Question about drivers

Heisengrow

Heisengrow

Well-Known Member
Can' find the answer in searches.
If I have a HLG 240H C1050 B I see I can put 4 cobs on this driver and drive them at around 55 watts a piece.
If I only put 3 cobs on the driver will that make the wattage go up for each individual cobb?or if I only wanted to put two cobs on the driver would that also make the wattage go up to say 120 per cob or does the wattage stay the same if I have 2 or 4.
 
HydoDan

HydoDan

Well-Known Member
Heisengrow said:
Can' find the answer in searches.
If I have a HLG 240H C1050 B I see I can put 4 cobs on this driver and drive them at around 55 watts a piece.
If I only put 3 cobs on the driver will that make the wattage go up for each individual cobb?or if I only wanted to put two cobs on the driver would that also make the wattage go up to say 120 per cob or does the wattage stay the same if I have 2 or 4.
Click to expand...
The amperage is set at 1050 mA...So they run the same wattage weather 2, 3 or 4...
volts x amps = watts
 
Chip Green

Chip Green

Well-Known Member
In the case of a Constant current driver, such as the one you mentioned, they will be wired in series, so each cob will be driven at 1050ma, regardless of the number of COBS.

The driver will have a minimum forward voltage to meet, or it will go into "hiccup" mode and act like a strobe....
 
CobKits

CobKits

Well-Known Member
Heisengrow said:
Can' find the answer in searches.
If I have a HLG 240H C1050 B I see I can put 4 cobs on this driver and drive them at around 55 watts a piece.
If I only put 3 cobs on the driver will that make the wattage go up for each individual cobb?or if I only wanted to put two cobs on the driver would that also make the wattage go up to say 120 per cob or does the wattage stay the same if I have 2 or 4.
Click to expand...
a low voltage/hig current like a -48A or -54B is what you want if you want to run cobs at varying currents. it acts just like you describe (splits total current from driver into 2,3,4,5, or more pieces). only other option is a greatly oversized driver like an HLG 480 or 320 with a current big enough to handle your max current and voltage high enough to handle max number of cobs. But that would be expensive and inefficient since youd only be using a portion of the driver
 
Heisengrow

Heisengrow

Well-Known Member
CobKits said:
a low voltage/hig current like a -48A or -54B is what you want if you want to run cobs at varying currents. it acts just like you describe (splits total current from driver into 2,3,4,5, or more pieces). only other option is a greatly oversized driver like an HLG 480 or 320 with a current big enough to handle your max current and voltage high enough to handle max number of cobs. But that would be expensive and inefficient since youd only be using a portion of the driver
Click to expand...
Yeah I'm starting to understand.im wondering if I would be better off running the 240 1050 mA and putting 4 cobs on 3 drivers and 3 on the last one.i would still get around 800 watts per 4x5 and be able to use the drivers and cobs in other places if I want to move them into a 4x3 or 2x2 or whatever.
I'
Gonna keep doing research.this shit is alot of research.
 
HydoDan

HydoDan

Well-Known Member
Heisengrow said:
Yeah I'm starting to understand.im wondering if I would be better off running the 240 1050 mA and putting 4 cobs on 3 drivers and 3 on the last one.i would still get around 800 watts per 4x5 and be able to use the drivers and cobs in other places if I want to move them into a 4x3 or 2x2 or whatever.
I'
Gonna keep doing research.this shit is alot of research.
Click to expand...
Growmau5 you tube videos... The first seven vids explain everything in laymen terms... They are a couple years old so his tech is outdated.. but good basic info..
 
Heisengrow

Heisengrow

Well-Known Member
Ok so what do you guys think about this configuration.
This will also allow me to move them around if I want to do 4 cob strips and also I can wire them in a staggered position so i can power 2 drivers and 8 cobs for young clones and flip on the other 2 drivers when the plants get older.
This will be giving me around 1600 watts per 4x10 foot area at around 40 watts per square foot.

20180122_154440.jpg
 
verticalgrow

verticalgrow

Well-Known Member
Heisengrow said:
Ok so what do you guys think about this configuration.
This will also allow me to move them around if I want to do 4 cob strips and also I can wire them in a staggered position so i can power 2 drivers and 8 cobs for young clones and flip on the other 2 drivers when the plants get older.
This will be giving me around 1600 watts per 4x10 foot area at around 40 watts per square foot.

View attachment 4077459
Click to expand...
That setup is Legit bro :clap:

Another setup is 5 x HLG320 @1050ma + 20 x vero29C 70v COBs = 1500W over 4x10 area

:leaf: Growmau5 got 4.6pounds from 1500W as seen in video:leaf:

 
HydoDan

HydoDan

Well-Known Member
40 watts per square foot is where you want to be... I would get the B version drivers and wire in a potentiometer
(dimmer) for even more versatility.. Definitely enough light that's for sure!
 
GrowLightResearch

GrowLightResearch

Well-Known Member
I would need to know the Forward voltage (Vf) of each CoB

The CoBs must be wired in series and their Vf when added up must be between 119 ~ 238V.

Untitled.jpg

You must (should) us Vf max.

Untitled2.jpg




From the above CoBs, those in green below will work.
columns are qty 1,2,3,4,5


Untitled3.jpg
 
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Chip Green

Chip Green

Well-Known Member
I see you've crawled completely into the DIY wormhole!!!! Life as you know it has ceased to exist...
It will be impossible to ever look, at ANY light source, without contemplating its' efficiency and output....
You will never regret it.
For me, looking back, I wish I had bought bigger constant current drivers in the beginning, precisely because of the reason you stated, easy to make them smaller!!!!

My favorite tool in my kit is the "Dr. Meter"- $25 LUX Meter, for tinkering with concentration of emitters of all types....there are formulas to change LUX into ballpark figures of all that other fancy scientific rig-a-ma-roll, for my purposes, its a must have!!
 
GrowLightResearch

GrowLightResearch

Well-Known Member
Heisengrow said:
Ok so what do you guys think about this configuration.
Click to expand...
CoBs cost more and have very poor uniformity.

For a 4'x4' I'd use seven 4' EB Gen 2 strips. Cheaper [1], more photons, easier, much better.


Excellent uniformity.


This is the uniformity of 7 strips at 5" over the canopy.

Untitled.jpg


These plots are for the latest Samsung F-Series, but are very similar to the EB Gen2.

Attached is a zipped HTML page with the uniformity from 24" down to 2". 5" is optimum.
below each plot is the variance, standard deviation, and range for each plot. the range is the max-min/average. Lower numbers are better. Standard Deviation is the most reliable. When SD is the Same at more than one height, then use Range.

note 1, some Bridgelux CoBs have more lumens per $ than some of the strips. Very few, I go to Digikey and sort CoBs and strips by price, export, and make a spreadsheet.
 

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Heisengrow

Heisengrow

Well-Known Member
mahiluana said:
you could drive 5(20) cobs / (4)driver to get better spread over your squares
and squeeze out full load of the driver - because if Vf of your chip is ~37V
power on the wall is only ~155W (4 x 37V x 1,05A) ---> 31W / sqf
max. power would be ~209V x 1,05A ---> 43,9 / sqf
Click to expand...
I used the driver calculater on ledgardner and input the cob I wanna use and the driver and it calculated 199.5 watts per driver.
I also like the idea of using 20 per 4x10 but will cost more to get setup.
 
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