LED's not turning off, usage confirmation.

[Reefin Dude]

i have an Apex (2016) and a VDM. i have 6 channels all driven by Meanwell's. 4 HLG-120H-c700B's and 2 HLG-60H-C770B's. i can not get them to turn off without killing the outlet. is this normal? the lights look more lit than 10%, but maybe they are only 10%.

when in manual mode in Fusion, when i turn off the variable outlet the lights stay on, just dimmer, but seem brighter than 10%, i would guess closer to 40%. when i manually turn them on, they go to 100%. i do have control of the VDM outlets. i can switch off the main outlets to get them to 0 that way, but was hoping to have more control.

is this normal behavior, or am i missing something? is there a setting i need to do with the B series drivers to get them down to "0" with the Apex?

Thank You.

[zombie]

Some drivers have a "safety feature" that keeps them above 0 when the iinput is 0V. Your drivers might be one of that kind.

You might be an engineer if...You have no life and can prove it mathematically.

[Reefin Dude]

i have tested the port and "0" is 0.3V into the dimmer wires. is the safety always sending something out of the ballast to the lights?

[RussM]

HLG series drivers have 1-10 volt dimming control, not 0-10v. You’ll need to use programming which coordinates the LED dimming and power to the driver.

[Reefin Dude]

should the lights still turn off at 0.3V, or Apex 0? that is what is confusing me. i do not mind if they start out at 10%, i can work around that.

when i manually set the lights to off in the console, they are still on (at the 10% rating, i guess).

thank you for all of the info so far, it is helpful.

[RussM]

Those drivers do not dim less than a 10% level with less than 1v (10% Apex VarSpd output) on the dimming control input. They will not dim to 0. Switch off power to the driver during the times you don’t want any light output.

Example - you want a 60-minute ramp up to full intensity starting at 8:00 am and a ramp down ending at 7:00 pm. Define the two Ramp profiles. The RampUp profile should be 60 minutes Ramp time, Start Intensity 10, End Intensity 100. The RampDown profile should also be 60 minutes long, but Start at 100 % and End at 10%,

The VarSpd program would be this:

[LEDs]
Set OFF
If Time 08:00 to 08:59 Then RampUp
If Time 09:00 to 17:59 Then ON
If Time 18:09 to 18:59 Then RampDown

Plug the driver into an EnergyBar outlet. Tie the operation of the EB outlet supplying power to the driver to the operation if the VarSpd dimming the LEDs with programming like this:

[LED_Power]
Fallback OFF
Set OFF
If Output LEDs = ON Then ON

[Reefin Dude]

thank you, i will give that a try. knowing that this is "normal" behavior is perfect.