DIY with Quantum Boards

[sixstring2112]

With no air movement (which should never be the case in a grow room) these run 55-60C @ the above suggested drive current which is well below the 100C maximum and most luminares that use mid-power run at around 85C. The Philips Lumileds 3030 2D we use in the razor 250 is color binned at 85C! Heat is the drivers biggest enemy. Also most Mars panels aren't even 1/2 as efficient as these. Lots of heat for the light provided. No paste is necessary as the copper layer distributes the heat evenly across the board. As can be seen in the thermal images the heat really is super even. @robincnn has tested these with thermocouples and the camera is spot on. I think you would exceed the maximum allowable current on the diodes before you would need a thermal interface material.

2 HLG 240H 2100/1050 A version will pull 600 watts turned to full bore. I like to run these at around 550 watts to give the driver a little head room. The output is something to be seen for sure. Like I said the guy that runs Nanolux and is a grower in CO bought the razor 250s and loved them. I sent him 4 QBs on a 320 H with no heatsinks on a flat aluminum plate he wanted more. I told him I could increase the power with the addition of the heatsinks. He got 4 of those and called me and ordered 6 more. He's eventually going to switch out all 60 DEs. Woot


Hell the Tj is only 2-3C higher than the case temp!

The face of the led only runs 1-2C higher than the board. Copper moves heat 2X better than pure aluminum. Now if you consider most heatsinks are alloys that move heat even less efficiently than pure aluminum you can begin to see how these do so well.

ok that was alot of info lol.so 2 x mw 240h-2100ma and 4 boards is 550 to 600w depending on how you set the driver? and i can just cut a square piece of sheet,mount boards to sheet,then just mount heatsinks to back of sheet with no worries about airgaps? sheets that big are never perfectly flat,im thinking is it even worth using those heatsinks or just make sure i have a fan on the top side of the aluminum sheet?

 

[sixstring2112]

also,i would not mount my drivers on the sheet as your photo shows,mine would be remote on the wall.so that takes alot of heat away from the boards

 

[MMJ Dreaming 99]

Minimum 4 on a pair of HLG 240H C1050s. I've built a few custom units for a great customer of mine and they are bright and will do great in a 4x4. I'll post more pics as I only took this one too send @robincnn. This is the back side of it. The buyer liked the first 5 so much he ordered 6 more and is eventually switching all 60 of his Nanolux DEs to these.

View attachment 3863386

Nice. Is that 4 or 2 in the picture? What is the dimensions in inches? My guess is about 3 to 4" thick? How long and wide? Thanks.

 

[Stephenj37826]

also,i would not mount my drivers on the sheet as your photo shows,mine would be remote on the wall.so that takes alot of heat away from the boards

You can't see in the photos but I have an air gap between the driver and plate about a 1/4".

I'm not 100% on the fan on the plate. I know they run cool without heatsinks at 550 watts in a duct cooled fixture lol. I can test that theory here in a day or 2 if you'd like.

 

[Stephenj37826]

Nice. Is that 4 or 2 in the picture? What is the dimensions in inches? My guess is about 3 to 4" thick? How long and wide? Thanks.

It's 1/8" aluminum and the plate is 24"X24". I think I might would go 24" X 28" if I was looking for a square light pattern. The footprint seems to be more 4'X6' as the boards are inline if you will. So the sides parallel to the boards are brighter than the perpendicular side. Thus the 4'X6' pattern.

 

[thccbdhealth]

So 4 of these Qb boards at 550-600w would out perform a 600w HID?

Is there Kelvin selection?

 

[ThaiBaby1]

So 4 of these Qb boards at 550-600w would out perform a 600w HID?

Is there Kelvin selection?

They have stated there will probably be more spectrum choices later. At equal wattages, they should blow hids away.

 

[MMJ Dreaming 99]

Minimum 4 on a pair of HLG 240H C1050s. I've built a few custom units for a great customer of mine and they are bright and will do great in a 4x4. I'll post more pics as I only took this one too send @robincnn. This is the back side of it. The buyer liked the first 5 so much he ordered 6 more and is eventually switching all 60 of his Nanolux DEs to these.

View attachment 3863386

Did the Nano DE guys, who sounds pretty pro, test the QBs in flower at all? I guess he must think it is a no brainer. The first 5 must have clinched the deal. Let us know when you are caught up on orders. I may be ready to place some in a month or so. Looks awesome. Thanks.

 

[Stephenj37826]

So 4 of these Qb boards at 550-600w would out perform a 600w HID?

Is there Kelvin selection?

Without a doubt. Yes 4000k will be available in the next couple of months.

 

[MMJ Dreaming 99]

They have stated there will probably be more spectrum choices later. At equal wattages, they should blow hids away.

I think they will blow HIDs away with fewer watts like 670 QB versus 1000 HID or even 1100.

His customer is replacing Nanolux DEs which are Gavita clones and you can crank them up to 1150 or 1200 watts. You just better have a big A/C too.

 

[MCM8]

I believe they will work quite nicely.

Dandy, the build you posted a few pages ago... What size room are you running that/those in?

Looking to build something virtually identical for a 2x4 space... Wouldn't be too much light would it?

 

[ChaosHunter]

Got some flowering going on with QB - Blue Dream
About a week or so in. Leaves are praying to light gods ...

View attachment 3863188 View attachment 3863189

BLUE CORAL - ( Early Sexing )
Ridiculous growth .... Pencil thick branching ... All leaves are open !
No droop as leaves are getting the photons .... Lol

View attachment 3863191
View attachment 3863192

Nice. Is that 4 or 2 in the picture? What is the dimensions in inches? My guess is about 3 to 4" thick? How long and wide? Thanks.

Did the Nano DE guys, who sounds pretty pro, test the QBs in flower at all? I guess he must think it is a no brainer. The first 5 must have clinched the deal. Let us know when you are caught up on orders. I may be ready to place some in a month or so. Looks awesome. Thanks.

MMJ what are your thoughts on COBs used in flowering ? I know that its hard to over look a QB vs a standard COB but at the end of the day its still COB lighting and COB lighting has proven itself. The head to head with all COB grow lighting needs to be with CFL, old style LED and HID lighting. Some people have made assumptions and put words into the mouths over these boards. These were never touted to be a end all be all to the COB market.

The whole debate over these boards makes me fell like I'm dealing with the AR-15 debate.

 

[sixstring2112]

You can't see in the photos but I have an air gap between the driver and plate about a 1/4".

I'm not 100% on the fan on the plate. I know they run cool without heatsinks at 550 watts in a duct cooled fixture lol. I can test that theory here in a day or 2 if you'd like.

i would like that if you have time.if you could just use a 12,16,or 18 inch wall fan on oscilate mode it would mimick most grow rooms and give us a good idea of how to build

 

[MMJ Dreaming 99]

MMJ what are your thoughts on COBs used in flowering ? I know that its hard to over look a QB vs a standard COB but at the end of the day its still COB lighting and COB lighting has proven itself. The head to head with all COB grow lighting needs to be with CFL, old style LED and HID lighting. Some people have made assumptions and put words into the mouths over these boards. These were never touted to be a end all be all to the COB market.

The whole debate over these boards makes me fell like I'm dealing with the AR-15 debate.

Buy an AK or a FAL-FN. LOL! I am less of an expert than the others. I know that HID's or DE lights like Nanoluxes are way too hot and you have to throw too many A/Cs at them. I know pro growers who say HID is the only way.

My plan is to test a QB Board against a big COB like a Timber Framework and see what happens but that will take time.

It also depends on the person. A few plants in a tent then I think QB for the win. Our friend with the creepy death mask avatar who conjures up Kevin Costner and unicorns seems to be showing us the way with QB. His plants are looking great. The cool QB temps are amazing.

For me, I want to hear more about Stephen's Nanolux DE guy who is phasing in QBs. Nanolux is like a Gavita clone. Nice light but hot as an oven. You can get a nanolux for about $350 but the A/C costs etc make a $699 QB look like a bargain if the QB can really flower.

I am not worried about veg as much. You can throw a QB with some T8s at 6500 K or 1 HID surrounded by T8s for veg.

 

[pop22]

I run mine usually 20/4 and also depends on strain. Some of the smaller autos don't matter 16/8 is fine.Below that you lose yield. But on 18/6 or more, you can yield 3-8oz in 65-70 days from sprout. 90 day strains like Dutch Passion's Auto Ultimate can yield way over a pound. The record is 1098grams dry bud.

Do you get more yield with autos with longer lights on schedule?
Ive never run autos

 

[pop22]

the answer to this is to tell them dumb bastards you would save a megawatts if they'd let you grow outdoors......it was THEIR stupid idea to make everyone grow indoors.

They are trying to pass local ordinances in my state limiting the amount of electricity that can be used in a residential area for cannibis. Glad I'm ahead of the curve and have been building my fixtures for max efficiency.

 

[pop22]

What heat? These are not like those big, hulking HID hoods that block so much airflow, not to mention the 60% or more heat output of HPS etc. How do you deal with airflow then? By better fan placement. Not much of an excuse to not use these lights

I feel like these boards will restrict airflow in some spaces to much. That's why I wouldn't use them for side-lighting but I'd like to. Maybe making 3 strip rails w/ 1.5" spaces between them would solve that problem.
My SunCloak uses these kind of diodes I think but they're mounted to aluminum rails. I get great results w/ them. No optics on it but does have a silicone layer over them slightly increasing the blue in the spectrum & making them water proofish.
These diodes are great & do produce dense nug.

 

[Hybridway]

What heat? These are not like those big, hulking HID hoods that block so much airflow, not to mention the 60% or more heat output of HPS etc. How do you deal with airflow then? By better fan placement. Not much of an excuse to not use these lights

Not heat from the Board. In my case I was referring to air-flow through the garden use them for side-lighting. If the ceiling of a tent was solid Q-Baord one may want to lower their fans but then they are also made to grow close to the canopy. You'd just have to try to keep airflow going to the plants.
I think these boards fixtures will be great for allot of Poeple.
I use a similar type light but it has spaces between the diodes. They work awesome.

 

[ttystikk]

the answer to this is to tell them dumb bastards you would save a megawatts if they'd let you grow outdoors......it was THEIR stupid idea to make everyone grow indoors.

That only goes so far- and as it turns out, LED is THE ideal supplemental lighting system. It does everything you can think of that HID won't, like partial power for clouds and cycling many times without deteriorating.

 

[vahpor]

He got 4 of those and called me and ordered 6 more. He's eventually going to switch out all 60 DEs.

Please, if possible, follow up with us on the results? If the client can share real world pics/info/comparisons.

Converting, let alone TALKING about LEDs with some HID growers can often be a wasted effort. But, I think more are at least open-minded about it, now that COBs have proven themselves. I want QBs to at least be an evolutionary path from COB, because they could work really well/better? in small scale/low ceiling applications IMO.

At first, I was skeptical about these QBs, that looked so similar to 1 or 3w blurple fixtures (in basic look/design, not in application). I'm a proponent of LED grow lights (especially those with full spec warm white; humans do have to work under them after all), but even my experience with blurple would have sent me back to HID if I had started there. I think there are some decent blurple manuf/lamps around, but they aren't the cheap CN Mars lights.
Trying to explain that all LED isn't created equal to some HID users, especially if they've had a bad experience with blurple, is a tough sway.

Watching results/threads closely here to see how this QB iteration works out; like many others are.