VO vs IO

[The Bard]

Good afternoon,

Question for you LED lighting experts. My LEDs are controlled by a Meanwell Driver HLG-185-24A. The driver has two adjustment screws, one labelled IO and one labelled VO. I believe that those correspond to current and voltage, respectively.

Can someone explain which screw I want to adjust to reduce the total wattage? I have a kill-a-watt, and so can measure the power consumption.

My goal of course is to get to the target wattage, while minimizing power consumption and maximize the life of the LEDs. Am I better off to have one screw maxed out, and turn down the other one to get to the target watts? Or turn them both down to a mid-level to get to the watts?

Can someone explain the difference between adjusting the two variables? Thanks in advance!

 

[TurboBucket]

Use the vo to set your voltage then Io is to adjust current

 

[The Bard]

Use the vo to set your voltage then Io is to adjust current

Thanks Turbo.

I don't think I worded my question very well.

Let's say that I am trying to set the driver and lights to 100W. I can get there by turning the VO up/down or the IO up/down, or a combination of both. Is there a recommended way to go about doing that? Keep VO high, and lower IO, or keep IO high and lower VO?

Thank you again.

 

[TurboBucket]

If your lights are 24v for example you use the vo to account for any voltage drop and set it at 24v rather than 22 or 26. Then you adjust the current via Io which would adjust your total wattage.

Edit: you really need a multimeter to check the voltage output to the lights. The killawat will allow you to do the math after you know the operating voltage.

 

[The Bard]

If your lights are 24v for example you use the vo to account for any voltage drop and set it at 24v rather than 22 or 26. Then you adjust the current via Io which would adjust your total wattage.

Edit: you really need a multimeter to check the voltage output to the lights. The killawat will allow you to do the math after you know the operating voltage.

Hmmm... ok. I am understanding what you are driving at (pun, get it!) better now. So set the VO to match the voltage of the lights, and then use the IO to dim to the wattage I want.

Two small problems with that... first, I don't have a multimeter. I can certainly get one, if it isn't terribly expensive. Second, I don't know the voltage of the LEDs. This is the only information that I have...

Wattage: 238 watts @ 120v 60hz
432 chips
K temp: 4000K
Efficiency: 2.3 umol/J
181 lumens/watt
Total lumens: 43,078
Dimmable: 50-100%

I don't suppose one can extrapolate from this limited information? Or, would it be a bad thing to just have both IO and VO in the mid-range to get to my targeted wattage? Risk of any damage or inefficiency?

Again, apologize for the naïve question - I appreciate your patient answers.

 

[TurboBucket]

You can get an inexpensive one from harbor freight, Walmart etc. Or online.

How did you select the driver if you didn't know the operating voltage and current of the lights? Or was it supplied as a kit? If so it would not be a bad idea to send the seller an email and get their recommendation on their equipment.

 

[The Bard]

You can get an inexpensive one from harbor freight, Walmart etc. Or online.

How did you select the driver if you didn't know the operating voltage and current of the lights? Or was it supplied as a kit? If so it would not be a bad idea to send the seller an email and get their recommendation on their equipment.

Thanks! I'll go a-hunting. Yes, it came as a kit. All I had to do was attach the connectors from the driver to the LEDs. That is the extent of my knowledge/confidence.

For the short-term, I did a hack/amateur job. I turned the IO up to full power, and then adjusted the VO until the Kill-a-watt read 238W (which is the spec of the lights). I then left the VO alone, and turned down the IO until I got to 150W, which is what I was aiming for. The house hasn't burned down yet, and I will send an email to the seller.

Thank you again!

 

[TurboBucket]

Would be good enough for the girls I date haha.

The driver will be close enough you shouldn't be able to hurt the diodes.

 

[The Bard]

Thanks Mr. Bucket! I need to get more education on electrical engineering.

 

[The Bard]

Would be good enough for the girls I date haha.

The driver will be close enough you shouldn't be able to hurt the diodes.

I confirmed with seller that the strips are 24V. Thanks again.

 

[Grassmaster]

I always use a Kill A Watt EZ meter. You just plug it into the 115 VAC.Then set it to measure wattage and plug your light driver into it. I set it to whatever wattage I want with just one pot.

With your driver you would mainly adjust The VO (voltage out). If the voltage drops too much you might have to turn up the IO (current out) to allow a bigger stream of electrons to flow. Voltage is like water pressure and current is like the size of a water pipe.