DIY with Quantum Boards

[Humple]

The choice of qboards was made for the efficiency. 120 diodes must be driven harder for 60w than 304 diodes. So in my opinion the qb304 also driven at 60w will be more efficient. More efficient means more wattage to light insteed of heat.
Or is this so little that you shall not notice any difference?

Ok aside from qb120, 288 or 304. Lets say i can get my hands on 10x qb304 boards. I have a tent that is 120x120 (4x4)
Aiming for 800-1000 ppfd.
What is the right way to go for the most big buds? 6x100 or 8x75 or all 10 @60w?
Gonna do scrog with 5 plants so i think spread is better then deep penetration...

Hmm... Any of the LED-pros could probably weigh in on how much light you'd actually be gaining by the higher efficiency of the 304 at 60w. I'm also curious. Is it worth the increased cost? But of course, if you go 288 or 304, you'll have headroom; granted, you'd have to add heatsinks if you later decided you wanted to get more out of the boards, but at least you wouldn't be completely topped out.

 

[conversekidz]

I'm assuming the 288s are going to run cooler, they are more packed together, but with more than double the diodes they are getting run really softly

A watt in the 288 board produces the same amount of heat as watt in the 120 board.

However,

How the boards handle heat distribution is different. The QB288 is (or was, not sure about the newest US made versions?) 1.6mm thick and the QB120 is 2.0mm thick. The additional .4mm makes the QB120 "run cooler" than the QB288.

The Q288 will be more efficient per lm watt than the QB120 while ran at 60 watts total, but when you factor in the cost and shipping of the boards, power supplies, etc, the QB120 starts becoming a lower cost per lm output to build (at a larger foot print).

 

[DutchGrow]

@DutchGrow I use 9 x 288 per 3x3. Could put it in a 4x4.
The spread is great. I did a sog 12-14 inch plants, the bottom buds where as hard as the top.
I think anyone of your choices will do just fine. except the 10 boards seems like and awkward design ? maybe 12 if your gonna go balls in.

Tnx for your reply
How many watts do you use?
10 seems an odd number i was thinking 3 on sides (portrait) and 4 in the middle (landscape)

 

[DutchGrow]

Hmm... Any of the LED-pros could probably weigh in on how much light you'd actually be gaining by the higher efficiency of the 304 at 60w. I'm also curious. Is it worth the increased cost? But of course, if you go 288 or 304, you'll have headroom; granted, you'd have to add heatsinks if you later decided you wanted to get more out of the boards, but at least you wouldn't be completely topped out.

I like the headroom of running them low.
Its mostly a surprise how much they stretch. Normally it would be fine.
But the spread is more even with more boards.
I will look into the qb120 and 288 seems like a good option but nothing is available right now. Does anyone knows the shipping rates for holland?

 

[DutchGrow]

A watt in the 288 board produces the same amount of heat as watt in the 120 board.

However,

How the boards handle heat distribution is different. The QB288 is (or was, not sure about the newest US made versions?) 1.6mm thick and the QB120 is 2.0mm thick. The additional .4mm makes the QB120 "run cooler" than the QB288.

The Q288 will be more efficient per lm watt than the QB120 while ran at 60 watts total, but when you factor in the cost and shipping of the boards, power supplies, etc, the QB120 starts becoming a lower cost per lm output to build (at a larger foot print).

Ok thanks for this post
Leaning towards the qb120. Looks like a cost efficient option.
So 12 of them @60w in a 4x4?

 

[pop22]

I used the guides and rounded off numbers:
QB304@52watt: 9880 lumens μmoles/joule 2.85

QB288 @52 watts: 9776 lumens μmoles/joule 2.84

QB120 @50 watts: 8500 lumens μmoles/joule 2.56

I used the 50 watt range as that was the easiest to use from the guides

QB304, according to the guides is making 14% more light at the same power.

Which leads me to wonder if there's an error here somewhere. The 304 has 2.53 times as many leds, yet only 14% more light at the same wattage? is this simply because they are being driven softer? someone from HLG want to comment?

Hmm... Any of the LED-pros could probably weigh in on how much light you'd actually be gaining by the higher efficiency of the 304. I'm also curious. Is it worth the increased cost? But of course, if you go 288 or 304, you'll have headroom; granted, you'd have to add heatsinks if you later decided you wanted to get more out of the boards, but at least you wouldn't be completely topped out.

 

[Black Thumb]

Tnx for your reply
How many watts do you use?
10 seems an odd number i was thinking 3 on sides (portrait) and 4 in the middle (landscape)

I run them soft 319 watts total. 1st test tent was half capacity and got around 308 grams, no veg 6-8 inches tall going in 12-14 inches finsihed in 5inch sq pots with a 6 inch depth.
If i had filled to full capacity there would be no crowding issues light penetration from top to bottom of plant ( still lots of gaps for colas) and i have no doubts it would have been 600+ grams, no doubts what so ever.

 

[DutchGrow]

I run them soft 319 watts total. 1st test tent was half capacity and got around 308 grams, no veg 6-8 inches tall going in 12-14 inches finsihed in 5inch sq pots with a 6 inch depth.
If i had filled to full capacity there would be no crowding issues light penetration from top to bottom of plant ( still lots of gaps for colas) and i have no doubts it would have been 600+ grams, no doubts what so ever.

omg thats a whole lot of candy
Im aiming for 1gr/w with 600w qb boards hoping for more of course

 

[DutchGrow]

My current grow. About 2 weeks to go

 

[oo2be]

@SensiPuff

Growerslights site is back up. I had similar problems with paying up front, they missed 3 dates but I did eventually get them. Think it was a guy called Kurt who I dealt with - he was pretty good at replying to emails but would've been a whole lot smoother and less stress if they had let me know about the delays without my prompting.

 

[conversekidz]

I used the guides and rounded off numbers:
QB304@52watt: 9880 lumens μmoles/joule 2.85

QB288 @52 watts: 9776 lumens μmoles/joule 2.84

QB120 @50 watts: 8500 lumens μmoles/joule 2.56

I used the 50 watt range as that was the easiest to use from the guides

QB304, according to the guides is making 14% more light at the same power.

Which leads me to wonder if there's an error here somewhere. The 304 has 2.53 times as many leds, yet only 14% more light at the same wattage? is this simply because they are being driven softer? someone from HLG want to comment?

Yes, LED's are more efficient the less you drive them.

Instead of looking at total Lumens, look at what the individual LED's will be driven at.

Assuming 60 watts going into each board, the 120 board LED's will be driven at 3.03v @ .165mAh per LED, the 288 board 2.87v @ .0727mAh per LED, and 2.86v @ 2.86v @ .0682mAh

Individual LED
QB120 = 168.4lm/W,
QB288 = 189.4lm/W
308 = 190.7 lm/W

 

[conversekidz]

splitting hairs...but hey its an LED grow and we are about efficiency (both in financials and power consumption)

The 288 board is the most expensive option currently of the three.

Board Option - Cost Per Board - Cost Per LED
120 - $29.00 - $0.24167
288 - $71.50 - $0.24826
308 - $75.00 - $0.24351

 

[Dave455]

splitting hairs...but hey its an LED grow and we are about efficiency (both in financials and power consumption)

The 288 board is the most expensive option currently of the three.

Board Option - Cost Per Board - Cost Per LED
120 - $29.00 - $0.24167
288 - $71.50 - $0.24826
308 - $75.00 - $0.24351

There all the same ! Spare me....

 

[Ryante55]

Day 25 of 12/12 tallest bud is about 6in away from the center of a qb running at 700ma there is a little bit of leaf cupping in the 6-10in range directly below the boards. I'm going to leave them that close for the rest of the grow so we can see if they can handle it.

 

[Philip-O]

I know this is not exactly QB related, but I´ve been thinking of setting of a clone / seedling tent of about 2 x 2 or 2 x 4, with three or four levels using 4 QB 120. Has anyone organized something like this? Any suggestions on what I can use for (hopefully cheap) shelving?

 

[frigginwizard]

I know this is not exactly QB related, but I´ve been thinking of setting of a clone / seedling tent of about 2 x 2 or 2 x 4, with three or four levels using 4 QB 120. Has anyone organized something like this? Any suggestions on what I can use for (hopefully cheap) shelving?

I have been thinking about doing something similar. I think I am going to wrap something like https://www.amazon.com/TRINITY-4-Tier-Shelving-72-Inch-Black/dp/B00NPRBR6G or similar wire shelving in panda film.

 

[Philip-O]

I have been thinking about doing something similar. I think I am going to wrap something like https://www.amazon.com/TRINITY-4-Tier-Shelving-72-Inch-Black/dp/B00NPRBR6G or similar wire shelving in panda film.

I like grow tents, as they keep dirt in/dust out, can be used to contain light, etc., and I´d rather have this set up as permanently as I can. I intend to use this to build and keep my strain / cut collection, and also to raise seedlings.

3 or 4 shelves x (2x4 or 2x2 tent area) means a lot of plant capacity when dealing with babies and clones. Have you looked into other shelving option? It would be nice to be able to adjust the height and add/remore shelves if needed.

 

[frigginwizard]

I like grow tents, as they keep dirt in/dust out, can be used to contain light, etc., and I´d rather have this set up as permanently as I can. I intend to use this to build and keep my strain / cut collection, and also to raise seedlings.

3 or 4 shelves x (2x4 or 2x2 tent area) means a lot of plant capacity when dealing with babies and clones. Have you looked into other shelving option? It would be nice to be able to adjust the height and add/remore shelves if needed.

Those type of shelves are not easily adjustable, but you can put in as many or few of the shelves in as you want and the shelves can be positioned vertically by the inch.

 

[nfhiggs]

A watt in the 288 board produces the same amount of heat as watt in the 120 board.

Not quite. 60W over 120 diodes vs 60W over 288 diodes, means the 288's are running at roughly half the current. That increases their efficiency by around 10%. That means 10% less heat at the board surface with the 288. BUT - the 120 has quite a bit more surface area, so temperature wise, its probably a wash.

 

[dannykay]

Day 25 of 12/12 tallest bud is about 6in away from the center of a qb running at 700ma there is a little bit of leaf cupping in the 6-10in range directly below the boards. I'm going to leave them that close for the rest of the grow so we can see if they can handle it.

Looking great mate. I'm having a bit of an hight issue myself, but it seems that they are doing great. What's growing in there?