Business benefits of selectable output LED Drivers

There are so many business benefits when using our range of selectable output LED drivers and we’ve put together a few of them below:

• Why buy multiple products when one has the versatility to supply multiple output currents with wide range output voltage.   You could operate your business with up to 75% less inventory.

• Power one, two or more lighting products using the same LED driver model.

• More use cases and options, power different current and voltage driven lighting products using the same LED driver model.

• Create flexible power models of each luminaire with more customer options.

There are many different designs and topologies for LED lighting in today’s market, with limitless options and configurations for lighting manufacturers to consider when designing, manufacturing or reselling LED lights.

Constant Voltage driven LEDs (like LED tape) are a little easier to manage and tend to come in standardised voltage driver set-ups (e.g. 12VDC, 24VDC etc), with the current required to run them dependant on the amount used.

With Constant Current driver set-ups, things become a little more complex:
Firstly, you have a range of drive currents that specific LEDs or LED boards will run at. These tend to be quite important, as under-driving an LED could cause light output to be less than desired while over-driving the LED could cause reduction in life, thermal runaway or immediate failure. When looking at the specifications for LEDs you will find a corresponding forward voltage in conjunction with drive current. This is the voltage that will be require per LED during operation.

Secondly, you have the topology of the design; a series LED design will require a multiple of the forward voltage whereas a parallel design would require a multiple of the driver current (and then there’s series-parallel which is a method of setting up an LED array using both topologies!) – there are of course many other parameters to consider like temperature etc. however, in this scenario we are only focusing on the power requirements and how this affects driver selection.

With the multitude of LED specifications, different driver parameters and LED topology, it’s not hard to see why there are so many different variants of constant current LED drivers to choose from.

A Constant Current selectable output driver makes life easier. With a built in method to allow the user to adjust the output current to various benchmarks, the output current can be changed to suit your application. However, with these types of products, there is another key requirement to ensure it’s as flexible as possible – the voltage range! Having the capability to adjust the output current alone is a good step but if you don’t have a wide enough voltage range at that setting, then you will be limited to the type of LED/set-up you can use.

Finally, in addition to the above parameters we must also consider dimming capabilities. Non-dimmable drivers are becoming less common and the requirement to be able to supply Phase, 0/1-10V, DALI, DMX and even wireless dimmable versions of luminaires is increasing. There are some ‘all in one’ units available but the convenience of these doesn’t tend to offset the additional component cost. So it’s important that you also have a range of dimming options with the selected adjustable drivers you chose.

Bright Green Connect have a wide range of adjustable output drivers from the easy set dip-switch selectable options to NFC contactless programmable IP67 drivers, with ultra-wide voltage ranges and multiple dimming options. This technology is also available in a range of product types such as, PCB type, Class II plastic case for independent use, linear drivers and even external IP67 industrials drivers. There is also a wide range of dimming methods available for each such as Phase, 0/1-10V, DALI, DMX and IoT/Wireless.