L.E.D strip - long delay when turning on.

[Duncan Wallace]

Hi guys, I wonder if anyone out there can help me.

I installed an LED strip light round the drop ceiling in my bathroom for some mood lighting. There are three led strips in total, two are 5 meters long and the third is 1 meter long. The strip is rated at 4.8 watts per meter (total of 52.8 watts). The three strips are connected in parallel to a 60 watt, 12 volt dimmable driver.

I connected everything up and switched on - it took over 10 seconds for the lights to come on. I turned it off then on again - a bit quicker this time, maybe 5-7 seconds. After turning on and off a few times it was down to perhaps 3 seconds. I turned the switch off and left it for an hour then turned it on again - back to over 10 seconds for the lights to come on.

I thought maybe I've just not got enough headroom in the power supply, so I disconnected the two longer strips leaving only the 1 meter strip connected. It was quicker, but still took 3-4 seconds to come on.

Has anyone encountered anything like this before or have any advice for me? Have I bought inferior products (I don't want to name names at this stage!) - but to give you an idea the dimmable driver was £60 and 15 meters of led strip was just under £100 (both bought from an online led specialist store).

Any help or advice anyone can give me would be greatly appreciated, thanks for reading.

Duncan

 

[James]

Have you consulted the manufacturer or the instructions?
Many led drivers seem to take some time to “boot up”

It may well be to ensure there is a stable power supply before energising the led array.

 

[DefyG]

Can you by-pass the dimmer (presumably you have it on a dimmer as dimmable)? Put a switch on instead.
It may be an issue with the dimmer module itself and the strip/driver is fine
but
As previously said there can be a bit of a delay sometimes!

 

[Duncan Wallace]

Thanks for the responses. DefyG yeah I wired it through a regular light switch and the delay is exactly the same. I was kinda hoping it was the dimmer switch as would have been an easy fix but unfortunately not.

I can understand a bit of a delay, but 10+ seconds?!?! You'd be in and out with your business complete before the light comes on!

 

[Duncan Wallace]

Thanks James, I'll dig out the instructions but from recollection there wasn't much info. I will fire them off an email and see if they can offer any suggestions.

 

[linearlumiled]

Thanks for the responses. DefyG yeah I wired it through a regular light switch and the delay is exactly the same. I was kinda hoping it was the dimmer switch as would have been an easy fix but unfortunately not.

I can understand a bit of a delay, but 10+ seconds?!?! You'd be in and out with your business complete before the light comes on!

This kind of problems is mainly related with the drivers, especially for the driver which is more than 150W. If it is not very good quality, normally it will have 1-3 seconds delay.