LED Retrofit constantly killing royal blue LEDs, and now the whites are flashing

[jrnannery]

Has anyone gotten a DIY kit from RapidLED? I got the 1-10v dimmable drivers and have been having nothing but trouble. Any other experiences?

[BBQHILLBILLY]

Not Rapid but ordered 4 retro kits from aquastyle. Mine are doing great. Specifically whats happening and do you have more than 1 driver?
I have one series circuit I soldered and when I put it upside down my blues turn off. Lol funniest thing
I will probably redo my soldering on that series part sooon. white circuit with other drivers doing fine.

[BBQHILLBILLY]

Im using 8 drivers and soldered 144 LEDs with 4 big heatsinks including fans. any pics of your wiring and connections?
If you have a multimeter you can check the voltage to see if its stable observing polarity.

[jrnannery]

In a nutshell...24 LED Retrofit Kit for BioCube 29. 12 cw, 12 rb. 2 "D" dimmable drivers, all soldered wiring. First the blues went out. Figured it was the driver, so I bought replacement. Still out. I identified a burnt out RB, so I bypassed it. Everything worked. Noticed later that blues didn't seem to be working again. Identified another burnt out LED. Bypassed, and everything works. Same day I noticed the blues are not working. Sick of dealing with it, so I didn't bother to look.

At this point, I am not sure whether I should buy the new LEDs I want (UV, blue, green, red, etc.) because I am not having any luck with what I already have.

[BBQHILLBILLY]

Sounds like your popping cree LEDs. You have 2 drivers and 2 circuits. Are both circuits doing the same thing? and have they ever worked good?

[jrnannery]

Popping Crees? Are both circuits doing the same thing?

Yeah, it all worked in the beginning, and I was super happy. Now, not so much. As far as both doing the same thing, I guess yeah? They are all (supposed) to be on at the same time. Blues on one circuit, whites on the other.

[BBQHILLBILLY]

sorry I come from different angles to narrow problem options out of the way. Just trying to narrow down to try to find a solution, if possible.
I troubleshoot quite a bit at work all the time actually. Lol
So on at the same time, you have 2 different power supplies so you can run at different times?
Of course you could have 2 bad drivers But just double checking. and Im sure you checked the wiring to the driver cause it was working great before.
Is the power supply feeding the driver good? Not old extension chords or bad surge protectors?

[Zack]

Did you adjust the SVR2 ports?

[Zack]

Also could be damage due to heat on the leds. What heat sink and fan are you using?

[Big_Pun]

Also could be damage due to heat on the leds. What heat sink and fan are you using?

my first thought also

[ducati996]

Its still time to get in on the group order :-)

[rrasco]

What voltage are your drivers? 12 LEDs at around 3.6 forward voltage is 43.2v.

[polarbear]

PM sent.

Its like nanoreefer said. You have to adjust the SVR2 ports in the drivers. I had the same problem and burnt out my UV light. After that the others started to flash when I adjusted the light output. I called Rapid LED and they asked if I adjust the SVR2 ports and I told them no. They advised that this has to be done if not the LED's will continue to burn out.

[jrnannery]

http://www.rapidled.com/biocube-29-dimmable-retrofit-kit-24-led/

That's the link to the kit that I bought. I got the "D" model drivers. Yes, all the wiring was installed by me, is correct, soldered, and proper. I remember setting the SVR2 on the drivers, but I could have screwed that up. It's been awhile since I initially set it up.

Check out the link, and you will see the components, including the heat-sink. I am thinking that the heat-sink may be a little small for 24 LEDs. The heat is actually quite tremendous. Also, the top for the biocube doesn't actually channel air across the heat sink, so the fans aren't as efficient as they should be. I intend to remedy that this weekend. I will reset the SVR2 this weekend on both drivers as well. I'll keep you posted. When I get my new stand built, I will be going with a canopy rather than the stock lid, and so the heat-sink will be more exposed, at which point I can apply a better cooling option.

[rrasco]

From what I can tell, SRV2 sets the current? If you were over driving them, that would do it.

[BBQHILLBILLY]

On my LED kits The heatsink gets hot if you turn it up 100%. Then you get a fan to cool the heatsink. But if you turn it down heatsink shouldnt get hot. jut some thoughtss

[rrasco]

You also really don't want to run the emitters at 100%, which is when they will produce the most heat; obviously.

[Zack]

Are you running them inside the stock hood? I knew a buddy of mine who did that but had a lot of trouble due to heat build up in the confined space.

[jrnannery]

Yeah, it's in the stock hood with upgraded fans, but the path of least (wind) resistance isn't really over the heat sink...it's PAST the heat sink. I want to get the new stand and canopy built badly.

[polarbear]

I have mine in my 14 gallon biocube stock hood with only the one fan that came with the kit running and I have no issues with heat causing issues. I run the LEDs at about 60 or 70%. I really think that there's something with the SVR2. Mine did the same thing your is doing. When the UV light went out the white LEDs started flashing. If I turned down the white lights below a certain % they would stop flashing. When I adjusted the SVR2 they worked fine.