Cree Newbie and all that jazz

So yeah, basically have been searching the site and I think I am getting to know what is what. Currently running a Mars Hydro 600 in a 2X2 and about 30 days from harvest. I like the Mars Hydro so far, haven't grown since the early 2000s so was running HPS before and had a lot of learning to do! Penetration has been an issue but not as bad as I thought for a 100W light but I have had to defoliate more than I like.

I have selected what I think will be the next lights I will use. I want to grab 2 of the Cree lights below with the Meanwell drivers so I can just plug and play. I have attached below the link and info

My questions are

1. Am I correct this "kit" should be plug and play?
2. Will 2 lights with 90 degree magnifiers be enough for a 2X2? Running SOG 9 plants
3. Eventually want to bump to 5 lights in the same space-is that overkill?
4. Could I source these parts and just build myself for cheaper?

I will be upgrading to a 2X4 eventually when they are in stock again and I will use my MH600 to either veg or as a clone room. I typically start from seed but am playing with Phenos and have already grown and killed a few boys after pollen harvest. This is all personal use but I like to be as efficient as possible and will continue to go back and forth between seeds and clones depending on what kind of vibe the mothers are giving me.

All advise is welcome, constructive or not!!

No. Get strips.

Cree cobs is a couple of years old tech, especially for a small tent. Boards or strips, or a cob light with several smaller cobs rather than only 2. Also lenses are a bit pointless, they just make it harder to grow in a tent and will decrease performance and longevity of your cob

Are you looking for a ready to go, plug and play, pre-built fixture? Or could you cut some angle aluminum and turn a few screws?

Airwalker16 said:

Are you looking for a ready to go, plug and play, pre-built fixture? Or could you cut some angle aluminum and turn a few screws?

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Plug and play is not necessary-was just being cautious as I get back in the swing of things. Any recommendations on strips will be good/model numbers or anything I can use to research. I think I had seen Samsung or another name in other posts but was not sure.

Thanks for the help, this is why I come here first!

CXB3590 where and are still good, but a bit outdated for todays standards.
no point spending a forutne on them.

Recent mid power leds like Samsung LM301B or LM301H should be a good starting point for your research.
Or mid power Bridgelux EB2 EB3 strips from Digikey or Future Electronics.

So a 2x4 will need about 240-300watts. So get yourself 10 of these.


And an HLG-320H-C1400AB driver.

Wire them in series and attach to a frame. Space the gradually, slightly closer towards the ends, but pretty well evenly spaced.
They're 22" long so just build a ladder with 10rungs basically.

Airwalker16 said:

So a 2x4 will need about 240-300watts. So get yourself 10 of these.

BXEB-L0590U-30E1500-C-C3 Bridgelux | Optoelectronics | DigiKey

Order today, ships today. BXEB-L0590U-30E1500-C-C3 – LED Lighting COBs Engines Modules LED Module series White, Warm Linear Light Strip from Bridgelux. Pricing and Availability on millions of electronic components from Digi-Key Electronics.

www.digikey.com

And an HLG-320H-C1400AB driver.

Wire them in series and attach to a frame. Space the gradually, slightly closer towards the ends, but pretty well evenly spaced.
They're 22" long so just build a ladder with 10rungs basically.

Click to expand...

Better something lower voltage. C2800 and 2 parallel strings. Or just cv drivers. +200v dc is deadly, not for your first try at diy.

Airwalker16 said:

So a 2x4 will need about 240-300watts. So get yourself 10 of these.

BXEB-L0590U-30E1500-C-C3 Bridgelux | Optoelectronics | DigiKey

Order today, ships today. BXEB-L0590U-30E1500-C-C3 – LED Lighting COBs Engines Modules LED Module series White, Warm Linear Light Strip from Bridgelux. Pricing and Availability on millions of electronic components from Digi-Key Electronics.

www.digikey.com

And an HLG-320H-C1400AB driver.

Wire them in series and attach to a frame. Space the gradually, slightly closer towards the ends, but pretty well evenly spaced.
They're 22" long so just build a ladder with 10rungs basically.

Click to expand...

Thanks! Time to research

Rocket Soul said:

Better something lower voltage. C2800 and 2 parallel strings. Or just cv drivers. +200v dc is deadly, not for your first try at diy.

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That's very good advice. In my case I have experience with 110 and 220 through remodels I have done and my father was in construction. Most of my experience though is in high powered stereo systems which also can reach deadly voltage once you hit 10+ thousand watts. So basically I will be very careful!

NunyaBiznass said:

That's very good advice. In my case I have experience with 110 and 220 through remodels I have done and my father was in construction. Most of my experience though is in high powered stereo systems which also can reach deadly voltage once you hit 10+ thousand watts. So basically I will be very careful!

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Thats AC which is a bit of a doddle. DC is a fair bit worse.

Rocket Soul said:

Thats AC which is a bit of a doddle. DC is a fair bit worse.

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The car audio is DC and I have been zapped by both, neither is fun! So far looks like the LEDs above are push in connectors so just a little soldering on the driver for the AC plug. That I have experience with so I am not too concerned so far. Still looking into dimming and heatsinks but have found some cool things so far.

Since I am already down the rabbit hole what would be the top of the line in this type of setup? If this is middle of the road like someone said above what is cream of the crop? I'd like to experiment with a closed room and CO2 in the next grow or two. Whatever I get will most likely be thrown in the 2X2 for now and if I like I'll just make another. I have a month left on this grow and would like to have this hashed out and built by flower on the next round. I'll make this my build post once I pull the trigger.

NunyaBiznass said:

The car audio is DC and I have been zapped by both, neither is fun! So far looks like the LEDs above are push in connectors so just a little soldering on the driver for the AC plug. That I have experience with so I am not too concerned so far. Still looking into dimming and heatsinks but have found some cool things so far.

Since I am already down the rabbit hole what would be the top of the line in this type of setup? If this is middle of the road like someone said above what is cream of the crop? I'd like to experiment with a closed room and CO2 in the next grow or two. Whatever I get will most likely be thrown in the 2X2 for now and if I like I'll just make another. I have a month left on this grow and would like to have this hashed out and built by flower on the next round. I'll make this my build post once I pull the trigger.

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It all depends, how much hanging height can you manage?
White Midpower led chips seems to be the best working option right now. Theres pcb boards of several different versions, some of the sponsors of this forum. The sponsored boards tend come with better support and warranty than anywhere else. They take good care of us at the forum cause if not wed make a stink. They are also companies that have to some extent developed the boards thru or in close connection to this forum, filling our needs. HLG (us), Cutter electronics (Aus) and Growlights australia (Aus and UK) all land in this group and have excellent offerings. Other good board manufacturers are Atreum, invisible sun horticulture (i think both these are in Uk?) And led-tech.de (germany).
The dark side is chinese boards/alibaba, often copies of others designs, be it companies or individuals who made their design and had it manufactured over there. They are cheaper and sometimes only slightly less quality, sometimes quite a lot less. Warranty maybe an issue here as its seldom actionable: would you really be shipping things back to china for a repair when buying a new is just a few $$ more? However somwtimes its so much cheaper that you simply can buy 2 for the job of 1 and run them both at half power which means youre very unlikely to have any problems, especially since you can usually get the power supply locally.

If you want cheapo and not china you can buy strips and build your own using rhe same diodes as in the board. Usually this means youll have everything a bit more spread out which can work for lower hanging height but then you have to take the red pill and gondown the diy hole. I recommend it but you do not come out the same, you tend to turn into a led nerd. Some easy info on this by googling ledgardener led strip reference build, allthough there are some newer strips around nowadays.

I still have old Citi's 1212 and run them very soft in veg tent, I think I run them at 185 lumens per watt...
My flower tent is with F strips, running at 186 lumens per watt... 2.6 umol/j.

It just depends how hard you run them.

Cobs are nice. Problem is the small concentrated area that all the heat has to pass through, its a bottle neck and requires expensive heatsinking when boards and strips are easy to diy the sinking. Cobs are easy to source in specialty spectrums though.

some car audio background should help a lot for LED diy.
so you wanna max lightning in your 2x2 by using the least watts.
one option.
20x EB3 2 foot strips from future electronics (its their min order qty anyway).
will cover almost all the space in a 2x2 if i am right (doubble check the fit yourself!)
4X GLA UV boards based on japanese Nichias and others are something nice too, if theyre physicaly fit in a 2x2.
or 4 fancy HLG boards instead of course.

drive them low and you have a great light, you will need to drive them quite low anyway in a 2x2.

this amount of leds isnt needed at all, but you asked for it it seems.
its a bit like filling the whole trunk with a subwoofer or such.

Check out this , bit dated now but most of the options are still used apart from bridgelux which there are more current models of now.
Prices are also dated.

Gives you a good idea of the general idea and has the part numbers for all strips. Though there are other options not included like cutter.au' strips and eb gen 3.

@Rocket Soul @cobshopgrow I was way down the rabbit hole last night on @cobshopgrow led light build and am super motivated! Will be ordering the aluminum frame today and will start looking at the lights mentioned here. The help has been so great here and now I’m ready to act. I’m sure I’ll have more questions but you guys have me a ton to get this train out the station!

NunyaBiznass said:

@Rocket Soul @cobshopgrow I was way down the rabbit hole last night on @cobshopgrow led light build and am super motivated! Will be ordering the aluminum frame today and will start looking at the lights mentioned here. The help has been so great here and now I’m ready to act. I’m sure I’ll have more questions but you guys have me a ton to get this train out the station!

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Cobs build is really top but quite labor and knowledge intensive, he even builds and solder his own strips. Maybe a bit much for your first time.

But please get into diy, theres no kick quite like it, when your design lights up for the first time, and then beats all your g/w records its a helluva high and definitely addictive...

cobshopgrow said:

some car audio background should help a lot for LED diy.
so you wanna max lightning in your 2x2 by using the least watts.
one option.
20x EB3 2 foot strips from future electronics (its their min order qty anyway).
will cover almost all the space in a 2x2 if i am right (doubble check the fit yourself!)
4X GLA UV boards based on japanese Nichias and others are something nice too, if theyre physicaly fit in a 2x2.
or 4 fancy HLG boards instead of course.

drive them low and you have a great light, you will need to drive them quite low anyway in a 2x2.

this amount of leds isnt needed at all, but you asked for it it seems.
its a bit like filling the whole trunk with a subwoofer or such.

Click to expand...

I think I will go with the EB3 590s they are just small enough to fit and overkill at 20 seems like the way to go! Would the mean well 2100 driver you used in your build in November be enough for 20 of the lights? Also pigtails, I have a soldering iron and all that but was assuming there would be a proprietary pigtail for the driver, or do you just grab your own?

final question (suuuure it is!!!) are you using solid indoor wiring or multi strand dc wiring on the boards? What ever the max gauge wiring that will fit is what I will use. The overkill comment was literally right on the money. I’ll have to post up some old photos of the cars later, won a few dub shows without stupid butterfly doors so you know they made me work for it!