Issue dimming with Mean Well HLG-80H-12B led driver

goland55

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jul 16, 2018
Messages
1
I thought I had done my research but I'm having issues getting my 12V LEDs to dim or even light up.

I bought and installed 2 GU5.3 fixtures (8 bulb sockets total) and installed 8 of these bulbs: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B016PD5NAW/?tag=cpf0b6-20 rated for 7 watts each (total 56W)

I also bought and installed a Mean Well HLG-80H-12B (rated for 60 watts, analog dimming) LED driver and I have a device that can send a 0-10VDC signal to it to control dimming level.

When I first attempted to turn on the LED driver with all 8 bulbs installed I got only a faint flicker from the bulbs and then the LED driver clamped to 0VDC. After removing bulbs one-by-one I found that I could start up 5 bulbs at once reliably. It seems like the bulbs had excessive inrush. I also found that when I tried to dim these 5 bulbs I didn't notice any dimming and at around 50-60% dimming level the bulbs just turned off.

I contacted Mean Well technical support and they suggested I try a PWM output LED driver. I like the idea of analog dimming and would like to find bulbs that will work with it but I can't seem to find resources to determine if any are compatible. Is going with a PWM dimming driver my only feasible option or am I missing something when searching for bulbs?
 

fire-stick

Enlightened
Joined
Oct 11, 2005
Messages
616
Location
Austin Indiana, USA
Have you checked out LED Gardener's youtube channel? he was featured on Horticulture Lighting Group's website which sells Meanwell Driver. The video is the is called Guide to HLG Meanwell Driver. It's very informative.

How are you wiring up the bulbs? Series parallel ??

Also, what is the "device that can send a 0-10VDC"?? Do you have a link for it? Is it something like this?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/5A-DC-DC-Step-Down-Buck-Converter-Module-Power-Supply-LED-Lithium-Charger-XL4015/182391151322?hash=item2a775c1ada:m:mabZ7S_ZBKjDtlkxKBv1KHQ

I can't remember which meanwell models do this but some don't dimm to 0%.

If you wired them all in series you would need 120 volts DC...

https://horticulturelightinggroup.com/pages/led-gardener-video-review
 

MeMeMe

Banned
Joined
Aug 27, 2018
Messages
125
This was never ever going to work. You don't run MR16 lamps with a constant current power supply. The Meanwell supply was never meant to do this and is going to be quite unhappy .... as are the bulbs. You use an AC transformer like this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00905TLLU/?tag=cpf0b6-20 ... and then you dim them with a phase-cut dimmer that is compatible with the electronic transformer.
 
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