Don't Panic, It's Organic! Jump In Everytime

I forgot my phone on the flood table and it's toast so I can't take good pictures with my old one so I drew some diagrams how I've measured. Discard the Fluke meter it's not showing anything because the wire was not properly in between the prongs When it works it shows 33-77. Really bad ammeter. Man, I've spend like 700€ extra with the phone braking and the Fluke meter being a piece of shit. Hope the chinese cheap ammeter comes soon. It won't but yeah the point is the readings do not change when I rotate the pots.

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I don't have a clamp meter yet. I will do that as soon as it's possible. For Aliexpress orders it has taken me months for them to arrive so that's why I'm trying to this with the multimeter. In theory the multimeter in line should show more accurate readings than a clamp meter but maybe my meter sucks also.


The Fluke T6-1000 really sucks and it was expensive. It's supposed to show voltage and amps at the same time like a clamp meter. It shows 70 but when I take the phone in my other hand it shows 48. I don't know what's going on with any of these fucking things :D
I took a pic with no multimeter in line and this is how it looks like. With no multimeter in line the problem is the same. Pots do nothing.

Yes the first pic is for one strip. The leds are from led-tech 50cm alu-strips. Same as yours.

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Yeah maybe I'll go buy some locally but the UNI-T one is supposed to be good for the price. Probably better than the 300€ Fluke meter that I can't honestly say what it's even measuring. Supposed to be the highest quality but it's made in China also and the "fieldsense" function sucks. Probes suck. Can't earth it with the black probe at all. Well I'll sell it and buy some cheapo that might actually work.

Btw, the clamp meter VC-330 you posted is more or less the same device as UNI-T UT210E but a different color and more expensive. The newer Pro version straight from UNI-T factory was 32€.
 
Vike said:
Yeah maybe I'll go buy some locally but the UNI-T one is supposed to be good for the price. Probably better than the 300€ Fluke meter that I can't honestly say what it's even measuring. Supposed to be the highest quality but it's made in China also and the "fieldsense" function sucks. Probes suck. Can't earth it with the black probe at all. Well I'll sell it and buy some cheapo that might actually work.

Btw, the clamp meter VC-330 you posted is more or less the same device as UNI-T UT210E but a different color and more expensive. The newer Pro version straight from UNI-T factory was 32€.
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yeah, but u might get it way faster :D
 
Vike said:
Fluke meter it's not showing anything
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Vike said:
Fluke meter being a piece of shit
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LOL! Wtf man... this is a very good meter but it doesn't measure DC amps in the fork clamp like you are trying to measure, that's why you don't get any good reading from it. You need to find a DC Amp clamp meter!

Vike said:
Hope the chinese cheap ammeter comes soon
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I wouldn't trust that more than the Fluke though but maybe it does measure DC/A with a clamp?

How much amp is ONE of the strips suppose to draw, and I'm guessing with the choice of drivers and the wiring you made you want them to run in parallel to each other? And I'm really hoping you haven't connected both drivers to the same Wago junction?
 
Remember that the Fluke will have a separate connector for your test leads that you use to measure current. To measure current in a circuit you must break one side of the AC and insert your meter in series with the power coming in.
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CraZysWeeD said:
The clamp/fork meter he's got in his hand doesn't have any connectors for the test leads, it's switching this automatic within the meter if the dial is turned between the measuring units.

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CraZysWeeD said:
LOL! Wtf man... this is a very good meter but it doesn't measure DC amps in the fork clamp like you are trying to measure, that's why you don't get any good reading from it. You need to find a DC Amp clamp meter!



I wouldn't trust that more than the Fluke though but maybe it does measure DC/A with a clamp?

How much amp is ONE of the strips suppose to draw, and I'm guessing with the choice of drivers and the wiring you made you want them to run in parallel to each other? And I'm really hoping you haven't connected both drivers to the same Wago junction?
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Man, even at Flukes official site the pitch for the meter is
  • Simultaneously measure voltage and current
I should have guessed it doesn't mean DC current. The probes are really bad though. I can shove the common probe to any ground and very rarely get a reading with the "fieldsense" Ofc, I can ground myself pushing that button but yeah, wrong meter for me. Should be easy to resell it Fluke having so many fanboys.

No I haven't connected both drivers to the same Wago junction. The diagrams I posted earlier are for 1 driver. I didn't see the point mirroring the other driver.

I'll just buy another meter when I have the motivation to continue with the build. Might just wait for the UNI-T clamp meter that I'm pretty sure can do the job of measuring DC amps. HPS is still doing it's job.
 
Vike said:
The probes are really bad though. I can shove the common probe to any ground and very rarely get a reading
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Oh boy... These kind of meters are very sensitive to interfering magnetic fields so it might be the issue with your readings. Another thing with these meters is you can only have/measure one wire/cord of a two wire circuit in the fork/clamp at a time to get a reading.

The DC clamp meters are even more sensitive and usually have a zeroing offset potientiometer that needs to be zeroed in each time you measure, so do have this in mind when you get this meter.


Have you tested if the driver can be measured without any strip at all connected and just you other multimeter between +/- or does it soft clip?
 
CraZysWeeD said:
Oh boy... These kind of meters are very sensitive to interfering magnetic fields so it might be the issue with your readings. Another thing with these meters is you can only have/measure one wire/cord of a two wire circuit in the fork/clamp at a time to get a reading.

The DC clamp meters are even more sensitive and usually have a zeroing offset potientiometer that needs to be zeroed in each time you measure, so do have this in mind when you get this meter.


Have you tested if the driver can be measured without any strip at all connected and just you other multimeter between +/- or does it soft clip?
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It's not because of magnetic fields, it's because the Fluke T5-T6 series is a gimmicky BS meter with bad probes. All I would have had to do is do a little youtube research looking at people other than salesmen to discover this.

Yes, I've measured/ will measure one cable at a time.

As I understand it the circuit has to be complete to set the amps for the leds. All I did without them was setting up the voltage.
 
Vike said:
It's not because of magnetic fields, it's because the Fluke T5-T6 series is a gimmicky BS meter with bad probes. All I would have had to do is do a little youtube research looking at people other than salesmen to discover this.

Yes, I've measured/ will measure one cable at a time.

As I understand it the circuit has to be complete to set the amps for the leds. All I did without them was setting up the voltage.
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Fluke's tools are great, u just have to use them right....

What u can do is measuring the Amps at the AC side with the Fluke...but that isnt that accurate, cause it's the AC side :D

Btw, u have to set up the Vo WITH the stips, an open circuit has always more Volts than a closed one...connect all 6 Stripes DIRECTLY to one of the HLG320 without any meter, turn the Vo to the lowest point (Io also) and fire it up, then measure the Volts at the strips with a normal Multimeter in DC and slowly increase Vo.

When that is done u can adjust the Io - u have to do it this way, all other ways are wrong.
 
I still don't understand the confusion because it is the ac side that you ultimately pay for. Yes, the DC side can show you exactly what your LED's are drawing, but measuring the ac side tells you what the entire light is drawing from the wall total, including whatever is lost because of the inefficiency of the power supply, fans and what the lights are actually drawing. I don't see why this would be any less accurate (it is more so) than clamping on and measuring the DC current at the lights, bypassing the power supply.
 
Emilya said:
I still don't understand the confusion because it is the ac side that you ultimately pay for. Yes, the DC side can show you exactly what your LED's are drawing, but measuring the ac side tells you what the entire light is drawing from the wall total, including whatever is lost because of the inefficiency of the power supply, fans and what the lights are actually drawing. I don't see why this would be any less accurate (it is more so) than clamping on and measuring the DC current at the lights, bypassing the power supply.
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It tell's u exactly what all draws from the wall, thats correct - but DC side is still just guessing, cause the Meanwell, or every other driver also, dont have 100% efficiency, so not all what goes in comes out on the DC side....
 
Teleon said:
It tell's u exactly what all draws from the wall, thats correct - but DC side is still just guessing, cause the Meanwell, or every other driver also, dont have 100% efficiency, so not all what goes in comes out on the DC side....
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They are pretty efficient these days though... check the spec sheets but I would guess them to be around 89% efficient, if not more, and my driver will only run up to 70% of the max the lights can take anyway, so I am not too worried about the top end being accurate. I am happy to know my total load, because that is the number that tells me if I am going to start tripping breakers with the new light and if I am exceeding the capabilities of my solar panels.
 
Emilya said:
I still don't understand the confusion because it is the ac side that you ultimately pay for. Yes, the DC side can show you exactly what your LED's are drawing
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I get your point E and you are right in your way but this isn't what we are talking about here. When building your own lights and really want to max out the photons available you need to be able set both voltage and amps absolutely right to the edge of what the leds can handle power wise. This is something that can't be adjusted while measuring the Ac side of the driver, that would involve even more math and measuring than it needs to be. The adjustments can really make a BIG difference in how much light the panels put out, if the amps are set say 10% under Imax you could potentially loose even more light due to the leds not reaching their optimal working condition. BUT if this is done in the dark without any measuring the risk is potentially high to blow the panels.


Emilya said:
if I am exceeding the capabilities of my solar panels
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Now here it gets interesting, you are converting natural photons from the sun to produce artificial photons. Want to know the losses there? :laughtwo:


Wishing you a merry Xmas E!

:green_heart:
 
Yes
Teleon said:
Fluke's tools are great, u just have to use them right....

What u can do is measuring the Amps at the AC side with the Fluke...but that isnt that accurate, cause it's the AC side :D

Btw, u have to set up the Vo WITH the stips, an open circuit has always more Volts than a closed one...connect all 6 Stripes DIRECTLY to one of the HLG320 without any meter, turn the Vo to the lowest point (Io also) and fire it up, then measure the Volts at the strips with a normal Multimeter in DC and slowly increase Vo.

When that is done u can adjust the Io - u have to do it this way, all other ways are wrong.
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Yes well that is obviously my bad not knowing it can't measure DC but it still doesn't make the meter any good even at its intended job.
Having to push the button on the backside is not feasible in tight spaces and that's why it would be great to be able to ground with the common probe. Can't ofc change the probes.
Second big problem is that the wire needs to be right in the middle touching the exact spot without you touching the wire with the other hand. Almost impossible to get a reading that you can trust.
Fluke just like every other company is greedy and salesmen pump out these made in China gimmicky pieces of shit at a premium price even though I'm pretty sure the engineers at Fluke don't agree that it's a polished product.
I'm sure the multimeters from the past they've made are great but I don't have experience with those.

Anyways, I ordered a second UNI-T UT201 from a local dealer so I'll be able to set the current soon enough. The max current for a strip is 2.8Amps but I'm planning to set it so they draw 2.1Amps at 19.6V. All I want is that it can match the 600W HPS.
 
Sorry but I'm a bit speechless.....first Fluke isnt Apple and second, MORE important, the UNI-T UT201 is AGAIN just a AC amp clamp, no DC AMP measuring.......

Also dont recommend to set them to 2.8A per stripe, without activ cooling it would get too hot - and when they are hotter, they die faster.

The Voltage should be maxed (20,29V), at a certain point u cant give them more, even when u try to with the Vo adjustment, but as always with electronics, better measure then be sorry.

And u cant directly compare a 600W HPS to that cluster u made - u have a much better illumination, also more Lumen/Watt, no HPS can reach over 200 lm/W....
 
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