All LED Indoor Grow- Quantum Boards vs AutoCob's

Evil-Mobo

Well-Known Member
Well it's about that time for me to start this journal. I will be testing my QB light ( @robincnn , @Stephenj37826 )in one 3x3 tent, and my (4) AutoCob's ( @Big smo ) in the other 3x3 tent. In EACH tent will be (2) Feminized Sweet Black Angel plants. All plants used for this comparison run are clones taken off of the same mother, and all are in 5 gallon SIP's using the same exact soil. Everything is the same between the two tents including fans, filters, timers, etc, the only variable here is the lights. I'm not a scientist running a lab here guys, doing the best I can with what I have available, and I am fortunate enough to be able to do this for you.

The QB light I am running was built by HLG and sent to me assembled. It's (2) of these boards: https://horticulturelightinggroup.com/collections/diy/products/qb288-quantum-board

They're mounted to a sheet of aluminum as the heat sink and are being pushed by a Meanwell HLG-320H-1400B driver.

The AutoCob's is (4) of the following in one of my 3x3's https://www.autoflower.net/forums/threads/autocob-55-watt-cob-led-grow-light.56994/
and (2) of them running Citizen 1812's in 6500K for my veg closet/nursery.

https://www.cobshop.net/shop?olsPage=products/3x3-tent-special-4-cob-kit&olsFocus=false

Strain for the run is Sweet Black Angel. I have already grown a couple of auto's under each of the lights to get a feel for them and get through whatever learning curve I may have had (and did) before comparing the lights. I would not have felt comfortable doing a comparison grow between two different products and not have used them before. The only issue with the QB light thus far for me (and not HLG's fault) is the original dimmer was busted in shipping, and I first had the QB full blast which is 320 watts at the plug on my kill-a-watt meter. I found this to be too much light for my space causing higher temps than needed/wanted and burnt/stunted my first plant under it. Once I contacted HLG they promptly sent me a new dimmer with wagos ready to go on the light, took me longer to take the light down and hang it again than replace the dimmer. I turned the light down to 250 watts at the wall and all is good since. The AutoCob's are pulling 244 watts at the plug and have given me no issues so far, only learning curve so far for me has been playing with optimal distance of light to canopy, despite how "soft' these run they will and can burn your plants if you get too close. I have also found this to vary from strain to strain. I have grown three different strains under both lights now and a fourth each under the COB and QB not in the other tent.

Right now my AutoCob tent is finishing up a couple of auto's and the (2) SBA's going in there are in the veg closet with the clones. The other (2) SBA were topped and put into the QB tent two days ago. I am letting them veg a little more to recover well from the topping and lolli popping they got before flipping the lights to 12/12.

AutoCob's in 3x3 are 3500K
AutoCob's in Veg Closet are 6500K
QB light is 3000K

Well enough rambling, here's a few pics, come along and let's see what happens in this grow :bigjoint:

IMG_20170601_165441.jpg IMG_20170601_165612.jpg IMG_20170601_165640.jpg
 

OnePrays

Well-Known Member
Well it's about that time for me to start this journal. I will be testing my QB light ( @robincnn , @Stephenj37826 )in one 3x3 tent, and my (4) AutoCob's ( @Big smo ) in the other 3x3 tent. In EACH tent will be (2) Feminized Sweet Black Angel plants. All plants used for this comparison run are clones taken off of the same mother, and all are in 5 gallon SIP's using the same exact soil. Everything is the same between the two tents including fans, filters, timers, etc, the only variable here is the lights. I'm not a scientist running a lab here guys, doing the best I can with what I have available, and I am fortunate enough to be able to do this for you.

The QB light I am running was built by HLG and sent to me assembled. It's (2) of these boards: https://horticulturelightinggroup.com/collections/diy/products/qb288-quantum-board

They're mounted to a sheet of aluminum as the heat sink and are being pushed by a Meanwell HLG-320H-1400B driver.

The AutoCob's is (4) of the following in one of my 3x3's https://www.autoflower.net/forums/threads/autocob-55-watt-cob-led-grow-light.56994/
and (2) of them running Citizen 1812's in 6500K for my veg closet/nursery.

https://www.cobshop.net/shop?olsPage=products/3x3-tent-special-4-cob-kit&olsFocus=false

Strain for the run is Sweet Black Angel. I have already grown a couple of auto's under each of the lights to get a feel for them and get through whatever learning curve I may have had (and did) before comparing the lights. I would not have felt comfortable doing a comparison grow between two different products and not have used them before. The only issue with the QB light thus far for me (and not HLG's fault) is the original dimmer was busted in shipping, and I first had the QB full blast which is 320 watts at the plug on my kill-a-watt meter. I found this to be too much light for my space causing higher temps than needed/wanted and burnt/stunted my first plant under it. Once I contacted HLG they promptly sent me a new dimmer with wagos ready to go on the light, took me longer to take the light down and hang it again than replace the dimmer. I turned the light down to 250 watts at the wall and all is good since. The AutoCob's are pulling 244 watts at the plug and have given me no issues so far, only learning curve so far for me has been playing with optimal distance of light to canopy, despite how "soft' these run they will and can burn your plants if you get too close. I have also found this to vary from strain to strain. I have grown three different strains under both lights now and a fourth each under the COB and QB not in the other tent.

Right now my AutoCob tent is finishing up a couple of auto's and the (2) SBA's going in there are in the veg closet with the clones. The other (2) SBA were topped and put into the QB tent two days ago. I am letting them veg a little more to recover well from the topping and lolli popping they got before flipping the lights to 12/12.

AutoCob's in 3x3 are 3500K
AutoCob's in Veg Closet are 6500K
QB light is 3000K

Well enough rambling, here's a few pics, come along and let's see what happens in this grow :bigjoint:

View attachment 3952850 View attachment 3952851 View attachment 3952852
Fucking A man! Just what I wanted to know a comparison. I have great hopes for QB sweet thread Evil.
 

lukio

Well-Known Member
good stuff @Evil-Mobo looking forward to this!

@ANC i might be wrong but i think 600w of hps/mh/led are all the same temp - cause 1w of electric always makes the same amount heat regardless of how its creating the light?? maybe? i am a newb so...that might be bollocks (: ive just replaced a 600hps with 600w of quantum and its the same temp
 

Evil-Mobo

Well-Known Member
good stuff @Evil-Mobo looking forward to this!

@ANC i might be wrong but i think 600w of hps/mh/led are all the same temp - cause 1w of electric always makes the same amount heat regardless of how its creating the light?? maybe? i am a newb so...that might be bollocks (: ive just replaced a 600hps with 600w of quantum and its the same temp
I should have specified in my reply that my temps have gone down but I am also using less wattage. The advantage I see to led is not needing the same wattage as hid to produce the same yield. Less power used, less heat, fans don't need to run as hard etc etc.
 

Evil-Mobo

Well-Known Member
@Evil-Mobo exactly that (: the heat caught me out recently, i had to remove some qb panels from my flower tent because i only have 6 inch extraction
Like I said in the intro, the light I have on full blast 320 watts was too much for my over sized 3x3 tent. I was running a 600 watt Blue MH before in the same space to give an idea. And right now I am not missing it at all in any of my spaces. My entire grow is running just over 600 watts of light (not including fans, etc) between the three spaces vs 600 watt HID x 3 which is what was going to go up here at the new place lol............I'm no mathematician but I think that's a 1/3 less in light, and you would not be able to tell by the pants I have grown so far. I am very surprised. I will say it will be interesting because I like both lights I really do and might just end up leaving things as is for now. We shall see how the SBA girls do but I anticipate a close race.
 

Evil-Mobo

Well-Known Member
Ok guys, visiting relatives are gone and my house routine is back to normal for now. Had a long day in the garden today doing a lot of little things that add up to a lot. Biggest deal today was defoliation of the four SBA girls and my Satori male. Also watered/topped off all the SIP's and watered/fed the Satori and my Ghost pepper plant.

Anyhow, back to what is relevant for this thread, I get a kick out of this part because it freaks people out when they see the plants stripped like this, tonight the lights will go out and 12/12 will begin, I am really itching to throw a SCROG over these two girls but never done that before so not sure. At the very least will tie some branches back tomorrow.

Before Defoliation:

IMG_20170603_131834.jpg


Cleaning of tent in between, nothing major just a nice wipe down:

IMG_20170603_140022.jpg

And after defoliation:

IMG_20170603_133346.jpg

IMG_20170603_134556.jpg

IMG_20170603_134600.jpg

IMG_20170603_140847.jpg

And the AutoCob's in the veg area before defoliating those girls:

IMG_20170603_131355.jpg

And after defoliation in there:

IMG_20170603_153702.jpg

All plants minus the two auto's flowering were sprayed down with method 1 pps today. The SIP's were topped off, for the two girls in veg I gave them some ionic grow in their water with ful-power as they seem a little weak vs the two under the QB I attribute this to the space getting over grown and these two catching left over light. They will be fine before going to flower in the COB tent though. Clones are perking up and looking healthy too really happy with this T24 unit, build quality is top notch and well thought out.

Hope everyone has a good weekend :bigjoint:
 
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Evil-Mobo

Well-Known Member
Ok guys I went to the garden and confirmed lights out, we are officially underway with flowering on the QB tent. Soon as the chemdogging is done I might throw the narcotic kush in the veg closet to finish so I don't delay as much with the 2 girls on the AutoCob side...........

:bigjoint:
 
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Bosgrower

Well-Known Member
good stuff @Evil-Mobo looking forward to this!

@ANC i might be wrong but i think 600w of hps/mh/led are all the same temp - cause 1w of electric always makes the same amount heat regardless of how its creating the light?? maybe? i am a newb so...that might be bollocks (: ive just replaced a 600hps with 600w of quantum and its the same temp
Glad you're not adamant about that 'cause the wattage drawn by a fixture doesn't dictate how much goes to heat and how much goes to photons. If memory serves, LED efficiency driven at favorable amperage results in 50%or higher photon:heat ratios while HPS will be significantly lower photon:heat ratio around 35%.
I run an 800w 16 COB fixture with passive cooling in a 5x5 and maintain a 75-80F temperature range. The drivers (Equivalent to the hps ballasts) are mounted outside the tent but even if I moved them into the tent, there would still be a large temperature differential favoring the LEDs
 
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