DIY with Quantum Boards

greg nr

greg nr

Well-Known Member
I'd like to hear a little about safety from @robincnn and the other manufacturers. So far, nobody, including growmau5, has discussed using circuit or thermal protecting fuses on the dc side of the build.

Some of these drivers will put out 200+ v dc at almost 3 amps. That will seriously put a hurt on you if you if you touch the wrong lead, and you can pop your entire array if wired in parallel and blow a board. And that doesn't even address thermal runaway issues on drivers.

So how bout it guys? You are selling products to noobs and giving advice to use tissue damage level voltages. How about a little safety love?
 
sixstring2112

sixstring2112

Well-Known Member
greg nr said:
I'd like to hear a little about safety from @robincnn and the other manufacturers. So far, nobody, including growmau5, has discussed using circuit or thermal protecting fuses on the dc side of the build.

Some of these drivers will put out 200+ v dc at almost 3 amps. That will seriously put a hurt on you if you if you touch the wrong lead, and you can pop your entire array if wired in parallel and blow a board. And that doesn't even address thermal runaway issues on drivers.

So how bout it guys? You are selling products to noobs and giving advice to use tissue damage level voltages. How about a little safety love?
Click to expand...
it has been talked about alot here in this led section,you can and should fuse the cob leads in parallel wiring configs.if you use meanwell drivers they have many safety features built in.i wired up a cob bar in series once that was not correct and when i plugged it in the driver just clicked and shut down.switched the wires and all was fine,granted that was using top of the line cree cobs.im sure some marginal citi chips would have exploded haha.
 
BuddyColas

BuddyColas

Well-Known Member
greg nr said:
I'd like to hear a little about safety from @robincnn and the other manufacturers. So far, nobody, including growmau5, has discussed using circuit or thermal protecting fuses on the dc side of the build.

Some of these drivers will put out 200+ v dc at almost 3 amps. That will seriously put a hurt on you if you if you touch the wrong lead, and you can pop your entire array if wired in parallel and blow a board. And that doesn't even address thermal runaway issues on drivers.

So how bout it guys? You are selling products to noobs and giving advice to use tissue damage level voltages. How about a little safety love?
Click to expand...
Another perspective, maybe you should be talking to Meanwell...see cobs don't kill people, power supplies kill people. And in the end, it is the DIYers responsibility to educate and protect himself through good safety practices.
 
greg nr

greg nr

Well-Known Member
BuddyColas said:
Another perspective, maybe you should be talking to Meanwell...see cobs don't kill people, power supplies kill people. And in the end, it is the DIYers responsibility to educate and protect himself through good safety practices.
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Hey, I get you are a vendor, but it isn't meanwell who is putting up wiring diagrams and specifying drivers.

You guys crossed the thresh hold. Now how about a little advice?
 
BuddyColas

BuddyColas

Well-Known Member
greg nr said:
Hey, I get you are a vendor, but it isn't meanwell who is putting up wiring diagrams and specifying drivers.

You guys crossed the thresh hold. Now how about a little advice?
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I am not a vendor. I'm not selling anything. Just an avid diyer. Just saying it is the builders job to educate himself. No offense, but if you can't follow a schematic, then get some help from someone who can read one. It is hard to get shocked when the light is unplugged and the supply has been checked for no voltage with a voltmeter BEFORE a person puts their hands on the light. And grounding the frame is always a good idea.
 
robincnn

robincnn

Well-Known Member
Dreddd said:
Well just finished reading through 141 pages, fascinating so far.
after seeing the clear difference between 80 & 90 CRI in The Dawg's ongoing grow off, when can we start expecting these boards in 90 CRI flavor?
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90 CRI cobs are more like 95 CRI. Rated CRI is just minimum
Current 80 CRI boards are more like 86-87 CRI
I can add monos to boost it to 90 CRI
Hard to find a good 90 CRI midpower with good spectrum and efficiency.
 
robincnn

robincnn

Well-Known Member
greg nr said:
I'd like to hear a little about safety from @robincnn and the other manufacturers. So far, nobody, including growmau5, has discussed using circuit or thermal protecting fuses on the dc side of the build.
Some of these drivers will put out 200+ v dc at almost 3 amps. That will seriously put a hurt on you if you if you touch the wrong lead, and you can pop your entire array if wired in parallel and blow a board. And that doesn't even address thermal runaway issues on drivers.
So how bout it guys? You are selling products to noobs and giving advice to use tissue damage level voltages. How about a little safety love?
Click to expand...
Yo are right about safety. So far never had a thermal runaway or any issues on DC side. No blown COB or board even with incorrect wiring.
200+ v dc at almost 3 amps sounds like 600 watts and have not seen that.
Added a disclaimer/basic advise on website. However i would love to add any other safety advise if you can suggest.

upload_2017-3-19_17-4-35.png

QB304 is 100+ volts. Lowered the voltage to 54V in QB288 and one of the reason was to reduce the voltage for safety
For noobs i recommend kits. Got 95W kit, 135W kit coming soon, and both have lower wattage voltage.
Maximum power kit is 260W kit.
 
greg nr

greg nr

Well-Known Member
BuddyColas said:
I am not a vendor. I'm not selling anything. Just an avid diyer. Just saying it is the builders job to educate himself. No offense, but if you can't follow a schematic, then get some help from someone who can read one. It is hard to get shocked when the light is unplugged and the supply has been checked for no voltage with a voltmeter BEFORE a person puts their hands on the light. And grounding the frame is always a good idea.
Click to expand...
My bad. Apologies for that. I looked at your posts and saw 400+ messages in led threads and made an assumption. Sorry about that.

But I do know my way around high amperage dc circuits, which is why I asked the question. The common practice I've seen used (and required by some codes) is to put put a fuse or breaker within 6 inches of a high current power source (multiple if running in parallel) to protect the wiring. You can easily cause a fire by putting too much current through too small a conductor.

And none of the wiring diagrams I've seen use any kind of circuit protection.

If it isn't needed, then that is an ok answer. I'll still put one in for peace of mind though. Thermal fuses are something I haven't used. I also haven't used these drivers before so I don't know what internal safeguards they have.

So I wanted the advice of experts with these products to make a "general" rec on what to consider.

That was all.
 
BuddyColas

BuddyColas

Well-Known Member
greg nr said:
My bad. Apologies for that. I looked at your posts and saw 400+ messages in led threads and made an assumption. Sorry about that.

But I do know my way around high amperage dc circuits, which is why I asked the question. The common practice I've seen used (and required by some codes) is to put put a fuse or breaker within 6 inches of a high current power source (multiple if running in parallel) to protect the wiring. You can easily cause a fire by putting too much current through too small a conductor.

And none of the wiring diagrams I've seen use any kind of circuit protection.

If it isn't needed, then that is an ok answer. I'll still put one in for peace of mind though. Thermal fuses are something I haven't used. I also haven't used these drivers before so I don't know what internal safeguards they have.

So I wanted the advice of experts with these products to make a "general" rec on what to consider.

That was all.
Click to expand...
No worries. You could put an inline fuse to protect your cob(s) or boards. Or add a thermal breaker on your heatsink. I too would be interested in any safety items you find.
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
pop22 said:
your forgetting the conversion of AC to DC, power supplies are a big source of RF, its the reason computers are suppose to be shielded also.
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It's the extremely high frequency of cheap digital drivers that causes the RFI in the first place. Converting from 60 cycle AC to DC just isn't going to affect your cable service.
 
CobKits

CobKits

Well-Known Member
sixstring2112 said:
it has been talked about alot here in this led section,you can and should fuse the cob leads in parallel wiring configs.if you use meanwell drivers they have many safety features built in.i wired up a cob bar in series once that was not correct and when i plugged it in the driver just clicked and shut down.switched the wires and all was fine,granted that was using top of the line cree cobs.im sure some marginal citi chips would have exploded haha.
Click to expand...
I'm all about joking around on the forums, and I appreciate the humor in your post but a lot of new users might not get it. at some point its just spreading misinformation to suggest that citizens are 'marginal' relative to cree. if anything you might have to assume the opposite with citis having better thermal management, allowing for higher case temps, as well as performing their LM80 testing at significantly higher current than cree...
 
1KTrees

1KTrees

Member
CobKits said:
I'm all about joking around on the forums, and I appreciate the humor in your post but a lot of new users might not get it. at some point its just spreading misinformation to suggest that citizens are 'marginal' relative to cree. if anything you might have to assume the opposite with citis having better thermal management, allowing for higher case temps, as well as performing their LM80 testing at significantly higher current than cree...
Click to expand...
I'm curious, has anyone posted a citi eff. chart/data for the 1212 at cob level ?
 
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