DIY Help Needed! What can I do with what I have?
- Thread starter Skylander
- Start date
HydroKid239
Well-Known Member
If I had all that in the end I'd probably set the strips up for side lighting all around with a master dimmer.
Just throwing in my .02 cents. Good luck with your designing.
Just throwing in my .02 cents. Good luck with your designing.
I'm sure you can find a nice match for those drivers. Maybe look at the bridgelux eb gen3 90cri options as a possibility though. It seems like you could wire up some of the 4 foot strips in a 3Series/2Parallel configuration. So you could put like 6 of those strips for +/-160 watts per driver. You'd be running the strips at nominal current, so heat management wouldn't seem too pressing.
I linked the datasheet so you could check it out. I'm new to all this as well and could have easily misinformed you, so hopefully others will be along to help you out some. Just my thoughts on some possibilities.
I linked the datasheet so you could check it out. I'm new to all this as well and could have easily misinformed you, so hopefully others will be along to help you out some. Just my thoughts on some possibilities.
That would be good, but I'm not sure of the availability of those in small quantities, I know future electronics has them.
There's a difference? Good strips should be a little more efficient than your COBs. Those EB Gen3 in 90CRI flower well, is the light for veg and flower?
Search RIU for the word strips and have a look at this...
DIY LED Strip Build Designs for Samsung H-Series, F-Series, Q-Series, and Bridgelux EB Gen.2 - LED Gardener
DIY LED strip builds have become very popular recently. The mid-power section of our forum is full of threads created by DIYers looking to build their own custom lights, and new builds and ideas are surfacing every day. If you don’t live somewhere where you have easy access to premade lights...
ledgardener.com
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Skylander
Well-Known Member
Do you think it would be worth it to upgrade?There's a difference? Good strips should be a little more efficient than your COBs. Those EB Gen3 in 90CRI flower well, is the light for veg and flower?
Search RIU for the word strips and have a look at this...
DIY LED Strip Build Designs for Samsung H-Series, F-Series, Q-Series, and Bridgelux EB Gen.2 - LED Gardener
DIY LED strip builds have become very popular recently. The mid-power section of our forum is full of threads created by DIYers looking to build their own custom lights, and new builds and ideas are surfacing every day. If you don’t live somewhere where you have easy access to premade lights...ledgardener.com
getogrow
Well-Known Member
each driver you have goes up to 200watts depending on how you wire it. so you got quite a bit of led power on your hands.
Skylander
Well-Known Member
Im actually thinking about scrapping the light bar idea and just going with 6 qb288s and just wiring two in series giving me three series circuits total (600w) @ 1400ma. My HLG-550 does well for a 4x4 so I would think the 6 would be enough for a 5x5 although they will be driven a little lower. Am I missing something?
Rocket Soul
Well-Known Member
Those drivers are a better fit for 7 x 2 feet blux in series, 2-3 parallel runs depending on how much of an efficiency geek one is. But it means twice the work wiring them up. And the slims versions connectors wasnt something that made friends with me, but solid core wires seems to be nonexistent where i am. I had to get 1mm stranded, strip it down to a lower gauge and then wire up 96 of them. It was a massive pita, but it did get me a nice wirestripper tool. Id rec getting regular ebs.
It'll come down to your personal preference, but qbs should work fine too. I have two boards I use and that was as simple as could be to set up. I havent built any actual fixtures with strips, but about to dive into that and it is going to be more planning/work like rocket just said.
As far as actual draw from those drivers is where I think your choice of specific leds will be more important. Since volts x amps = watts, you'll have to fully utilize the volts of the driver to reach that 200 watt mark. With 2 boards in series, depending on the volts of each board, you'd probably be leaving a bit of volts unused on the driver.
Nice, glad I made sense to someone for a change..
Yea those drivers should work just fine. Again, I'm not the most knowledgeable source and didn't look up the qb volt specs when run at 1400ma, but I'm assuming you'd be around 100ish volts for the 2 boards in series for roughly 140 watts total. These are just best guesses (not at computer right now). General rule I read with these newer leds is around 30 watts per square foot for flower. So in a 5x5 youd be shooting for around 750 watts I suppose.
Sorry I'm not really a definitive source of info for you, but hopefully I can at least help you in the right direction from what I've gathered so far.
Skylander
Well-Known Member
Thanks bro! It’s good to have someone to bounce thoughts off of sometimes. For now I’m going to buy four and let my apogee tell what to do next... best investment I’ve made for my lighting.
For sure man. I'm glad my first build was just a couple boards. Super simple and helped things click a little bit more so after actually doing it all start to finish. Wish you the best though and hope it all works out well.
getogrow
Well-Known Member
First off, Yes , 6 qb's would be sweet in a 5x5 if spread out a lil more then the prebuilts. in my opinion.
6x qb 288 would be roughly 450 watts in the way you are wanting to wire.
Thats only going to be about 75 watts per board. or about half the rated power on them boards. most pre built lights use about 450 watts to drive 4 of them boards , (about 112 watts each)
Skylander
Well-Known Member
Skylander
Well-Known Member
Thanks for pointing that out...That being said I think Ill still get four qb288s and add them to my existing 12 cob fixture to supplement and add some new tech to play with. Ill upgrade my drives a little later.Am I looking at wrong thing when I see the H185-1400 driver rated a 202w?