Rider's first foray into LED strip lighting - Samsung H Series GEN3

Thanks, guys, very much appreciated!

Right on man,

The only thing your missing, is the entire base on a giant roll-out tray, lol.

your set-up is top notch pro looking bro, enjoy and may the fruits swell well for ya bro,

PS: Berner, dont steal my bars brother.

It's been awhile since I updated this journal so it's time to play catch-up. The plants are all doing well with roots reaching down into the water. The seedlings even have taproots in the water! I set up the 4x4 and I'm in the process of revamping my old RDWC to accommodate the seedings. I'm running the 4x8 at 80F and 75%rH in prep for running Co2 and kicking the lights up in stages to about 1200umol.
I let the plants veg long enough before topping them to produce viable clones for the cut tops. I normally clone in Rapid Rooters but made a bubble cloner with humidity dome just for something to try out. So far the clones are looking amazing. My main RDWC is a 40gal system with a 1/4hp chiller maintaining 68F. I run a large humidifier and the environmental control is handled by a small heater to maintain temps above 72F during lights off and a thermostat to keep temps below 81F by evacuating excess heat through a big charcoal canister. Co2 is dispersed from tanks via a CO2 monitor through a floor fan. Most air movement is handled by a ceiling mounted fan. The first pic is before I brought in the rest of the in-tent equipment.

Whow!
That's what I call a pro-setup!
Each plant should be happy when she get such a nice enviroment.
Maybe a few painted windows on the walls and Mozart's 5th would make them even happier, LOL!

Really pushing the envelope man, great to see! Looks really professional, love how the drivers are mounted next to the tents and the Nutradip system, very cool Hope you have a great harvest, I'm sure you will!

Another tip that may work for you.
If you would run the tents by turns(one on, one off), you do maybe not need the heater, or at least not that often.
Could save you a few bucks on you electricity bill.

oooooooh you guys..
just finished this thread and im delighted

came back from about 10months of lurking pause and look what happened.
look at the prices, the simplicity, the uniformity..
i just cant believe it.. looking back at cxa times.. ridiculous how fast the tech grows stronger.

im still a little confused by how to find the freshest strips from vendors, but i bet a bit lurking will get me updated.
in this thread its mostly samsungs at 46ish volts, but when i check the bxeb sheets, it differs bit time.
is there any problem with voltage drop / resistance with these low voltage systems over too thin cables, like commonly seen in 12v systems ?

big up to you rider, your setup looks awesome, clean, slick.
keep us updated
hope to be a more active part of the community from now on

Hey shines_like_gold, yeah, you have to be considerate of cable length and ampacity. The connector on the strips are sized to handle up to 18ga solid but you should try to minimize the use of that small wire. From the driver to the lights something heavier like a 14ga will minimize losses.One of the nice things about the Samsungs is how well they work with the HLG-XXXH-48A drivers. These new LED strips are def a game changer for anyone looking to go custom LED. Way easier and less expensive than designing around COBs, and the ability to intersperse different color spectrums in a small form factor is an added benefit.

sooo..
basically having remote drivers at a long distance, adding few strips afterwards could lower the amperage to a degree that it kills the whole situation if not calculated properly beforehand?
so if i had to bring a long distance, could i overcome most of the distance with a very thick one to split it with a wago just right before i reach the panel ? so i wouldnt have to cramp the max gauge in the connectors ?

plus it would probably be better to choose a 48v strip over a 12v in a long distance situation, right ?
because for me these 12v systems are actually the most appealing to design an off-grid-grow.

sorry for hijacking your thread, just a few basics for me to get into the new subject, will maybe start my own as soon as i start designing - just for open-source-ideology - as im still not legal here.

goldie

Goldie, ya can't hijack a thread that's exploring lighting with lighting questions! Hell, I'm just glad for the company.
Check out this calculator. It's perfect for figuring out long distance transmission losses.
https://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm

But yeah, a heavy gauge wire to cover the distance and then break it down to 18ga to fit the onboard connectors. After looking at the V drop of 14ga I'm starting to consider stepping up to 10ga for my longest run. This is presuming you're running the lights in parallel with a 48V led driver. If you design for a series connection of the lights then the higher voltage and lower amperage negate ampacity concerns of the wire size.

what distance are you guys talking about? my driver sits outside my tent.

That's what I was wondering! http://www.calculator.net/voltage-drop-calculator.html

My longest run is about 16 feet, measured in one direction. Not sure what Goldie has going.
At 16' a 14ga conductor has a voltage drop of 0.996V at a load of 12A, as in my HLG-600H-48A drivers.

Ok, so my longest run of about 9 feet should not lose much, correct?

HLG-480H-48A

Sour Wreck said:

Ok, so my longest run of about 9 feet should not lose much, correct?

HLG-480H-48A

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If the whole run is done with 18ga you'll have about a 0.8V drop. At 14ga its about 0.3V.

Rider509 said:

If the whole run is done with 18ga you'll have about a 0.8V drop. At 14ga its about 0.3V.

Click to expand...

Thanks

Prawn Connery said:

So if I follow correctly, a HLG-480H-48 would provide the same results? The design I have in mind is a straight-up copy of the one I've already built below - which is a half-scale copy of yours - but with 3000K strips and two separate frames (2x frames, each with 4x2' F Series 3000K, each driven by a HLG-240H-48A). The reason for wanting two frames in a 4x2 (one per 2x2) is that I could conceivably grow different height strains on each side and raise/lower each frame as needed. I also have plans to go vertical at some point, placing each frame at either end of the tent facing in towards the plants in the middle. I mounted my driver remotely (outside the tent on a chord) to reduce heat. I'll do the same with the flowering frames. It's just as easy to wire a remote driver as it is to mount it on the frame (probably easier) and it saves a significant amount of heat.

View attachment 4040532

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Would you please tell me the product number for these lights? I have looked all over the digikey page for these lights. I can only find the single row. The f series gen 3 page doesn't have them listed anywhere I can see. I appreciate the info.

Rp1972 said:

Would you please tell me the product number for these lights? I have looked all over the digikey page for these lights. I can only find the single row. The f series gen 3 page doesn't have them listed anywhere I can see. I appreciate the info.

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If you mean the 4" double row strips then here is the info for the 3000K ones SI-B8VZ91B20WW https://www.digikey.co.uk/products/en?keywords=SI-B8VZ91B20WW

Thanks a bunch

These are the strips I used: SI-B8R521560WW

Not sure if this link will work, but it lists all the 2' and 4' double F Series currently available at Digikey:

https://www.digikey.com/products/en/optoelectronics/led-lighting-cobs-engines-modules/111?k=&pkeyword=&pv46=43323&pv46=43387&FV=ffecdcb2,ffece9af,fffc05e6,ffe0006f,b8a93b,b8a97b,b8b486&mnonly=0&ColumnSort=0&page=1&quantity=0&ptm=0&fid=0&pageSize=250