LEDs and LED Drivers
Choosing the correct LED or driver can be a difficult task. Please use following articles as a reference to help you along the way. As always, refer to manufacturer’s datasheets for exact specifications while keeping safety in mind.
Choose between Constant Current or Constant Voltage LED Drivers
For a new design of some complexity, you will need to figure out the best combination of LED specifications and their wiring configuration to match an LED driver. This may take a little homework, as you will need to match up the LED voltages and current requirements per certain LED branches and lengths. You will need to know the voltage and current requirements of your LEDs, and the wiring configuration of the LED strip(s) and some…
The first thing that you need to determine when looking to replace an existing LED driver is to determine if the driver is a constant current or constant voltage. Many manufacturers such as the Thomas Research Products driver pictured below will state right on the label which they are.
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If you are replacing a constant current driver , make sure the current is identical on the new driver. You will also want to make sure the power rating and efficiency is equal or higher, and the voltage o…
When it comes to LEDs, LED Strips or LED modules it is a good idea to use a LED Driver to keep the brightness the same.
There are two types of drivers.
Constant Voltage - This type of driver will have a Fixed Voltage Output. This will depend on the LED voltage rating. It will be a fixed output. The current output for the driver will have a max rating. If the circuit does not draw more that what is required it will work.
Constant Current - This type of Driver will have a Fixed Current Outp…
How a circuit is wired will determine the voltage and current needed to properly operate the circuit. Below as an example you will see two circuits using five 160-1445-1-ND LEDs, which are a 2V 20mA rated LED. As you can see there is a drastic difference in the voltage and current needed to properly operate each of these circuit types.
Note, this is for basic wiring configuration learning purposes only. These circuits do not include the required resistor in each series wired branch.
Parallel…
Here at Digi-Key we sell many different types of LEDs. When looking at LED linear strips we typically have two types different types.
Hard or board strips
These strips come in fixed lengths are not flexible and will normally have solder pads on the end to solder your wires to.
Let’s look at part 1568-1136-ND
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For example, this strip has multiple parallel branches of 3 LEDs wired in series. Series-parallel combinations allow the LED strip to be cut at certain sections. These can use …
When searching the Digi-Key website for LED assemblies , you may come across three different types - LED engines , LED modules , and Chips On Board (COBs) . The needs of your specific project will determine what the best LED assembly is for you.
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An LED engine is what one might think of as a ‘complete’ LED assembly. Engines come with integrated current limiting circuitry and are as plug-and-play as this particular product type can reasonably get. One supplies power to an LED engine and t…
“I have state of the art LEDs and a constant current driver, why are they burning out?”
LEDs are much more sensitive than other types of lighting -especially when incorrectly used on constant current systems which may lead to premature failure. Make sure the heat sink and any cooling system is working properly, correct wiring configuration and making sure it is operating within rated specifications.
Constant current systems can provide longer life of LEDs if properly used, because constant cur…
LED Drivers and DC Power Supplies (Test, Bench) may be capable of providing both Constant Voltage (CV) and Constant Current (CC) modes, but what determines what mode it is in? If they are programmable then it will depend on how the program is set, some may also have a constant current or voltage adjustment potentiometer which determines this.
If they are not user programmable or lack these adjustment potentiometers, then the modes are automatically set based on the load. They will typically sta…
