Led Users Unite!

Randomblame said:

Thanks for the flowers, mate!
I would take two HLG-185H-36B because it more fail safe and there is no potentially deathly dc voltage. It also allows you to switch them on seperately which could be useful in veg.

Click to expand...

Random, I appreciate you chiming in. I spent the last couple weeks revisiting this build. I put the tent together and a 5x5 is way too big for my needs. I'm only look for personal dosing and I'm not a heavy user compared to many on here. My newly purchased cabinet is 36" w x 22" d x 52" tall. I'm thinking of putting 8 - CXB 3070BBs on the HLG-320H-36B, figured each cob will be running at ~ 1100 mA and that should provide nice uniform light. That's not too much light is it? I don't want to battle heat too much, which is one of the reasons I'm looking to drive soft COBs for this build.

I'll be outfitting a second cabinet as a veg chamber and I'll be making use of HLGs QB288 V2s.

Randomblame said:

But do not forget, you only get the maximum out of the driver is you use it's full potential. A HLG-xxxH-48A would work with a few 36v COB's in parallel because the 36v are within it's 24-48v CC region but you'll get only ~¾ of it's potential maximum output.

Click to expand...

From what you said here, Ive been paranoid about trying to max the voltages of my build to match the spec sheets of the HLG drivers.
Should I be concerned about pairing, lets say, ~45.5v-46v parallel system with a HLG-xxx-48x (where the cc region is 24v-48v)? Would this result in not being able to reach 250 watts (on a HLG-240 for example) due to not being high enough voltage (even though it's almost there) to use the full power (including its "overpoweredness") of the HLG driver?

jarvild said:

9 F562b strips ran with a HLG 240H 24B pulls 268 watts at the wall.

Click to expand...

KonopCh said:

My HLG-240-C1050A goes to 293 wall watts.

Click to expand...

Seems from these two posts I wouldn't need to be concerned at all, but why is that? a couple of volts don't matter to these drivers?

samlant said:

From what you said here, Ive been paranoid about trying to max the voltages of my build to match the spec sheets of the HLG drivers.
Should I be concerned about pairing, lets say, ~45.5v-46v parallel system with a HLG-xxx-48x (where the cc region is 24v-48v)? Would this result in not being able to reach 250 watts (on a HLG-240 for example) due to not being high enough voltage (even though it's almost there) to use the full power (including its "overpoweredness") of the HLG driver?





Seems from these two posts I wouldn't need to be concerned at all, but why is that? a couple of volts don't matter to these drivers?

Click to expand...

You will get almost all juice out of the driver, no worry! When the light is switched on at 20°C ambient the strips need for sure 47 or 48v untill they reached their thermal equilibrium. You can expect ~250w and 265w at the wall with HLG-240H-48A or B and 6-10 double row f-strips.

Thanks Randomblame! That makes sense

Mary's Confidant said:

Random, I appreciate you chiming in. I spent the last couple weeks revisiting this build. I put the tent together and a 5x5 is way too big for my needs. I'm only look for personal dosing and I'm not a heavy user compared to many on here. My newly purchased cabinet is 36" w x 22" d x 52" tall. I'm thinking of putting 8 - CXB 3070BBs on the HLG-320H-36B, figured each cob will be running at ~ 1100 mA and that should provide nice uniform light. That's not too much light is it? I don't want to battle heat too much, which is one of the reasons I'm looking to drive soft COBs for this build.

I'll be outfitting a second cabinet as a veg chamber and I'll be making use of HLGs QB288 V2s.

Click to expand...

Hey MC,
we have a rule of thumb that says 30-35w per sft are needed to get 700-800μmol/s/m² PPFD on canopy level. Your tent has around 5,5sft so you need only 200w. With an HLG-240 it would be probably more than enough.
Yes, you can dimm the HLG-320 down to 200-250w but you will loose a bit driver effiency. With an HLG-240 less dimming would be needed and positive side effect, the COB's gets less current means the whole light would be more efficient.
The rest sounds good, with 8 COB's you can spread the light pretty good.

Thanks @Randomblame, you've been a huge help. I'm guessing there is no reason to add any strip lights into this device if I have 8 COBs over such a small footprint? If I don't add striplights, I was going to add reflectors to help minimize the spread since it won't be needed with COBs packed so tightly together.

Hi
Posted this in another thread but this one is more active so will repost here.

I’ve have this meanwell driver.
What I want to do is use it to run a Photon fantom board I already have.
( any idea why Photon Fantom Designs site Is down??)
I am running this board now with a meanwell 60 watt driver in my 2.5 square foot cab.
@60 watts comes out to a little under 30 watts square foot.
Useing the driver below, I wish to dim it down to 80 watts, putting my wattage at 38 watts psf.
(I want to run close to 40 watts per square foot)
I don’t want to use a heat sink ( I’m not now)
Will this work???
What type pot should I use to as a dimmer??
How do I check the wattage output???
Thanks

You need a 100k potentiometer for dimming. Below is a wiring example, but you need only a linear single channel poti, that on the picture is a stereo one with switch. You get them from e3ay or am4zon, search for "B100k linear potentiometer". I usually get a 10pack and test them with a multimeter. A 110k poti allows to use the full output of the driver, but that's not so important 'cause you run it dimmed anyway. What is the input voltage of such a fantom board? Must be within 72 and 143v to work with an HLG-185H-C1400B, right?!

Hey guys, beginner first time grow here. Hopefully someone can help me on this thread so I don't have to create a new one. I have a 300w mars hydro led and a 150w growstar led in a 2x2x4 tent. I only have 2 plants in there. Is to much light not good? As I believe I have more than I need in wattage, but hoping to much won't hurt anything. Thanks for any tips or help!

Also these girls are exactly 31 days old. The back one is super og and the front is Afghan. Ordered from seedsman. I'm concerned because I would expect them to be taller by now. Once again my first time growing absolutely anything. Thanks

They look fine for 31 days in soil. That they look so squat is due to the high proportion of blue light. That changes when you shorten the day length to 12/12h in a few weeks.

450w true watt would be "way" to much for a 2x 2', but as far as I know one Mars300 is only 180w at the wall and the small 150w one is maybe only 70-100w or so. I would buy a 10$ kill-a-watt meter or another wall watt meter from walmart.

200wall watts blurple (or ~50w/sft) should be more than enough for a 2x 2' area. You have already 250-280wall watts!
What's the distance to the lights currently? It could be neccessary to keep them 20-24" above the canopy to avoid damage. Temps should be near 30°C/85°F with humidity just below 60% when lights on, and <50% when lights off.
Is there a way to disable the veg switch on one of the lamps? This would deactivate a few the unwanted blue diodes and would reduce the power a bit so you get closer to the 200w mentioned above.

Randomblame said:

You need a 100k potentiometer for dimming. Below is a wiring example, but you need only a linear single channel poti, that on the picture is a stereo one with switch. You get them from e3ay or am4zon, search for "B100k linear potentiometer". I usually get a 10pack and test them with a multimeter. A 110k poti allows to use the full output of the driver, but that's not so important 'cause you run it dimmed anyway. What is the input voltage of such a fantom board? Must be within 72 and 143v to work with an HLG-185H-C1400B, right?!

View attachment 4159794

Click to expand...

@Randomblame
Thanks for the info
I guess I am ( was) confused
The fantom board uses 36.v input
I some how thought the pot would dim the VOLTAGE down to 36v as I dimmed the wattage.
So if I dimmed it down to 80 watts it would still be getting 143 v out.
Am I thinking correct??
If so this will not work and just may as well find a 100 watt 36 volt meanwell that I dim to 80 watts
Thanks for clearing that up for me
Onward through the fog.....

Tejashidrow said:

@Randomblame
Thanks for the info
I guess I am ( was) confused
The fantom board uses 36.v input
I some how thought the pot would dim the VOLTAGE down to 36v as I dimmed the wattage.
So if I dimmed it down to 80 watts it would still be getting 143 v out.
Am I thinking correct??
If so this will not work and just may as well find a 100 watt 36 volt meanwell that I dim to 80 watts
Thanks for clearing that up for me
Onward through the fog.....

Click to expand...

I think you need a min of 2 x fandom boards which equals 2 x 36 v = 72v for that driver.
As @Randomblame was saying 72v min to 143v max on the 185h 1400

If you do not meet the minimum voltage, the driver may go into "hiccup" mode, where it will flash like a strobe light......

Darr26 said:

Hey guys, beginner first time grow here. Hopefully someone can help me on this thread so I don't have to create a new one. I have a 300w mars hydro led and a 150w growstar led in a 2x2x4 tent. I only have 2 plants in there. Is to much light not good? As I believe I have more than I need in wattage, but hoping to much won't hurt anything. Thanks for any tips or help!View attachment 4159801

Click to expand...

@Darr26
Good monring!!!
I have grown with mars300
130 watts at the wall is what is advertised
I had 118 watts from the wall
Still, properly set up will grow fine.
I have a veg/bloom switches on mine but Allways kept it in bloom mode.
If you get them too close the lights color will not blend.
Too far away and loose intensity.
12-16 inches away was my sweet spot.
HOWEVER
I grew scrog with them and had a even canopy.
Your tent will heat up with these make sure you have good airflow
While the footprint they claim will grow plants, the sweet spot for flowering is much smaller.
Some of my best grows were achieved with a mars hydro blurple.
Once you understand the mars hydro limitations, you will then start to achieve your goal.
I have not used your other light so I agree with @Randomblame about its wattage
Guesstimating :
Say 125watts for the hydro
65 watts for the other
Just under 200 watts which is good for your size tent
The Kill-a-watt meter is a great investment for $10
(Mine cost more cuz I got it years ago)
Ooops I was mistaken
My mars hydro reflector has the switches
My mars 300s don’t

Grow well!!

Moflow said:

I think you need a min of 2 x fandom boards which equals 2 x 36 v = 72v for that driver.
As @Randomblame was saying 72v min to 143v max on the 185h 1400

Click to expand...

Funny
I got that driver to run a. Cree 3590 light I was building 4 Cree Cobb.
But due to life that project was scrapped and parts put up.
I wish I had the space to run 2 boards....

Chip Green said:

If you do not meet the minimum voltage, the driver may go into "hiccup" mode, where it will flash like a strobe light......

Click to expand...

@Chip Green
I had that happen once dureing a Build!!!
Freaked me out!!!
Brought me back to my disco daze!!!

Tejashidrow said:

@Randomblame
Thanks for the info
I guess I am ( was) confused
The fantom board uses 36.v input
I some how thought the pot would dim the VOLTAGE down to 36v as I dimmed the wattage.
So if I dimmed it down to 80 watts it would still be getting 143 v out.
Am I thinking correct??
If so this will not work and just may as well find a 100 watt 36 volt meanwell that I dim to 80 watts
Thanks for clearing that up for me
Onward through the fog.....

Click to expand...

The dimming of Meanwell drivers is done by current regulation. If you dim a 1400mA to 50%, the LED's will get 700mA. The voltage drops only slightly, maybe by 1v or so. If 4 COB's at 1.4A need ~142v (4x 35.5v) at ~700mA they would still need about 140v (or 4x 35v).

Randomblame said:

The dimming of Meanwell drivers is done by current regulation. If you dim a 1400mA to 50%, the LED's will get 700mA. The voltage drops only slightly, maybe by 1v or so. If 4 COB's at 1.4A need ~142v (4x 35.5v) at ~700mA they would still need about 140v (or 4x 35v).

Click to expand...

As I think back through the fog
I’m remembering that’s why I bought this driver.
To run 4 Cree cobs in a diy fixture.
That never got put together due to downsizing.
I think I will put the driver back in storage with the cobs in hopes to one day upsize.
Now I search for a 100 watt - 36 volt dimmable driver.
Peace

Tejashidrow said:

As I think back through the fog
I’m remembering that’s why I bought this driver.
To run 4 Cree cobs in a diy fixture.
That never got put together due to downsizing.
I think I will put the driver back in storage with the cobs in hopes to one day upsize.
Now I search for a 100 watt - 36 volt dimmable driver.
Peace

Click to expand...

Meanwell HLG 80H 36 or the Hlg 120H 36 maybe?