We have four LED spot lights or down lights maybe, at 12V (AC/DC), 10W. (We don't have any more information unfortunately) We have them connected in parallel with a driver that outputs 15-34V at 1500mA. This driver also buzzes slightly in this setup, but we're not sure if that's a separate problem.
When we turn this on, the LEDs give a constant light, but at a very low luminosity. With only three LEDs in parallel on this circuit, the LEDs do a slow flicker (a couple of times a second perhaps).
We've tried with a different driver (22-38V, max 50V, 1050mA) and the 4 LED setup flickered slowly again.
Does anyone know what is going on and what sort of driver is necessary? We're banging our heads against the wall here
Thanks!
Best Answer
This is your problem:
That is a constant current driver that operates between 15 and 34Volts. Your lamps operate at around 12V. The current regulator can't operate that far down, and so isn't doing its job properly.
For this to work right, you would need to put the lamps in series. That won't work for all four, though, as neither of your regulators can go up to the 48Volts that the four lamps in series need.
Since you have two power supplies at hand, try this: Wire two lamps in series to each driver. That gets the required drive voltage into the middle of the range for both power supplies, so the regulators should work properly.
It is in general a bad idea to put LEDs in parallel because the voltage at which they turn on can vary a little bit. The LED that turns on at the lowest voltage gets all the current, which could cause the LED to burn out.