Multiple drivers on single set of lights

shimbob

shimbob

Well-Known Member
Over in another thread, @Rocket Soul posted:
Rocket Soul said:
I cant tell you what driver to use on that board, you havent given any specs.

The boards i use are 48V, i have 5 in a 8 way wago so 3 spaces for drivers. I attach 48v drivers until i reach desired level. 750w on 5 boards was very good, but 3 drivers in the same wago made the light slightly flickery. I will get a hlg480-48A (or B) and add another hlg240-48 if need a bit more oomph.
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I haven't seen much talk on the ability to have multiple drivers powering the same set of lights, and searching the forums doesn't get any hits. I think the concept deserves it's own thread. It's feasible, electrically, to have multiple power supplies in the same circuit. I'm rusty from my community college Electric Circuits course and the technical details are fuzzy.

As I remember, two exactly identical power supplies can be used either in series or parallel to double the voltage or the current available. It gets tricky when they're not identical.

If their voltage match but not the current, you can combine them in parallel for the sum of the amperage at the matching volts.
On this page, they talk about how to tune CV/CC drivers when connected in parallel.
https://www.keysight.com/main/editorial.jspx?cc=RO&lc=eng&ckey=520808&nid=-11143.0.00&id=520808

Drivers In series sums the voltages, but I'm fuzzy on what happens with the current.
Again at this site, they mention that currents must match when connecting drivers of different voltages in series.
https://www.keysight.com/main/editorial.jspx?ckey=558486&id=558486&nid=-11143.0.00&lc=fre&cc=FR

Please post and share your setup if you use multiple drivers in the same circuit.
 
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