DIY Strip Build - Final BOM

[tilopa]

About to purchase my items and just wanted to get a final check to see if I have everything right.

Flower space 4x4 x 2

Led Strips - EB Gen 3 2 ft x 60

Driver - HLG-240H-20b x 4. 2 drivers per 30 strips.

Configuration - 2 strips mounted on 4 foot aluminum angle. This will give 15 4 footers per 4x4 space. Angles will be spaced about every 3 inches giving me a overall light dimension of about 4ft x 4ft, it will actually be about 44" x 44".

Wiring - 15 strips parallel per driver.

Power specs - my calculations give: each strip will run 800mA, 19.2v for a total wattage per driver of 230w.
And efficiency of 168 lm/w.

I'm mounting these on 1" aluminum angle with thermal tape.

Using awg 18 solid wire, and wago nuts.

Please let me know if this looks ok.

 

[Airwalker16]

Build 4 22"x45" fixtures with their own 240. You'll regret 2 4x4 fixtures be sure of that.

 

[Rocket Soul]

My advice is think real hard about whats your plan for the cabling. Thats 60 strips, 120 connections of strips only. Maybe make a drawing of how you intend to do it, what wagos or terminal blocks. Are you daisy chaining or doing parallel in a "tree", one wago powers say 4 strips and then connected towards the driver in another wago?

you can also use the double connectors to daisy chain. My advice is to do combinations but please have it clear in your head before you start. The spiderweb of cables crept up on me real fast when i was doing 12 cables in and out of the driver until i got the right size wagos.

The alternative is using a higher voltage driver and put 2 strips in series, reduces you to 60 connections.

Also, open space? Or tent? In a tent which is bang on 4x4 it will be thight to fit in.

 

[tilopa]

Build 4 22"x45" fixtures with their own 240. You'll regret 2 4x4 fixtures be sure of that.

Thanks Airwalker, why is that? Easier to move around?

 

[tilopa]

My advice is think real hard about whats your plan for the cabling. Thats 60 strips, 120 connections of strips only. Maybe make a drawing of how you intend to do it, what wagos or terminal blocks. Are you daisy chaining or doing parallel in a "tree", one wago powers say 4 strips and then connected towards the driver in another wago?

I'm using 5 conductor wagos and plan to wire in sets of 3 strips, like this:

 

[tilopa]

The alternative is using a higher voltage driver and put 2 strips in series, reduces you to 60 connections.

Also, open space? Or tent? In a tent which is bang on 4x4 it will be thight to fit in.

I looked at some higher voltage drivers, but given I'm wiring 15 per driver I can't do 2 in series because of the odd number, so would have to do 3 and it did not work out to be a good wattage.
I have a room that is about 9x5, so it is still tight but there is a little wiggle room.

 

[Airwalker16]

Thanks Airwalker, why is that? Easier to move around?

That and the variability you'll have on your heights when you end up needing one corner to have the lights a bit closer/further away. It's a lot easier to raise one side of a 2x4 than it is an entire corner of a 4x4 fixture.

 

[tilopa]

That and the variability you'll have on your heights when you end up needing one corner to have the lights a bit closer/further away. It's a lot easier to raise one side of a 2x4 than it is an entire corner of a 4x4 fixture.

Makes sense. It also might be easier to hang, I haven't quite figured out how to hang them using those ratcheting hangers. But with 2x4 maybe I could just use 2 hangers (one on each end of the 4 ft). Or do you think that would make it too imbalanced?

 

[Rocket Soul]

I'm using 5 conductor wagos and plan to wire in sets of 3 strips, like this:

Without going outside of safety you can do one parallel connection directly using the strips double connectors. Technically you could daisy chain as long as you want using the extra connectors on the strips but eventually youll running into voltage drop. I dont know about 3 but you could try, that way youd only neeed 4 x5 way wagos per driver:
1 with 1 connection to driver and one to the next wago, 3 remaining does 3 strips with a total of 4 strips behind in the chain (2 doubles and 1 tripple) and the second wago has 4 available slots, each with 2 strips. 3+2+2+4x2=15.

 

[Airwalker16]

Without going outside of safety you can do one parallel connection directly using the strips double connectors. Technically you could daisy chain as long as you want using the extra connectors on the strips but eventually youll running into voltage drop. I dont know about 3 but you could try, that way youd only neeed 4 x5 way wagos per driver:
1 with 1 connection to driver and one to the next wago, 3 remaining does 3 strips with a total of 4 strips behind in the chain (2 doubles and 1 tripple) and the second wago has 4 available slots, each with 2 strips. 3+2+2+4x2=15.

Ya, branching off wagos is your easiest bet. Just use 14awg from driver to first wagos and wago to wago connections. 18awg from wagos to strip. It'll take some wagos, but 5 levers are available.

 

[Airwalker16]

Makes sense. It also might be easier to hang, I haven't quite figured out how to hang them using those ratcheting hangers. But with 2x4 maybe I could just use 2 hangers (one on each end of the 4 ft). Or do you think that would make it too imbalanced?

No, you could just get some steel wire and bend yourself a triangle type hanger for both sides with a little indent on the top for the ratchet hook.

 

[Bignutes]

Two 4x4 lights aren't bad, with canopy mgmt it works but then again each main cola has it's own vertical adjustment mechanism. I suggest running a combination circuit to cut down on wiring with a change in driver to match, you'll thank me after wiring.

You can run one ratchet on each end. Just make another rope than spans the width on each end and hook the ratchet up to that and you can get away with two per light.

 

[tilopa]

Technically you could daisy chain as long as you want using the extra connectors on the strips but eventually youll running into voltage drop. I dont know about 3 but you could try, that way youd only neeed 4 x5 way wagos per driver:
1 with 1 connection to driver and one to the next wago, 3 remaining does 3 strips with a total of 4 strips behind in the chain (2 doubles and 1 tripple) and the second wago has 4 available slots, each with 2 strips. 3+2+2+4x2=15.

Yes, this is what I was planning on doing, but now you've got me concerned about too high a voltage drop. Is that something to worry about?

Ya, branching off wagos is your easiest bet. Just use 14awg from driver to first wagos and wago to wago connections. 18awg from wagos to strip. It'll take some wagos, but 5 levers are available.

Now I'm thinking it might be best, and simplest, to just use 16 awg for the whole thing. 16 single core is supposed be good for up to 15A.

 

[XtraGood]

I run an hlg-320h-42a with 18 eb gen 2 strips (9 parallel runs of 2 strips in series each) for 4x2ft.

 

[Bignutes]

Use 18 ga solid for the whole thing, it's good for 9.5 A.

 

[tilopa]

Two 4x4 lights aren't bad, with canopy mgmt it works but then again each main cola has it's own vertical adjustment mechanism.

I'm going with four 2x4 now, per Airwalker's recommendation.

I suggest running a combination circuit to cut down on wiring with a change in driver to match, you'll thank me after wiring.

If I did that I would have to go with 14 strips per driver instead of 15 (already purchased strips, best price required 20 min order in increments of 20 so I bought 60). Don't really just want to wast the 4.

Your hanging job looks good.

 

[Warpedpassage]

Without going outside of safety you can do one parallel connection directly using the strips double connectors. Technically you could daisy chain as long as you want using the extra connectors on the strips but eventually youll running into voltage drop. I dont know about 3 but you could try, that way youd only neeed 4 x5 way wagos per driver:
1 with 1 connection to driver and one to the next wago, 3 remaining does 3 strips with a total of 4 strips behind in the chain (2 doubles and 1 tripple) and the second wago has 4 available slots, each with 2 strips. 3+2+2+4x2=15.

I run an hlg-320h-42a with 18 eb gen 2 strips (9 parallel runs of 2 strips in series each) for 4x2ft.

How do you guys feel about parallels runs with different kelvin strips? For example, if i happen to be stuck with some extra 4k and 3k, 2ft eb strips. Would there be any issues when running the different kelvins in series and then parallel runs? Using the the strip connectors for series.

Edit: “How do you guys feel about parallels runs with different kelvin strips?” I meant to say series parallel.

 

[Airwalker16]

How do you guys feel about parallels runs with different kelvin strips? For example, if i happen to be stuck with some extra 4k and 3k, 2ft eb strips. Would there be any issues when running the different kelvins in series and then parallel runs? Using the the strip connectors for series.

I think it could and probably would work, but there's certainly a chance for voltage differing and thermal runaway

 

[Gardenator]

How do you guys feel about parallels runs with different kelvin strips? For example, if i happen to be stuck with some extra 4k and 3k, 2ft eb strips. Would there be any issues when running the different kelvins in series and then parallel runs? Using the the strip connectors for series.

My diy strip builds run 2700k and 6500k together, no voltage differences though as long as your strips have the same running voltages and everything is correctly wired together, though i cannot comment on the thermal runaway between running same and different spectrum strips as i only run the mixture, as far as them being connected andnrunning together electrically speaking the strips are built to handle a certain nominal voltage and handle up to a certain amount of current running throught them, these parameters a based on the materials used to build the LED's and the strips, these electrical parameters should be listed on the strips themselves, or on the packaging and should be of equal values or very close values despite the light spectrum the diodes emit, the resulting light energy may vary and be different but the strips should be fine running together in series or parallel though you will experience a voltage drop if too many of these strips are on the same circuit.

 

[Rocket Soul]

Yes, this is what I was planning on doing, but now you've got me concerned about too high a voltage drop. Is that something to worry about?

Now I'm thinking it might be best, and simplest, to just use 16 awg for the whole thing. 16 single core is supposed be good for up to 15A.

I think that even if you have minimal voltage drop for 3 units daisy chained youd still have enough head room w a 20V driver.

How do you guys feel about parallels runs with different kelvin strips? For example, if i happen to be stuck with some extra 4k and 3k, 2ft eb strips. Would there be any issues when running the different kelvins in series and then parallel runs? Using the the strip connectors for series.

Edit: “How do you guys feel about parallels runs with different kelvin strips?” I meant to say series parallel.

I treat same model different cct as same voltage. Unless they are from a strange manufacturer or there are bins asociated with the product.
Serial? If there are differences then they would be amplified by more repetitions. Not sure if this is what youre talking about.

I did vestas 2 spectrums 2700/5000k in parallel but on low current. No problems, nothing blew up, but i did have juicy sinks. But ive seem teknik saying avoid different ccts on same parallel circuit. But i think it also had to do with that the guy he was advicing was doing it for spectrum, like some warm and some cold intead of going for all neutral white.