If the power supply doesn't solve the problem my next suspected item would be the LED fixture and not the dimmer. I have been using that same dimmer for 6 years and never had one go out or show the symptoms you describe. After all the dimmer is just turning the power on and off very quickly it's not varying the voltage or the current like an analog type dimmer. Thus it kind of falls into that bucket of it either works or it doesn't type items. It's clearly working as described above so look elsewhere.

Is there any discoloration of the lenses over the LEDs? I had quite a few LEDs in the past where the lens would darken over the LED reducing what light could penetrate the lens and make it to the tank. This happened quite often when using LEDs other than Cree or Phillips or some other higher quality brand. The problem became worse as colors approached the 420nm range of near UV. However I still saw this behavior on whites as well.

The driver and dimmer are in the same box (the one with the dimmer knob). There are three components to your light setup. The power supply (the meanwell box you are ordering). The Dimmer/Driver box and the LED strip.

The electronics contained in the fixture/LED strip are simply current limiting resistors to prevent the current through each set of LED's from getting too high and damaging them. They LEDs are generally in 3 to 4 LED groups with each group having it's own resistor.

Are you thinking that the dimmer is going bad? What is making you think that may be the case?


Edited by Krazie4Acans - December 15 2016 at 3:42pm

Why would you need to replace the driver? The one you have will still work fine with the new power supply. Remember that the powersupply is only going to be putting out the amperage that the LED's require and not it's full 6A (this is good because it will be putting off less heat). So as long as the LED's have not degraded prematurely and significantly then everything else should still be fine.

Agreed. The Meanwell will be the last power supply you have to put on that tank. The Kastar has mixed reviews on quality and does not state whether it is regulated or not which means the voltage and current can fluctuate with input voltage changes.

I have that same Meanwell power supply on an LED light setup that has been running 24/7 for the last 7 years (accent lighting on stairs and hallway in basement). It hasn't failed that entire time.

That's kind of what I thought.

It's been 13 months and the PWM is now at 100%, because the light output from this Hamilton 18x3W LED seems to be gradually dropping. This happened before with the previous Hamilton 27x1W LED fixture which was partially corrected by a new power supply, but it also diminished after a year or so. 

Edited by Mark Peterson - December 13 2016 at 2:46pm

Don't forget pictures to show off what you end up doing with it :D

You're probably going to melt some adhesives onto the LED surfaces...

Be careful with the electrical tape. It acts as an insulator and traps heat in the LED. Watch for any rippling in the tape to know if its getting too warm.

Just use a digital pot in place of the manual one. I built a couple like that a while back. Works pretty good.