series string
90 leds total per driver
440ma per strip
For 11w per strip

am I correct here?

SamWE19 said:

Oh yeah your right. I looked into these a few days ago and worked that out. I had just forgotten the details when I replied to you.



my thoughts were this:

l version
380v
2640ma
380v split in series of 15 25.3v each
6 paralel strings on each series string
90 leds total per driver
440ma per strip
For 11w per strip

am I correct here?

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Id go for the opposite direction: H version for lower voltage. There is usually at least a 300V max spec of the connectors of these strips. Youd have to check the samsung datasheet for complete info. Afaik the general consensus on safety is to minimize voltage rather than maximize.

Also, im unsure of your calculations as i thought the f-series 2 foot was around 46V?
Maybe they are single row or something?
You seem to get your 25.3V number just by dividing the max voltage with the number of strips you wanna fit in which is not the way series connection works. You need use the voltage of the strip and add them up until you hit the desired voltage of your setup. Dividing the max voltage of the driver by 15 only gives the an upper limit for voltage per strip in the case you want to use 15 strips.


Id go for the H version. Use 5-7 strips in series and adjust the amount of strings accordingly, assuming the correct voltage is 25ish as you state. If they are 46V double row id go for 3 strips in series, even though if your running them real soft like that you might be able to fit in a 4th one, assuming that the strip runs on a at 45ish volts and that there isnt too much voltage lost to wiring.

Again, this is all to the best of my knowledge but please take care and responsability of your own safety and double check all. Im allways iffy with recomendations re high powered drivers, i dont want someone to get injured taking my advice.

Rocket Soul said:

Id go for the opposite direction: H version for lower voltage. There is usually at least a 300V max spec of the connectors of these strips. Youd have to check the samsung datasheet for complete info. Afaik the general consensus on safety is to minimize voltage rather than maximize.

Also, im unsure of your calculations as i thought the f-series 2 foot was around 46V?
Maybe they are single row or something?
You seem to get your 25.3V number just by dividing the max voltage with the number of strips you wanna fit in which is not the way series connection works. You need use the voltage of the strip and add them up until you hit the desired voltage of your setup. Dividing the max voltage of the driver by 15 only gives the an upper limit for voltage per strip in the case you want to use 15 strips.


Id go for the H version. Use 5-7 strips in series and adjust the amount of strings accordingly, assuming the correct voltage is 25ish as you state. If they are 46V double row id go for 3 strips in series, even though if your running them real soft like that you might be able to fit in a 4th one, assuming that the strip runs on a at 45ish volts and that there isnt too much voltage lost to wiring.

Again, this is all to the best of my knowledge but please take care and responsability of your own safety and double check all. Im allways iffy with recomendations re high powered drivers, i dont want someone to get injured taking my advice.

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Cheers I hadn’t considered trying to lower voltage.
Yeah they are single row 2fters.

been looking for the voltage graph based on current for the f series but can’t seem to find it anymore. It doesn’t appear to be on the datasheet

I’ll recalc for the lower voltage version.
Reason for using 1000w drivers as my room will have 7000w of led. Using tiny drivers will get old fast

SamWE19 said:

Cheers I hadn’t considered trying to lower voltage.
Yeah they are single row 2fters.

been looking for the voltage graph based on current for the f series but can’t seem to find it anymore. It doesn’t appear to be on the datasheet

I’ll recalc for the lower voltage version.
Reason for using 1000w drivers as my room will have 7000w of led. Using tiny drivers will get old fast

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Link me the datasheet and ill have a look. Generally its enough with nominal voltage as the constant power will smooth over small differences, squeezing out as much current as possible.
The alternative would be using hlg600s which works nicely with parallel on lower voltage but means an enormous amount of connections.
I think these hvcg range can also be connected dirrectly to 3-phase power, with some benefits to efficiency, but that is way beyond me.

Rocket Soul said:

Link me the datasheet and ill have a look. Generally its enough with nominal voltage as the constant power will smooth over small differences, squeezing out as much current as possible.
The alternative would be using hlg600s which works nicely with parallel on lower voltage but means an enormous amount of connections.
I think these hvcg range can also be connected dirrectly to 3-phase power, with some benefits to efficiency, but that is way beyond me.

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That’s the Led datasheet.

icurrently have loads of hlg-600h 36s I’m using with 36v cobs. Was gonna buy loads of 24vof them but the amount of connections was nuts and don’t want to do that again. Plus it’s still nearly double the drivers. 1000w seems ideal.

only have 2 phase power here so no option to do 3 phase anyway

SamWE19 said:

https://cdn.samsung.com/led/file/resource/2019/10/Data_Sheet_F_Series_G3_CRI80_Rev.1.1.pdf

That’s the Led datasheet.

icurrently have loads of hlg-600h 36s I’m using with 36v cobs. Was gonna buy loads of 24vof them but the amount of connections was nuts and don’t want to do that again. Plus it’s still nearly double the drivers. 1000w seems ideal.

only have 2 phase power here so no option to do 3 phase anyway

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Nominal voltage is 23V and yeah no derating curve, sloppy datasheet from samsung. For all purposes seems to be a half double strip
Should be able to calculate using the datasheet for lm561c but really no point, just count with 23 and leave a few Vs margin. Another version of doing this is getting a 48V hlg600 and running 2 strips in series, saves a bit of wiring.

Rocket Soul said:

Nominal voltage is 23V and yeah no derating curve, sloppy datasheet from samsung. For all purposes seems to be a half double strip
Should be able to calculate using the datasheet for lm561c but really no point, just count with 23 and leave a few Vs margin. Another version of doing this is getting a 48V hlg600 and running 2 strips in series, saves a bit of wiring.

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Yeah I’ve got 540 of these strip leds will have lots of wiring to do but won’t have to do any wiring again for quite some time so don’t mind the graft.

Cheers for the help I’ll work out how many in series I can get on this h version and go with that

Apparently those drivers need 220v input minimum. Hope you haven't over looked that

The Loafter said:

Apparently those drivers need 220v input minimum. Hope you haven't over looked that

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Yeah my supply is 230v

I’m gonna try and make some of my own strips next with Cree royal blue and far red to make up for the lack of those colours in the 3000k hoping I can get them to run on an extra 1000w driver

SamWE19 said:

I’m gonna try and make some of my own strips next with Cree royal blue and far red to make up for the lack of those colours in the 3000k hoping I can get them to run on an extra 1000w driver

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My advice, if you can actually make complete custom: go for the 400-440nm zone, without missing out on 420. And even 365 if you can. The difference between standard led grow, both in how the grow performs and potency is really worth it. To be honest if i could choose i would only smoke outdoors grown, but elite cuts.
Best of luck with all, im impressed with the size of your project and my only warning are: carefull, this led building is very addictive, its very hard to stop tinkering and in the end you enjoy more the building and prospect of improvement than the actual growing. Also have a plan for what to do when you finish, projecting something big like this comes with a sense of emptiness afterwards you finish and when the whole grow experience goes back to normal: waiting for plants to slowly grow bud, rather than having the project in your hands. Enjoy and love the diy

Rocket Soul said:

My advice, if you can actually make complete custom: go for the 400-440nm zone, without missing out on 420. And even 365 if you can. The difference between standard led grow, both in how the grow performs and potency is really worth it. To be honest if i could choose i would only smoke outdoors grown, but elite cuts.
Best of luck with all, im impressed with the size of your project and my only warning are: carefull, this led building is very addictive, its very hard to stop tinkering and in the end you enjoy more the building and prospect of improvement than the actual growing. Also have a plan for what to do when you finish, projecting something big like this comes with a sense of emptiness afterwards you finish and when the whole grow experience goes back to normal: waiting for plants to slowly grow bud, rather than having the project in your hands. Enjoy and love the diy

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Can you recommend any good diodes in those wavelengths?

SamWE19 said:

Can you recommend any good diodes in those wavelengths?

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Good diodes is almost allways a matter of bang for buck. You can get some kick as efficient diodes and run them hard for a pretty penny, or try to go the other route, get the decent diode at half the price, get 2 of them instead of one and run them on half power. I tend to think in terms of the last example, 2 diodes doing the job for one, leverage diode count rather than getting absolute top bin. Going down to half power usually gives about 10% extra efficiency, so if top bin super diode works out about twice as much as decent/last years hero and last years is about 10% less, then give me 2 decent diodes instead of one great. Kinda like running f-series on low instead h influx on hard. If you have a fair bit of time i might have a good lead for you, ill try squeezing away a pm tonite

Rocket Soul said:

Good diodes is almost allways a matter of bang for buck. You can get some kick as efficient diodes and run them hard for a pretty penny, or try to go the other route, get the decent diode at half the price, get 2 of them instead of one and run them on half power. I tend to think in terms of the last example, 2 diodes doing the job for one, leverage diode count rather than getting absolute top bin. Going down to half power usually gives about 10% extra efficiency, so if top bin super diode works out about twice as much as decent/last years hero and last years is about 10% less, then give me 2 decent diodes instead of one great. Kinda like running f-series on low instead h influx on hard. If you have a fair bit of time i might have a good lead for you, ill try squeezing away a pm tonite

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Cheers bud I’ll wait for the pm. No rush got plenty of time. Room is still in design phase in gathering all the materials I need atm probably around Christmas I look to start building

SamWE19 said:

Cheers bud I’ll wait for the pm. No rush got plenty of time. Room is still in design phase in gathering all the materials I need atm probably around Christmas I look to start building

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Your f-strips, are the 4000k? Seems to be a the high side of cct for a flower room, especially if your adding violets/uv. Id consider adding some reds, but maybe better waiting until youve tried what you got.