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Krazie4Acans
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Posted: December 15 2016 at 8:54am |
Why would you need to replace the driver? The one you have will still work fine with the new power supply. Remember that the powersupply is only going to be putting out the amperage that the LED's require and not it's full 6A (this is good because it will be putting off less heat). So as long as the LED's have not degraded prematurely and significantly then everything else should still be fine.
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My ocean. 90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water Tank Thread:
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: December 15 2016 at 11:47am |
Umm, I thought that driver and power supply were the same thing. I was wrong. This fixture plugs into a power supply which plugs into the wall. I inserted the dimmer inline between the power supply and the fixture. Is the "driver" part of the electronics contained in the fixture?
I'm .
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Krazie4Acans
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Posted: December 15 2016 at 3:39pm |
The driver and dimmer are in the same box (the one with the dimmer knob). There are three components to your light setup. The power supply (the meanwell box you are ordering). The Dimmer/Driver box and the LED strip.
The electronics contained in the fixture/LED strip are simply current limiting resistors to prevent the current through each set of LED's from getting too high and damaging them. They LEDs are generally in 3 to 4 LED groups with each group having it's own resistor.
Are you thinking that the dimmer is going bad? What is making you think that may be the case?
Edited by Krazie4Acans - December 15 2016 at 3:42pm
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My ocean. 90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water Tank Thread:
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: December 15 2016 at 4:12pm |
Thanks Jeff. The dimmer seems to be working properly. I turned the knob all the way down and then all the way up and the light went almost off and then up. Come to think of it, I'm not sure the LED's went all the way off when I turned the dimmer all the way down when everything was new a year ago.
The problem is that with the dimmer all the way up, the LED's have about 60-75% intensity from a year ago when the fixture was new. This is exactly the same as what happened with the previous Hamilton 27x1W LED fixture where I replaced the OEM power supply with another cheap one (~$13) that also degraded over a year.
Hamilton doesn't even sell these fixtures anymore, probably because of the same problem I'm having; substandard power supply. I hope this new power supply does the job, but I'll keep in mind that it could be the dimmer/driver. I believe it's the very one you suggested last year.
I might want to add a female barrel plug on the input side of the dimmer so I can easily remove it from the circuit. Then I can plug the fixture directly to the present power supply to see if there is a change. Hmmm, I still have the original fixture in storage. Thinking maybe I just need a good power supply for it too?
Aloha, Mark
Edited by Mark Peterson - December 15 2016 at 4:17pm
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Krazie4Acans
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Posted: December 16 2016 at 7:03am |
If the power supply doesn't solve the problem my next suspected item would be the LED fixture and not the dimmer. I have been using that same dimmer for 6 years and never had one go out or show the symptoms you describe. After all the dimmer is just turning the power on and off very quickly it's not varying the voltage or the current like an analog type dimmer. Thus it kind of falls into that bucket of it either works or it doesn't type items. It's clearly working as described above so look elsewhere.
Is there any discoloration of the lenses over the LEDs? I had quite a few LEDs in the past where the lens would darken over the LED reducing what light could penetrate the lens and make it to the tank. This happened quite often when using LEDs other than Cree or Phillips or some other higher quality brand. The problem became worse as colors approached the 420nm range of near UV. However I still saw this behavior on whites as well.
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My ocean. 90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water Tank Thread:
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Mark Peterson
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Joined: June 19 2002
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Posted: December 16 2016 at 8:54am |
Thanks. I believe the fixture is still good, but to see the lens condition it probably needs to be OFF. Next time I'm there I'll have to unplug it and check that.
Thanks for all your help. Aloha, Mark
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