LED flicker at Power Down

MDN · Post by **MDN** » Wed Feb 06, 2013 7:28 am

I have my LEDs dimming to zero (MeanWell Analog) and then the power shutoff about 5 min later so that the drivers are not powered on 24/7. Everything works great but when the relay turns off the drivers I get a lighting show in my tank for about 1 - 2 seconds. This did not happen when I was using just a cheap plug in timer, however I was not dimmer at that time either. I assume it is a capacitor drain or something ?
Has anyone else seen this, is there fix ?

I.E. -
LED's dim from 8pm to 9pm
Power relay is turned off at 9:05pm
LED's pulse/flicker at 9:05/power off.

Thanks
Mike

DrewPalmer04 · Post by **DrewPalmer04** » Wed Feb 06, 2013 8:37 am

Cap discharge...It's annoying and a design flaw (in my opinion). The only way for this to not happen is supply power to the drivers 24/7 and dim to 0...you might have a small "glow" on your LEDs, but it's butter in my opinion to have this versus the surge of lightening. AND you free up RA relays for future FUN stuff lol

rimai · Post by **rimai** » Wed Feb 06, 2013 8:55 am

Biggest design flaw from meanwell ever!!!

It is only the ELN-XX-60 series that does that, as far as I know.
Meanwell is practically my neighbor and about 3 years ago, I went there to try to inquire about this issue.
I hate that effect too.
I sat with their engineer/tech in their lab and we went through several tests and several drivers and we found out that only that particular model did that and there was nothing I could do.
Drew's recommendation is actually the only thing it will prevent them from discharging like that... You need to power the drivers 24/7. I'm pretty sure it was doing that before and you didn't notice.

DrewPalmer04 · Post by **DrewPalmer04** » Wed Feb 06, 2013 9:17 am

oh wow..amazing story..I wish I lived the part of the country where I could live next door to them

But yeah..that's the only fix! He might have not experienced it before due to the LEDs being 100% on...then 110v power cut off...this would allow for discharge while the LEDs faded out...instead of 0% LED power and then 100v cut, then cap discharge ("HOLY! [INSERT CURSE WORD HERE], what was that flash?")...lol we have all been there

But seriously..just power them 24/7 and dim...you won't notice the "glow"...it's very minimal.

MDN · Post by **MDN** » Wed Feb 06, 2013 9:50 am

Thanks for the feedback guys, I was just thinking the drivers would last longer not being powered 24/7. But not a big deal and I like DrewPalmers point about freeing up a relay

DrewPalmer04 · Post by **DrewPalmer04** » Wed Feb 06, 2013 10:09 am

Woop! Woop!

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