Commercial COB lamp, Optic - Vero 29

bicit

Well-Known Member
2 x VERO 29 (min 300mA - max 2.1 A )
2x MeanWell HLP-80H-4 CC drivers
1x Noctua 140mm fan (NF P14 FLX )
1x MeanWell PS-05-12 fan PSU
4 lbs aluminium heatsink
No optics



All for $620( €500 ) ...

Take a quick glance at the- still under construction- case &some of its details
( hand-made prototype of the -soon to be -commercial one ).

Cheers.
:peace:
The resident artisan has come to shamelessly plug his product :P

(fantastic looking light though....)
 

stardustsailor

Well-Known Member
Your a beast! Ya know, I could come up with a business plan that could pay off a copy of solid works and a 3D printer in short time!
Beast ?
Dunno about dat ...
Yet ...

I 'm pretty much aware of how "hardcore" I can be ...
:P..

I'm / was searching to buy a laser metal sheet cutter..
Within the $3000-4000 range ...

Yet ....
F@(& dat ...
I think I like my hands ...
I like "Hand-made" ...
That will always remind me my 'roots' in the design area ...
Do-It-Yourself ...

That's where I've started from ..
That's the way is going to be ,most probably ...
(still in the search of a character & mentality ...As always ? ..As 'evolution' ,one thing ? )

Machine (CNC,Laser ,water jet milling ,ect ..) produced commercial lights ,
are ' all over the place',for almost every budget and needs ...

I'm weird & hardcore ...

Hand-made ,few creations per year ,'waiting list',customisation and
all that 'high-end' stuff ...

I want my lights to be 'rarities' ...

99,99 % of growers (L.E.D. users or not ) are not within my 'interest' ..

That 'tiny' 0.01 % is my 'target group' ...

Ther Weird and hardcore ones ...
Like the creator of their rare, beloved ,unique & top-quality D.I.Y. solid state grow lights ..


Cheers.
:peace:
 

churchhaze

Well-Known Member
I'm not trying to be a buzz kill here, as I really do enjoy the work and design that's gone into the jade build, but 2 vero 29s so close to each other and driven that hard is a death weapon, not a grow lamp.

From my experience with vero 29, I had 6 of them at 1050mA and still had to keep them far from the canopy, and got poor distribution. I couldn't imagine how 2 at 2.1A closer together than any of my 6 were together isn't just going to burn the one plant it's shining on down if it's not at least 2 feet away from the canopy. Even then, the light spread would be relatively poor (50% at 60 degrees).
 

stardustsailor

Well-Known Member
I'm not trying to be a buzz kill here, as I really do enjoy the work and design that's gone into the jade build, but 2 vero 29s so close to each other and driven that hard is a death weapon, not a grow lamp.

From my experience with vero 29, I had 6 of them at 1050mA and still had to keep them far from the canopy, and got poor distribution. I couldn't imagine how 2 at 2.1A closer together than any of my 6 were together isn't just going to burn the one plant it's shining on down if it's not at least 2 feet away from the canopy. Even then, the light spread would be relatively poor (50% at 60 degrees).
Good questions .
Let me think for a moment ...

( Well ..I dunno for his set up ,but all the set ups under those lights perform very good to great ...
Hmmm..At least to words spoken to you ,from those light owners ...
Now ...How's that possible ? Hmmm..

Still... those 2x veros ,so close together ,are the same death weapon ,like a HPS is ...
Under a reflector and through a glass tube ,HPS has just a tad better light dispersion ...
With the cost of absorption ...Outer glass tube + refelector ..
But both light distribution patterns are close enough ....
Of both the average HPS system and those dual COB lights .....

And yes ..
At 2.1 A ,this light should have a distance of at least 40 cm from plants ....
But then this is 'full throttle' ...

As for light distribution ...
You might want to check on light power distribution of most HID reflectors out there ..
The ones offering better light distribution than those two Vero29 ,are at the $600-700 and above range..

Remember ?
we used to grow with worse light 'patterns' ...

I 'm not in the position to know ,what went wrong with your plants ...

Others ,around here ,drive their COBS ( i.e. CXA3070 series has almost exact same light distribution with VERO29 ...),
more than 1000 mA ...And more than six at few cases ...
Nothing seems to be wrong ...

On the contrary ...

..
Time for me to go to sleep ...
Enough with 'thinking' ..
Sometimes gets really tiring ....

Natta ...
 

AquariusPanta

Well-Known Member
I'm not trying to be a buzz kill here, as I really do enjoy the work and design that's gone into the jade build, but 2 vero 29s so close to each other and driven that hard is a death weapon, not a grow lamp.

From my experience with vero 29, I had 6 of them at 1050mA and still had to keep them far from the canopy, and got poor distribution. I couldn't imagine how 2 at 2.1A closer together than any of my 6 were together isn't just going to burn the one plant it's shining on down if it's not at least 2 feet away from the canopy. Even then, the light spread would be relatively poor (50% at 60 degrees).
You make a decent point about the Jade's practicality and functionality and SDS DOES claim to have many years of knowledge over lighting, not to mention his clientele roar with positivity (no, not our dear Poz).

On a business level, SDS has certain guidelines he has to follow. If his clients are the crowd of people I imagine them to be, they are probably like those of us here who, at one time, didn't really understand a whole bunch about LEDs and were looking for decent results without the burdens that the older modes of lighting presented (such as HPS's heat) and without cost being a serious factor. In short, if SDS wasn't so enthusiastic about crafting flamboyant COB fixtures, then he wouldn't do as well as he is now in his hobby/passion/side-job.

I'm just glad INDIVIDUALS on RIU are setting multiple bars or standards in place for different operations and circumstances. Without it, we'd have to put up with BlackStars or A-51's. I'm with you Churchy, I like spreading my lights out as needed, especially when the Vero's are emitting @ ~ 120 degrees.

I wonder if established LED / COB companies collectively put as much effort and thought into their luminaire's as we do through our threads?
 
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MarCus M.D

Well-Known Member
Simple. Its efficiency. Not many other LEDs can convert electrical energy into photons so well (for an affordable price).
Then two Vero 29 could become in luminous power a light bulb 600w high pressure ? Consuming 54w each.
 

SupraSPL

Well-Known Member
From a cold start it draws 127W. Warmed up it draws 120W. The drivers will put out the full 1.75A, so the Vero 18s will be dissipating about 102W total at 33% efficiency (typ). The LPC-60-1750 is 87% efficient (~6.5W heat ea). The drivers are not power factor corrected so the total lamp draw is 1.63A. The fans are powered by a small 5V USB adapter(efficiency level V, ~3W). That works out to $3.24/dissipation W or $9.80/PAR W.

The Veros are hooked up with the Pico EZMATE connectors. They are not screwed in, but attached very firmly with what appears to be a thin adhesive thermal pad. The lenses are glued to the case and and could easily be removed. The Veros and heatsinks are attached by neodymium magnets so you have to make sure they are lined up with the lenses. The drivers and fan adapter are velcroed in place.

The fans are both set to blow air into the case, so it might perform better thermally if we flip one of the fans so there is an incoming and outgoing airflow. I will test it both ways and see if it improves temp droop. Overall we are looking at 85W of heat inside that case and those are much smaller heatsinks than we are used to, so we might see some significant temp droop? 70mm X 70mm X 40mm high with 4mm base.

Of course I have to say it, this sucker is bright! The lenses give it a nice sharp cutoff.
DSC07832a.jpg DSC07833a.jpg
 
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SupraSPL

Well-Known Member
Comes with an 8 foot power cord, 16 gauge. Also came with carabiners for hanging but I used zinc chains. The unit has a connection point on each corner.

Hooked up and warming up. So far power draw has fallen from 127W cold to 120W warm. Light output has fallen from 13030 lux to 10420 (20%). Some of that is due to temp droop, some is due to the driver warming up and some is due to Vf shift. In order to find out just how much of the loss is due to temp droop, I would have to cut the driver wires to bug in. But I can estimate it based on the power draw. It looks like about 5.5% loss from warming up the drivers and the Vf shift so that leaves about 14.5% loss due to temp droop, yikes! Some parts of the outside of the case are 40C, most part 35C. Once the temp stabilizes I will pop it open and check heatsink temps (probably too high for my baby food thermometer)
DSC07834a.jpg DSC07835a.jpg DSC07836a.jpg
 
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Positivity

Well-Known Member
I wonder what the price breakdown is on that..

$5 fan X2
$20 box
$5 optic x2
$40 meanwell x2
$30 Vero 29 x2
$.25c hangers
$10 plugs, wires, ac inlet
$10 heatsink
$2 pico ez mate x2

Something like that...just off the top of mi head. About $200 or so on the high end to do it yourself. Figured something like this would pop up...sure its one of many to come. Think it'll require more thought to stick around...but its a decent early option. Compared to everything else available..
 

SupraSPL

Well-Known Member
Yes it definitely has some promise and the owner is open to suggestions to improve the design.

The temp seems to have stabilized so I cracked it open to check the temps. Both the drivers and heatsinks were above 60C. Most parts of the interior of the case were in the 50C + range. The heatsink were so hot I could only touch it for a split second. So by cracking it open for just 1 minute I let a bunch of heat out and the output increased from 10420 to 10900, a 4.6% increase. So clearly if we can move the heat out of the case, we can gain back a lot of that light even without beefing up the heatsink.
 
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