Buy it or DIY it?

Major Blazer

Major Blazer

Well-Known Member
diggs99 said:
Thats all Canadian prices you listed?

Ya if you could link me up with someone from alibaba ill def have a look. I am open to any and all suggestions as long as the end result is building a light thats equivilant to the timbers

Do you have a link to the cobs you would use? ill be honest, whenever i look at any of these parts all i see is numbers lol
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After reading this whole thread, I wanted to address the original concern, about whether it is worth it to DIY or purchase off the shelf. If you only see part numbers and you're really just copying others' builds, I'd say it makes more sense to buy off the shelf. You don't really DIY to save money (some do), it's more for the love of the builds and the ability to customize a build to your liking. You don't save *that* much money is what I'm getting at and really whether you buy a Timber, PLC, HLG, Rapid, etc - you are in the 2+ μmol/joule lamp space, making the choice a compromise between cost and personal preference. I think HLG is the best bang for the buck in the industry, plus you can add a touch of DIY to them down the line if it suits you (I added 4 f-strips to my HLG 260 v2 kit).
 
diggs99

diggs99

Well-Known Member
Major Blazer said:
After reading this whole thread, I wanted to address the original concern, about whether it is worth it to DIY or purchase off the shelf. If you only see part numbers and you're really just copying others' builds, I'd say it makes more sense to buy off the shelf. You don't really DIY to save money (some do), it's more for the love of the builds and the ability to customize a build to your liking. You don't save *that* much money is what I'm getting at and really whether you buy a Timber, PLC, HLG, Rapid, etc - you are in the 2+ μmol/joule lamp space, making the choice a compromise between cost and personal preference. I think HLG is the best bang for the buck in the industry, plus you can add a touch of DIY to them down the line if it suits you (I added 4 f-strips to my HLG 260 v2 kit).
Click to expand...

Thanks for this response, this was def the original question. Whether diy was the better choice.

I def am not considering diy for the love of it, it's all about trying to get 800-950 of led/cob wattage for cheaper than 1129.00 usd plus tax


From tallying up airwalkers numbers it seems I can build an equivalent with the f series strips for 950.00 Canadian. That's a considerable save on $$ and I get the led wattage I was hoping for.

Or is there something else I am missing? It wouldn't surprise me if there was lol.

One reason for me to buy off timber or some other site selling fixtures is ease of purchase more than anything. Pick what size light I want and buy it. But man we're paying a premium on that convenience . 1129.00 usd, that's like 1500. 00plus tax. CAD

Trying to navigate through all this technical led/cob stuff is def not for a guy like me .

But I want led/cob setup I think. It seems I have decided this already.

So here we are lol
 
Major Blazer

Major Blazer

Well-Known Member
Nice

Strips are cool, but I'd go with the h-influx over f-strips if I were you. They're aluminum backed and they're more efficient, so more par for less watts. I haven't thought enough about a 25 sq ft flower lamp since I don't have that kind of room, but I guess if you wanted perfect spread, you can create rows of 2 2ft/ 1 1ft to get to a 5 ft edge to edge lamp. That shit would be huge though - I wonder if cobs and/or pucks like the HLG Elite or ChillLed (PCB or puck) mounted higher and run harder makes more sense for this application.
 
ANC

ANC

Well-Known Member
I've drawn up a table to price out the diff between building a light using either F series or H influx
including the frames, and there isn;t much difference between going for either... the H influx setup will cost you about $50 extra on a 600W setup.
 
diggs99

diggs99

Well-Known Member
ANC said:
I've drawn up a table to price out the diff between building a light using either F series or H influx
including the frames, and there isn;t much difference between going for either... the H influx setup will cost you about $50 extra on a 600W setup.
Click to expand...
so given that the price difference isnt very much, which of the strips would you use ANC?
 
ANC

ANC

Well-Known Member
I've already built my lights, but that was before Influx was being made.

At the same power, the actual amount of light increase is very small, I do believe the influx has better spectrum.
I think it is always best to use the best tech available at the time otherwise you may as well start looking at COBs.
 
diggs99

diggs99

Well-Known Member
ANC said:
I've already built my lights, but that was before Influx was being made.

At the same power, the actual amount of light increase is very small, I do believe the influx has better spectrum.
I think it is always best to use the best tech available at the time otherwise you may as well start looking at COBs.
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Yep i agree with you there, no point using tech thats already been surpassed by something better.

So i take from that, h influx is the newest tech?

will they still use the same drivers and frame work? or are they a different setup all together?

I searched digikey for h influx but got no hits.
 
ANC

ANC

Well-Known Member
yeah you will probably be using 2sxp config, but otherwise the same driver, at least at the design I looked into.
 
Airwalker16

Airwalker16

Well-Known Member
diggs99 said:
Thats all Canadian prices you listed?

Ya if you could link me up with someone from alibaba ill def have a look. I am open to any and all suggestions as long as the end result is building a light thats equivilant to the timbers

Do you have a link to the cobs you would use? ill be honest, whenever i look at any of these parts all i see is numbers lol
Click to expand...
Not CDN. Sorry

https://cobkits.com/product/citizen-clu048-1212-80cri-gen6/

https://onlinemeanwell.com/en/hlg600h36a-1514.html
 
diggs99

diggs99

Well-Known Member
10 x f series gen 3000k strips
1x hlg-600h-48a driver
1x hlg-320h-24a driver

Total on digikey is $1004.78

just in case the link dont work
 
diggs99

diggs99

Well-Known Member
verticalgrow said:
do u need heatsinks & wiring?
Aluminium frame, wago's & tools are also needed, DIY gets pricey sometimes better off buying but major blaze has good point, its the love of DIY.
Click to expand...

Ya its a costly venture, even the diy route

The smaller the gap in price between buying and diy gets, the closer i am to just buying the timbers and being done with it.


I still havent ruled out moving to CMH either, just feel the LED/Cob setup would be better for my situation in the long run.
Honestly if it wasnt for electricity costs i would prob just buy a couple 1k de and be done with all of this lol

but i know they will run my electric bill up big time in comparison to the lights that we have been discussing.
 
diggs99

diggs99

Well-Known Member
verticalgrow said:
do u need heatsinks & wiring?
Aluminium frame, wago's & tools are also needed, DIY gets pricey sometimes better off buying but major blaze has good point, its the love of DIY.
Click to expand...

would heatsinks be required with the strip light build? if so, then yes, thats another expense that wasnt added to the cart
 
verticalgrow

verticalgrow

Well-Known Member
diggs99 said:
Ya its a costly venture, even the diy route

The smaller the gap in price between buying and diy gets, the closer i am to just buying the timbers and being done with it.


I still havent ruled out moving to CMH either, just feel the LED/Cob setup would be better for my situation in the long run.
Honestly if it wasnt for electricity costs i would prob just buy a couple 1k de and be done with all of this lol

but i know they will run my electric bill up big time in comparison to the lights that we have been discussing.
Click to expand...
lol i hear ya bro but its a good question & good thread.

At the end of the day its time so to save time buy a premade & then down the track build a fixture if u still desire.

diggs99 said:
would heatsinks be required with the strip light build? if so, then yes, thats another expense that wasnt added to the cart
Click to expand...
Running them soft then NO HEATSINKS needed but more strips will be needed to get the wattage up so more costly to get efficiency
 
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