Mate I just wanna say, you've been fuckin solid since I joined this site. Helped me out a hell of a lot. Nice one brotherOk, so this thread didnt turn out the way i thought, but then again better for that. Youve had lots of advice for all kinds of setups, and id say i think theyre all good bets. Its often better to take advice from everyone. Personally i dont like to make decision for others, i like to get people to get to the place where they can make the decision for themselves. Cutter has great stuff, i especially like them for their specialty custom stuff. The only thing ive not seen recommended here is the 90cri + uv options; but i dont know if cutter has stock of the strips or if growlights australia has stock of their board. In either way youve been sniffing around the right trees for 4 pages. Cutter nichia kits seems like a good deal, i didnt realize they came with driver and all, its an awesome price.
When you come to these kinda decisions its a good idea to try to calculate re leveraging diode count, with respect to cost. If you have one option thats a lot cheaper but around 10% less efficient, think the vesta strips, versus another, think crees or nichias, calculate how much it would cost to just get twice as many diodes of the cheaper version. If it works out the same, which it many times do, at least when i was buying in lots, then go for twice the diodes at half the power. Youll gain back those approx 10% by running each diode at half power, or half wattage per $$ if that makes sense. But the benefits of running soft doesnt end there, having twice the diodes and thus half the power per diode have many more benefits: lower temps, which saves the diode from deterioration and also gices a comparative efficiency boost due to lower temps; better spread and possibility to lower hanging heights, (this may be more of an issue with boards or if your running like 50w per strip) and just having that extra capacity of having the max wattage higher. In this case i havent made the numbers on all the alternatives but i dare say that vestas might not be the best option here. They are indeed cheap, but cutter nichia kits, at 280something £ are great value if they come with a driver which is already around 100£. Maybe get those 4extra strips for your kit so you can run them at around 25w a piece, no matter what strip you choose.
Cutter has some excellent stuff so look around, im especially a fan of some of their 280mm 2 channel strips for uv and far red, and their 5050 solstrips with pc reds. But these items opens a jar of worms when it come to connections.
Also, it might be a point to see if mark can get you 2 x 240 drivers instead of a 480 driver. Im glad to see Cutter is still on point in covid times, and i hope, Mark, Ben and families are all doing ok.
Guide me to the Light....
- Thread starter DukeFluke
- Start date
Mate I just wanna say, you've been fuckin solid since I joined this site. Helped me out a hell of a lot. Nice one brother
Airwalker16
Well-Known Member
Yea, I've mentioned this to a few people. I was wondering what the catch was. Seems like just the most common sense thing to do when you consider how hard it is for a lot of people who don't know where to start.
It does, and it's the very last obstacle in my decision really. I'll have a chat with Mark before I put my order in.
Just to clarify though, the nichia strips you are simply suggesting I get more of and not actually replace with a cheaper strip and more of them?
What's your opinion on the PR Boost strips?
Why is this?
Hear that dude
Rocket Soul
Well-Known Member
2x240 drivers make for 2 independent 2x4 kits rather than one 4x4. You will like the flexibility, its one of the nr 1 regrets of 4x4 builders. Ask @diggs99 if you like. Its not a big deal if it means alot more $ but for 30-40£ it will prob be worth it.
Also, on CMH, yup weve done it and it took quite some time before led beat them, but on our best run we had a bit more per square foot and alot more on g/w. But its an awesome light, easy to grow with when leds need a lot of climate control and now in the new space which is colder were still running cmh for heat, maybe led just during june-sept or even october. But with batwing reflector we get a decent almost 4x2 foot print, which works well with other 4x2 led fixtures , just mix and match for when youu get that cold snap
Also, on CMH, yup weve done it and it took quite some time before led beat them, but on our best run we had a bit more per square foot and alot more on g/w. But its an awesome light, easy to grow with when leds need a lot of climate control and now in the new space which is colder were still running cmh for heat, maybe led just during june-sept or even october. But with batwing reflector we get a decent almost 4x2 foot print, which works well with other 4x2 led fixtures , just mix and match for when youu get that cold snap
I hear you and it makes a good bit of sense tbf.
Can't get hold of Mark on the site at the moment tho
2 Questions.
I don't know which bulb you used, but I've got the Philips Agro and use that for veg and flower. I'll be honest, IMO it's the best veg light you can use for structure and side branching.
Any idea what it is/might be that stimulates this effect, or have you noticed it yourself if you use these bulbs?
Secondly, what gpw figures are you pulling from your different setups over the time? How do they compare?
diggs99
Well-Known Member
100% agree with everything RS says here.
He tried to warn me about building big lights , 2 at half the size will always be better than 1 big fixture. Mainly for versatility and ease of hanging and adjusting heights.
Airwalker16
Well-Known Member
Blank(neither A or B) means no dimming ability.
A means dimming via an internal screw potentiometer underneath a rubber plug on the driver. It allows roughly 50-100%
B means it has another set of wire leads coming from off of the driver, usually blue and white that you will need to wire your own potentiometer to for dimming 0-100%
AB is the best of both, it allows you to both set onboard loads, and then use external dimmer to control/dim that with a knob/POT
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Nice one. And is it generally better to use a lower voltage driver?
I had a quote recently for boards which needed 180-220v
When I asked for the voltage to be lowered like you suggested, he told me that although he could do it, the bars would run cooler at the higher voltage.
Why is that?
I had a quote recently for boards which needed 180-220v
When I asked for the voltage to be lowered like you suggested, he told me that although he could do it, the bars would run cooler at the higher voltage.
Why is that?
welight
Well-Known Member
Thanks Rocket, always appreciate your solid review of our range. In 90 CRI UV Boost we have
SSK-1560ZGE-UVABoost White + UVA/Violet Led Strip | Cutter Electronics
The SSK-1560ZGE-UVABoost Board has 112 leds spaced on 0.5mm pitch for beautiful blending and maximum utilisation of the PCB. Solderless terminations
www.cutter.com.au
SSK-1560ZGE-XX-3030CR Midpower Led Strip - Cutter Electronics
SSK-1560ZGE-XX-3030CR Board, 100 leds spaced on a close pitch for beautiful blending and maximum utilisation of the PCB. Solderless terminations
www.cutter.com.au
Cheers
welight
Well-Known Member
AB is the best of both, it allows you to both set onboard loads, and then use external dimmer to control/dim that with a knob/POT
Airwalker16
Well-Known Member
Yes. Forgot that
Ah mark, I have my sketch ready to go. I waited up til 5am bud and sent you messages on the site and a pm over here. We arranged to meet up midnight my time 9am yours. I'm ready to roll with my order. Should I just send the sketch to the admin email on the cutter site?
Edit: I'll send it now via pm actually
Thanks
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Before I forget I wanna say thanks to @maddmango who's helped me out loads via pm as well. Nice one buddy, it's much appreciated
Ok so... I just spent the first of my pennies... Ideally would have liked to chat with Mark over at cutter but I haven't heard back and there's nobody on the site. He's probably busy.
So what I've decided to do is spread my bets a bit. I've just picked up 40 of these 90 CRI strips https://www.futureelectronics.com/search?text=BXEB-L0560Z-30G2000-C-C3&q=BXEB-L0560Z-30G2000-C-C3:relevance:category:light-engines&selectedTab=products&selectedParentCategory=light-engines
I'll still hopefully get a couple of kits from cutter, but I'm gonna also head over to Digikey tomorrow when I get home and put in another order for some 80 CRI BXEB strips which I plan to mix with these to make me my first couple of cheapish but still decent all round veg to bloom lights.
Let me know what you think abow dat
So what I've decided to do is spread my bets a bit. I've just picked up 40 of these 90 CRI strips https://www.futureelectronics.com/search?text=BXEB-L0560Z-30G2000-C-C3&q=BXEB-L0560Z-30G2000-C-C3:relevance:category:light-engines&selectedTab=products&selectedParentCategory=light-engines
I'll still hopefully get a couple of kits from cutter, but I'm gonna also head over to Digikey tomorrow when I get home and put in another order for some 80 CRI BXEB strips which I plan to mix with these to make me my first couple of cheapish but still decent all round veg to bloom lights.
Let me know what you think abow dat
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Airwalker16
Well-Known Member
Were you wanting to get strips from cutter? If so, you shoulda waited. They put out some serious photons.
EB strips though, Gen 2 or 3, I've heard don't need heatsinks really, below 1amp.
Yea I've just been chatting to Mark then. Still set on getting the Cutter kits. Just wanted to get something to run in my other space to see how they all stack up. I'll probably be migrating a lot of what I build around the place to use for other stuff eventually. I do a lot of fruit and veg and I'll more than likely end up knocking together some little bits and bobs specifically for that, so nothing will go to waste.
grotbags
Well-Known Member
are the strips you ordered from future 3000k 90cri?.
and whats your thinking on ordering the 80cri strips to mix in? what k/ratio?.
grotbags
Well-Known Member
for a pure cutting/veg light i want to try the optosolis 98cri 5000k strips from cutter, at the minute i use a mix of 5000k and 3000k 80cri samsung 301b strips at a 2 to 1 ratio. easily as good as a cmh in my opinion in structure ect, but kills it in spread/even canopy lighting obviously.