power brick to meanwell HLG

Hi all,

I'm looking for some advice on a power supply for an aquarium.

I looking to reduce to amount of power supplies I have that are plugged into 240v sockets

The equipment is all 24v DC and a max of 52W

I have got a MW HLG-320H-24B PSU
I'd like to connect 5 devices to this

I intended to use female DC jack plugs connected to the MW PSU and make male to male extension cables to connect the equipment to the PSU

I've been advised that plugging jack plugs or having a switch on each plug could cause arching

Has anyone got any advice and idea how I can achieve this without causing damage to anything

The drawing is what I'm trying to do
Any help would be great

I use to use black plastic XLR 3 pin connectors to make up power distribution boxes for radio gear.
They are not particularly expensive but quite rugged and separate pins so no shorts.

Looking on ebay you can get three pin plugs and sockets for around £1 each, likely cheaper in batches.

Use pin 1 as negative and 2 as positive; that keeps it the same polarity as microphones use, on the offchance anything ever gets mixed up.

rjenkinsgb said:

I use to use black plastic XLR 3 pin connectors to make up power distribution boxes for radio gear.
They are not particularly expensive but quite rugged and separate pins so no shorts.

Looking on ebay you can get three pin plugs and sockets for around £1 each, likely cheaper in batches.

Use pin 1 as negative and 2 as positive; that keeps it the same polarity as microphones use, on the offchance anything ever gets mixed up.

Click to expand...

They are often used for power on professional equipment as well - good strong plugs, decent current capacity, and reasonably priced.

However, we only use metal ones, as the plastic ones are a bit too fragile for the harsh environments they get used in.

Thank you, I'll look into the XLR 3 plugs
I would still need to use a jack plugs on the other end to attach to the equipment.
So the cable would be one end XLR into to MW PSU and the other jack plug into pumps

That should be fine, just try to avoid the jack being connected or disconnected while the XLR is plugged in, as a jack plug can easily short out.

I used black plastic XLRs as the type RS sold at the time were very different appearance to other XLRs, and also cheaper.
I've just dug one out, they were "Cliff" brand. They are still available but seem now rather more expensive than generic metal ones!




ps. It would probably be a good idea to add a fuse or Polyswitch type PTC thermistor in the connection to each outlet socket in the distribution box.
That way any accidental short on a jack plug won't do anything too catastrophic.

So I may not of explained myself very well.
I've been advised to mention I'm using
Upto 2.5A at 24V dc

The reason for asking is I'm unsure if having a switch on the cables or just unplugging the equipment (pump motors) will cause arching and need something inline to prevent this from happening
I was suggested to look at snubbers ?

My Main concern is damaging the equipment that's plugged in

you're worried that sudden switch off is going to break an inductive current and cause some overvoltage? Use diodes so that the inductive current can flow in the diode after the switch is switched off.

The arcing that occurs when you connect a plug or close a switch is mostly due to contact bounce. What that is is that the contacts don't just make a single connection, but actually make and break a few times over a few microseconds of time. Each time they make and break contact there can be a spark.

How much energy there is in those sparks is dependent mostly on the type and size of the load. A purely resistive load will show very little arcing. A highly capacitive load will show a lot of arcing, primarily due to the inrush current needed to charge the capacitance from zero up to the supply voltage.

Connectors and switches used within their specifications are designed to handle the arcing that normally occur. But, you will find that connectors and switches do wear out over time.

There are types of switches that are designed to minimize arcing. Switches that have a bit of a snap when you operate them use a spring mechanism so that the duration of the bounce time is minimized.

But, for the most part, this arcing is a relatively benign side effect. I'm not aware of any types of loads that are likely to be damaged by a few microseconds of arcing on their input connections.