CC vs CV LED strips MASTER and STANDARD.
Compared.
LED strip types explained
Someone might get confused with these options, let's explain it little bit in depth (for better understanding pros and cons)
In the middle : CC Constant Current LED strips - good, but very hard to work with if used for longer lines
on bottom : CV MASTER LED strips (powered froms tandard CV 24VDC POwer supply, but with superior properties(Integrated CC ICs) -read further.
A. Constant current driver is centralized
In such scenario, normally there is one Constant Current power supply Unit (say driver with 500mA output) powering say 10pcs constant current LED modules. We refer to it as "modules", as they are without any "protective device on the board"...the constant current device is only in the "Power supply". This concept can reach superior efficacy (as there is no other component than LEDs), resulting in transfroming 100% of output energy into LED energy, which emits the light.
This is nice scenario, unless :
- installation contains say 100 or 500m of linear light (resulting in 100pcs of constant current power supply scattered along the LED line, which is expensive and time consuming )
- one or more LED from series / modules will disconnect or diye (due to connector issues, or installation problems such as ESD, etc.)..then the rest of LED modules will be forced to consume current which was meant for this dead LED module, resulting "overpowering" and faster decay of the rest of the installation
- you need to scale in/out the installation - every scale out requires special wiring to interconnect the modules in series/parallel connection, which must be compatible with used power supply. The change can not be done while running the installation, it is neccesary to power off the supply, do the changes and only then power up it again.
- disconnecting or re-connecting the wires during work (secondary side) leads to permannent damage of LED modules, mostly not visible immediately, but only after several months.
MASTER LED strips - CV LED strips with integrated constant current drivers
We have included best of all worlds :
- constant current drivers are de-centralized - which means each LED string (=segment) contains 1 independent constant current driver. All segments are then connected in parallel. Each segment is protected for overcurrent independently. Failure of 1 single LED will lead to failure of single segment only, not causing failure of other segments.
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24VDC constant Voltage power system has many advantages (wide range of power supply 1W-6000W ) allowing for easy scaling of the installation from 1segment to almost any size with no effort and with only few components (1 power supply, few cables and hundreds of meters of LED strips....easy as pie)
And the best is : when using the constant Voltage system (24VDC) the installation is highly scalable : adding or removing LED strips from installation can be done anytime, with no special wiring, and even while in operation. - NO! 12VDC NO! Please NO!...unless you have restrictions to use very low voltage system (due to safety regulations : such as wet saunas/wellness, etc.) In all other situations using 24VDC allows us to used 1 extra LED , which will turn the otherwise consumed energy to light (12V LED strips can contain only 3LEDs due to LED voltage 3x3.1V=9,3V which is just bellow 12VDC, there is not Voltage range to add 4-th LED), oposite that 24VDC strips can contain upto 7LEDs in series (7x 3,1V =21,7V which is just bellow the 24VDC power system) Having 7LEDs per segment instead of 3 LEDs per segment, lead to 16% better efficacy when installed similar type LED strips in same length!
- Easy dimming with PWM modulation - PWM becomes one of the best dimming systems due to superior efficacy and very low heat development. This type of dimming method is used widely in almost everywhere : from low end devices found on internet, to sophisticated high-end controllers of all brands ( OSRAM, Philips, etc.)...so choosing the best controller for the installation is piece of cake too : KNX, DMX, DALI, Switch-Dimm, RF Dimm, Wifi, BT, 0-10V, 1-10V, etc etc...
Disadvantages :
Offcourse someone might say this kind of LED strips have their disadvantages. After a very close evaluating cons and pros and findning out what is physically happening behind the "words", almost anybody will find that these so-called disadvantages are basically "very great advantages", or sometimes the so-called dis-advantages are mis-understood correctly, few of them here :
1. BAD assumption : LED strips with constant current drivers are not easy to work with
be carefull : LED strips with constant current drivers are NOT the same as Constant current driven LED Modules (described above...normally there is never information about 12V or 24VDC system)
2. BAD assumption : it is not possible to dimm it with analugue dimming systems
YES, that is true! Thankfully! ...analogue dimming means "that the LED strip will have different brightness at different Voltages (here comes in play the Voltage drops always experienced on el. wires and the LED strips itself-allowing to dimm the LED strips with analogue dimming will cause the beggining of the LED strip to be 100% bright, yet its far end will have much lower brightness...causing great problems in lifetime, colour consistency, and almost impossible to install multicolour (RGBW) LED strips in longer distances on longer cables (different shades of colour on beggining and far end)
Bad lighting example
The fact that this LED strip doesnt have CC drivers is visible from blink of an eye.
Our MASTER LED strips will be powered and 100% perfectly even lighting along whole length.
Left side is powered to 100%, right side is only about 20%.
