DiY LED - Cree CXA3070

Just wanted to warn everybody.

the drivers supra and another member had problems running to low of a amperage (Chinese drivers) I bought 25 of them as a test and two were shot. They were the correct vf and amps but flickered the light. Like a horrible refresh rate.

again this was only 2 out of 25 and I got them at $9 each with shipping so still a lot cheaper than MW drivers.
 
SupraSPL said:
Nice work BT! So you have 160 dissipation watts at 42% efficiency, no too shabby! What are you powering your fans with and what is the Fasttech driver powering?
Click to expand...

Nice, 160w at 42% efficiency sounds good to me. I havent got them on the Kill A Watt yet and also havent tested the 3 fans/adapter draw yet either but might do that later tonight if I get bored enough.

The fans are running off a 12v 2A adapter from china on ebay. I bought it a few years ago and havent used it the whole time constantly but it has been running flawlessly for over a year of use Im sure over the time Ive had it. I have been thinking about getting a more reliable 12v supply though I would hate to damage my COBs if the adapter were to fail out of the blue for whatever reason.

The Fasttech driver is for the red and blue LED bars, I have the 20mm stars all mounted and linked together on the bars just need to crimp some bullet connectors on one end of a length of wire and solder the other end to pos and neg on LED bars and solder a jumper wire between the two bars with a bullet connector in the middle for easy disconnecting. I dont think I am going to need or use the red and blue LEDs in veg at all so I didnt bother getting them in the tent yet.

I was estimating ~185w of LED dissipation between the 3 COBs and the red/blue LEDs but might be closer to 190w? The Fasttech 650mA driver will be running 10 luxeon 660nm, 4 cree 630nm, and 4 luxeon 450nm, how many dissipation watts do you think that will be? I was thinking it would be around 28w dissipation.

With the high efficiency of my lighting setup, with all 3 AB bins running and the red/blue string, it should be comparable to a 250w HPS, right? Or do you think maybe even a hair more than that? I know it will blow the 150w HPS out of the water, I think the last run with the Z4 and Z2 bin met or maybe exceeded my yield with the 150 but I am not sure yet since its not dried and weighed yet.
 
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BTW I am realizing how much of a clusterf*ck of wiring and hanging chains its going to be with all the LED modules and bars in there, for a second I started to contemplate mounting them all together as one hanging unit to simplify moving the lights up and down as the plants grow but I am thinking, like Supra does with individual heatsink modules you can strategically place and angle/direct the lighting better to your canopy.

I like the idea of being able to run a COB at the optimal distance from the canopy regardless of plant height.

Say I have 4 plants that top out at 20" from soil level and two that went up closer to 30" tall I can have a module 8-10" above the 30" and also 8-10" above the 20" plants rather than a whole lighting unit needing to be hung at 8-10" above the 30" tall plants and a big gap between the light and the tops of the shorter plants. In that aspect I think it will be worth the extra pain in the arse of adjusting individual heatsinks up and down. And since I always grow variety, the canopy level will vary somewhat from run to run and plant to plant. Im sticking with the seperate modules for now.
 
Bueno Time said:
The Fasttech 650mA driver will be running 14 luxeon 660nm, 4 cree 630nm, and 4 luxeon 450nm, how many dissipation watts do you think that will be? I was thinking it would be around 28w dissipation.
Click to expand...

That string (52vF) would push the fasttech driver above its max (about 48vF if memory serves). Also, at 48vF it might only be putting out about 600mA once warmed up. So if you removed one 630nm and one 660nm, that would put you just under 48vF and it should dissipate about 28.5W and an average of 45% efficiency.

Bueno Time said:
With the high efficiency of my lighting setup, with all 3 AB bins running and the red/blue string, it should be comparable to a 250w HPS, right? Or do you think maybe even a hair more than that? I know it will blow the 150w HPS out of the water, I think the last run with the Z4 and Z2 bin met or maybe exceeded my yield with the 150 but I am not sure yet since its not dried and weighed yet.
Click to expand...

Your total dissipation would be about 188W. There is no doubt you will outgun a 250 HPS :joint: I believe you can expect results along the lines of a 400 HPS.
 
SupraSPL said:
That string (52vF) would push the fasttech driver above its max (about 48vF if memory serves). Also, at 48vF it might only be putting out about 600mA once warmed up. So if you removed one 630nm and one 660nm, that would put you just under 48vF and it should dissipate about 28.5W and an average of 45% efficiency.



Your total dissipation would be about 188W. There is no doubt you will outgun a 250 HPS :joint: I believe you can expect results along the lines of a 400 HPS.
Click to expand...

Sorry Supra I actually meant 10 660nm (not 14) and 4 630nm and 4 450nm, haha. Wow I was even like WTF after researching why did I build something that is over the max of the driver until I looked at what I posted.

Here is the adapter for the fans Im using. Its like a laptop power adapter in that the ac cord goes in one side of a small brick and dc out the other side.

picture.php
 
Its made in china, no brand name, model # JK025120200. I googled it and no results so I have no clue really I had bought it to run some PC fans about 3 years I think.

edit: google images search found some that look the same other than the model #s and sticker on the bottom with the specs looks a little different but everything else looks identical.

http://www.switchpoweradapter.com/12v-2a-power-supply/
http://shellysomeone.en.ec21.com/12V_2A_24W_Desktop_Power--4999886_6621691.html
http://www.1stincity.com/en/power-a...p0241ada22a-12v-2a-power-adapter-lay041n.html

I assumed its just like a cheap wall wart adapter but with the brick inline rather than on the wall but I dont know. There are no screws or anything to open the case and look inside. The AC cord was removeable from the side of the brick but I super glued it into the brick now that its being used to power the fans for the coolers, didnt want the cord to come out on me.
 
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G13 Labs Sour Jack at 56 days, hopefully this can challenge my record for how much I can get from 1 bucket (Jilly Bean under 600 HPS, 110g of mediocre bud). The smell coming off this lady is very strong pineapple fuel, one of the top 5 best ladies I have come across. Yields big and gets thumbs up from the testers.
IMG_0180a.JPG

IMG_0194a SJ.JPG
 
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Bueno Time said:
BTW I am realizing how much of a clusterf*ck of wiring and hanging chains its going to be with all the LED modules and bars in there, for a second I started to contemplate mounting them all together as one hanging unit to simplify moving the lights up and down as the plants grow but I am thinking, like Supra does with individual heatsink modules you can strategically place and angle/direct the lighting better to your canopy.

I like the idea of being able to run a COB at the optimal distance from the canopy regardless of plant height.

Say I have 4 plants that top out at 20" from soil level and two that went up closer to 30" tall I can have a module 8-10" above the 30" and also 8-10" above the 20" plants rather than a whole lighting unit needing to be hung at 8-10" above the 30" tall plants and a big gap between the light and the tops of the shorter plants. In that aspect I think it will be worth the extra pain in the arse of adjusting individual heatsinks up and down. And since I always grow variety, the canopy level will vary somewhat from run to run and plant to plant. Im sticking with the seperate modules for now.
Click to expand...

here is my newest revision of single cob modules if anyone needs ideas on how to rig up their own. Found those blue plastic pieces at Goodwill for cheap and they are a good size to be the base for a single module. Simple 550 cord loops to the hanging line allow you to easily adjust the angle of the light in addition to the vertical up/down adjustment. Eventually planning on having 6 of these in my flower tent. If you'd rather have one central power supply for the heatsink fan (since 1 can run a bunch unlike led drivers) you can do that as well. Or even run both fan and driver wires out to somewhere else. Running a 1.4 amps heat has not been an issue for me.

706_80852fcf-06b4-4630-b0ef-006e2856aa78.jpg


706_20ff413f-7dab-44fe-b232-9f9077e58b7d.jpg
 
heyho,

i am new to the led topic and after reading all the threads here about the cree 3070 and 3590 cobs and want to try running 4 pieces in my tent :D
Would you suggest 4 cree 3590 cobs or 3070? 3590 has a bit more lumen and 2700k, is it worth double the price?

Regarding power supplies I am a bit confused.. I thought of powering each at around 50W. Are there reasons against it?
Thought of the power supply posted by supra http://www.ebay.com/itm/50W-Watt-High-Power-LED-Driver-AC85V-265V-50-60HZ-Waterproof-/160927171811

hope it's ok posting in this thread :)
 
hi supra,
i could maybe get some cxa3070 4000K (Z2) for 2/3 (or even less) of what the 3000K would cost me...
seeing as you all seem to be using the 3K's exclusively, would you still recommend going for it? could i use them for flowering?
 
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