TQUOTE="Prawn Connery, post: 14872394, member: 580054"]Yes, I'm not sure if I mentioned this already, but the Nichia Optisolis and Seoul Semiconductor Sunlike LEDs cost about twice as much as Samsung's CRI80 LM301B LEDs used on most other boards. The Nichia NF2W757GT-V3F1 LEDs that make up 2/3 of the board are about the same as the LM301Bs in terms of cost and efficiency, and we have secured the highest Flux bins available for each type of LED (and paid a premium for the privilege). The PCBs are a large diameter and 2mm thick, so are very sturdy. The copper tracks, traces and connectors are built to handle twice the maximum rated current for each board.
The boards were assembled in Australia to ensure quality control as well as ensure the LEDs we paid for went on the boards (and weren't swapped out by some unscrupulous factory in China).
We did not cheap out on anything mainly because we built these boards for ourselves. We sat around one day and listed all the things we would like to see in a LED flowering board and this is what we came up with. Then we looked at a matching heatsink that could do the job for a good price so we could offset the cost of the boards, as heatsinks tend to be quite expensive.
Finally, by putting everything on one board/channel, we also realised we could save money on drivers - plus the board was designed to use common 48V and 54V drivers that most of us already had, so we didn't have to upgrade.
It's swings and roundabouts - pay more for the boards, pay less for the heatsinks and drivers. But matching boards and heatsinks still work out around A$1 per watt, which we're happy with. And the spectrum is pretty much what we were aiming for. They may not be at the top of the efficiency tree, but they're not far behind. Preliminary testing shows them beating equivalent HLG QB324 V1 boards using combined CRI80/90 LEDs.
I guess it's like anything: if we were a business venture and producing hundreds of these boards at a time, costs would come down. But for a one-off like this, there are a lot of non-recurring costs that can't be recouped with just one production run for a few keen growers.
Having said that, we've got the boards we wanted and everyone who's seen them has been happy with the results.[/QUOTE]
Ready to do my drive by , initiation Led gang task. Lol. So i can get down with those boards. Good grief sounds crazy! Great work and greater idea! #IWantIn