Hi all! I have a few questions for the QB geniuses out there, this will be my first grow and I’m confused about some stuff regarding QB’s.
I just finished building my light fixture which is 4 QB288 V2’s from HLG running with a Mean Well HLG-600H-54A driver. Everything is mounted on a Slate 6 Quad heatsink, also from HLG. This will be covering a 60x60x78 (5x5x6.5) grow tent. I will be growing 4 plants in DWC in this setup (2x Northern Light, 2x Wonder Woman).
On to the questions:
Thanks for reading! Hope you can pass on some knowledge as I’m eager to learn!
Happy Growing!
I just finished building my light fixture which is 4 QB288 V2’s from HLG running with a Mean Well HLG-600H-54A driver. Everything is mounted on a Slate 6 Quad heatsink, also from HLG. This will be covering a 60x60x78 (5x5x6.5) grow tent. I will be growing 4 plants in DWC in this setup (2x Northern Light, 2x Wonder Woman).
On to the questions:
- Watts/Volts/Amps. How much should this driver be pulling from the wall? I’m measuring everything with a Kill-A-Watt. With the Io (which I understand is current) dimmed down to 50% it says it’s pulling 205 watts, 1.76 amps and 119.9 volts. At 100% this goes up to 651 watts, 5.64 amps and 116.2 volts. The Vo (which I understand is voltage) is set to max on the driver in both cases. Are these measurements in the right range? If not, how do I correct it?
- I don’t have any measurements for heat right now, but I’m planning on buying a temp gun to measure that, as of now I’ve only had the lights on for 15 minutes at a time for testing, the boards do give off some heat but I can hold my hand under them without an issue, the driver and heatsink do get a bit hot. What’s the ideal temp for the heatsink and driver?
- I saw a LedGardener video for the HLG driver series in which he shows how to fine tune the driver using both the Io and Vo pots on the back of the driver. Could someone ELI5 how to do this and what’s the ideal settings for the pots?
- I understand the A series of the HLG drivers come with the built in dimming pots and I can’t add a second pot for it. I see the driver has some extra wires for Remote Control, if I were to add the Mean Well remote, could I dim the lights under 50% or would I only be able to go from 50-100% same as with the driver pot? Here’s the remote I’m talking about, is this the right one for my driver?
- I’m a bit confused as to the total height I’ll have available for my plants. I’ve always seen huge plants in tents similar to mine, but now that I’m setting everything up I feel I don’t have much space to work with. The tent is 78 inches tall. My lights are at the highest I can hang them right now at 12 inches from the top, I may be able to shave off 6 inches by changing my hanging method. My reservoirs are 12 inches high so my plants will sprout at that height. If I factor in the 28 inches (max) distance I need between my lights and canopy, that leaves with 26 inches for growing space for my plants…I feel like this is tiny!!! That would mean I need to start flowering when they’re 13 inches tall. I do plan on doing SCROG and widening out the canopy to the edges the most I can since the light can cover almost the entire tent. Any thoughts?
- Related to last question, how close can my plants be to the lights? What’s the ideal height/dimming combination for Seedling, Veg and Flower stages?
- Lastly, I want to change the way I’m hanging my lights, if anyone has the exact carabiner size that would fit into the Slate 6 Quad heatsink hanging holes that would be awesome, I haven’t ordered them on Amazon since I want to be sure before I do.
Thanks for reading! Hope you can pass on some knowledge as I’m eager to learn!
Happy Growing!
