...All Things Vero...

SomeGuy said:

Some small progress on my latest vero project!

I have received:

10 VERO 10 5k
12v fan adapters
2 36" x 2" heatsink
4 50mm fans
2 fastech drivers good for 5 veros each (still waiting really fastech is slow)

Just ordered a bunch of angle aluminum and aluminum sheet to fabricate two cases as well. We shall see how it goes.


BTW VERO10 are small.. LOL cant wait to fire them up.

Im looking forward to building with the new vero 18s this summer too.

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Fasttech is killing me right now haha. tracking hasn't been updated in over 2 weeks. Thought I had timed it before Chinese New Year......BUT NOPE.

Finding a good driver for the amount of cobs you want to use is very hard, and often impossible. I generally pick the best drivers and look for combinations of which cobs would fit with which drivers best.

churchhaze said:

Finding a good driver for the amount of cobs you want to use is very hard, and often impossible. I generally pick the best drivers and look for combinations of which cobs would fit with which drivers best.

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You're so fucking right about that. I've had to literally look at damn near every different driver MeanWell offers JUST to understand what models to a given series MAY be used in a given circumstance of using JUST Vero 18's. I don't know what I would do if I was like one of you brand flip-floppers, dipping into the baths of the masters of light.

Thankfully my understanding of the matter hasn't been in vain and continues to serve me well.

ReeferDance said:

Very sleek mike

Those are some very nice reflectors there.




If you still aren't 100% sure on how everything is done, what I did is order some cheap stuff from overseas so I wouldn't be as heartbroken if something went bad.

2x $4 Soft-white '100 watt' COB
$25, 24V Driver
$6 Buck/Booster
$25 Heatsink (mine is probably way too small, lesson learned!)
4x $0.99 40mm 12V fans

Under that little $70 DIY is now sitting above 7 or so seedlings and they seem to be loving it

Now I am much more confident moving onto my ~150-200 watt Vero panel.

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I totally understand that. I've already ordered 4 vero 18s and two 3.5"x12" heat sinks, I'm thinking of just getting one driver for all four at 500mA. That would be roughly 120v for all 4 correct?

I figure if i just shrink the acceptable choices to anything above 91%, it makes the set of possible choices a lot smaller.

For the 350mA baby killers, I agonized over whether to use 87% drivers which would drive 2 vero 18 at 350mA, or to use a 91% driver at 50% capacity to drive 4. That's just too much thinking. It took long enough to find those 87% efficient drivers that could power 2 vero 18 at 350mA let alone to spend hours deciding not to use it over something SLIGHTLY better....

Now i'm trying to only consider the 94% efficient drivers simply because there's only 2 options to choose from... that saves sanity the most, and produces 94% efficient results every time... The problem is i never need that much power for veg.

AquariusPanta said:

You're so fucking right about that. I've had to literally look at damn near every different driver MeanWell offers JUST to understand what models to a given series MAY be used in a given circumstance of using JUST Vero 18's. I don't know what I would do if I was like one of you brand flip-floppers, dipping into the baths of the masters of light.

Thankfully my understanding of the matter hasn't been in vain and continues to serve me well.

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I'm thinking I'll just run all 4 in a series and run it off one driver, about 120v for all 4 right?

AquariusPanta said:

In my experience, I've had Vero 18's as close as four inches away from buds - which resulted in light bleaching. They were ran at 1050mA but were spaced out.

So as long as you have your Vero's nicely spread about, not two inches from one another and ~8 inches away from seedlings, you should be fine as long as you operate the 18's at or under 1050mA.

700mA is the sweet spot for the Vero 18 (IMO).

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700ma is what I drive my flowering Vero 18s at. It's less efficient than 500ma but I rarely ever have them turned up all the way to 700ma.
I figure the veg light is putting out a little north of 20,000 lumens when run full blast which has proven to be plenty for my veg needs. I would have used a Meanwell HLG series dimmable driver but the 500ma one was a really nice VF match for 10 Vero 18.

nvhak49 said:

I'm thinking I'll just run all 4 in a series and run it off one driver, about 120v for all 4 right?

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That's right.

HLG-80H-C700 would be great for 4 vero 18... I used that to design the 80W UFO killers! lol is 80W too much?

Only a 91% efficient driver, but to get the 94% ones, you need a greater requirement for light... (2 biggest drivers only)

churchhaze said:

HLG-80H-C700would be great for 4 vero 18... I used that to design the 80W UFO killers! lol is 80W too much?

Only a 91% efficient driver, but to get the 94% ones, you need a greater requirement for light... (2 biggest drivers only)

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Could I use a dimmer on that driver? Nah 80w isn't to much I'm using more than that with t5s and cfls right now I just wanna switch to LEDs for better light and save energy.

Yeah, it dims.. I wish there was just a 500mA version of HLG-60H-C.

Anyway, it's puzzle with no concrete answer. Terrible puzzle for people with ocd.

nvhak49 said:

Could I use a dimmer on that driver? Nah 80w isn't to much I'm using more than that with t5s and cfls right now I just wanna switch to LEDs for better light and save energy.

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churchhaze said:

I figure if i just shrink the acceptable choices to anything above 91%, it makes the set of possible choices a lot smaller.

For the 350mA baby killers, I agonized over whether to use 87% drivers which would drive 2 vero 18 at 350mA, or to use a 91% driver at 50% capacity to drive 4. That's just too much thinking. It took long enough to find those 87% efficient drivers that could power 2 vero 18 at 350mA let alone to spend hours deciding not to use it over something SLIGHTLY better....

Now i'm trying to only consider the 94% efficient drivers simply because there's only 2 options to choose from... that saves sanity the most, and produces 94% efficient results every time... The problem is i never need that much power for veg.

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Sometimes it's harder for me to decide among two really good options .

The specs on those on the Meanwell site says theyre 90ws which is still on with me.

churchhaze said:

Yeah, it dims.. I wish there was just a 500mA version of HLG-60H-C.

Anyway, it's puzzle with no concrete answer. Terrible puzzle for people with ocd.

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Yeah I know I wish there was too, oh well. Is it hard to put in a dimmer, wire it in on the DC side?

I honestly shouldn't be giving advice on underdriving vero 18 anymore. I'm not sure if I'm giving bad advice now that I'm personally switching vero 18 out for cxb2530.

I recently did a veg build using 5000k vero 18 at 350mA, but I think if i had to do it again, I would probably wait for the 5000k cxb2530 or even use the 3000k U2 bins available.

churchhaze said:

I honestly shouldn't be giving advice on underdriving vero 18 anymore. I'm not sure if I'm giving bad advice now that I'm personally switching vero 18 out for cxb2530.

I recently did a veg build using 5000k vero 18 at 350mA, but I think if i had to do it again, I would probably wait for the 5000k cxb2530 or even use the 3000k U2 bins available.

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Yeah the Cxbs look awesome I'll get them for my flower panel I would for my veg too but I've already ordered them. Your info is good man I'm new to all of this so all the input is greatly appreciated thanks!

Last question, the B is the driver you put the dimmer on yourself and the A already has one?

nvhak49 said:

Yeah I know I wish there was too, oh well. Is it hard to put in a dimmer, wire it in on the DC side?

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he HLG-80H-C500A has an internal dimmer which is accessed through a hole in the top of the driver. The C500B is the better version. It has a dimming cable which is really just 2 wires. All you need is a $2 100k linear taper potentiometer connected to the wires to utilize the dimming function.

Oh ok cool seems simple enough to do, I don't think they make the 500 in that series but I'll get the 700 and dim it down. Thanks again guys!

churchhaze said:

I honestly shouldn't be giving advice on underdriving vero 18 anymore. I'm not sure if I'm giving bad advice now that I'm personally switching vero 18 out for cxb2530.

I recently did a veg build using 5000k vero 18 at 350mA, but I think if i had to do it again, I would probably wait for the 5000k cxb2530 or even use the 3000k U2 bins available.

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Quit you belly-aching ...



You know you liked it (the Vero treatment).