Good day all!

I hope that all of you guys are having a wonderful day

I'm struggling today to finish my project of powering moreless thousand watts of led, build that runs from a single driver, my inspiration was observing and wondering how mean well got it right to power such a high load of early days in the 36 volt bracket, making it so effective on more or Les 2 amps.

I'm at the stage where I figured it out to get AC to DC using the full bridge rectifier method by using four diode, but moved on from that by using a salvage to unit that does exactly the same , and also is called full bridge rectifier I managed to salvage two of them with their different data sheets, so I'm asking for you guys to help with the following

1. Planning to run thousand watt led driver, round about 9 to 10 -100w watt led so basically I have more or less all the parts that I need basically salvaged everything that I can think of, I went through most of the online help, also YouTube mostly went down the line of going the rectifier root. At the wall in my country the wallpower is 240 AC with 10 to 60 amps of current available at certain switches, I will post a picture, now what is the best route getting power into the driver or power supply, is it a must to have a Transformer since I've seen high-powered electronics run straight from the wall, using the rectifier method but I'm not too sure that will cause trouble along the way.

So any advice would be kindly accepted and will be very helpful just to get me on the right track

You're all the pictures of the main switch of the AC power at the house, I'm doing my testing and also old put up any pictures of my current electronic components that will help you guys or you guys can just guide me in the parts list that I need.

Kind regards and thank you in advance hope you are having a wonderful day greetings from South Africa

 

1. Planning to run thousand watt led driver, round about 9 to 10 -100w watt led ...

You're going to need more than just a salvaged bridge rectifier and some spare parts. Let's start with the specification of the LEDs you want to use. They will require a certain amperage and will have a voltage drop. (They will also need large heat sinks and possible forced-air ventilation.) You cannot design a power supply for LEDs without knowing these details. LEDs require a constant, controlled current to prevent them from destroying themselves.

A power supply capable of constant current at 1000W is not a trivial do-it-yourself project. There are safety considerations. My urgent advice is to not hook anything up until you get input and advice from the experts here.

 

The actual operating voltage and current requirements of each LED unit will determine your overall design but going by common rough number of generic white 100 watt LED modules you likely need to supply ~ 30 - 35 volts at ~3 amps to each unit.

Given that if you have a input of ~220 - 240 VAC once that rectified and smoothed out with a big capacitor you will have ~ 310 - 340 VDC to work with which just so happens to be a near perfect match for what the likely operating voltage range would be for all 10 LED units wired in series.

It would be a very crude but workable power supply for your project but the most simple one to work with that would not require many parts beyond a 400+ volt 4 - 5 amp bridge rectifier, a good several hundred uF or larger 400+ volt rated capacitor, a 5- 10 watt 1 - 2 ohm resistor and a 4 amp fuse.

It wouldn't be current controlled exactly but it would be cheating to achieve the same effect by simply having the total working voltage range of what all the LED's in series (300 - 350 VDC) balancing at just the right range of forward voltage drops as what your typical line power would produce (310 - 340 VDC).

Option two would be to repurpose a common HID type light ballast (or several) ahead of your bridge rectifier and capacitor set given they provide a stable constant wattage output with current limiting. The only issue with that would be configuring your LED units in a the right combinations of parallel and series to get the input voltage and current range of the combined LED units to match a stock ballasts output.

http://media.hydroponics.net/productdocs/HID_Pocket_Guide.pdf for refeance to what the typical output voltage and current ranges are of comon HID lighitng ballasts of various wattages.

Beyond that anything else will quickly become rather complicated and detailed to design and construct due to needing to have a more complex and likely switch mode based power control system for current control.

 

Unless you make it clear that you will be using a transformer to provide mains isolation this thread will be locked, because driving LEDs directly from the mains is a topic not allowed on this site under the Terms and Rules.

 

What are you growing that needs that much light? <snip>

 

1000W of LED is going to produce as much heat as a space heater. You will definitely need forced air cooling.

Bob

 

Hello everyone.
First of all thank you so much for the quick replies and help, I've been familiar with allergies , especially that I want this one's for quite some time is the first time I have to tell so deep into the drivers and circuitry, so that it can be sustainable without buying expensive meanwell drivers from overseas, since our currency is so weak and regarding growing marijuana all countries legislation is on the turning point now, and it is legal to be used within your property and is a market that will boom, but that's not what this is about a good guess anyways.

Ha ha, regarding running the allergies from the main power, that is not the case I'm very keen and optimistic on learning how to actually design, and how the circuit of the driver's work, I have a couple of big good capacitors in storage, could you guys kindly maybe just tell me what boobie the most basic in terms of learning the actual way to create these drivers be, but that said once again I'm very thankful for this community, and for you guys replying so fast looking forward to actually build and making a success of this with your help.

 

Damn autocorrect killed me there..

Allergies = Leds

And boobie.. Well.. I' n quite sure

Haha..

The actual operating voltage and current requirements of each LED unit will determine your overall design but going by common rough number of generic white 100 watt LED modules you likely need to supply ~ 30 - 35 volts at ~3 amps to each unit.

Given that if you have a input of ~220 - 240 VAC once that rectified and smoothed out with a big capacitor you will have ~ 310 - 340 VDC to work with which just so happens to be a near perfect match for what the likely operating voltage range would be for all 10 LED units wired in series.

It would be a very crude but workable power supply for your project but the most simple one to work with that would not require many parts beyond a 400+ volt 4 - 5 amp bridge rectifier, a good several hundred uF or larger 400+ volt rated capacitor, a 5- 10 watt 1 - 2 ohm resistor and a 4 amp fuse.

It wouldn't be current controlled exactly but it would be cheating to achieve the same effect by simply having the total working voltage range of what all the LED's in series (300 - 350 VDC) balancing at just the right range of forward voltage drops as what your typical line power would produce (310 - 340 VDC).

Option two would be to repurpose a common HID type light ballast (or several) ahead of your bridge rectifier and capacitor set given they provide a stable constant wattage output with current limiting. The only issue with that would be configuring your LED units in a the right combinations of parallel and series to get the input voltage and current range of the combined LED units to match a stock ballasts output.

http://media.hydroponics.net/productdocs/HID_Pocket_Guide.pdf for refeance to what the typical output voltage and current ranges are of comon HID lighitng ballasts of various wattages.

Beyond that anything else will quickly become rather complicated and detailed to design and construct due to needing to have a more complex and likely switch mode based power control system for current control.

 

Just out of curiosity what is in the meanwhile drivers that make them so efficient is it expensive parts or just because they are on top of the market at the moment

 

Meanwell are cheap Chinese (pejorative term removed by moderator). They use a switched mode power supply that is very efficient. Switched mode power supplies have been available for over 20 years.

 

You are going the right way to electrocute yourself, or someone else!
The questions you are asking shows that you lack the required knowledge and for you to continue trying to build this is a very dangerous and unwise thing to do.
If you cannot get a qualified person there to do it, or buy some of the correct LED drivers, my advice is to just stop. I shudder to think the damage you may do with this. It is not a trivial thing to try. High power and mains is just so dangerous. Please reconsider your plans.

 

Just out of curiosity what is in the meanwhile drivers that make them so efficient is it expensive parts or just because they are on top of the market at the moment

It's not expensive parts. Meanwell is a big company with the resources to design, build and mass-market their power supplies. They enjoy some economies of scale and are competitive in serving this niche in the market (SMPS as LED drivers). I don't think they are doing anything that couldn't be done by others, they're just executing in this niche better than many competitors.

 

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