modifying the GalaxyHydro 300

[Kevin the Great]

Has anyone gutted one of these and put COBs in? I have seen a video by growmau5 about a similar modification on a 400 watt Mars II and figure it must be possible for the 300, I just don't know what to do.
Any LED gurus know what's up?

 

[Airwalker16]

It's like identical.
You need to evaluate a few things;
-is there heatsinks to use for cobs?
-are there fans to cool those heatsinks?
-can you use the drivers on the cobs you want to use?
-and can you take it apart to get these parts in and out and in again without fucking things up?

 

[Kevin the Great]

It's like identical.
You need to evaluate a few things;
-is there heatsinks to use for cobs?
-are there fans to cool those heatsinks?
-can you use the drivers on the cobs you want to use?
-and can you take it apart to get these parts in and out and in again without fucking things up?

There are heatsinks with fans mounted over them. I am unsure what the drivers are, I'll likely have to pull it apart tomorrow and check. I've had it apart once for a good vacuum cleaning and it all went apart and back together pretty easily.
I'm looking for a shopping list of parts compatible, hopefully from someone who has done the mod before.

 

[Airwalker16]

Just check the drivers wattage and current. See what it says. How many are there?

 

[Kevin the Great]

3 of these

 

[Airwalker16]

3 of these

Cool. You can run 2 on each. So probably only use 2 of them for 4 cobs, cause I don't think 6 would stay cool enough even with the active cooling.
But just be aware, they're only 500 ma. Mine are at 1750, 3.5x that. They won't be very bright. just buy a meanwell 240H-C1750B and you can run all 4 on it.

 

[SydneyLedMan]

Mateeeee I run 6x CXB2530 on three of those drivers. Plenty bright, in fact if you stare at them too long you'll see stars for an hour.

Pretty sure a large portion of guys in here run their DIY kits under 1000mA that's how you achieve efficiency.

In fact realstyles I think has a 700mA set up in the 3590's.

If you use the cree calculator, they are actually brighter per L/m at lower amps than higher.

I used the same foot print at the galaxy hydro box and my only issue is that it doesn't spread the light as much as I'd like.

 

[Airwalker16]

Mateeeee I run 6x CXB2530 on three of those drivers. Plenty bright, in fact if you stare at them too long you'll see stars for an hour.

Pretty sure a large portion of guys in here run their DIY kits under 1000mA that's how you achieve efficiency.

In fact realstyles I think has a 700mA set up in the 3590's.

If you use the cree calculator, they are actually brighter per L/m at lower amps than higher.

I used the same foot print at the galaxy hydro box and my only issue is that it doesn't spread the light as much as I'd like.

Mines ran at 1750, and I can GUARANTEE you they're brighter than at 700/ma. Where'd you hear more lumens at lower currents? @Rahz can justify. More lumens at higher ma, just sacrifice efficiency, that's it. Mine are both one one 50k pot with a 5.4k resistor. So I dim to about 900ma. Even more than 700. That dim, I can ALMOST look at them. Fully powered, it's dizzying to even look anywhere near it.

 

[Kevin the Great]

Mines ran at 1750, and I can GUARANTEE you they're brighter than at 700/ma. Where'd you hear more lumens at lower currents? @Rahz can justify. More lumens at higher ma, just sacrifice efficiency, that's it. Mine are both one one 50k pot with a 5.4k resistor. So I dim to about 900ma. Even more than 700. That dim, I can ALMOST look at them. Fully powered, it's dizzying to even look anywhere near it.

I believe he was trying to say you get more lumens per watt at the lower current.
Couldn't I run 3 of the 72 volt CXB3570s, one for each driver and mount a better heatsink? Seems better and cheaper than doing 4 or 6 cobs.

 

[Airwalker16]

I believe he was trying to say you get more lumens per watt at the lower current.
Couldn't I run 3 of the 72 volt CXB3570s, one for each driver and mount a better heatsink? Seems better and cheaper than doing 4 or 6 cobs.

You mean 72v 3590's. Not 3570s. And yeah you could do that too, which may be a good option considering the limited amount of space.

 

[kmog33]

I believe he was trying to say you get more lumens per watt at the lower current.
Couldn't I run 3 of the 72 volt CXB3570s, one for each driver and mount a better heatsink? Seems better and cheaper than doing 4 or 6 cobs.

You can, but you will be running them at twice the wattage that you would be the 36v cobs probably wouldnt be as cool as twice as many run at half of the power.


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[Kevin the Great]

For the additional 150 to 180 bucks for the cobs, even at 500ma each, on an active heatsink, I don't know where to find the calculations but I'd bet I'm well within the safe zone for cooling.

 

[Airwalker16]

You might even want to get some far red diodes to use on it too just as growmau5 does on his video to fill that extra 17-19 v of forward V left on the driver. You're driver is 500ma so would be nice.

 

[Kevin the Great]

I have the 3 drivers, all identical. I could put 1 72v cxb3590 on 2 of them and then 1 36 volt cxb3590 with a few of the reds to fill the voltage gap. Similar to growmau5 but using 2 fewer cobs. Any suggestions for that setup?

 

[Airwalker16]

I have the 3 drivers, all identical. I could put 1 72v cxb3590 on 2 of them and then 1 36 volt cxb3590 with a few of the reds to fill the voltage gap. Similar to growmau5 but using 2 fewer cobs. Any suggestions for that setup?

is it the same size as what grow converts? Same 2 heatsinks? If so, I'd do EXACTLY what he does.

 

[Airwalker16]

is it the same size as what grow converts? Same 2 heatsinks? If so, I'd do EXACTLY what he does.

72vers are just pointless. Especially at 500Ma. If it were me I'd save those drivers for a veg bar of some small Vero 18''s and blue and red diodes. Or for a flower initiator bar. I'd get a new SINGLE HLG-240H-C 1050 & run the 6 (or 3) you want on that.

 

[Kevin the Great]

The heatsink is not even close to what he had. I'll be adding/replacing the heatsink. The only reason I'm looking at the 72v is so I can buy half as many, especially if it's just a marginal tradeoff in efficiency.

 

[Airwalker16]

The heatsink is not even close to what he had. I'll be adding/replacing the heatsink. The only reason I'm looking at the 72v is so I can buy half as many, especially if it's just a marginal tradeoff in efficiency.

More cobs is better than less though. For many reasons.
Spread, less heat, more lumens, longevity of life, and you have more Kevin options if you wanna mix which I would. Maybe 3-3500 & 2/3-4000 or 5000.

 

[kmog33]

The heatsink is not even close to what he had. I'll be adding/replacing the heatsink. The only reason I'm looking at the 72v is so I can buy half as many, especially if it's just a marginal tradeoff in efficiency.

Why don't you get twice as many 3070s or Vero29s you'd be cheaper than the 3590s and more efficient than running the 72v 90s.

Also the vero18s and cxb2530/40s are still very efficient at 500ma and would cost a fraction of the 3590s. As it seems you are more focused on cost than efficiency.

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[Airwalker16]

Why don't you get twice as many 3070s or Vero29s you'd be cheaper than the 3590s and more efficient than running the 72v 90s.

Also the vero18s and cxb2530/40s are still very efficient at 500ma and would cost a fraction of the 3590s. As it seems you are more focused on cost than efficiency.

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Very true. Cxb25''s is a great idea. They're max wattage is around 60 so 500ma would be decently bright.