PetrosA
Senior Member
- Location
- Lancaster, Pennsylvania
It's been a long time since I haunted this forum 
I learned something today I think might be helpful to some of you at some point. About a month ago I install led tape in a kitchen. Two 36" pieces under two cabinets and two 39" pieces vertically in a cabinet along a different wall. It's DC tape with a magnetic driver that has a DC output (all parts are from GM Lighting) and is controlled by a Lutron AYLV600P. It was flickering badly at almost any point in the dimmed down range for the homeowner and she called me back. I confirmed the flicker and started troubleshooting to make sure that the load was in spec and that all connections were good. I confirmed a 56W load based on 4.4W/ft of tape and called tech support. They told me, however, that the 60W driver is actually only good for 80% loading when using a dimmer. I disconnected the two vertical pieces to confirm and sure enough the flickering stopped so I ordered a 100W driver to replace it. I installed that yesterday, came out of the attic, turned the lights on and... sonofa... They still flickered. Even stranger, when I again disconnected the in-cabinet lights the flickering stopped again. At that point I tried calling tech support but got voicemail. I kept trying what I could - checked input and output voltage, output frequency, tried a different dimmer etc but no luck. The flicker wouldn't go away. In the meantime a friend of mine called and I gave him a rundown on the situation peppered with lots of four letter words just to vent. At one point I said, "it's as though I'm *$%#* picking up %&#$@$ interference through the @^*&#$ LED tape when they're all connected." He shot back with "Dude (he's from California), I'll bet your tape is forming a dipole antenna," and suggested that I try and hook up the vertical tape to one driver and the horizontal tape to another driver. Sure enough, they all work perfectly now without a hint of flicker. It cost me a few hours of troubleshooting and a second driver on my dime but the problem is fixed now that the vertical and horizontal runs are isolated. In the future I will be pricing every cabinet job with two drivers just in case.
Obviously, I don't have RF test equipment to determine what kind of interference I was dealing with, but my first guess would be an air handler in the attic not far from the kitchen. It could have a noisy circuit board or transformer. I thought about shutting circuits off to see if I could isolate a culprit, but since the homeowner wasn't there and I didin't know if they had anything plugged in that might get messed up from loss of power, I didn't try that.
I eventually got in touch with the tech support guy later on and asked him if they've had feedback from other installers about the tape acting as an antenna or if using the aluminum channel would help prevent this but he admitted that he hadn't gotten any feedback about outside interference and didn't know whether the aluminum channel would act as shielding. They have had complaints about the LEDs coming on when the driver is installed near a motor, like under the sink near the disposal. All he could really offer in my case was that their product is required (like most others) by the FCC to accept any outside interference.
I learned something today I think might be helpful to some of you at some point. About a month ago I install led tape in a kitchen. Two 36" pieces under two cabinets and two 39" pieces vertically in a cabinet along a different wall. It's DC tape with a magnetic driver that has a DC output (all parts are from GM Lighting) and is controlled by a Lutron AYLV600P. It was flickering badly at almost any point in the dimmed down range for the homeowner and she called me back. I confirmed the flicker and started troubleshooting to make sure that the load was in spec and that all connections were good. I confirmed a 56W load based on 4.4W/ft of tape and called tech support. They told me, however, that the 60W driver is actually only good for 80% loading when using a dimmer. I disconnected the two vertical pieces to confirm and sure enough the flickering stopped so I ordered a 100W driver to replace it. I installed that yesterday, came out of the attic, turned the lights on and... sonofa... They still flickered. Even stranger, when I again disconnected the in-cabinet lights the flickering stopped again. At that point I tried calling tech support but got voicemail. I kept trying what I could - checked input and output voltage, output frequency, tried a different dimmer etc but no luck. The flicker wouldn't go away. In the meantime a friend of mine called and I gave him a rundown on the situation peppered with lots of four letter words just to vent. At one point I said, "it's as though I'm *$%#* picking up %&#$@$ interference through the @^*&#$ LED tape when they're all connected." He shot back with "Dude (he's from California), I'll bet your tape is forming a dipole antenna," and suggested that I try and hook up the vertical tape to one driver and the horizontal tape to another driver. Sure enough, they all work perfectly now without a hint of flicker. It cost me a few hours of troubleshooting and a second driver on my dime but the problem is fixed now that the vertical and horizontal runs are isolated. In the future I will be pricing every cabinet job with two drivers just in case.
Obviously, I don't have RF test equipment to determine what kind of interference I was dealing with, but my first guess would be an air handler in the attic not far from the kitchen. It could have a noisy circuit board or transformer. I thought about shutting circuits off to see if I could isolate a culprit, but since the homeowner wasn't there and I didin't know if they had anything plugged in that might get messed up from loss of power, I didn't try that.
I eventually got in touch with the tech support guy later on and asked him if they've had feedback from other installers about the tape acting as an antenna or if using the aluminum channel would help prevent this but he admitted that he hadn't gotten any feedback about outside interference and didn't know whether the aluminum channel would act as shielding. They have had complaints about the LEDs coming on when the driver is installed near a motor, like under the sink near the disposal. All he could really offer in my case was that their product is required (like most others) by the FCC to accept any outside interference.
