# TC 420 and Meanwell ELN 60-48P



## Leonardo Martins (Mar 7, 2017)

Hello, guys. 

I'm having some difficulties on wiring this TC with these drivers. 

I know I have to wire the gates of the mosfets inside.
I have 4 of these drivers, each driver controls a channel of 10 high power leds 3W 
How can I wire them, does anyone have any info or diagram?

Thx a lot!

Leonardo Martins.


----------



## jeffkrol (Jun 5, 2013)

Leonardo Martins said:


> Hello, guys.
> 
> I'm having some difficulties on wiring this TC with these drivers.
> 
> ...


doesn't work that way w/ these drivers..
Need to feed 10V to the TC-420 in the normal manner..
Then you will get 10V PWM-ed output..

Bypassing the mosfets only works w/ 5V PWM drivers..

NOTE OF CAUTION..do not exceed 10v..may burn out the driver. Some Meanwells are quite sensitive to this..

as a test jut use a 9v battery for the TC-420 power supply..
hook the outputs to the correct wires on the Meanwell..

SECOND NOTE: Never did it but see no issue w/ theory..
TC-420 can be powered w/ only 9V's that I do know..
10 would be no problem. Find a good 10V switching power supply.
no need for common grounding.

A few more things that need to be said. Figured a new post is best:

Most of the time those drivers do not "dim to zero" output... so you need a timer to unpower the driver..
also best to not go below 10% dimming b/4 the timer cuts the driver. You can get a "flash" at power shut off as the driver dumps its capacitors..

just replace the power supply and pot w/ a 10V powered tc-420.. you'll be the first afaict..


----------



## jeffkrol (Jun 5, 2013)

Just to clarify a bit.. The voltage you feed into the TC-420 is the voltage you get out.
Internally a bit is sent through a voltage regulator that drops it to 5V. This powers the logic circuit and then feeds the dim signal to the internal MOSFET gate.
These 5V pulses (at about 900Hz approx. AFAICT) turn the MOSFET on/off thus allowing the input voltage to pass in the same on/off pattern.
If you feed it 10V it will produce a 10V PWM output on the terminals..
This can be used to dim any 0-10VPWM driver..well that likes the 900Hz frequency (most do).
The 10V PWM circuits in most drivers require very little in the way of current.
In other words a sub-amp 10V power supply is fine.. 
That said, 10V power supplies are not "real" common..
A work around is a cheap (few bucks) buck voltage regulator on eek bay..then one can use a 12v ect.
But again, a good VOM and accurate adj. to 10V is recommended..

Kind of slick..

At least this is how I understand it..


----------



## thosga (Sep 16, 2017)

I've tested this and cannot get it to dim -- the LED's are either on or off regardless of the % setting in the TC-420. I cannot see any problem in my setup -- the LED's strings work fine when tested standalone with the ELN-60-48P's. Th TC-420 accepts the programming and cycles through the steps in my Modes when I play them during setup. But there is no dimming when connected to the ELN-60-48P driver.
I would surely like to know if anyone has actually tested this live, and what they did to make it work.


----------



## jeffkrol (Jun 5, 2013)

thosga said:


> I've tested this and cannot get it to dim -- the LED's are either on or off regardless of the % setting in the TC-420. I cannot see any problem in my setup -- the LED's strings work fine when tested standalone with the ELN-60-48P's. Th TC-420 accepts the programming and cycles through the steps in my Modes when I play them during setup. But there is no dimming when connected to the ELN-60-48P driver.
> I would surely like to know if anyone has actually tested this live, and what they did to make it work.


First:


> SECOND NOTE: Never did it but see no issue w/ theory..


Second:
Probably jumped the gun on this one..and again only theory.. but there is the possibility (if all else checks out) that you need to reverse the output.
TC-420 "pulses" the negative side of the circuit.. THe Meanwell probably needs you to pulse the positive side ..
In other words pulsing ground (which is what the tc-420 does) isn't cutting it..

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/10-lighting/1135130-beamswork-tc420-need-some-help.html

So you can try adding a PNP Mosfet in order to reverse the voltage to the Meanwell

Above was certainly not one of my finest ideas..

Anyways, once the voltages are worked out I'm pretty sure you just need to invert the PWM 
There are chips that would do that as well but that is beyond my pay grade..
https://youtu.be/V3EdwQmYyk0


ACTUALLY, now that I think about it.. IF you use the 5V gate hack and a converter board you can do 10V analog or 10vPWM........

Example:
10V PWM Converter for Coralux Storm Controller - Rapid LED

ALSO check that you have the correct polarity to the dim circuit.............

ALSO the "P" models are reported to work w/ both 0-10V analog and 10V PWM

Neither protocols dim smooth to zero though..

But again.. Probably "the easiest" method is the gate wire (bypass the internal MOSFETS) and a circuit board like this that will convert the 5V gate to 10V PWM.........
http://www.stevesleds.com/HurricaneX-10V-PWM-Converter--16-Channel-version_p_335.html


----------



## thosga (Sep 16, 2017)

Thanks for the insights.
I found this schematic elsewhere. It's intended for interfacing the ELN-60-48P with an Arduino, but is there any reason it would not work by substituting the lead from the gate of the TC-420 transistors? I believe both would be generating a 0-5V positive PWM signal.

I'm especially in favor of this because it's cheap and I happen to have the components already. :smile2:


----------



## jeffkrol (Jun 5, 2013)

Not seeing that any different than the orig TC-420 setup.. Replacing 2n2222 w/ the internal MOSFET..

AFAICT if that works the orig should work..

Maybe I'm missing something.
Unfortunately I just have a few ELN60-48...D.. which is strictly 10V analog..










IF you actually have the D series you could add an R/C circuit to convert the PWM to DC "like".......


----------

