Need advice on a 4x4 DIY led light

Im looking to build a light for my 4x4 tent and I wanted to go with led strips, cobs, or qbs. Which one has the most pros which one should I avoid? Also this will be a flowering tent.
I was initially going to build the HLG 550 V2 but I got interested in led strips. Which led strips are the best right now? Any help is appreciated.

Thegermling said:

Im looking to build a light for my 4x4 tent and I wanted to go with led strips, cobs, or qbs. Which one has the most pros which one should I avoid? Also this will be a flowering tent.
I was initially going to build the HLG 550 V2 but I got interested in led strips. Which led strips are the best right now? Any help is appreciated.

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READ SOME THREADS.

Airwalker16 said:

READ SOME THREADS.

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I did and I watched vids too but theres so much shit to take in for a beginner to DIY led. I think Ive tried to absorb too much info because my mind is beat for today.

It's tough going staying up to date on LED. Are you replacing an existing light?
Have you considered these, https://www.rapidled.com/4-x-4/ ?

Thegermling said:

I did and I watched vids too but theres so much shit to take in for a beginner to DIY led. I think Ive tried to absorb too much info because my mind is beat for today.

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Not true. You can build a light now easier than EVER. I did it back when we were using 36" long 6" wide aluminum SLABS called "heatsinks" lol. Drilling and tapping all the holes and wiring everything together. Building the frames.

Now it's simple boards put on an aluminum angle squar structure.

Too simple.

Thegermling said:

Im looking to build a light for my 4x4 tent and I wanted to go with led strips, cobs, or qbs. Which one has the most pros which one should I avoid? Also this will be a flowering tent.
I was initially going to build the HLG 550 V2 but I got interested in led strips. Which led strips are the best right now? Any help is appreciated.

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http://ledgardener.com/diy-led-strip-build-designs-samsung-bridgelux/

Humboldt DWC said:

It's tough going staying up to date on LED. Are you replacing an existing light?
Have you considered these, https://www.rapidled.com/4-x-4/ ?

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No. I want to go with DIY to avoid paying that much for a light. I got the hang of the concept of DIY after some rest.

Airwalker16 said:

Not true. You can build a light now easier than EVER. I did it back when we were using 36" long 6" wide aluminum SLABS called "heatsinks" lol. Drilling and tapping all the holes and wiring everything together. Building the frames.

Now it's simple boards put on an aluminum angle squar structure.

Too simple.

Click to expand...

Wheres a good place to buy the heatsinks? I want to frame the boards with this type of aluminum
where can I find this type of aluminum?

Thegermling said:

No. I want to go with DIY to avoid paying that much for a light. I got the hang of the concept of DIY after some rest.

Wheres a good place to buy the heatsinks? I want to frame the boards with this type of aluminum View attachment 4239661
where can I find this type of aluminum?

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Any department store or local metal shop. It's called angle aluminum.
Heatsinks for boards seem kinda hard to find but there's always heatsinkUSA.com or China.

Thegermling said:

Im looking to build a light for my 4x4 tent and I wanted to go with led strips, cobs, or qbs. Which one has the most pros which one should I avoid? Also this will be a flowering tent.
I was initially going to build the HLG 550 V2 but I got interested in led strips. Which led strips are the best right now? Any help is appreciated.

Click to expand...

Long story short, they all work.

COBs require big heatsinks / active cooling solutions, the other 2 options not. Some people run the strips without any heatsink at all but I would advise against doing that for reliability and efficiency reasons.

I have some of the Samsung Q series strips and the quality of them is top notch. Their H and F series strips seem to be the most popular for our purpose. There are also quality options from Bridgelux as well as others.

The strips as well as the COBs give you the chance to play around with the light spectrum a bit more than the QBs. Other than that, I'd say that the QBs are probably the easiest DIY option if they're available where you live. Watch out for the Chinese knock offs.. some of them might work just as good as the original QBs but plenty of them won't.

I personally run Bridgelux COBs but mostly because I like to tinker with different builds, water cooling and different grow spaces.

Thanks for sharing on your experiences, Spoonayyy


I too am always curious to learn more with all things DIY strip light related. Mostly I think how to best acquire all the pieces because e.g. isnt it true Samsung likes to do production runs and then there are no more strips available, then no more posts here... until the next production cycle, then more posts here (reading learning drooling). Then another dry spell.

Ramble ramble,
peace.