New to diy and overwhelmed

wrinkles88

Active Member
hey everyone,

I was following the diy led from grow mau5 maybe 3 years ago but things changed for me and I stopped following along. I am looking to get back in to and would like to some recommendations.

I am looking to replace two 1k hps lights. If I remember from before I was recommended to use 10 cxb3590 cobs for a 4x4 area so 20 of them to replace my two hps lights and covers 8x4. Does that still make sense?

I’ve looked at the kingbrite leds on Alibaba.com and they have some 450w 9 cxb3590 cobs. Has anyone bought this or any of their lights and what do they think?

I’m sure this has been asked numerous times and I apologize.
 

canadian1969

Well-Known Member
Here's a crazy idea thats been kickin around in my noggin, I will get murdered if I start another LED project so someone else has to try this.

Parts:
16 x BXEB-L0280Z-35E1000-C-B3 = $88
1 x 20" Box Fan (Walmart Etc.) = $40
HLG-240H-C700B = $90 (someone would have to check my driver math, I think this one would work)
100KOhm potentiometer = $1
Bag of zip ties = $1
Wire = $10? (all connectors are push in , solderless except the driver, can use connector caps)
$230
Layout:
https://imgur.com/a/F3c1q

The idea uses the forward face of the frame of the fan and no heatsinks, with the fan on low setting and blowing directly down, should keep it cool enough at nominal current 350ma, maybe even cool enough at max 700ma, and normalize the temp of the grow.

potential failures: plastic fan frame may need to be replaced, hard to say, with heat it may sag, fan failure would be bad, probably best if driver is not attached to fan/placed outside grow area.

All in all though its a max 200 watt cookie cutter type idea that comes in at $1/watt or less, dimmable, its own fan lol (my prices are CAD, so 0.75 USD /watt). The OP could build and use what 6 of these, 8 maybe? Okay lets say worst case scenario, 8 units. Thats $1840 ($1380 USD) and at nominal 350ma 920 watts?, probably way more than needed.
 

Fubard

Well-Known Member
Fan blowing down? Isn't that going to send the heat onto your plants? Wouldn't it be better to have it blowing "up" so it sucks the warm air away from the plants? Or am I missing something here?
 

Fubard

Well-Known Member
Depends on the situation - if your grow space needs warmth then down works, if it needs to be cooled then up works.
But "up" would still circulate the warm air in the same enclosed space, the end result on that side of things would be the same.
 

nfhiggs

Well-Known Member
Here's a crazy idea thats been kickin around in my noggin, I will get murdered if I start another LED project so someone else has to try this.

Parts:
16 x BXEB-L0280Z-35E1000-C-B3 = $88
1 x 20" Box Fan (Walmart Etc.) = $40
HLG-240H-C700B = $90 (someone would have to check my driver math, I think this one would work)
100KOhm potentiometer = $1
Bag of zip ties = $1
Wire = $10? (all connectors are push in , solderless except the driver, can use connector caps)
$230
Layout:
https://imgur.com/a/F3c1q

The idea uses the forward face of the frame of the fan and no heatsinks, with the fan on low setting and blowing directly down, should keep it cool enough at nominal current 350ma, maybe even cool enough at max 700ma, and normalize the temp of the grow.

potential failures: plastic fan frame may need to be replaced, hard to say, with heat it may sag, fan failure would be bad, probably best if driver is not attached to fan/placed outside grow area.

All in all though its a max 200 watt cookie cutter type idea that comes in at $1/watt or less, dimmable, its own fan lol (my prices are CAD, so 0.75 USD /watt). The OP could build and use what 6 of these, 8 maybe? Okay lets say worst case scenario, 8 units. Thats $1840 ($1380 USD) and at nominal 350ma 920 watts?, probably way more than needed.
I like it. Just crazy enough to work!
 

1212ham

Well-Known Member
Here's a crazy idea thats been kickin around in my noggin, I will get murdered if I start another LED project so someone else has to try this.

Parts:
16 x BXEB-L0280Z-35E1000-C-B3 = $88
1 x 20" Box Fan (Walmart Etc.) = $40
HLG-240H-C700B = $90 (someone would have to check my driver math, I think this one would work)
100KOhm potentiometer = $1
Bag of zip ties = $1
Wire = $10? (all connectors are push in , solderless except the driver, can use connector caps)
$230
Layout:
https://imgur.com/a/F3c1q

The idea uses the forward face of the frame of the fan and no heatsinks, with the fan on low setting and blowing directly down, should keep it cool enough at nominal current 350ma, maybe even cool enough at max 700ma, and normalize the temp of the grow.

potential failures: plastic fan frame may need to be replaced, hard to say, with heat it may sag, fan failure would be bad, probably best if driver is not attached to fan/placed outside grow area.

All in all though its a max 200 watt cookie cutter type idea that comes in at $1/watt or less, dimmable, its own fan lol (my prices are CAD, so 0.75 USD /watt). The OP could build and use what 6 of these, 8 maybe? Okay lets say worst case scenario, 8 units. Thats $1840 ($1380 USD) and at nominal 350ma 920 watts?, probably way more than needed.
The OP has a 4 x 8 space, so 4 ft. strips would be a logical fit.

On the other hand, what's the crazy part? Other than the box fan being overkill. ;)
That layout was the best thing (by far!) that would fit a 20" x 20" or something that I looked at a few weeks back.
 

Serva

Well-Known Member
Actually the Samsungs are a better deal, as they give significant price breaks for bulk purchases.
Actually thats true, but you forget one point:
For same efficiency (~186 lm/w) you need 1x F-series (144 diods, ~65ma each) or 2x EB strips (448 diods, ~20ma each). So you have 3x more diods, and 2x more spread with EB strips.

F-series 510$ (25x) / 1120$ (50x)
EB strips 680$ (50x) / 1330$ (100x)

So F-series cost 25% (25x) or 16% (50x, because there is no bulk discount for 50x) less than EB strips. Even after I calculated it now (never ordered so many strips that bulk prices became interesting) I don‘t think they are a better deal considering the advantage...

Edit: @wrinkles88 for a 2x 4x4 I would get 4x HLG-240H-42A (32 sqft * 30-35 w/swft = 960-1120 w)
 
Last edited:

Serva

Well-Known Member
You are stoned as you are converting to cubic feet then using that number in square feet calc.
Na... he got twice a 4x4. So 2x16=32. I am stoned, but I also have read the thread carfully ;) And it doesn‘t matter at all in this case :D
 

Randomblame

Well-Known Member
hey everyone,

I was following the diy led from grow mau5 maybe 3 years ago but things changed for me and I stopped following along. I am looking to get back in to and would like to some recommendations.

I am looking to replace two 1k hps lights. If I remember from before I was recommended to use 10 cxb3590 cobs for a 4x4 area so 20 of them to replace my two hps lights and covers 8x4. Does that still make sense?

I’ve looked at the kingbrite leds on Alibaba.com and they have some 450w 9 cxb3590 cobs. Has anyone bought this or any of their lights and what do they think?

I’m sure this has been asked numerous times and I apologize.
Strips are currently the latest craze.
For wiring simplicity I would recommend to use twelve Samsung F-Series strips in 4ft. double row layout (288 diodes each, like a QB in long) and 4x HLG-240H-48A(best bang for the buck).
3 strips per driver in parallel means ~1,73A per strip or 96mA per diode(16s18p). This leads to an effiency of ~175lm/w or ~2,6μMol/J. A quick comparision shows a CXB3590 needs to run @700mA to reach this point of efficacy. And because the strips run at only 77% of the rated current you will need no heatsinks, only a frame or an alu-sheet to mount the strips on. Pretty easy to build and you have 4 independent 250w lamps, each ~280w at the wall.
 

wrinkles88

Active Member
Lol damn you guys. Now I’m even more confused.

I was planning on ordering the Crees from Alibaba.com, where is everyone ordering these strips from? I’m in Canada if that makes a difference.
 

1212ham

Well-Known Member
That's a lot of light for the money! Actually it can be 4 lights, and the versatility that comes with 4 independently dimmable lights.

After nfhigs comment on bulk pricing, I had a look at SI-B8VZ91B20WW on Digikey... one is $48.07, but drops to only $41.92 for 10 or or more.(:

$750 for 1000 watts of very efficient and effective strips and drivers. (: :clap:
 

Fubard

Well-Known Member
Lol damn you guys. Now I’m even more confused.

I was planning on ordering the Crees from Alibaba.com, where is everyone ordering these strips from? I’m in Canada if that makes a difference.
If you're buying anything from AliExpress then the first thing you need to look at, imo, is how many orders a seller has had. The higher that number, the better the chance of a faster delivery and reasonably decent service.
 
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