I left ~0.75 inches between my mounted strips. When I redo my lights at some point I expect I'll spread them out a bit more to push the direct light out to the edge of the scrog. I do like leaving some space between so that I can lay my fans on top of the light frame and blowing down. That way the fans cool the frame and also blows through to keep the plants moving and aerated.
I am going to pull the trigger on one of these builds.
I am thinking:
10 x BXEB-L0560Z-30E2000-C-A3
5 x BXEB-L0560Z-57E2000-C-A3
Digikey has stock so about $120 USD
each with a separate dimmable driver (to be outside the grow area)
1400ma @ 23.3vf 32.6watts (according to spec sheet) I dont care about the efficiency at 700ma
I will have active cooling over the panel. If I have to I will build a hood.
I am thinking of spacing these with 10mm gaps (little less than half an inch)
That would give me
(24mm*15 strips)+(10mm*16 gaps)=520mm (20.5 inches) plus frame wide
and 560mm+13mm+13mm = 586mm long (23 inches)
I was thinking 1/8"x1"x8' aluminum flats with half inch angle for outer frame.
That would be about $50 USD at home depot
Add some misc costs and you are about $200 USD (without driver costs, TBD)
Seems like a ridiculous amount of power off a roughly 60cm / 24" panel. I am thinking that this could be used in a 2x2 to 3'x3' tent.
So my questions are:
Driver selections ?
I would like both dimming B models (ext dimmer) one to handle 5 strips the other to handle 10, or maybe I have to fudge the qty of strips a bit? Keeping under 24" square is the goal.
Is 1/8" aluminum thick enough?
Is a half inch gap enough between strips?
What would I be looking at min to max wattage?