DIY dual mode board/cob light completed

[TerrapinBlazin]

well for about each two foot bar im paying about $9.29 per bar heatsink/light not bad

Hell yeah dude. Can’t argue with that.

 

[TerrapinBlazin]

Well fuck it. I got my Christmas bonus today so I bought two of those 2 foot bars and a driver. Atreum hooked me up with a discount code just for reaching out to them, so I really can’t say enough good things about this company. One bar is going on each side of the light and then this thing will be pretty ridiculous. I just got an a series driver for the bars, and I’m just going to wire in another power switch for it so everything continues to run off one cord.

This is basically like adding a third board but with the deep red supplementation. I think it’s really gonna rock.

So now that I’ve got the lights pretty much maxed out for that space I’m also going to start running a propane heater in there since it’s so damn cold without all the HPS heat. It won’t stay that way for long and this light will allow me to grow indoors when I wouldn’t be able to with the HPS. Now I’m wondering how much work it is to set up CO2. I can weatherstrip my closet door so it’s sealed. Is it worth it?

 

[Gond00s]

Im almost done with the framing of my lights I did the two footers I just don't wanna do the 4 footers/46in

 

[Airwalker16]

Well fuck it. I got my Christmas bonus today so I bought two of those 2 foot bars and a driver. Atreum hooked me up with a discount code just for reaching out to them, so I really can’t say enough good things about this company. One bar is going on each side of the light and then this thing will be pretty ridiculous. I just got an a series driver for the bars, and I’m just going to wire in another power switch for it so everything continues to run off one cord.

This is basically like adding a third board but with the deep red supplementation. I think it’s really gonna rock.

So now that I’ve got the lights pretty much maxed out for that space I’m also going to start running a propane heater in there since it’s so damn cold without all the HPS heat. It won’t stay that way for long and this light will allow me to grow indoors when I wouldn’t be able to with the HPS. Now I’m wondering how much work it is to set up CO2. I can weatherstrip my closet door so it’s sealed. Is it worth it?

CO2 is doable, but you really have to get your temps above 80 at all times lights are on, and no less than 70 at lights off with LEDs to have real success.

 

[Gond00s]

My plants have always shown they can take a bit of heat that's bc my hottest was 89 before the humidity stared to be to much

 

[TerrapinBlazin]

CO2 should probably be something I try during the warmer months then. I would have to run a propane heater on full blast to get that warm. I may look into it more but I’m guessing this light is gonna be more than enough to satisfy me. My plants in the closet are gonna hit 7 weeks on Monday and they’re starting to get some fat, dense nugs. Some of them are going to go at least two more weeks, but I’ve got two that should be ready to come down a week from tomorrow.

 

[TerrapinBlazin]

My plants have always shown they can take a bit of heat that's bc my hottest was 89 before the humidity stared to be to much

It’s very dry where I live. Outdoors it gets into the triple digits during July and August and as long as they have water my outdoor plants do fine. I feel like the cold temps in the winter are worse for them than the heat in the summer. I’ve been running my propane heater in the grow room some since I switched to the LED, and I also put a fan on the box that blows over the drivers and heatsinks down into the closet. I’m hoping that adding the bars and that third driver warms it up even more.

That reminds me there’s a good deal on the 120h-54a on amazon with prime shipping. I’ve bought two now, but I think after I add these bars I’ll have no reason to buy any more LEDs.

 

[Airwalker16]

CO2 should probably be something I try during the warmer months then. I would have to run a propane heater on full blast to get that warm. I may look into it more but I’m guessing this light is gonna be more than enough to satisfy me. My plants in the closet are gonna hit 7 weeks on Monday and they’re starting to get some fat, dense nugs. Some of them are going to go at least two more weeks, but I’ve got two that should be ready to come down a week from tomorrow.

CO2 should probably be something I try during the warmer months then. I would have to run a propane heater on full blast to get that warm. I may look into it more but I’m guessing this light is gonna be more than enough to satisfy me. My plants in the closet are gonna hit 7 weeks on Monday and they’re starting to get some fat, dense nugs. Some of them are going to go at least two more weeks, but I’ve got two that should be ready to come down a week from tomorrow.

No Ya don't. Try swapping your intake to the top and exhaust to the bottom of your tent and keep all your drivers inside there too.
As well as slowing your fans down, both in and out, you can achieve quite a few more degrees steady in a tent with these things .

 

[Airwalker16]

It’s very dry where I live. Outdoors it gets into the triple digits during July and August and as long as they have water my outdoor plants do fine. I feel like the cold temps in the winter are worse for them than the heat in the summer. I’ve been running my propane heater in the grow room some since I switched to the LED, and I also put a fan on the box that blows over the drivers and heatsinks down into the closet. I’m hoping that adding the bars and that third driver warms it up even more.

That reminds me there’s a good deal on the 120h-54a on amazon with prime shipping. I’ve bought two now, but I think after I add these bars I’ll have no reason to buy any more LEDs.

P.s., invest in an oil drip heater. They emanate heat like NO OTHER and are helllllllla good on electricity.

 

[Airwalker16]

Are you talking about that $37 one on Amaz0n?
Beware.
Price is good,but good luck warrantying it if ever needed. I'd say look for best price among legit distributors in US and buy from there.
LED supply is one of my fav web stores.

 

[TerrapinBlazin]

Are you talking about that $37 one on Amaz0n?
Beware.
Price is good,but good luck warrantying it if ever needed. I'd say look for best price among legit distributors in US and buy from there.
LED supply is one of my fav web stores.

No the driver I got it $54. I’ve already bought one and it’s a legit 120h-54a. I have one running my single board in my tent. It’s not really a better price than on other sites it just has prime shipping. Since it’s a prime item it’s covered by whatever guarantee meanwell puts on all their drivers. The pic says it’s a 36a but I got a 54a and they ship super fast.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FRBLSR6/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_gAK.Db0CY29Z1

 

[TerrapinBlazin]

Bars are in. It was snowing outside and I still made the brackets so I could get this shit installed as soon as the lights go off. Now it’s just a matter of taking it down, re-wiring the switches, and hanging it back up with an additional 120 watts of 237 lumen/watt lm310bs and some xp-e deep reds for good measure. Unfortunately (lol) today is one of my girlfriend’s days off and she wants to go out tonight. I won’t be able to get started until later.

 

[TerrapinBlazin]

Well I decided to install the bars while my girlfriend was out running errands. I hope my plants will forgive the two hour light interruption. Now I think this light is done. There is now a total of 756 lm310b diodes in the array, plus the 4 cxb1820s and 16 xp-e deep reds. Cree and Samsung chips all the fucking way

In hindsight 480 watts of mostly lm310bs might be overkill, but at least now I don’t have to worry about losing yield vs the HPS. I think this will absolutely crush the HPS now. Plus with this light I can turn it to half power and veg with it. They said the bars were 3000k but they look like 4000k to me, which l doubt will make much difference.

 

[TerrapinBlazin]

So I’ve been just totally won over by Samsung strips after I finished doing a little from scratch build with them. I started looking at these f series gen 3 strips and I started thinking that I might be able to run two of these with the driver that currently powers the 4 mini cobs. I could replace those cobs with strips and get way better efficiency. Seems like a pretty sweet ~$80 upgrade once I add in heatsinks. Everything else is all ready to go. These strips look killer. The driver is a 120h-48b. The strips are 48 volts and use 55ish watts max each. I know that’s at the upper end of the constant current range but it should still work, right?

https://www.digikey.com/products/en?mpart=SI-B8V521560WW&v=1510

 

[TerrapinBlazin]

Well I checked and double checked, and the driver that’s running those 4 CXB1820s will just as easily run two f564bs. The f564b strips are as bright as 3 cxb1820s at full blast. Two of those will be a cheap and significant upgrade to output, coverage, and efficiency.

I ordered the two strips just now, and I’m about to start calling around for local sources for heatsinks.

 

[ChiefRunningPhist]

I’ve been posting about the build process over in grow room design, but that forum doesn’t seem all that busy and I’m hoping for some final thoughts now that it’s done over here in DIY, which I just discovered today.

This was kind of a lot for my first DIY light build, but I’m glad I jumped into the deep end. Altogether the light uses 4 3000k cxb1820 cobs (that I salvaged from some lights I bought from Lowe’s back when I didn’t know much about lighting) and two Atreum “quantum boards” (HLG has that name patented but it’s the same shit) with 288 Samsung lm310b 3000k diodes in each board.

I got B series drivers (HLG-240h-54b for the boards and HLG-120h-48b for the cobs) and set up a dimmer box that controls both lights, and I installed a switch box to control each driver with toggle switches, so each driver can be operated completely independently.

So I’m making this thread just to review. My goal with this build was to make something that would replace my 600 watt HPS in my closet. Taking into account the total wattage of the drivers and the insane lumen per watt rating on the boards, I think it will be sufficient. If we assume a 600 watt HPS produces about .9 GPW and that these modern LEDs produce 1.5, then they should give me a pretty identical yield.

Now I want to know how to get the most out of this light. I ordered another board and a HLG-120h-54a driver for it and I’m going to use that for the tent. I know that LEDs need to be closer to the canopy than HPS lights, but I can’t have it so close that I lose coverage. I also read that with LEDs you should shoot for at least 32 watts per square foot of canopy, and my canopy is about 7.5 square feet (6 plants in 7 gallon nursery bags trained through a trellis) which puts me comfortably above that number.

Here are some pics. I may still work on it some more, but any more work I do on it would be purely cosmetic, like a nice finish on the wood and definitely a bigger box for the potentiometers.

Thanks for reading. I’ve been interested in building an LED light for the entire year, and finally got it done with a little over two weeks left. This one was complicated, but I knew that if I completed this light that I’ll be able to build anything that I can afford the parts for. Now I should be good on lights until I decide to further ramp up my indoor growing, and that won’t happen until I have a bigger house.

View attachment 4436523View attachment 4436524View attachment 4436525View attachment 4436526

Good work! Looks nice

 

[coreywebster]

I don't think that data sheet is correct.
Seems to be saying that at nominal current of 1120mA they are 46v and 51.5w but at max current of 1800mA and a voltage of 48.4 they are only 54w, its like they have multiplied the higher voltage with the nominal current instead of the max current.

@ChiefRunningPhist , have I gone mental?

 

[TerrapinBlazin]

I don't think that data sheet is correct.
Seems to be saying that at nominal current of 1120mA they are 46v and 51.5w but at max current of 1800mA and a voltage of 48.4 they are only 54w, its like they have multiplied the higher voltage with the nominal current instead of the max current.

@ChiefRunningPhist , have I gone mental?

that’s weird. I read the datasheet very closely to see if they would run off the driver I already have. Everything seemed just fine but I didn’t do any math. I hope, that if the datasheet is wrong, they’ll still run. I already ordered the strips and heatsinks because I thought I would be able to swap them out without messing with the wiring. I think if any number on the datasheet is wrong it’s the 1800 milliamperes. I don’t think they would pull that much current under any circumstances. Take maximum V and maximum P and solve for I, I guess.

 

[coreywebster]

that’s weird. I read the datasheet very closely to see if they would run off the driver I already have. Everything seemed just fine but I didn’t do any math. I hope, that if the datasheet is wrong, they’ll still run. I already ordered the strips and heatsinks because I thought I would be able to swap them out without messing with the wiring. I think if any number on the datasheet is wrong it’s the 1800 milliamperes. I don’t think they would pull that much current under any circumstances. Take maximum V and maximum P and solve for I, I guess.

Firstly, its not about what they will pull current wise, you can put as much current through them as you like, they don't get a choice, they will burn out at some point over the max but as proved before that's often way over the max rated current, that said im not recommending anyone run anything over the max rated current.

But yeah it will still work fine, its a 48v driver and puts out 2.5amp so each strip (if using two) will run at 1.25amp which is closer to nominal than to max so the voltage will be somewhere around 47ish, wont go over 48.

Only reason I looked at the data sheet was because 55w max didn't seem right, they just did an error on the data sheet. They would be 87w ran at max, but that doesn't matter to you, your not close to that. Should be around 60w each strip which is what you were after.

 

[TerrapinBlazin]

I thought so. I’m trying to increase my understanding of this stuff but right now I’m at a point where I can pick stuff out, do the math, and make it work. That said I am no electrical engineer. Everything I know I learned in high school AP physics, and that was 15 years ago. You know a lot more of the esoteric stuff than I do. I just add up the max watts of everything, check the voltage, and find a driver with the correct wattage and constant current range. I’ve never really tried taking all the numbers from the datasheets, running them through the equations I know, and teasing out a deeper understanding through finding patterns. I’ve settled on the design I like and the products I like, so really all I have left to do is learn more theory just for the sake of knowing it, and in my case the best way to do that is to just keep building. I bought these f564bs because I thought they would make my current light more efficient, but now I’m interested in doing some 400 watt lights with 4 fb24b strips on 12” x 4’ heatsinks. The heatsinks cost as much as all the strips combined though.

What I know for sure is that replacing those 4 cxb1820s with two f564b strips will give me an increase in lumens/watt and a decrease in overall power consumption.