Will a 36-42v cob run off of 35.75v?

[lumen-geek]

I'm looking to power 8 cxa2530 with a MW HLG 185H C700A which is rated at 286v max @ 700ma. These chips run at 36v @ 800ma, would this power supply be enough juice for a string of 8 in series?

 

[sanjuan]

Eight CXA2530 total 295V @ 700mA @ 25C according to the PCT.
http://pct.cree.com/dt/index.html

I'd expect the driver to clamp the current down to 678mA so the wattage does not exceed 200 when first powered up. Vf of the string is 290 @55C. You'll be maxxing out the power supply but I think it can take it.

 

[SupraSPL]

The CXB2530 would work but CXA2530 @ 296V would be too much, the driver would have to reduce current to ~500mA.

 

[lumen-geek]

The CXB2530 would work but CXA2530 @ 296V would be too much, the driver would have to reduce current to ~500mA.

So I

Eight CXA2530 total 295V @ 700mA @ 25C according to the PCT.
http://pct.cree.com/dt/index.html

I'd expect the driver to clamp the current down to 678mA so the wattage does not exceed 200 when first powered up. Vf of the string is 290 @55C. You'll be maxxing out the power supply but I think it can take it.

If I max out the power supply would it be better for me to run it @ 220v instead of the usual 110? Or would it make much difference. I should have went with the hlg 185 c500a, but I wanna try this anyway. Even if I have to dim it down to 500ma I should be ok.

 

[bassman999]

So I
If I max out the power supply would it be better for me to run it @ 220v instead of the usual 110? Or would it make much difference. I should have went with the hlg 185 c500a, but I wanna try this anyway. Even if I have to dim it down to 500ma I should be ok.

Wall voltage makes no difference in this case I am afraid.
How about an HLG-240H-36A?
I think its adjustable to 40V
You can still dial the current in half with internal pot

 

[sanjuan]

lumen-geek, I wouldn't recommend running a power supply outside the specifications as a general practice.

I like bassman's idea of going up to the next Mean Well power level, like this for a series circuit (instead of parallel):
http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Mean-Well/HLG-240H-C700B/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMt5PRBMPTWcac5aDEswMPfpHxANLJos6seToxBCKDZSSg==

 

[lumen-geek]

lumen-geek, I wouldn't recommend running a power supply outside the specifications as a general practice.

I like bassman's idea of going up to the next Mean Well power level, like this for a series circuit (instead of parallel):
http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Mean-Well/HLG-240H-C700B/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMt5PRBMPTWcac5aDEswMPfpHxANLJos6seToxBCKDZSSg==

Damm, wish I'd known about this driver before I jumped at the two I got! I got em both shipped for $105 total, which was a great deal. Now I'll have to save them for the 3590 build I wanna do down the road. Thanks for the info!

 

[sanjuan]

At least we don't have to worry about brightness bins with drivers; they'll be around a while before obsolescence.
The 185 is a good series, I'm about to give myself a pair of 1050mA for Xmas.

 

[bassman999]

My HLG-185h-36Bs are here Ill find out if they will ACTUALLY work with my CXA3070s tomorrow.
Pots wont et here till tomorrow and maybe later.
Amazon prime 2 day shipping taking a week almost...what is that about?

 

[lumen-geek]

My HLG-185h-36Bs are here Ill find out if they will ACTUALLY work with my CXA3070s tomorrow.
Pots wont et here till tomorrow and maybe later.
Amazon prime 2 day shipping taking a week almost...what is that about?

I sure hope you only got your potentiometer at Amazon, unless you're rich! lol JK I tend to check each individual component I buy high and low all over the net for days before I will buy it...unless I find a deal I can't pass up! I've managed to find some fat deals shopping around, although I am pissed I just ordered cxa holders from Arrow.com last week for only $1.31ea. This week they want $1.89ea even though they have no over 70,000 in stock. You can bet I'll be making a call on that BS to see if they will let me order more at the lower price...I won't hold my breath!

 

[lumen-geek]

At least we don't have to worry about brightness bins with drivers; they'll be around a while before obsolescence.
The 185 is a good series, I'm about to give myself a pair of 1050mA for Xmas.

You definitely should get those 1050's man. I've had wood over mine since I got em, and have been itching to use them! Now that I got my LED's and solderless holders I find out I can't run them off of these drivers...or have been advised it's not a good idea. Thank you for your knowledge on this BTW! I'm torn on whether or not I should get the HLG 240 c700a and stick with running my 2530's off that or ordering 4 more of these LED's and go with the HLG 185 c500a??? I'd like to think the latter driver would be the best choice as far as efficiency goes, but the bigger driver would definitely give me more output. What would you do Sanjun?

 

[sanjuan]

I'm all kitted to build actively cooled 16 inch x 3.945 bars, three COBs running 1050mA: 72V-36V-72V, 3000K-5000K-3000K for 185W (plus driver).

But if I were starting over, I would build passive triple bar luminaires and use the HLG-185H-C700 to power eight 36V COBs. That is about 25W per COB. The center position is empty in the 3 x 3 COB pattern--someone has pics of their design on this site, IIRC. That would be a 200W luminaire (plus driver overhead). I'd build one for each plant (it looks like I'll have a legal limit of six plants).

The switch to passive would be mainly for aesthetics, right now my room full of Lumigrows sounds like the server farm of a medium size company. I'm not familiar with the 2530's, I was fantasizing about buying a bunch of 3000K AB CXA3070 from Kingbrite. I think these would work well enough at 25W on the 4.23 width heatsinkUSA profile.

My COB fabrication has been put on hold due to life events so I can't give first hand advice but I wouldn't go below 25W per COB unless I was getting the units cheap or only had a small heat sink. I don't know about the thermal characteristics of the CXA2530 series, though.



Edit: allelectronics.com has sold me good surplus over the years.
http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/category/470/potentiometers/1.html

 

[bassman999]

I sure hope you only got your potentiometer at Amazon, unless you're rich! lol JK I tend to check each individual component I buy high and low all over the net for days before I will buy it...unless I find a deal I can't pass up! I've managed to find some fat deals shopping around, although I am pissed I just ordered cxa holders from Arrow.com last week for only $1.31ea. This week they want $1.89ea even though they have no over 70,000 in stock. You can bet I'll be making a call on that BS to see if they will let me order more at the lower price...I won't hold my breath!

I bouht them on Amazon, 10pk with knobs $8 shipped.
I never ended up using my holders and am using Kapton tape

 

[lumen-geek]

I'm all kitted to build actively cooled 16 inch x 3.945 bars, three COBs running 1050mA: 72V-36V-72V, 3000K-5000K-3000K for 185W (plus driver).

But if I were starting over, I would build passive triple bar luminaires and use the HLG-185H-C700 to power eight 36V COBs. That is about 25W per COB. The center position is empty in the 3 x 3 COB pattern--someone has pics of their design on this site, IIRC. That would be a 200W luminaire (plus driver overhead). I'd build one for each plant (it looks like I'll have a legal limit of six plants).

The switch to passive would be mainly for aesthetics, right now my room full of Lumigrows sounds like the server farm of a medium size company. I'm not familiar with the 2530's, I was fantasizing about buying a bunch of 3000K AB CXA3070 from Kingbrite. I think these would work well enough at 25W on the 4.23 width heatsinkUSA profile.

My COB fabrication has been put on hold due to life events so I can't give first hand advice but I wouldn't go below 25W per COB unless I was getting the units cheap or only had a small heat sink. I don't know about the thermal characteristics of the CXA2530 series, though.

View attachment 3559839

Edit: allelectronics.com has sold me good surplus over the years.
http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/category/470/potentiometers/1.html

The reason I went with the 2530's was simply affordability. I got my 4000k cxa2530's (although the seller lists them at 4500k) for only $9.68ea at Fasttech.com, and will be ordering my 3000k 2530's through Newark at only $6.27ea! I've seen these same chips driven 10 per HLG 185H C500B driver, which if I'm not mistaken is only about 20w per cob and the grower was pleased with the results from his 20 cob led light. If I don't end up going with my plan of 40 2530's off the hlg 185h c500a drivers I'll be going with 32 total cobs ran off 4 of the hlg 240h c700a drivers, which would be nice but spendy as hell compared to the lower wattage drivers. We'll see what I end up going with, one of these yrs! lol

 

[lumen-geek]

I'm all kitted to build actively cooled 16 inch x 3.945 bars, three COBs running 1050mA: 72V-36V-72V, 3000K-5000K-3000K for 185W (plus driver).

But if I were starting over, I would build passive triple bar luminaires and use the HLG-185H-C700 to power eight 36V COBs. That is about 25W per COB. The center position is empty in the 3 x 3 COB pattern--someone has pics of their design on this site, IIRC. That would be a 200W luminaire (plus driver overhead). I'd build one for each plant (it looks like I'll have a legal limit of six plants).

The switch to passive would be mainly for aesthetics, right now my room full of Lumigrows sounds like the server farm of a medium size company. I'm not familiar with the 2530's, I was fantasizing about buying a bunch of 3000K AB CXA3070 from Kingbrite. I think these would work well enough at 25W on the 4.23 width heatsinkUSA profile.

My COB fabrication has been put on hold due to life events so I can't give first hand advice but I wouldn't go below 25W per COB unless I was getting the units cheap or only had a small heat sink. I don't know about the thermal characteristics of the CXA2530 series, though.

View attachment 3559839

Edit: allelectronics.com has sold me good surplus over the years.
http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/category/470/potentiometers/1.html

So if you were to start over and would be using the hlg 185 c700 which 36v chips would you choose to run off them to run at 25w per led? I was thinking about saving mine to run 4x 72v cxb3590's per driver, however it will be a while before I feel right about dropping $40 per led especially if I'm gonna underpower them like that although it is the most efficient way IMO.

 

[lumen-geek]

Cou

At least we don't have to worry about brightness bins with drivers; they'll be around a while before obsolescence.
The 185 is a good series, I'm about to give myself a pair of 1050mA for Xmas.

Couldn't imagine having to worry about brightness binning on drivers too! That'd be lame as hell, it's hard enough for me to even figure out bin codes on most the advertised chips I've seen as is. Thank goodness for simplicity (somewhat) when it comes to drivers! Then again that can be a pain in the ass too, figuring out the perfect driver/led combo! Be rad if you could get them custom made affordably to the exact specs you want. That'd be too easy though, right! lol

 

[bassman999]

Cou
Couldn't imagine having to worry about brightness binning on drivers too! That'd be lame as hell, it's hard enough for me to even figure out bin codes on most the advertised chips I've seen as is. Thank goodness for simplicity (somewhat) when it comes to drivers! Then again that can be a pain in the ass too, figuring out the perfect driver/led combo! Be rad if you could get them custom made affordably to the exact specs you want. That'd be too easy though, right! lol

Thats why I went with parallel type (constant voltage) drivers.
I can add more or less cobs and still use driver, just turn it up or down as needed

 

[sanjuan]

So if you were to start over and would be using the hlg 185 c700 which 36v chips would you choose to run off them to run at 25w per led? I was thinking about saving mine to run 4x 72v cxb3590's per driver, however it will be a while before I feel right about dropping $40 per led especially if I'm gonna underpower them like that although it is the most efficient way IMO.

We can compare the different Cree series with this spreadsheet: http://pct.cree.com/dt/index.html
I have some CXA3050 3000K that I doubt I'll use, the W2 bin just looks lame on paper compared to the CXA3070 AB.

I have a dozen 72V CXB3590 3000K CB for my active bars. I've thought about making a pair of passive six-COB luminaires, each powered by a HLG-120H-C350A (150W). But that would be a waste of the big COBs, I'll still be getting 50% efficiency from CXB3590 at 75W each .

The DHL shipping is not cheap ($40-60) and a 4.5% fee is added but the CXA3070 seems like a good deal for passive systems. Tell Jerry you want the email price (not the Alibaba price).

Dear Valued customer,
Nice day!
I am Jerry from KingBrite, it is my pleasure to support you.

I am writing to update you the latest price list, and the latest stock list.

1. The latest prices below:

samples(＜20pcs) 20-49pcs 50-99pcs 100-199pcs 200-299pcs 300-499pcs 500pcs
CXA3070 US$22.50 US$21.50 US$21.00 US$20.50 US$20.00 US$19.00 US$18.50
CXB3070 US$32.50 US$32.00 US$31.50 US$31.00 US$30.00 US$29.50 US$28.50
CXB3590 US$46.00 US$45.00 US$44.50 US$44.00 US$43.00 US$42.5 US$41.5

Edit: If I didn't already own a set of inefficient LED luminaires (blue ES Lumigrows, about equal to HPS) I'd be much more likely to make a light using low efficiency components.

 

[lumen-geek]

Thats why I went with parallel type (constant voltage) drivers.
I can add more or less cobs and still use driver, just turn it up or down as needed

My only problem is the fact that I'd probably end up cranking it up on accident and burning up all my chips! Not that I would actually do so, but it could happen. What I want to know is in the case of running a series circuit, what if you have say for example 6v leftover. Would you actually have to dial the voltage down, or would you have to use a resistor for leftover volts?

 

[lumen-geek]

We can compare the different Cree series with this spreadsheet: http://pct.cree.com/dt/index.html
I have some CXA3050 3000K that I doubt I'll use, the W2 bin just looks lame on paper compared to the CXA3070 AB.

I have a dozen 72V CXB3590 3000K CB for my active bars. I've thought about making a pair of passive six-COB luminaires, each powered by a HLG-120H-C350A (150W). But that would be a waste of the big COBs, I'll still be getting 50% efficiency from CXB3590 at 75W each .

What did a dozen of those 3590's run you and did you get them through Kingbrite led? How long does it take when ordering from them and how easy is it to reach them with an order?