Introducing CobKits.com - specializing in DIY and Citizen COBs
swedsteven
Well-Known Member
Thats why i was shotting for a
hlg 600
600 watts and i think 300 watts will be enought for flowering the way the cob are spread out ill do this next year .
Schalalala
Active Member
Could you please inform yourself about choosing the right driver? You need to understand serial and parallel wiring plus how to read the datasheets from the LEDs and the driver.
1000 threads on here and google/youtube will help you as well.
1000 threads on here and google/youtube will help you as well.
CobKits
Well-Known Member
they most certainly need to be in parallel
heres some good resources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Series_and_parallel_circuits
https://www.rollitup.org/t/matching-drivers-and-cobs.883866/
I understand the parallel / series part, just getting the right driver combo is still foggy. I figured asking here wouldn't be a huge burden on anyone.
Thanks for the links / help, the wikipedia page looks like a foreign language, the second link makes sense.
CobKits
Well-Known Member
understanding fundamentals saves you shocks down the road! ill try to dig up some better links later on
I'm trying to figure out the correct amount of light for my 4x4 tents (two of them)
One tent has an (HLG-240H-C2100 -> 3 Vero 29) + (2 HLG-185H-C1400 -> 8 1212's) for probably near 700 wall-watts on full blast. It killed it this run and produced some monster colas, no heat issues. Ran the light pretty high above the canopy and still had blindingly even coverage from the looks of it.
The other tent has (HLG-480H-C1400 -> 9 1212's) and I'm guessing at full blast is 475? wall watts. It did okay this run, same strains as the other tent and run just a couple days behind. To get what I felt to be good penetration in to the canopy, I had to have the light too close to get decent coverage. Didn't produce the donkey dicks nor monster plants in general that the big light tent did.
Any suggestions on remixing it? Have a spare 4 x 1212 + 185H setup I can throw in to the mix easily since both rigs are modular.
TL;DR:
Can rebuild lights for my two 4x4 tents. Here is what I have at my disposal:
21 1212's and Meanwell drivers to run them at 1400ma.
3 Vero 29's and a Meanwell driver pushing them at 2100ma
All on individual PC heatsinks with fans.
One tent has an (HLG-240H-C2100 -> 3 Vero 29) + (2 HLG-185H-C1400 -> 8 1212's) for probably near 700 wall-watts on full blast. It killed it this run and produced some monster colas, no heat issues. Ran the light pretty high above the canopy and still had blindingly even coverage from the looks of it.
The other tent has (HLG-480H-C1400 -> 9 1212's) and I'm guessing at full blast is 475? wall watts. It did okay this run, same strains as the other tent and run just a couple days behind. To get what I felt to be good penetration in to the canopy, I had to have the light too close to get decent coverage. Didn't produce the donkey dicks nor monster plants in general that the big light tent did.
Any suggestions on remixing it? Have a spare 4 x 1212 + 185H setup I can throw in to the mix easily since both rigs are modular.
TL;DR:
Can rebuild lights for my two 4x4 tents. Here is what I have at my disposal:
21 1212's and Meanwell drivers to run them at 1400ma.
3 Vero 29's and a Meanwell driver pushing them at 2100ma
All on individual PC heatsinks with fans.
Randomestguy
Well-Known Member
Sorry if this was covered somewhere in the thread already, just too much to sort through, but I'm thinking of building a cob light, and I'm a little stumped before I'm even able to look at different cobs/drivers. I'm not sure how many cobs to run in a 4x4 veg tent because I don't know how the light spreads, is it purely dependant on how much wattage goes to all of them? As in 4 cobs run at a higher wattage can be equivalent to 12 at a lower wattage for example, but I'm just trying to figure out the spread of the light so I can proceed from there, I'm a total greenhorn so I don't really have a baseline for this. Also not sure on how much wattage to only veg as a lot of people use them for both veg and flower so the values are typically higher. I'm on a budget so I'm trying to get only what I need and not pay more for extra power that wouldn't be needed. Thanks for any help in the matter. 
CobKits
Well-Known Member
Randomestguy
Well-Known Member
Ooooogh, my wallet is crying, I got like 200 to work with for a light maybe 250 tops. But when you say most common I assume that's for a setup that includes flowering as well, would it be safe to assume halving that would work for a veg setup? Thinking maybe 5 cobs in a dice pattern, and I've heard about 200-300 watts will be enough for veg. 560 watts in a 9 set is more than what I need, not to mention can afford lol. But thanks for the input.
InTheValley
Well-Known Member
going to be a tuff call man. But u do NEED the 9 for better production, unless your able to rotate plants around periodically.
The problem is, to hit a 4x4, you need to raise the light, but your PAR will fall off fast. You can lower it closer to the plants, but you will lose footprint,.. But if you can move your plants around, you can make it happen. Definitly better then 2 mars or something. Im using 4 cobs in a 3x3 and its awesome at 250watts.
The problem is, to hit a 4x4, you need to raise the light, but your PAR will fall off fast. You can lower it closer to the plants, but you will lose footprint,.. But if you can move your plants around, you can make it happen. Definitly better then 2 mars or something. Im using 4 cobs in a 3x3 and its awesome at 250watts.
Randomestguy
Well-Known Member
After drilling how to diy cobs I was told that strip leds, like Samsung f series for example provide much better coverage for a similar price dynamic if not less, you have any experience with them? I'm liking the idea but that wider spread has me thinking light penetration might not be as good, any insight on that?
InTheValley
Well-Known Member
i actually did a strip build, but i used the Ebay strips, which, werent actually bad, i just didnt think out the heat removel because i was in a 2x2 tent with the same green encasement i made. It rocked, but i couldnt remove the heat well enought. I decided to move into a 3x3 area after i ordered all my stuff for the cob build. I would of done things differently if i knew i was going to move into the 3x3 ( 3x6 actual size closet).
uggggg, lol. Here is a pic of my strip build, I still have all the strips and driver and such.
I personally think, So strips if your a scrog grower, go cobs if your not. COBS with lenses have great penatration, which can take light down further to the ground, were as with strip, or even QBs, it blankets the light onto the canopy, more evenly.
But if you supply enough watts and use Optics with the COBS, they rock.
9 cobs would be badass.
uggggg, lol. Here is a pic of my strip build, I still have all the strips and driver and such.
I personally think, So strips if your a scrog grower, go cobs if your not. COBS with lenses have great penatration, which can take light down further to the ground, were as with strip, or even QBs, it blankets the light onto the canopy, more evenly.
But if you supply enough watts and use Optics with the COBS, they rock.
9 cobs would be badass.
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InTheValley
Well-Known Member
dont get me wrong tho, Strips and or QBs get the job done well also. They get intense also if you, again, suplly enough power to them.
GML just used the QB550 against 1000W, and the QBs outperformed the HPS with half the watts. so theres that,lol.
GML just used the QB550 against 1000W, and the QBs outperformed the HPS with half the watts. so theres that,lol.
Randomestguy
Well-Known Member
Lol sick, and yeah I wasn't sure but logically speaking the strips design wouldn't be as good for my plans, I'm only going to be vegging 4 maybe 5 trees in a 4x4 tent, so that's why I was gonna go for 5 cobs cuz 4 would work but 5 in a dice design let's you move the outer ones a little further because of the central light. But regardless it'll probably be around 240 watts per those 4 (maaaaybe 5, VEG ONLY) plants. You think 1 cob per plant like that would be decent? Trying to stretch a dolla until it rips. Thanks for the feedback and info so far
nfhiggs
Well-Known Member
The idea that "penetration" is solely related to the intensity of the individual emitters is a myth:
Here is a single theoretical 200W emitter with theoretical perfect 60 degree spread:
The canopy "penetration" area starts at the 1000 uMol level and goes down to the 250 uMol level - two feet of effective penetration in this example
Now if we divide the single 200W emitter into four 50W emitters in a reflective area we get something like this:
The numbers to the right show what a single 50W emitter would put out. As you can see, the 1000 uMol level is fully one foot higher, but the 250 uMol level is still in the same place - we now have 3 feet of "penetration".
And if we further divide the emitters again to get eight 25W emitters, it looks like this:
Again the numbers to the right are the light levels of a single 25W emitter - the colors are shown in the legend on the left. The 1000 uMol level now starts at about 8 inches from the lights, but again, we still have the same 250 uMols at 4 feet down.
Randomestguy
Well-Known Member
Hmm, so many factors to consider. I did some light skimming on the strips vs cobs and the strips always cost more, but they have benefits too, but a lot is for like around 30 watts per square foot out of what I was researching, not quite sure what the minimum specs would have to be to veg without underpowering it, on led grower site a lot of the diy strip setups were hitting $500 for 4x4 coverage with 30w ft^2, ahhh my brain is melting, I hate to ask but could you help me out with the cheapest possible 4x4 veg light cuz I really want to go perpetual but I gotta get the tent and supplies in addition to the light so I'm tryna juggle all that, of course my grow is only 2 weeks in so I got over a month to line it up perfectly, my head is too full of cob diy from learning it all in a mad rush and rn I'm like
