Bridgelux EB Gen 3 High Output 4ft Strips

XLG-240-M-AB
So the price point on this driver is really attractive. Basically driving 3-4 strips per driver on this I can achieve the exact same wattage as before and actually save $10 per fixture in ballast cost. However I lose 2% efficieny. If i do 3 strips per driver this leaves me room to drive the strips harder if I need more juice or if I want to run my lights higher up (which I am considering like DE style as I mix fixtures). That's an extra $50/ fixture. Now the trade off is this ballast is 0-10v dimmable so I can hopefully figure out a way to get it to play with an off the shelf grow controllers. This driver is in stock both on arrow and in digikey, although digikey doesnt have enough for me they can be restocked within a week so pretty doable.

Is there anything I am overlooking here? Missing something about voltages or anything? In this case all I am doing is wiring 3 strips in series to 4 xlg drivers. Or 4 strips in series 3 XLG drivers. voltage will be 115 or 152 depending on 3 or 4 strip. Has anyone used these drivers and how did you like them?

Trying to work out my heat sink requirements from common extrusions available to me at a reasonable price. The problem is it's probably cheaper to run more strips at 0.7a then use heatsinks lol. But if I am heat sinking I want to be able to take each strip to 83w. So I am using the area method for heat dissipation but I was wondering if someone would be willing to check my work or if there any obvious errors i've made? If the numbers are correct then it looks like I can use a common extrusion for a top of sliding door track. I would cut the extrusions at 48" lengths.

MidnightSun72 said:

Trying to work out my heat sink requirements from common extrusions available to me at a reasonable price. The problem is it's probably cheaper to run more strips at 0.7a then use heatsinks lol. But if I am heat sinking I want to be able to take each strip to 83w. So I am using the area method for heat dissipation but I was wondering if someone would be willing to check my work or if there any obvious errors i've made? If the numbers are correct then it looks like I can use a common extrusion for a top of sliding door track. I would cut the extrusions at 48" lengths.
View attachment 4719826

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mad a seperate check I checked using this heat sink calculator that just uses the overall volume of the heat sink and it also says the section is enough to dissipate 43 heat watts.


link to calculator

noticed this on the strips. What do the EB Gen 3 4000 Lumen strips say. They are only 27W

This is the 4ft 2700k cri90 strips.

bcr500 said:

This is the 4ft 2700k cri90 strips. View attachment 4721152View attachment 4721153

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Is that a 54w strip like mine?
I tried calling Bridgelux like 10 times today different departments and got through to no one. How awesome. Lol. More to come on this.
I downloaded Dialux... I wonder does anyone have IES files for these strips? Or can I take my strip somewhere and get it tested?

MidnightSun72 said:

Is that a 54w strip like mine?
I tried calling Bridgelux like 10 times today different departments and got through to no one. How awesome. Lol. More to come on this.
I downloaded Dialux... I wonder does anyone have IES files for these strips? Or can I take my strip somewhere and get it tested?

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No it’s regular 2700k cri 90 with the 4000 in the part number.

MidnightSun72 said:

Is that a 54w strip like mine?
I tried calling Bridgelux like 10 times today different departments and got through to no one. How awesome. Lol. More to come on this.
I downloaded Dialux... I wonder does anyone have IES files for these strips? Or can I take my strip somewhere and get it tested?

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Where did you buy them from? Future electronics?

bcr500 said:

Where did you buy them from? Future electronics?

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Digikey.

MidnightSun72 said:

Digikey.

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I would try to contact them and see what they have to say. It don’t seem right to me that it would say 1400 max on your strips since there supposed to be double that. I had read somewhere that bridgelux messed up some packaging with future a while back so it has happened before.

bcr500 said:

I would try to contact them and see what they have to say. It don’t seem right to me that it would say 1400 max on your strips since there supposed to be double that. I had read somewhere that bridgelux messed up some packaging with future a while back so it has happened before.

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Good idea. Thank you.

This might help depending on controller you use or how you want to hook them up.

Oxyrhina said:

This might help depending on controller you use or how you want to hook them up.
View attachment 4721442

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ThNks for this extremely helpful as I've been wondering what wires they use if I want to wire my lights with common connectors.

Now I've tried to contact bridgelux again. Tried the phone again different random extensions. Lol nothing. Called Digi-Key and they asked me to put in a defective complaint. So I put it in the explanation about the strip not matching the data sheet and we'll see where that takes us. Noooowwwa

so looking at the pacific lighting concepts strips. The ya re running similar wattage on the photoboost strips as I want for my max wattage per bar so I think the heat sink requirements should be identical as the strip sizes are very comparable (when comparing two PLC strips in a row as show in their 16 strip 8 bar reference design which is 640W I think. Which is what I want to run mine at but I am doing 640 over 12 strips not 8. However when I turn up to 960W total fixture then I am running the same wattage per bar as the PLC 46" bars.
So this first picture is the PLC heat sink with the T slot groove in the top sinks for mounting. This was discontinued.

And then hers the PLC website saying it's discontinue and to you the 1010 series T slot profile 3 sided instead. This is 1" width or 25mm in metric.




I am in Canada so as usual we get bent over on prices. But I quoted a few different automation companies (they sell those xtrusion commonly)

so the extrusion available to me locally is actually 30mm or about 1-3/16" width. So I think it will be an even better heat sink.

it has this profile. I am gonna see if I can get this profile thermally modelled.

This profile comes out to 14.50ish per piece. Which is also the cost of another whole strip. So the question is am I better to use the heat sink and take advantage of the structure and fork factor the heatsinks will give me (good backing for strips etc.) vs just running twice the strips half as hard? However I think that takes away my ability to run higher up on the drivers because my strips won't be heat sinked. Maybes I could go from 0.7a to 1.05a?

I reached out to My uncle who specializes in heat sinks and I asked for him to quote me a heat sink extrusion that is 1-2" in width and 46-48" in length. And I gave him the info on the strips. So he is going to do a thermal model to find out the optimum heat sink. But I might try to get him to model the extrusion for me as well if it won't make him too pissy haha.

I have a 16 PLC strip light using the 1" tri slot extrusions and 2 320h-1400b's remotely mounted. I really like it, the only downside imo is it's pretty heavy and I only used the 2 slot spine versus the 3. Also those little L brackets add up pricewise (and weighty) but you could totally run 1 per extrusion vs 2 like I did as 1 is plenty strong. Here is a site with quite a few profiles that would work but what is nifty is they have each charted with °C/W so you can see the effectiveness of each profile.

I asked plc about using the 1"x0.5" single slot profiles since I bought another 20 strips and 2 more 320w drivers (4 will be for clones) but haven't gotten an answer. The 1x1 run pretty cool, 91 degrees is the highest I've measured with 85 ambient but that's running dimmed at ~525w. I'm thinking about just buying a couple of the 1x.5 profiles to try with the clone strips. They should never run 100% but I could test it out...

Hth

Oxyrhina said:

I have a 16 PLC strip light using the 1" tri slot extrusions and 2 320h-1400b's remotely mounted. I really like it, the only downside imo is it's pretty heavy and I only used the 2 slot spine versus the 3. Also those little L brackets add up pricewise (and weighty) but you could totally run 1 per extrusion vs 2 like I did as 1 is plenty strong. Here is a site with quite a few profiles that would work but what is nifty is they have each charted with °C/W so you can see the effectiveness of each profile.

I asked plc about using the 1"x0.5" single slot profiles since I bought another 20 strips and 2 more 320w drivers (4 will be for clones) but haven't gotten an answer. The 1x1 run pretty cool, 91 degrees is the highest I've measured with 85 ambient but that's running dimmed at ~525w. I'm thinking about just buying a couple of the 1x.5 profiles to try with the clone strips. They should never run 100% but I could test it out...

Hth

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I am not sure I fully follow on using the 2 slot extrusion vs 3 slot like I am using. Do you have any pics of your fixture?
I also noticed the 1x2" and it looks great and would give a sleek look. But it doesn't look like it has a ton of radiating surface area.

Thx for the link with the sinks

MidnightSun72 said:

I am not sure I fully follow on using the 2 slot extrusion vs 3 slot like I am using. Do you have any pics of your fixture?
I also noticed the 1x2" and it looks great and would give a sleek look. But it doesn't look like it has a ton of radiating surface area.

Thx for the link with the sinks

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I was talking about the spine that holds the heatsinks down the center. GG uses a spine that has 3 slots even though at most you will only use 2 for attaching the heatsinks. I went with a 2 slot spine which surely cut a good bit of weight. Those extrusions are heavier than you would think but I'm sure that's why they work so well! IIRC my box from t nutz for 2 fixtures was slightly over 100 lbs (45kg)!

One other thing I forgot to mention, you said your in Canada. Check out 80 20 or 80/20 extrusions. It's the same thing, it just has a wider availability (even Amazon has it) and it seems to be a little more well known. I'm not sure of the price difference but I would think it would be the same or cheaper. If you go on the 8020.net site there is a link to find the supplier in your area and someone will contact you by email. I've used 80 20 before but went with t nutz just because GG had everything linked.

The only other thing I did different from GG and I can't remember if you went with 2 drivers. I combined the 2 driver leads in a junction box mounted on the driver board to 25' of solid core 18/4 awg sprinkler wire. So there's only 1 cord going into the tent and I found a 4 prong LLT quick connect on ebay to mount at the fixture. I had to move my tent once and was glad I spent the extra bit of time and $10 for the connector!

I'm excited to see how these work out for you! I'm seriously considering some eb's to veg a 5x5. I truly love everything about ho t5 with good 6500k bulbs for veg except the heat they put off... I seriously think they put off as much heat or more even than equal watts of halides!

Oxyrhina said:

I was talking about the spine that holds the heatsinks down the center. GG uses a spine that has 3 slots even though at most you will only use 2 for attaching the heatsinks. I went with a 2 slot spine which surely cut a good bit of weight. Those extrusions are heavier than you would think but I'm sure that's why they work so well! IIRC my box from t nutz for 2 fixtures was slightly over 100 lbs (45kg)!

One other thing I forgot to mention, you said your in Canada. Check out 80 20 or 80/20 extrusions. It's the same thing, it just has a wider availability (even Amazon has it) and it seems to be a little more well known. I'm not sure of the price difference but I would think it would be the same or cheaper. If you go on the 8020.net site there is a link to find the supplier in your area and someone will contact you by email. I've used 80 20 before but went with t nutz just because GG had everything linked.

The only other thing I did different from GG and I can't remember if you went with 2 drivers. I combined the 2 driver leads in a junction box mounted on the driver board to 25' of solid core 18/4 awg sprinkler wire. So there's only 1 cord going into the tent and I found a 4 prong LLT quick connect on ebay to mount at the fixture. I had to move my tent once and was glad I spent the extra bit of time and $10 for the connector!

I'm excited to see how these work out for you! I'm seriously considering some eb's to veg a 5x5. I truly love everything about ho t5 with good 6500k bulbs for veg except the heat they put off... I seriously think they put off as much heat or more even than equal watts of halides!

Click to expand...

Oxyrhina said:

I was talking about the spine that holds the heatsinks down the center. GG uses a spine that has 3 slots even though at most you will only use 2 for attaching the heatsinks. I went with a 2 slot spine which surely cut a good bit of weight. Those extrusions are heavier than you would think but I'm sure that's why they work so well! IIRC my box from t nutz for 2 fixtures was slightly over 100 lbs (45kg)!

One other thing I forgot to mention, you said your in Canada. Check out 80 20 or 80/20 extrusions. It's the same thing, it just has a wider availability (even Amazon has it) and it seems to be a little more well known. I'm not sure of the price difference but I would think it would be the same or cheaper. If you go on the 8020.net site there is a link to find the supplier in your area and someone will contact you by email. I've used 80 20 before but went with t nutz just because GG had everything linked.

The only other thing I did different from GG and I can't remember if you went with 2 drivers. I combined the 2 driver leads in a junction box mounted on the driver board to 25' of solid core 18/4 awg sprinkler wire. So there's only 1 cord going into the tent and I found a 4 prong LLT quick connect on ebay to mount at the fixture. I had to move my tent once and was glad I spent the extra bit of time and $10 for the connector!

I'm excited to see how these work out for you! I'm seriously considering some eb's to veg a 5x5. I truly love everything about ho t5 with good 6500k bulbs for veg except the heat they put off... I seriously think they put off as much heat or more even than equal watts of halides!

Click to expand...

thx this stuff is just an analog of 80/20. It's all standard over here with automation companies. They all sell it. Some sell 80/20 brand. But pretty sure if you respect the sizes they all fit together. I like that you can respect the bars easily with this system as I want a flexible fixture so it's very attractive. Once I see the math to confirm this extrusion is satisfactory to dissipate the heat watts I'll make my decision. If it's not I think I might buy double the strips lol fml. I bought all the Digi-Key stock in this colour so maybe I'll mix with 3000K or something. So hard to decide which way to go I think the decision will be obvious once I get a hold of a bridgelux tech. The strips weight nothing so double strips and a nice light 4x4 angle frame with two support angles in the middle would make for a very cheap fixture in terms of aluminum and heat sinking cost.

Ok so calculating the thermal resistivity of this aluminum profile I read this exchange online and based on the equation provide I came up with the values as shown in my figure below. a Thermal Resistivity of 1.5877 *C/W was calculated for the 30mm extrusion. Those heat dissipation factors are just estimates of how much less effective the surface area will be at getting rid of the heat due to its location (basically just guessing lol).







Based on this I would actually need 430 squar einches of area 43 Heat watts X 10in per watt..... but also their equation for Pd (HW) actually claims 85% of the Electrical Watts... but this slide is from 2011... So I am not sure what to make of that if the efficiency is still assumed that low.

So I talked to digikey again today and made some great progress. They sent an email to bridgelux for me to find the rates voltage on the wire connectors. They sent me a sick PDF by bridgelux saying to wire the strips in series is what they recommend. So I will be using a CC driver. Also I requested IES/RAY files for the eb Gen 3 high output strips as well as some sort of amperage temperature response curve or thermal properties for the strips. So I am excited for that. Might get some gen 2 strips to play with for now as I need to get this room done so maybe make a set of 0.7a eb Gen 2 no heatsink lights. And then put together a more powerful fixture down the road on Wei get heatsink costs down etc.