4x2.5 cab outfitted with a diy cxa3070 build

Al Yamoni said:

With 8 COBs running @ 1.4A, would that be a cool running setup that will saturate my space with light and last years?

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(While diving blind-folded i.e. lack of experience with Cree COBS)

I'd think that temps would run high at 1400mA w/ 8x COBs in my 3' x 1.7' x 5' tent. Your setup is obviously going to vary when compared to mine. To give you and others a better description to my example, I have a 170CFM 4" Inline Fan exhausting out one side and at the other end a 6" 190CFM Air King fan pulls in cool, fresh air. I have 1x 240W (~130W actual) BlackStar V2 and 2x 30W (@ ~ 1100mA) Vero 18 COBs placed on similar but not exact heatsinks within the tent's area. I'd like to think the Artic 11's deal better with heat distribution.

When temperatures are around 70 degrees fahrenheit throughout the household, the indoor temperatures within my tent range between 80 and 84 degrees. Here's a link better illustrating my self-made COB fixtures => https://www.rollitup.org/t/diy-led-frankensteins-crown.848100/

Take what you can from this and do better from it!

My Blackstars run HOT and I can't imagine this project taking that heat to the next level, especially with active cooling as well. I read through your thread, that is a sweet little fixture you got there!

Because I do not run in the summer time, my setup utilizes extremely cold air and massive suction from the exhaust. Temps with my shitty hot lights that I have now never make it past 80F and that is when it isn't too cold outside. So I actually have some trouble keeping it warm enough, more so when lights go out.

The blackstars that I have in there are 2 chrome 405w full spectrum and 1 500w veg model. Total overkill as far as wattage goes but they obviously aren't that great because I haven't experienced any detrimental effects from "too much light"

Yields need to be dialed in further but I have a bubbling feeling that part of that will be fixed by replacing these money pits

My fans are on as low as they go and I'm sitting at 75F lights on.

I think that I need to raise the inlet ducting to the ceiling or something..

Al Yamoni said:

With 8 COBs running @ 1.4A, would that be a cool running setup that will saturate my space with light and last years?

Click to expand...

Yes with proper cooling the heatsinks will barely be warm to the touch and the COBs will last indefintiely (Tj ~60C). With 1.4A X 8 CXAs you would be dissipating 415W in (12ft² correct?) so that is 35W/ft² and you would be running at 42% efficient if you use the AB bin (back in stock at Arrow and apparently with 200 more on order). That is very strong light intensity you should get excellent buds. If the canopy temp gets too high during a heat wave etc, you could either dim your drivers, shut down a few of them temporarily, increase your ventilation air flow or decrease your incoming air temp with air conditioning.

Am I seeing correctly that I would have to buy a minimum of twenty ABs on arrow?

Dang. $46 a piece is awesome comparatively. Wish I could buy five or ten maybe.

SupraSPL said:

Yes with proper cooling the heatsinks will barely be warm to the touch and the COBs will last indefintiely (Tj ~60C). With 1.4A X 8 CXAs you would be dissipating 415W in (12ft² correct?) so that is 35W/ft² and you would be running at 42% efficient if you use the AB bin (back in stock at Arrow and apparently with 200 more on order). That is very strong light intensity you should get excellent buds. If the canopy temp gets too high during a heat wave etc, you could either dim your drivers, shut down a few of them temporarily, increase your ventilation air flow or decrease your incoming air temp with air conditioning.

Click to expand...

Seeing my setup, could you recommend an excellent driver with dimming that is power factor corrected? I am ok with one driver per four or whatever works best. Thank you!

You could put (3) CXA3070s on each Mean Well HLG-185H-C1400A or B. A has the internal dimmer and B can use a variety of external dimmers and can dim much lower. They are power factor corrected and 93-94% efficient. If you prefer to drive them softer, you can put (5) CXA3070s on each HLG-185H-C1050A.

What would you do? It seems that there are many many desirable setups depending on what your after in the end. I realize that efficiency is your game, that being said, do you have a recommendation?

Every time I think that I have made a selection I start thinking about it more and change my mind. Needless to say my head has been spinning for days!

Haha, ya it definitely depends on your situation. Are you most limited by space, heat or up front cost?

SupraSPL said:

You could put (3) CXA3070s on each Mean Well HLG-185H-C1400A or B. A has the internal dimmer and B can use a variety of external dimmers and can dim much lower. They are power factor corrected and 93-94% efficient. If you prefer to drive them softer, you can put (5) CXA3070s on each HLG-185H-C1050A.

Click to expand...

Also, what do you think of this website ?

SupraSPL said:

Haha, ya it definitely depends on your situation. Are you most limited by space, heat or up front cost?

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I am most limited by space, then cost, then heat in that order.

Heat is actually my friend to a degree in my specific setup.

I run veg for 20 hours a day at least to keep some heat circulating the entire space. Winter temps here can last 6+ months easy..

I have ordered from Powergate and everything was in good order, no complaints.

So you are limited by space and not too worried about heat, high intensity makes sense in this case, so I would advise 1.4A.

So it looks like nine COBs and three drivers.

I'm going to the hardware store now to build my soldering kit.

Be right back.

Everything look in order? Not seeing something that I want to make things easier?

I have wire strippers and plenty of other tools at my disposal, just wondering if there are other little things that make the project go smoothly that I have forgotten.

Will this wire be sufficient for running strings of three cxa3070 powered by the Meanwell HLG-185H-C1400 driver?