Quantum Boards or COBS?

[Yodaweed]

I use half the power, easily... I start my LED PCB builds at around 120 watts and slowly raise them over 2 months, ending around 280 or so watts and it out grows my nanolux. That is my experience, that does not make it fact and I realize that. To me, HPS is garbage and anyone growing with them only does so because they don't know any better IMO.

It's simple, there is no question of "do led grow as good as HPS" it's a simple answer of "LED can grow almost 2x as good as HPS because if I used the same watts as HPS I'd literally be able to grow 2x as much as HPS." I can build a LED that is vert tight, uses lenses and really old tech to where the foot print is piss poor and the efficiency of the light is well under what a HPS can do... That being said I can also build a 200lm/w LED with an amazing footprint and use an actual HALF power consumption that of what we see the best HPS use.

Imagine 2 race cars, one uses 10 gallons of gas to finish a lap around a track at top speeds all the way, finishing in 5 min lets say... Then the second race car also runs the same course at the same top speeds and finishes at the same time... but uses 5 gallons of gas. What race car is better?

With growing we can't double our grow in the same space when it's already maximized, 4 pounds in a 4x8 with 2x 1000watt DE's... But if I could grow with half the watts, and do a whole other grow right next to my LED setup with lights being very close to the plants VS very far away like with HPS then that means I can stack grows. Once you stack a grow we see that in the same footprint LED can literally grow 2 times as much as HPS with the same watts, in the same area.

LED are imo 2x as good as HPS, if you have good LED... Oddly I can build the best LED in the world (or in that range) for almost nothing compared to buying crap led's... I can also build my LED's for right around HPS DE's costs but I lose heat issues, AC costs, bulb costs and half my energy costs. Also LED spectrum isn't that great so if you want to compare to quality grown under full spectrum your gonna need to rethink your setup.

A real side by side would be 2k of led VS 2k of HPS, and see what one grows more... LEDs win by almost 2x the volume of bud. Or we can use 1k LED watts vs 500 HPS watts and lolz at HPS for doing piss poor. The problem is we accept that LED is so much better than HPS that we allow LED to run a 50% disadvantage when comparing the 2 lights. Basically, if we raced the 2 cars but limited the gas allowed to just 5... one car would finish and the other would be sitting half way through the course, and that's where HPS is, sitting half way to the finish line.

No 500w LED will yield what a 1000w hps will, you are in denial or were super shit at growing with hid lighting. I have LEDs, HPS and CMH lighting, none of them are that much better than the other and definitely none are twice as good.

 

[wietefras]

500W not no, but 650W of F-series led strips will yield more than a 1000W HPS DE (used at 1000W).

 

[zblade]

There’s a very good comparison in a commercial warehouse grow op and it’s NoCalGrow channel on youtube.
They use 10 DE 1000watt hps of different top name brands then 10 of the spyderx leds and it’s very technical and done by what appears to be a professional grow op.
Just go to youtube type in NoCalGrow and there’s two videos that include par readings,temperature,final weights,grams per watt,etc...
The 10 Gavita DE 1000 watt hps gets 0.93 gram per watt and 10 spyderx 1200 get 1.53grams per watt.
I think everyone will agree that Gavita is probably one of the most common used HPS and spyderx 1200 is a great uniform coverage led.

 

[gwheels]

I have had limited observation with both lights. 1 full round with a timber cob (and half a grow) and 1 3/4 grow with samsung strips.

The cob penetrates better (secondary buds are more mature, fatter, less like popcorn). Lenses can be used to difuse the light over more area to spread it out better but they work better in tents with no reflector.

The samsung covers space better due to the displacement of light (a very even canopy).

The samsung needs a more even canopy and would work very well lollipoping colas.

The cobs created denser longer buds....

I believe they can both achieve the same grow it just requires different techniques to make it work.

I have about 70/30 cobs/samsung now and i love them all.

 

[zblade]

I’ve been looking at quantum boards at alibaba but I’m not sure what dealer to use so I get authentic diodes.
I bought my cobs from a very reputable alibaba dealer so might as well stick with them.
There’s so many and price is so close it’s almost not worth comparing prices.
Bava has some very nice UV Cree mix quantum Lm301B boards but Ive never done any business with them.
I’ve seen people slamming alibaba but when cobs were popular they were be

 

[zblade]

I’ve been looking at quantum boards at alibaba but I’m not sure what dealer to use so I get authentic diodes.
I bought my cobs from a very reputable alibaba dealer so might as well stick with them.
There’s so many and price is so close it’s almost not worth comparing prices.
Bava has some very nice UV Cree mix quantum Lm301B boards but Ive never done any business with them.
I’ve seen people slamming alibaba but when cobs were popular they were being praised so what’s up there?

 

[DangerDavez]

I’ve been looking at quantum boards at alibaba but I’m not sure what dealer to use so I get authentic diodes.
I bought my cobs from a very reputable alibaba dealer so might as well stick with them.
There’s so many and price is so close it’s almost not worth comparing prices.
Bava has some very nice UV Cree mix quantum Lm301B boards but Ive never done any business with them.
I’ve seen people slamming alibaba but when cobs were popular they were be

The 3 that I've heard are reputable are Meijiu, Bava and Kingbrite. Was gonna order from Meijiu but 100 bucks shipping was too much for me. I'd pull the trigger if I needed several lights.

 

[GreeneryBob]

Avoid alibaba lights. Cheapo chinese lights are toys, get something real. LED panels with fluorescent light efficiencies are a waste. Just buy HIDs if you can't pony up for decent LEDs. You get what you pay for.

 

[zblade]

I’m not sold on panels,
It took me a while to get my head around why spend money for high efficiency leds but then run them at currents that reduce that efficiency you just paid extra for?
I’m staying with cobs and I could crank up wattage and turn my 600watt system into a 1200-1500watt system but that’s not why I paid for.

 

[DangerDavez]

I’m not sold on panels,
It took me a while to get my head around why spend money for high efficiency leds but then run them at currents that reduce that efficiency you just paid extra for?
I’m staying with cobs and I could crank up wattage and turn my 600watt system into a 1200-1500watt system but that’s not why I paid for.

It all depends what you get. For example Vero 29C cobs can be run over 100 watts and still push out 160 lm/w making it affordable and efficient. That being said, you pay for it anyways seeing as you need active cooling.

 

[zblade]

I’m not knocking QB 288 in any way in fact I have almost pulled the trigger and got some kits several times.
I think hlg opened up more doors to progress and as a result pcb modules are probably going to be the next step in led grow lights.
Hopefully pcb modules will be available as replacement bulbs and so far they are for 288.
Im just saying it took me a while to get my thinking around why drive them at such a high current versus more boards less current with better uniform coverage but they work great and that’s really what matters.
The boards can be ran at very low current and that brings lumens per watt to around 200 but that’s 30-50watts per board but I’d still run them at 1400 if I get some.
I can’t decide on whether to get 2- 3 board kits or 2-2 board kits.
I want to cover a 4 by 4 and I think 2 3 board kits would work.
I’d rather get 6 boards and individual heat sinks and spread them out on rails like cobs but I can’t do everything I want.
Then I got to consider I already have cobs and I can add more cobs with some 660 and 730nm supplements,spend less and end up with very close to same thing.
Decisions decisions.

 

[DesertPlants]

It all depends what you get. For example Vero 29C cobs can be run over 100 watts and still push out 160 lm/w making it affordable and efficient. That being said, you pay for it anyways seeing as you need active cooling.

All of my current lights I built with Vero 29 SE C bin cobs running at over 100 watts each. I get damn good results and no heat issues. I just ordered a couple QB 288 V2 boards this weekend so I can do a build and compare them. Side note, QB 288 v1s are $67 with a Heatsink right now. That’s 25% less than the same combo with V2, but only a efficiency loss of less than 9%.

 

[AzraelAngel07]

I've been reading about these Quantum Boards. Are they better then COBs? I was looking into Timber or bc blondes for COBs.

Dual end 1000w all the way?

 

[zblade]

I ended up getting 2 300watt V2 kits.
I had a feeling the more I looked I’d end up talking myself into getting one.
They should cover a 4 by 4 very good and maybe a 4 by 5.

 

[gwheels]

With the boards make sure to train your canopy. Lollipopping and scrog or small sogs would all rock.

I find they do not penetrate canopy as well as cobs or cmh. They grow great just not the same. But they do spread out nice over an area.

 

[wietefras]

I get the best results with led strips. Led strips enable you to distribute the light in the most uniform way over the canopy.

Very easy to turn led strips into a fixture too. Just attach then to a aluminium extrusion, connect the extrusions and wire it up.

 

[zblade]

Really sounds interesting.
What strips are you using?

 

[wietefras]

Samsung F-series gen 3 myself, but you'll also find people using the Samsung H Influx or Bridgelux strips on this forum too.

 

[donweedo]

no real mention of penetration why do led peeps always avoid that topic? i use a combo of hps cmh and led in the flower room led is great but you need penetration of hid to drive it or carry it deep into the canopy. limited plant count so i grow trees.

 

[DesertPlants]

no real mention of penetration why do led peeps always avoid that topic? i use a combo of hps cmh and led in the flower room led is great but you need penetration of hid to drive it or carry it deep into the canopy. limited plant count so i grow trees.

Spoken like a true man. Penetration isn't some magic thing that only HID lights have. Penetration is a result of light reflection and distribution. The reason you "see" it more with HID is because you have a single source of light emitting all photons. LED panels have a more dispersed light source for more even coverage. It's a decision to use light over a wider area for coverage from multiple angles instead of a single point that has to reflect off features in the environment to hit different areas.

I need to do a comparison of HID vs LED where both have the same photonic output from a single point so people will stop trying to argue this. Neither LED nor HID magically makes light behave differently. Photons are photons.