DiY LED

Would it be considerably cheaper to DIY a quantum board or two for my 4x4 tent or would you just purchase say an HLG 550. Initially i was going to go with a cheap mars hydro but you guys have convinced me to go for white full spectrum quality. So ive been saving for an HLG 550 (or 2x next light minis havent decided) but lately ive been hearing i could build something similar to both of these options for way less.

I really want to point out I am NOT handy at all but I'm good at following instructions if need be. I'm toying with the idea of DIY now to save some money but i wanted to ask how hard is this for the average person to do? How long did it take? Where is everyone getting their kits from? Most of all is it worth it to just fork up the cash and buy one

If you have the ability to solder i would say get 4 DIY LED Grow Light PCB – 175W and (3) 200w drivers and (1) 150w. there are 4 lines on the boards that you'll power with each driver this will give you the ability to have control over the reds, whites, and blues separately giving you better veg and flower spectrum's that you can control. This will give you 681w of led for around $1000 (381w white, 188w red, and 113w blue). or you can get the 4 of the DIY LED Grow Light PCB – 90W which will give you 346w of light for around $500-$600(191w white, 99w red, 56w blue) powered by (3) 100w drivers and (1) 75w driver.

my latest LED build. 3 DIY LED Grow Light PCB – 90W from chil-led and 6 cxb 3590 Around 445w in whites, 75w in red and 42w in blue for a total watts of 560 for about a 5'x6' area. its in veg so reds are off right now.

I bought 2x the 260w QB kits. They can go up to 285w so could be up to 570w, that's in one half of my flower tent and covers 4x4 (tent been 8x4)
Looking at the efficacy from the kits to the full HLG550 they look about the same.
The kits would be a much cheaper option and I promise you they take 10min to assemble (if that)and if I remember right all you need is wire strippers and a Philips screwdriver. So much easier than building my Cob light and that wasn't hard to do.

Edit, the kits have gone up in price which I think includes free delivery but at $325 per kit your looking at a fair bit of saving from the HLG550

What color temp would you recommend to acheive a full spectrum in a 4x4 tent. Would you get 2 3000k boards, or 2 4000k boards? Whats your ideal qb set up in a 4x4.

Check out the Bridgelux EB series build thread in the LED lighting sub forum in indoor growing....

I have built a few systems, I love the QB304 systems, they are very easy to build. I also have build VERO 29s and CLU48's. I have found that I suck at soldering and the push type connectors are worth the few dollars extra. I honestly love my QB setups but decided I needed to save money and built the others. I bought my CLUs and Veros from Cobkits.com and they got to the east coast in a week. He was able to tell me what to get and it saved me about $100 from the Rapidled kits. I have honestly found that most of the advertisers on this board are a great help and many of them offer discounts and advice that helps someone like me build a great light

coreywebster said:

I bought 2x the 260w QB kits. They can go up to 285w so could be up to 570w, that's in one half of my flower tent and covers 4x4 (tent been 8x4)
Looking at the efficacy from the kits to the full HLG550 they look about the same.
The kits would be a much cheaper option and I promise you they take 10min to assemble (if that)and if I remember right all you need is wire strippers and a Philips screwdriver. So much easier than building my Cob light and that wasn't hard to do.

Edit, the kits have gone up in price which I think includes free delivery but at $325 per kit your looking at a fair bit of saving from the HLG550

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Are these the QB kits with the two boards? I should have moved before they increased price. I was going to do 2 kits or 4 QBs buyt I am not convinced they can match a 1000watt HPS on yield. I really want to get away from HPS too.

they sold out, in like 2 hours.

you went from cheap, to baller in two seconds.

if you got a budget, I think you cant go wrong with a pair of 400-600hps

if you want to spend, look at some vero, or S5 citis.

sallygram said:

I have built a few systems, I love the QB304 systems, they are very easy to build. I also have build VERO 29s and CLU48's. I have found that I suck at soldering and the push type connectors are worth the few dollars extra. I honestly love my QB setups but decided I needed to save money and built the others. I bought my CLUs and Veros from Cobkits.com and they got to the east coast in a week. He was able to tell me what to get and it saved me about $100 from the Rapidled kits. I have honestly found that most of the advertisers on this board are a great help and many of them offer discounts and advice that helps someone like me build a great light

Click to expand...

What was your end result rig bro? I was looking at 2 of the 2 QB kits or 4 total boards to take on 1 HPS but they raised the price of QB kits. I like your avatar too. Your pup?

MMJ Dreaming 99 said:

What was your end result rig bro? I was looking at 2 of the 2 QB kits or 4 total boards to take on 1 HPS but they raised the price of QB kits. I like your avatar too. Your pup?

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I just harvested my first batch from a dual QB304 that I have running with an HLG-320 driver. I rushed them out of the veg room so the two plants (Gunslinger and Green Crack) were a little small (hence no photos) the GC yielded a pitiful 45 grams but the Gunslinger was 260!. The other 2 QB setups I have are looking even better, I honestly think that running 4 QB boards could actually better a 1000 watt HPS (especially with a cheap or old bulb). I didn't buy the kits for my QBs I went with Arrow for my drivers and just bought the boards and heatsinks to save money, eventually I will use my Vero 29 driver for another QB build, I like the results and they run cooler.

Next week I am getting some of the QB 120 for my veg room so I guess I am a big fan.

My dog is awesome, Sally Gram is a 15 pound squirrel chasing machine that hides from the vacuum cleaner

I will post some pics next week of my setup, I am going away for the weekend.