DiY LED - Cree CXA3070

IJ, I must have missed something, are those prefab units?

Happy, 5000K BBs are what I have been waiting for, glad to hear they are becoming available that is awesome! Up until this point the best 5000K we have had access was the CXA3590 5000K 70cri CD bin, which is awesome but the CXA3070 would give us a better spread..

Strange that the ADs are 70cri and BBs are 80cri. I would have figured it to be the other way around?

Minimum figures:

If you had to pick, 5k or 4k, I feel the extra "catalyst area" would be beneficial to a degree, lumen numbers are REALLY close so it's just personal preference after that? I've been waiting for the 4k's, but I guess my AT runs coooool whites (62-6500 right?) with reds so maybe the difference is negligible and the extra blue from the 5's take the win with reds, I guess my question is- being what we've seen from the xgs/WW eggs/onyx, is has that center area made any progress in being "worth a shit" since Ive been MIA.

Then I gotta think what bins are available for the 4's.

It'd be a pure veg light anyways... No reds. Not till a build something for the 3x3'.

I do like the extra efficiency WITH a higher CRI out of those BBs.

I hope you all have a safe holiday and are doing well. (Psu Fran G Supe and puff- but I haven't seen anything from him or fly lately?) hope the best for all you dudes. I hop on every now and again, only a few threads I try to stay up on.

Hey Scotch, glad you stopped by, hope all is going well.

I should have mentioned, I was referring to the 5Ks for vegging. I have not been in favor of using cool whites for flowering lamps. I think the manufacturers did that to try and get their efficiency numbers up a bit. I figure if you need more blue itd be best to use blue, since the efficiency is so high and prices so cheap. That said, the CXA3070 3000K seems to have enough blue for flowering which is very convenient.

I have to ask.....biggest mistake I made with 3070's is that I, impulse bought a bit. I had wanted them to try out for so long and really hadn't planned out a new cab or even given a thought to how they would layout in my current mini-cab....oops.

Well out of that, came so serious deliberating the other night. I posted earlier somewhere else about deciding to run the my AB's @ 500mA for the time being and supplementing that for now and upgrading later.....

So with that in mind opinions on driver selection?

I was going to go with the Fasttech 600mA 18-40v versions [still might]
http://www.fasttech.com/products/1612/10008212/1734701-18-40v-20w-high-power-water-resistant-led-driver

Although I also am looking at this guy for $13 or so and hence the 500mA
http://www.fasttech.com/products/1612/10008212/1734701-18-40v-20w-high-power-water-resistant-led-driver

, however its max vf is 70 and I don't have a measurement for 500mA off your last efficiency sheet, but 600mA shows a 34.63vf on the AB's. So I imagine I just squeak under when ran in series....

Any other recommendations for drivers in this range?

Thanks man! @SupraSPL

On another thread we discovered that increasing driver efficiency by 5 points had about the same effect on system efficiency as a bin increase. The drivers you linked are great choices, but they can range from 85-88% efficient. If you were able to use the big Mean Well you could get 93-94% and dimmable. The downside primarily being higher voltage on the DC string. The upsides being efficiency, lower cost and simplified wiring.

The HLG-120H-C500A would run (8 ) CXA3070s for $64 or the HLG-185H-C500A can run (11) for $69.

For those considering high voltage DC strings, there are a few things you can do to to increase safety. Ground your heatsinks, use 300V or 600V jacketed wiring, cover your solder points and never work on or adjust your lamps while they are operating.

Amazing efficiency at 500mA, approx 55% typical. 180lm/W

^ Yeah, I am aware, just think those might be my best options, balanced with cost at the moment.

It will still be an increase of roughly 15-20% for me personally even with the lower efficient drivers. Even at that crappy efficiency, I have been averaging .8/.9 gram/watt with 4 week veg. So this could be a Christmas miracle

Funny, looked at these Inventronics too at FLS, they are touted as high efficiency @ 86%....but spendy [spendier...] Funny, not mocking what you wrote, but rather, that Inventronics usually seem to much more efficient across their drivers line, but 1 or 2 sneek in, eh....
http://www.futurelightingsolutions.com/en/Technologies/Semiconductors/Lighting-Solutions/LED-Driver-Modules/Pages/1016883-LWC-024S070SSP.aspx?ManufacturerName=INVENTRONICS&isFLS=true&IM=0

Also, my future directions I believe don't include the HLG, which is a shame, because prices have been dropping too, it seems and they are very efficient.

Since I am in a recently legalized state, I really have been thinking about a GreenGenes/SDS themed light with something like 9x Vero 29's being run by the HLP/HLN 42-1900 or whatever it is, with dimming down from 2.1a.

That too me is where I am drawn next....

My space now dictates all these funny oddity lights and your conclusion of running Cree's for microgrowers and self builders is absolutely spot on.

As much as I have preened over the V29's recently, let's face it, they aren't going to run 50% at any kind of useable wattage. And running them even a tad "soft" by vero standards is still too much for a variety of smaller cabs....

But a much bigger light like you stated, with V29's, could last me 10 years, without anything other than maintenance....a big step for sure, but serious contemplation over the holidays.

Ya my Inventronics 700mA X4 is only 89% efficient which was disappointing compared to the big Mean Well HLG. And it is strange that Inventronics tends to be spendier.

I agree regarding Vero29. In my mind it presents a very cost efficient opportunity but as you said it is not suitable for those geared toward efficiency. I broke the cost down for someone in a PM:

Vero29 $32
Mean Well HLN-80H-36 $41
Heatsink $10
Total $83 for 100W @ 34.1% typ = 34.1PAR W = $2.43/PAR W

CXA3070 AB :$42
Mean Well PLP-60-48 $16
Heatsink $10
Total $68 for 52W @ 43.3% typ = 22.5 PAR W = $3.02/PAR W

So for DIYers, I think the CXA is still where it is at

Abiqua said:

...

But a much bigger light like you stated, with V29's, could last me 10 years, without anything other than maintenance....a big step for sure, but serious contemplation over the holidays.

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Plus, when it breaks, you built the sucker, so it will be easy to figure out and fix the problem.

Just to throw it out there...
CXA's AB's are 33$ if you get 100. 32 for 200 and 30.75$ for 300
So as far as I'm concerned the vero's don't really have mush of an edge cost wise. Specially for commercial panels where those min orders are a drop in the bucket.

Im not sure what the bulk prices are on Veros...so this could back fire with my foot in my mouth...but economies of scale are a great thing.

@Greengenes707 , where do you get those prices from, which site ?

SupraSPL said:

IJ, I must have missed something, are those prefab units?
View attachment 3317991

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yes, those are prefabs, they ran me $150 after shipping. i need to
find the measurements i took for the fins, i think they came out to
~70 sq cm per watt at 200w.

Kuifje76 said:

@Greengenes707 , where do you get those prices from, which site ?

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@Greengenes707 I am wonderig the same thing. That price would be a nice game changer. I recall the Z2 bins were $33 on arrow but they are asking $46+ for ABs.

nerwark

Greengenes707 said:

Just to throw it out there...
CXA's AB's are 33$ if you get 100. 32 for 200 and 30.75$ for 300
So as far as I'm concerned the vero's don't really have mush of an edge cost wise. Specially for commercial panels where those min orders are a drop in the bucket.

Im not sure what the bulk prices are on Veros...so this could back fire with my foot in my mouth...but economies of scale are a great thing.

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bulk vero 18 are CHEAP, for 1200 i was looking at 11.85 or so a piece.
close to 200w dissipation (~186w) for less than $75 in chips.

Kuifje76 said:

(Epicfail uses 1cob/sqf mostly @700mA and he only goes full power week4-7 (1050mA)
i thought he used the HLG-120H-1050B (B is dimmable 0-100%, A 50-100% with internal pot (screw)) but i'm a bit confused since max voltage is 148V and i thought you needed 38,5Vx4 =154V, maybe he or someone else can comment on that

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I'm using the HLG-185H-1050B with 4 CXA3070 per driver, I know I could run 5 but it just worked out that I have 4. I was worried about driver efficiency from only running 4 instead of 5 cobs since that is less than 80% of the rated load. After seeing supras tests I now know that the difference is less than 1% in driver efficiency so it is not a problem.

SupraSPL said:

Regarding the efficiency of the HLG drivers, the most important factor is the voltage of the string. So even if you reduce the load very significantly by dimming, it maintains a high efficiency because the voltage is still relatively high. Here are some of my test results from the HLG-185H-C1050A:

5 CXA3070s + 3 XML2
At full output 1155mA, 190.1Vf, 93.6% efficient
Same string, dimmed to 525mA, 177Vf, 93%

4 CXA3070s
At full output 1155mA 144Vf, 92.8%
dimmed to 706mA, 137Vf, 92.3%
dimmed to 479mA, 133Vf, 91.3%

3 CXA3070s
1155mA, 108.5Vf, 90.9%
480mA, 100.5Vf, 88.5%

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SupraSPL said:

Strange that the ADs are 70cri and BBs are 80cri. I would have figured it to be the other way around?

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I was nipping to much of my moonshine I think. According to datasheet the BB's are 70 cri (9500lm), AD's are 80 cri (9000lm). Is there a difference between 70 or 80 cri regarding par. Or are they the same?

Can anyone share their experiences with canopy penatration depth for a given current. From my limited work I have 30cm when using cxa3070 3000k z2 @ 700ma and 45cm when using cxa3070 3000k z2 @ 900ma hung 15cm away from the canopy running 12/12 cycle.

Also running 5000k z4 at 500ma running 24/7, hung 20cm above the canopy, would you agree that is the best you should run them for vegging?

good point to bring up, and what about reflectors or not, can't really see why not used more, ex 90° especially with high voltage drivers because of the cob holders being safer, would bring the cost up though

I have used a 90 degree reflector molded based on a lamp shade. I think with the cxa3070 putting most of its light out upto 60 degrees and that by 90 degrees almost half the power is lost that a reflector can be used to redirect rays beyound the 90 degree range and make up a little around the edges.

Reading this I am not sure if I understand what I am saying but hope you get the gist.