Growcob5
Active Member
Pleezz lm see ur strips. Wow that did not sowd right lol. But i like to noI know exactly where you are coming from. My only DIY lighting experience prior to theses strips was building a conversation setup with all 4 cobs in series. Then I read nfhiggs DIY light setup and he told me the same thing I just told you.
With a constant voltage power supply like I linked, you just connect all of the positives of your strips to the + terminal on your power supply, and all the negative wires of your strips to the - terminal on the power supply. The power supply will typically have an adjustment to vary the voltage output.
For example, my strips are ~24v each. When I adjust the voltage of my power supply down to say 22 volts, it only puts out around 2 amps which is evenly split amongst my 15 strips. If I cranked my voltage up to 27 volts, it cranks out 18 amps.
I have installed these on each of my power supplies so I can monitor output voltage, current, and watts. Pretty slick!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B017FSED9I/ref=yo_ii_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1
This way I can dial in whatever wattage I want going to each light setup. Super easy to adjust.
So with the power supply I linked, you can adjust it down to provide less than the 10 amps it's listed at, or crank it up as needed.
One possible negative is that the constant voltage drivers are not quite as efficient as meanwell constant current drivers (86% Vs 93%). Even meanwell constant voltage drivers are in the mid 80% efficiency.
Now, if you lose a strip when in series, you lose all light. If they are wired in parallel, you would only lose light out of the one strip while all the others would still be lit.
If you have any more questions, just ask.
Edit addon: also, I feel the cv drivers are safer since you only have at most ~48 volts anywhere on your light, no 960 volts!
I think of geting a borad made for my self. I can get a borad. 300 chips. 130lum pr watt. Epled. Chips. 29.99 a bord. 5$for ship. 34volt bord. 1400mah sweet spot