Long overdue. Guys and gals please read this entire thread before making any purchases or wiring any sort of light fixture up.
Making the most out of your driver and how to make sure they fit your needs.
Paralell wiring
Voltage output and amperage are the two most important things for fitting cobs to a driver. Using a 36v cob for reference. Your cobs voltage is 36 and the drivers voltage in the below listed driver is 48 so this cob fits within the drivers specs. Next is the amperage. Typically it's best to run cobs at 50watts or for this example on a 36v cob the amperage would be 1.4a or 1400ma. In paralell wiring which I'll have a picture below You would divide the drivers amperage by the number of cobs you have. This driver has an output of 3.9a (Example) 3 cobs / 3.9a = 1.3 amps per cob
In paralell you can run infinite number of cobs per driver but each additional cob drops each cobs amperage. Another (example) with 6 cobs
-6cobs / 3.9a = .65amps or 650ma per cob.
'
This is how you wire in Paralell. Each cob gets its own positive and negative supply from the driver or the previous cob.
Series wiring
In series wiring things are much different and typically the preferred method. With this type of wiring you would be looking for a driver which has a higher voltage and lower amperage. Using 36v cobs as the reference again. You now divide the cobs voltage by the drivers voltage to determine how many cobs can be run on each driver.
This driver has a forward voltage of 143v (example) 143 / 36 = 4. This means you could run 4 cobs per driver. The current or amperage to each cob would remain the same at 1.4a or 1400ma.
To achieve this you would wire the cobs in a different manner.
This is how you would wire in series. It's basically a loop.
Making the most out of your driver and how to make sure they fit your needs.
Paralell wiring
Voltage output and amperage are the two most important things for fitting cobs to a driver. Using a 36v cob for reference. Your cobs voltage is 36 and the drivers voltage in the below listed driver is 48 so this cob fits within the drivers specs. Next is the amperage. Typically it's best to run cobs at 50watts or for this example on a 36v cob the amperage would be 1.4a or 1400ma. In paralell wiring which I'll have a picture below You would divide the drivers amperage by the number of cobs you have. This driver has an output of 3.9a (Example) 3 cobs / 3.9a = 1.3 amps per cob
In paralell you can run infinite number of cobs per driver but each additional cob drops each cobs amperage. Another (example) with 6 cobs
-6cobs / 3.9a = .65amps or 650ma per cob.
'
This is how you wire in Paralell. Each cob gets its own positive and negative supply from the driver or the previous cob.
Series wiring
In series wiring things are much different and typically the preferred method. With this type of wiring you would be looking for a driver which has a higher voltage and lower amperage. Using 36v cobs as the reference again. You now divide the cobs voltage by the drivers voltage to determine how many cobs can be run on each driver.
This driver has a forward voltage of 143v (example) 143 / 36 = 4. This means you could run 4 cobs per driver. The current or amperage to each cob would remain the same at 1.4a or 1400ma.
To achieve this you would wire the cobs in a different manner.
This is how you would wire in series. It's basically a loop.
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