LED AFTERGLOW

[4maggio]

I'm running my 2nd grow under LED (400w). My first LED run produced very nicely with no hermying or seeds.
This second run has me finding out that 3 hours after lights out (still in Veg) the LED is still glowing. Is this normal.
I didn't look for light leaks during the first run but after trying every type of electrical hook up, switch and adaptor today, the only way it is BLACK in there is if it is totally unplugged with no connection to any electricity at all. Am I worried about nothing or am I missing or not educated on some sort of LED lore?

 

[Bona Fortuna]

I'm running my 2nd grow under LED (400w). My first LED run produced very nicely with no hermying or seeds.
This second run has me finding out that 3 hours after lights out (still in Veg) the LED is still glowing. Is this normal.
I didn't look for light leaks during the first run but after trying every type of electrical hook up, switch and adaptor today, the only way it is BLACK in there is if it is totally unplugged with no connection to any electricity at all. Am I worried about nothing or am I missing or not educated on some sort of LED lore?

Howdy!
It sounds like the internal capacitance is letting the lights see some voltage when powered off.

There are a number of things that can cause this; powered wires too long, not enough load elsewhere on the circuit when lights off (the load ‘bleeds’ the voltage off), the LED could be wired weirdly on the internals…

A couple questions.
Does your LED have a dimmer?
Does your LED have an internal timer or are you connected to an external timer?
Are you connected LED to a surge protector and then surge protector to the wall?
If yes with surge protector, do you have anything else plugged into the surge protector?
Do you have any other load on the circuit?
Does your LED happen to be of questionable quality?

 

[chilliwilli]

I had this with my kingbrite, try switching the timer 180°, so if its facing upwarts after the switch downwards. Iirc right it has somethig to do that the timer only disconnects one line.

 

[Orange's Greenhouse]

Turn the plug/timer in the socket.

Normally the timers only interrupt one connection not both. If neutral is interrupted but line still connected to the driver it can deliver very low amounts of energy and cause the LEDs to barely turn on. With them being so efficient it is visible.

 

[wh1p3dm34t]

yea.. read this:

Avoid this cheapo company

Its cool to see Mars step up and respond to this problem posted in their own forum...oh that is right they have not made any comments.....there's your answer right there....no reputable company is going to have you doing electrical work to "warranty" the light. I built my own light from scratch...

www.icmag.com

guy had same problemm, so check it

 

[wh1p3dm34t]

I had this with my kingbrite, try switching the timer 180°, so if its facing upwarts after the switch downwards. Iirc right it has somethig to do that the timer only disconnects one line.

one is L1(phase with V and A ) other is N, when you switch polarity so it will break L1 and on N(eutral) should not be any V

easy to checkwhich is which with a multimeter, turn it to high voltage setting like 750 V
put one sensor to the ground (Earth, Terra ) part of the plug and put the other sensor into one of the holes, if it says 0V you got the N-T pair
if it tells you 240~V you got the L1-Terra

 

[Rocket Soul]

I had this with my kingbrite, try switching the timer 180°, so if its facing upwarts after the switch downwards. Iirc right it has somethig to do that the timer only disconnects one line.

This is correct but doesnt work work with all plugs; America is not reversible.
OP: if youre in a non reversible plug situation or cannot rewire your plug this is what you could try: get an extension cord, cut the wires, then reverse the two cables (carefull to not mix them with ground if theres three) and splice them together, attach your timer after the extension and check if it solves the problem. Obviously be sure to be careful and dont burn down your house. If this becomes your final solution then make sure to water proof your splice with some shrink wrap or similar.

That thread linked seems to have the OP blaming the light and the company; its a 100% not the light, its reversed polarity as stated by everyone here, Mars dropped the ball by sending out dinner cause it made the OP more sure it was the lights fault. When in fact its his own wiring. Being in a wheelchair wont make this mars fault; the plugg is going to do the same with any light.

Its so obvious for anyone with a bit of reason, how would a fault with the light be able to generate a current in the AC before the light where there shouldnt be one?

There are plenty of reasons to not go for Mars, but this aint one

 

[Ca++]

It seems to be a european thing, where you can put in a plug, two different ways. Only one of which is right.

I imagine an extension cable is being used. Offering two choices, how to fix this. Either turn the timer in the extension, or turn the extension in the wall.

If there is no extension, and the timer is in the wall, you can turn it. However, if you use a digital timer, you may not want to read it upside down. In this case, get an extension. It will either work, or need turning to work.

I'm glad you caught it in veg

 

[Green Zenit]

I had this with my kingbrite, try switching the timer 180°, so if its facing upwarts after the switch downwards. Iirc right it has somethig to do that the timer only disconnects one line.

Yes this works! Had the same problem before and it worked, now that my light needs an extension its not working . Maybe the “bleeding “ comes from
The extension?? Damn its a nightmare.

 

[Green Zenit]

It seems to be a european thing, where you can put in a plug, two different ways. Only one of which is right.

I imagine an extension cable is being used. Offering two choices, how to fix this. Either turn the timer in the extension, or turn the extension in the wall.

If there is no extension, and the timer is in the wall, you can turn it. However, if you use a digital timer, you may not want to read it upside down. In this case, get an extension. It will either work, or need turning to work.

I'm glad you caught it in veg

Will try!! Thank you very much!! I am in middle of flower!! With my only plant for the winter being at play!! I am unppluging and plugging everyday in the scare of revegg. But with life I cannot really make q perfect schedule. Hopefully it will not reveg. Thanks a lot for the info!!

 

[Green Zenit]

This is correct but doesnt work work with all plugs; America is not reversible.
OP: if youre in a non reversible plug situation or cannot rewire your plug this is what you could try: get an extension cord, cut the wires, then reverse the two cables (carefull to not mix them with ground if theres three) and splice them together, attach your timer after the extension and check if it solves the problem. Obviously be sure to be careful and dont burn down your house. If this becomes your final solution then make sure to water proof your splice with some shrink wrap or similar.

That thread linked seems to have the OP blaming the light and the company; its a 100% not the light, its reversed polarity as stated by everyone here, Mars dropped the ball by sending out dinner cause it made the OP more sure it was the lights fault. When in fact its his own wiring. Being in a wheelchair wont make this mars fault; the plugg is going to do the same with any light.

Its so obvious for anyone with a bit of reason, how would a fault with the light be able to generate a current in the AC before the light where there shouldnt be one?

There are plenty of reasons to not go for Mars, but this aint one

I have a Marshydro wich has done a very decent job so far for a couple of years but plan to upgrade soon. Can I ask wich brand of led lights would you recommend?? Or maybe I am getting of topic and should say sorry and head to LEDs forum hehe. Thanks!

 

[Rocket Soul]

I have a Marshydro wich has done a very decent job so far for a couple of years but plan to upgrade soon. Can I ask wich brand of led lights would you recommend?? Or maybe I am getting of topic and should say sorry and head to LEDs forum hehe. Thanks!

Since were already in the led section: im sorry i should stop shitting on mars but they just have such a long history of not great. They come a long way now and that should be recognized. My main gripes in current day is that even the last few years offerings i have seen threads of:
- Melted connectors / fire hazard
- cust service issues like units DOA and customer being told to ship it back to china on their dime to get a new one. Or issues that get resolved very quickly when being called out online after their standard cust service stone walled them. Thats not cool in my book.
- their lights seem to overstate their spec: when tested by a friend with really expensive equipment they tested 10% under spec. You could argue they were giving their board efficiency (which would not include losses at power supply) but this is not the norm and i feel a bit deceptive.

Though i will have to point out that they seem to get better by year, but theres been a lot of deceptive marketing back in the blurple days including wildy obvious photoshopped plants using pics that werent even theirs to start with.

My approach to grow leds is diy: depend on yourself, learn to build and repair it yourself. This is likely whats going to happen anyways, their going to send out part to have you fix it. Which is not difficult but a bit scary if first time. But its the only way if youre not wanting to lose a crop due to failure of equipment: realistically no company will have it shipped two ways repaired before your grow is f-ed.

For grow leds i rec these guys as an extremely well thought out complete system, so complete that all you have to do is to plug some cables into wago connectors and go. Its a bit daunting at first but my first build i did completely by online advice and it worked out fine: i had 6m2 of various different light variations built in 24 hours with the help of an even noobier friend. The feeling when you connect and blind yourself, confirm good light levels, see them crush your hps side, man its very nice.

These are the guys but i warn you its expensive and imported from australia:

Ulitmate 600W HPS/CMH replacement – SUPER SALE!

For a limited time we have discounted our 420W and 530W Quad "true" full-spectrum LED grow lights by A THIRD. That's $400 OFF each light, with an additional 5% OFF bulk sales of 4 or more. These lights are a "true" full spectrum, with sunlike coverage from 390-780nm that includes UVA and Far...

www.icmag.com

Contact them directly to enquire about discounts even though i think this is already down by a third. Also make sure you convert price properly since they count in aussie dollars. I would consider though to source a power supply more locally, power supply is the only thing likely to pack up and you want your warranty on that to be actionable somewhere close by. Youre very welcome to say hello from me

 

[Absorber]

How long have you had the light? Has this always been happening and is this the first time noticing it ? Is it a phlizon fitting ?
I brought two 1000w phlizon lights and they did the same thing both of them . Im an electrician by trade and after a bit of back and forth they admited it was a dodgy driver used in each fitting( incorrect model ) so they sent me 2 replacement drivers .

 

[Ca++]

Yes this works! Had the same problem before and it worked, now that my light needs an extension its not working . Maybe the “bleeding “ comes from
The extension?? Damn its a nightmare.

I'm too sozzled to think it through, but if turning the timer or extension isn't happening, my guess is it's not a normal extension. It's one of them filter ones. It's the noise filtration, that's the infiltration point.

 

[Rocket Soul]

How long have you had the light? Has this always been happening and is this the first time noticing it ? Is it a phlizon fitting ?
I brought two 1000w phlizon lights and they did the same thing both of them . Im an electrician by trade and after a bit of back and forth they admited it was a dodgy driver used in each fitting( incorrect model ) so they sent me 2 replacement drivers .

Wow, thats news to me! how does that even work? If power is properly cut at mains where would the driver get power from in order to get the after glow? I know you know your stuff so honest interest

 

[Rocket Soul]

Yes this works! Had the same problem before and it worked, now that my light needs an extension its not working . Maybe the “bleeding “ comes from
The extension?? Damn its a nightmare.

Could you draw out where you have plug / extension / timer and any other important electrical connections on the same extension?
My buddy once swore to me that he had properly tried reversing and still got the same problem. I went it over and reversed it and all of a sudden no problem.

Bleeding from the extension is unlikely if the timer is properly placed. Maybe try doing all the appropriate reversing without anything else connected to the extension cord? Without a full picture its hard to say anything.

 

[Absorber]

Wow, thats news to me! how does that even work? If power is properly cut at mains where would the driver get power from in order to get the after glow? I know you know your stuff so honest interest

Id say it was backfeeding on the neutral on the AC side and not filtered out on the drivers they had used .it may not have showed this fault under lower voltage supplies but at 240v the problem was obvious . The model numbers on the drivers where identicle but the replacement ones didnt have the B

 

[Orange's Greenhouse]

Wow, thats news to me! how does that even work? If power is properly cut at mains where would the driver get power from in order to get the after glow? I know you know your stuff so honest interest

The cable works as a capacitor. Two long conductors seperated by an insulator. Not very efficient but enough to be noticeable. Capacitors let AC through so you get the tiniest amount of power delivered to the driver which then turns on. Placing a minimal load (usually just a large resistor) across either the input or output side of the driver bleeds the power off and the LEDs dont turn on.
The correct driver has this component built it, fixing the problem.

Here's an video by electroboom of how it works.

 

[Rocket Soul]

The cable works as a capacitor. Two long conductors seperated by an insulator. Not very efficient but enough to be noticeable. Capacitors let AC through so you get the tiniest amount of power delivered to the driver which then turns on. Placing a minimal load (usually just a large resistor) across either the input or output side of the driver bleeds the power off and the LEDs dont turn on.
The correct driver has this component built it, fixing the problem.

Here's an video by electroboom of how it works.

Love to learn

 

[wh1p3dm34t]

it is all nice, but first of all do not learn from youtube to make electricians work, it is not a game, you can pay hard price for it.

and usually source of the problems are different to each situation, you can maybe solve the problem with the resistor, but you did not find the actual source of it.