Hi there,
I'm currently working on a project where I'd like to slowly fade the brightness of a series of high brightness RGBW LEDs.
Basically I'd like to drive these 4W (1W per channel) current-driven LEDs:
SmartArray Q4 LED Module, 4W, RGBW, 4000K, CRI 90 | the leading LED-shop by LUMITRONIX - https://www.lumitronix.com/en_gb/smartarray-q4-led-module-4w-rgbw-4000k-cri-90-32454.html
What surprised me was that they only require 3V, and then I learned that with these types of high intensity LEDs, the voltage is not important, but the (consistency of the) current is.
I looked a long time for a suitable LED driver, and ended up buying one of these, which can take in 5-36V and provide a stable current.
Colibrì - Driver for power led RGBW - https://store.open-electronics.org/colibri
Which also came with a long article explaining the usage of high intensity LEDs
COLIBRÌ: the driver for RGBW LEDs - Open Electronics - https://www.open-electronics.org/colibri-driver-for-rgbw-leds/
Normally people use LED drivers in combination with a whole series of them. Though in my case, I want to drive 54 of them, in pairs of 2. (ie, 27 "unique" LEDs with each 4 channels (RGBW)).
The test setup I have works well:
My main questions is, does anyone have experience with powering these types of LEDs? And are there alternatives to using the Colibri? I was surprised that there seems to be hardly anything out there. Especially something which can support more channels (there's a lot of single-channel LED drivers out there).
Above you can see my hardware setup, it seems crazy to need an LED driver per LED.
If anyone wonders why its important to have constant current, its to prevent the LEDs from flickering. Using an LED strip for my project is also not an option, each LED needs to sit at the end of a 2 meter cable and light up an acrylic rod.
Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
I'm currently working on a project where I'd like to slowly fade the brightness of a series of high brightness RGBW LEDs.
Basically I'd like to drive these 4W (1W per channel) current-driven LEDs:
SmartArray Q4 LED Module, 4W, RGBW, 4000K, CRI 90 | the leading LED-shop by LUMITRONIX - https://www.lumitronix.com/en_gb/smartarray-q4-led-module-4w-rgbw-4000k-cri-90-32454.html
What surprised me was that they only require 3V, and then I learned that with these types of high intensity LEDs, the voltage is not important, but the (consistency of the) current is.
I looked a long time for a suitable LED driver, and ended up buying one of these, which can take in 5-36V and provide a stable current.
Colibrì - Driver for power led RGBW - https://store.open-electronics.org/colibri
Which also came with a long article explaining the usage of high intensity LEDs
COLIBRÌ: the driver for RGBW LEDs - Open Electronics - https://www.open-electronics.org/colibri-driver-for-rgbw-leds/
Normally people use LED drivers in combination with a whole series of them. Though in my case, I want to drive 54 of them, in pairs of 2. (ie, 27 "unique" LEDs with each 4 channels (RGBW)).
The test setup I have works well:
- Teensy 3.5
- Adafruit 16 channel PWM Adafruit 16-Channel 12-bit PWM/Servo Driver - I2C interface - https://www.adafruit.com/product/815 (going with this to have enough PWM pins to control all 27x4 channels)
- Colibri 4 channel PWM controlled LED driver
- 1x high intensity RGBW LED 4W
My main questions is, does anyone have experience with powering these types of LEDs? And are there alternatives to using the Colibri? I was surprised that there seems to be hardly anything out there. Especially something which can support more channels (there's a lot of single-channel LED drivers out there).
Above you can see my hardware setup, it seems crazy to need an LED driver per LED.
If anyone wonders why its important to have constant current, its to prevent the LEDs from flickering. Using an LED strip for my project is also not an option, each LED needs to sit at the end of a 2 meter cable and light up an acrylic rod.
Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!