First LED build CXB3590

Hello all,
First time poster here. Long time reader. Been reading the forums for about 6 months now. Finally just went for it and ordered:
10 cxb3590 3000k 72v CB
2. Cxb3590 5000k 72v

6 mean well hlg -120h -c1050

I plan on running 2 per driver.

So here are my noob questions:

I have options for room size ( bloom)
4x4
5x5
6x4

I plan on ordering from Heatsink USA in the next few days. I've done a shit ton of math. I plan on cooling actively with fans. However I want enough sink so that if the fans crap out my lights won't die. Also plan on have temp sensors and light timers hooked to an arduino board so I can view temps outside the room.

Recommended heatsinks?

Cost of electricity is not a problem thats why I plan on driving the cxbs pretty hard. Plus the way technology is moving forward these cobs will be replaced in the next 2 years. I will drill and tap the sinks, but I haven't decided on now to assemble them together or where to put the drivers. My first thought was on top of the sinks because I will be using them very efficiency so I assume no heat. Placing them remotely will pose a problem of moving the entire array up and down, I really don't want floating loose wires. Any suggestions?

Ambient temp in the room 21C

I know I have a long way to go but I'm taking my time. Been reading supras posts for a while now, hoping he will chime in here.

Also efficiency rating for the cxbs being drivin at 1050a?

So excited about my new endeavor. Any tips or suggestions are welcome.

Thank you!

Well, you will be slightly more inefficient. I will run them in gangs of 4 at 700ma, each. I really was going to go your route. But, even though I defended my position forcefully, if rather in-artfully, I was soundly reconciled, into the Hazy Church of LED Goodness, after, what was it, 40 pages?

it did seem obvious, finally, to get more photons with less power, instead of going more photons, for more, extra amps. It will pay for itself in electricity saving.

You know you get less photons per amp as you increase the power. But, you will cut down on your start-up costs. All a trade-off.

you said, Cost of electricity is not a problem

How can that be? It cost someone, somewhere. Higher rates for all, comes from aggregate excess demand.

Alas.....the order has been placed....I can always dim them down and do some comparing as I bought the 'B' series dimmable

DoctorDelta9 said:

Alas.....the order has been placed....I can always dim them down and do some comparing as I bought the 'B' series dimmable

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I believe that you can make it happen. Your drive and enthusiasm is evident in the original post. It's just a matter of time before all the pieces fit together and you're cutting frosty buds off your plants.

So I'm pondering heatsinks now....I'm thinking.of building an aluminum frame and gluing them together using thermal epoxy.
5.886x5=29.45
In 30" lengths
Should give me enough room to work around in a 5x5 space.
Cxb3590 x10 so 2 per sink dissipating 75w a piece total. Still hoping someone will chime in with efficiency numbers for cxb3590 72v @1050ma. So I can figure some true wattage numbers for the heat.
I'm just wondering if 30" x30" will give enough spread over a 5x5 area.
Ordered my ideal cx35 holders and 80 degree lenses today...woohoo!

You might want to tag him so he is notified, as you know Supra is an LED god around these parts and has to have a lot of activity going on. Might be hard to spot your request! He has always been very helpful for me, but sometimes you gotta have some patience!

On a side note, I am excited to see some pictures of this build! I was going to grab some CXB3590s at first but decided on the CXB3070s based on availability. I also opted for the lower voltage COBs.

You said that you were planning to actively cool the LEDs but want a safety net in case a fan fails, good thought. I share the same view as well. I bought CPU coolers for this reason, they are smaller profile so I only run 1 COB per heatsink. The quality CPU heatsinks should be able to handle 100w, so if you are running them at 75w and actively cooling them you should be ok I would think. I have 5 separate heatsinks w/fans mounted to a cooking sheet to create a single panel, or I can remove the heatsinks and mount them in a different area for better coverage.
I have a fan for my room blowing across my heatsinks as well, I have shut the fans off and let the LEDs run for about an hour. They were hot, but nothing alarming.
Do I know if they will survive if a fan dies? Not for sure. I am comfortable though, IF 1 of the 5 fans fail I have *SOME* air flowing from my grow area fan. So worst case scenario a fan dies the second the light turns on, I am in my area at least once before I start my day and after 9 hours away I would hope that my LED would not be harmed. But I have never had a fan fail on me yet (knock on wood)

I have also seen a larger heatsink like the ones you were referring to in your OP, covering the fins with a thin sheet of metal and mount *multiple* cpu fans to blow across the fins and out. That way if one failed, you would have backup fans + an overall larger area to dissipate the extra heat which would still be cooled by the other fans.

So I shopped cpu coolers a little. But I can't see the size of that actual contact plate on the specsheet. I need enough room for the ideal holder and the lens, and visually I don't think there will be ( I've build a few computer rigs in my day, there's not much contact area) if anyone has mounted the 3590 to a CPU heat sink please chime in and let me know. I want to stay away from tape and epoxy, as I don't want to spend another 300-400 on heatsinks when Cree blows our mind with the next line of cobs in the next 2 years...lol. Also if someone wants to tag supraSPL for me I would appreciate it. I'm a newb and can't like posts or tag people. Oh great one enlighten me please!

I use 10"x24" heat sinks and run the HLG-185H-C700A 4 CXA's per driver and 2 drivers per heat sink total 8. I still have to put together my CXB's. I have 4 more panels to make just waiting for more cob holders

LOL the thread title drew me in. Where did you find CXB3590 5000K? Also curious about the 80° lenses.

5.88"X30" is good for 110W passive cooled or 310W active cooled (dissipation W). If that gives you too much spread between COBs the 7.28" profile might be even better, slightly thicker base and thicker fins. You could mount CXB3590 onto Alpine11s with a COB holder if you rotate the holder just right. I have not done it but some DIYers here have. The Arctic 64 Plus has a larger flat area. The Rosewill RCX-Z1 has a nice 92mm fan, large flat copper surface, fan grill and dimmer.

SupraSPL said:

LOL the thread title drew me in. Where did you find CXB3590 5000K? At 1050mA they dissipate 76W ea

5.88"X30" is good for 110W passive cooled or 310W active cooled. If that gives you too much spread between COBs the 7.28" profile might be even better, slightly thicker base and thicker fins. You could mount CXB3590 onto Alpine11s with a COB holder if you rotate the holder just right. I have not done it but some DIYers here have. The Arctic 64 Plus has a larger flat area. The Rosewill RCX-Z1 has a nice 92mm fan, large flat copper surface, fan grill and dimmer.

View attachment 3400338

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Yo Supra Jerry is gonna get some 4000k and 5000k soon and I'm trying to get us lower prices.

Sweet! Thanks for the info guys. Glad I waited to order. Im going to over do it on the heat sink in between the active and passive specs just to have some wiggle room with the temps.
Reading about hooking an arduino to a raspberry pi so I can check temps from my phone. I'm going to read up tonight and put the order in tomorrow.
@REALSTYLES did you fasten the heatsinks together and hang as one unit?
@SupraSPL Thanks! That's the chart I've been looking for! I'm going to go with the big sinks from HSUSA.
I'll post a diagram of my plan sometime tomorrow. I have a buddy who owns a welding shop, so I'm thinking of building a frame with 90degree aluminum elbows to set the sinks on top of, making it easy to hang and lift up and down.

I ordered the 5000k from jerry. He was up front and said that he knew they were coming, but said the lead time might be up to a month. No worries. Like I said I'm not in a rush. I just want to do it right. Plus the 5000k are for veg room, so I can start the first batch under the big boy and it won't be a problem.
Getting more excited by the minute!

The 5'x5' area will give you a very good amount of PAR W/sqft (around 16W/sqft). I think of 12 as enough, 14 good, and 16 as better than good. You could grow 4-5 foot plants in a 5'x5' under what you're planning to build.

a 4'x4' would give you 25.5W/sqft PAR, would be enough power to grow 10 foot ganja plants.

DoctorDelta9 said:

Sweet! Thanks for the info guys. Glad I waited to order. Im going to over do it on the heat sink in between the active and passive specs just to have some wiggle room with the temps.
Reading about hooking an arduino to a raspberry pi so I can check temps from my phone. I'm going to read up tonight and put the order in tomorrow.
@REALSTYLES did you fasten the heatsinks together and hang as one unit?
@SupraSPL Thanks! That's the chart I've been looking for! I'm going to go with the big sinks from HSUSA.
I'll post a diagram of my plan sometime tomorrow. I have a buddy who owns a welding shop, so I'm thinking of building a frame with 90degree aluminum elbows to set the sinks on top of, making it easy to hang and lift up and down.

I ordered the 5000k from jerry. He was up front and said that he knew they were coming, but said the lead time might be up to a month. No worries. Like I said I'm not in a rush. I just want to do it right. Plus the 5000k are for veg room, so I can start the first batch under the big boy and it won't be a problem.
Getting more excited by the minute!

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they are hung separately to spread the light better in a 4x8 tent

REALSTYLES said:

Yo Supra Jerry is gonna get some 4000k and 5000k soon and I'm trying to get us lower prices.

Click to expand...

Just ordered some 4000k emitters from them. 80cri though

bicit said:

Just ordered some 4000k emitters from them. 80cri though

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I think 80cri are better? They only make the high cri in 2 step. From what I've read the higher the step the better (wider wavelength) of the cobs. I could be wrong about this

DoctorDelta9 said:

I think 80cri are better? They only make the high cri in 2 step. From what I've read the higher the step the better (wider wavelength) of the cobs. I could be wrong about this

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As far as i am aware, plants don't care about cri. Higher cri emitters are less efficient. So in my opinion, lower cri emitters are better simply due to the increased efficiency.

Cree has a 70cri 4000k in the spec sheet, but they're not available yet.

I think with the newer versions of cxb, the 90cri 3000k phosphor is the same or more efficiency than the 80cri 3000k, according to @alesh.

Whether one actually works better than the other for veg or flowering, I don't think anyone can say for sure.

Given the the same efficiency for high and low cri, I'd choose the high CRI for veg to get the extra red.

bicit said:

As far as i am aware, plants don't care about cri. Higher cri emitters are less efficient. So in my opinion, lower cri emitters are better simply due to the increased efficiency.

Cree has a 70cri 4000k in the spec sheet, but they're not available yet.

Click to expand...

churchhaze said:

I think with the newer versions of cxb, the 90cri 3000k phosphor is the same or more efficiency than the 80cri 3000k, according to @alesh.

Whether one actually works better than the other for veg or flowering, I don't think anyone can say for sure.

Given the the same efficiency for high and low cri, I'd choose the high CRI for veg to get the extra red.

Click to expand...

This would be nice to rule out... definitively.... maybe in a new thread?