bassman999
Well-Known Member
I loved the videos as well, were fun to watch!
Matching Drivers and COBs
- Thread starter SupraSPL
- Start date
bassman999
Well-Known Member
My chiller did that once, but its sold after I decided hydro was too hard.
ttystikk
Well-Known Member
Often, this is for the best. Everyone gets their chance to do things their own way and we get the benefits.
BecauseIgotHigh
Well-Known Member
Cheers Ttystikk, made things easier. Haven't seen people mentioning anything about in-rush anymore. And wanted to know about the safety issues when using more drivers.
How long do you veg for also when going vertical btw?
ttystikk
Well-Known Member
In my case it's about 3 months from fresh cutting to a place in the bloom room.
Gromax 3590B
Active Member
Is it really nescesary to use a triac as switch for the driver if u want to use a microcontroller or is a big relais good enough?
ttystikk
Well-Known Member
I just use the standard relay based power controllers for lighting.
Gromax 3590B
Active Member
Okay then. A 16A 240V relais for each driver it is gonna be. If things go wrong i can replace it with a SSR anyway. I am so new to building led grow lights that i have to try things but happy to hear how you guys build all this magic lights.
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fearnoevil
Well-Known Member
Okay, if I understand this (only marginally, lol), if I'm running six HLG 320H-54B drivers, I can wire all the dimming wires together and control them with a single 100k pot and a 10k resistor? That certainly would simplify things so I don't have to individually adjust each light bar.
EDIT: So Qballizhere set me straight on the resistors, (divide 10k by # of drivers, or 6 in this case, which equal a little over 1.6 which is the size of reisitor, 1.6K ohm, needed ON EACH DRIVER).
EDIT: So Qballizhere set me straight on the resistors, (divide 10k by # of drivers, or 6 in this case, which equal a little over 1.6 which is the size of reisitor, 1.6K ohm, needed ON EACH DRIVER).
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fearnoevil
Well-Known Member
Well hell, so I was trying to understand what SDS was saying on his tutorial on dimming and now I'm confused (again, seems to be a perpetual state of mind when it comes to this stuff).
If I use a single pot to control 6 drivers, to find the right pot do I have to divide 100k/6, in which case that comes out to 16.6k. But the closest I can find on Mouser.com is an 18k, will that work? Frankly this sounds counterintuitive that the more drivers you add, the smaller the pot, lol.
If I use a single pot to control 6 drivers, to find the right pot do I have to divide 100k/6, in which case that comes out to 16.6k. But the closest I can find on Mouser.com is an 18k, will that work? Frankly this sounds counterintuitive that the more drivers you add, the smaller the pot, lol.
DesertHydro
Well-Known Member
i know wattage isn't really what LED arrays are designed around but i am wondering what you guys think is the ideal amount of COB wattage to throw at a 4x8 table. I'm trying to design my flowering tables right now and i was pricing all my parts when i found alex laus' hlg 600 54A on sale for $135. originally i was thinking 1 hlg 185 per 4 cxm22s which would put them at ~53W each per sq/ft for a total of ~1696W. at the sale price on cobkits its still cheaper to go this route by a little bit but its a lot more ballasts to wire up and mount. i could run 3 of the 600's for 1800W which puts me at ~56W each.
is there any benefit to one over the other, i mean 8 small ballasts or 3 big ones. i also notice that the 185 is the 48A and the 600 is the 54A. the cxm22s are 50v COBS so from what ive figured, either one will work with this combination? thanks for the input
is there any benefit to one over the other, i mean 8 small ballasts or 3 big ones. i also notice that the 185 is the 48A and the 600 is the 54A. the cxm22s are 50v COBS so from what ive figured, either one will work with this combination? thanks for the input
ttystikk
Well-Known Member
I'm not claiming my setup is ideal, but as a point of reference I'm running 900W in front of a 4x6' trellis panel and it's bordering on too much light.
I'm running 4 modules over each trellis. Each module consists of two pairs of CXB3590 72V 3500K chips under 80 degree KB glad lenses, driven by a Meanwell HLG 185H C700B. This gives each chip 50W, plus I run the dimming leads open which then gives an 8% boost for 54W apiece. With the driver, it pulls 225W at the wall. Each 4 chip module was meant to cover 6 sq ft, but could easily do 8.
Honestly, I think this same configuration would work just as well over your 4x8' table without a lot of modification... but I'm not suggesting you duplicate my work.
Why not? This design was finalised some 16 months ago and I've been running it for nearly a year now. Since then, COB LED chips have gotten both better and a lot cheaper- not to mention the new quantum boards which are yet another step forward.
Time marches on, stuff keeps getting better/faster/cheaper. The need to validate it and find better ways to convert all that performance into yield is never ending.
I'm thinking a 2 wide by 4 panel long array of quantum boards driven at about 100W each would do some serious damage over your table. Each panel would be centered over its own 2x2 square, creating a very even and well spread out light distribution pattern.
@Stephenj37826 what do you think? Would 800W at system level over 32 sq ft be close to the 800 PPfD sweet spot? What drivers might you suggest to make this work?
There's a lot of 4x8 tables out there in commercial grows, after all...
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DesertHydro
Well-Known Member
i have a hard time believing in the quantum boards.... not because of data(the data looks great) but because they remind me of my blurple panels i bought years ago which forever stained the thought of LEDs to me lol. might have to try them out with a vert build 
ttystikk
Well-Known Member
I'll be starting that thread directly.i have a hard time believing in the quantum boards.... not because of data(the data looks great) but because they remind me of my blurple panels i bought years ago which forever stained the thought of LEDs to me lol. might have to try them out with a vert build
Stephenj37826
Well-Known Member
Depends on Cobs/Boards chosen. I'll give examples.
8 quantum boards on 4 HLG240H-1050A would be ~2450 PPF or ~ 825 PPFD in a 4X8 area. Total power use ~ 1120 watts.
16 CXM22s on 2 HLG600H-54 would be~ 2330 PPF or ~ 780 PPFD in that area. Total power use ~1260 watts.
If you added a third setup (basically half of what I mentioned above) you would see a 50% increase in light
IE example A (quantum boards) Total wattage ~1680 PPFD ~ 1240
Example B (CXM22s) Total wattage ~1890
PPFD ~ 1170
In both examples I'm not calculating any optics loss.
I think you'd be better suited with the first options as the light levels above 1000 PPFD are great but unless you really dial everything in you won't see much gain from this light level. Nutrients environment and CO2 will need to be spot on.
You can also just add more cobs/boards to increase the efficiency of either setup. For example if you added 4 more quantum boards for a total of 12 you would gain 180+ PPF in example A with no additional wattage.
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sixstring2112
Well-Known Member
how tall will your plants be on these 4 x 8 tables? you could run 30 to 32 cobs over a 4 x 8 @ 35w each and kill it with just 1120w vs 2 x 1000whps.even if you chose 50w cobs your still well under the 2000w mark and the tables will be flooded with light.personally i dont think 50w chips are needed unless the plants exceed 4 feet tall.
one nice thing about multiple drivers is that if 1 driver fails in a 6 or 8 driver setup you wont miss it as much while you wait for a replacement.if you lost 1/3 of your lights due to a driver problem it will be more noticable i guess,idk i would look at where the numbers fall on eff and how much of each driver is being used
ttystikk
Well-Known Member
Amazing; the quantum board solution gives 10% more light with 5% LESS power in your comparison. It still comes out ahead even with optics losses!
Gromax 3590B
Active Member
Gromax 3590B
Active Member
I ordered some stuff at mouser. Today the package was send but the HLG-185H-C1400B was not send because there was a stock difference. They can send one on 3 february 2017 so i cancelled that driver. Now i cant find another driver. That is a pitty.
ttystikk
Well-Known Member
Ask some of the sellers here on RIU.I ordered some stuff at mouser. Today the package was send but the HLG-185H-C1400B was not send because there was a stock difference. They can send one on 3 february 2017 so i cancelled that driver. Now i cant find another driver. That is a pitty.