DIY with Quantum Boards

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Federucci

Well-Known Member
TWest65 said:
If the lights were bought expecting 320 watts, but only run at 160 watts, you will not get max performance from them.

I agree, however, that turning the lights down will increase the longevity and efficiency per watt.
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Exactly, my reasoning was that if theexpected draw is way above the maximum threshold the plants can take, maybe 8-900 watts, but you run them at about 550-600 to achieve about 40 watts per square foot, you still get the max your little buddies can take according to conventional wisdom while being as efficient as possible, at the expense of cost, of course. I am a fan of having more horsepower than you need at the time.
 
Twobs

Twobs

Active Member
Federucci said:
Exactly, my reasoning was that if theexpected draw is way above the maximum threshold the plants can take, maybe 8-900 watts, but you run them at about 550-600 to achieve about 40 watts per square foot, you still get the max your little buddies can take according to conventional wisdom while being as efficient as possible, at the expense of cost, of course. I am a fan of having more horsepower than you need at the time.
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Sound reasoning.

Today I've been watching temps closely and I think I may end up running them around 80%. This is going to be the first time I've used them exclusively as before I was running 3 different fixtures with a total of 9 cobs. I had one of these HLG 320w XL fixtures in that mix, for a total of 4 fixtures, but was never running it above 50%. The heat output on those cheap cob fixtures was ridiculous. That being said, these HLG fixtures are impressive. So much brighter than anything I had before and quite a bit cooler running. I was initially thinking about tearing down one of the 400w Roleadro lights that contained 2-200w cobs (so they say), setting them on some custom heatsinks and adding them to the 2 - 320w XL setup.. But now after seeing these in exclusive action. I may have to try and find another HLG fixture that could sit inbetween these two 320w XL fixtures. In this case what would be a decent compliment if I were to reduce the 320w XL fixtures back down to 50-60%? Any recommendations would be welcome. I run a UC setup so I haven't had an issue with too much light so far. As you said, I too am a fan of having more horsepower than needed. But I do love to push things to find a limit then slowly back off to a more comfortable position.
 
TWest65

TWest65

Well-Known Member
Twobs said:
Sound reasoning.

Today I've been watching temps closely and I think I may end up running them around 80%. This is going to be the first time I've used them exclusively as before I was running 3 different fixtures with a total of 9 cobs. I had one of these HLG 320w XL fixtures in that mix, for a total of 4 fixtures, but was never running it above 50%. The heat output on those cheap cob fixtures was ridiculous. That being said, these HLG fixtures are impressive. So much brighter than anything I had before and quite a bit cooler running. I was initially thinking about tearing down one of the 400w Roleadro lights that contained 2-200w cobs (so they say), setting them on some custom heatsinks and adding them to the 2 - 320w XL setup.. But now after seeing these in exclusive action. I may have to try and find another HLG fixture that could sit inbetween these two 320w XL fixtures. In this case what would be a decent compliment if I were to reduce the 320w XL fixtures back down to 50-60%? Any recommendations would be welcome. I run a UC setup so I haven't had an issue with too much light so far. As you said, I too am a fan of having more horsepower than needed. But I do love to push things to find a limit then slowly back off to a more comfortable position.
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If you run two 320's at 60% then you'd be 384 watts. In a 5x5 I would want 875 watts total. So your center light would need to be 491 watts. If you only want to run the center light at 60% also, then you'd need a light that outputs around 820 watts.
 
ilovereggae

ilovereggae

Well-Known Member
Hi everyone I decided I need one more QB for a new fixture. I havent been checking this thread recently, went back @ 10 pages but didn't see answer. Do we know if the regular V2 288 boards are coming back or is it V2 Rspec has replaced them? I can't find the 3000k ones at any retailers either.
 
Twobs

Twobs

Active Member
TWest65 said:
If you run two 320's at 60% then you'd be 384 watts. In a 5x5 I would want 875 watts total. So your center light would need to be 491 watts. If you only want to run the center light at 60% also, then you'd need a light that outputs around 820 watts.
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So 875 total watts is a good range for that size. Alright, much appreciated.
 
pop22

pop22

Well-Known Member
The thing most people fail to get if they are shooting for max efficiency is that drivers are at their most efficient when driven to 90-100% of their rating, while boards are most efficient at low power. So the ideal build for efficiency would be to run one driver to its max and enough boards to run them in the 50-75 watt range, as that's the sweet spot for light output at good efficiency.

Federucci said:
Exactly, my reasoning was that if theexpected draw is way above the maximum threshold the plants can take, maybe 8-900 watts, but you run them at about 550-600 to achieve about 40 watts per square foot, you still get the max your little buddies can take according to conventional wisdom while being as efficient as possible, at the expense of cost, of course. I am a fan of having more horsepower than you need at the time.
Click to expand...
 
F

Federucci

Well-Known Member
pop22 said:
The thing most people fail to get if they are shooting for max efficiency is that drivers are at their most efficient when driven to 90-100% of their rating, while boards are most efficient at low power. So the ideal build for efficiency would be to run one driver to its max and enough boards to run them in the 50-75 watt range, as that's the sweet spot for light output at good efficiency.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the information, this old guy can still learn! It seems that I have read a lot of misinformation out there. It makes sense then that people use a constant voltage driver to run boards wired in paralleI then, right? Is this at all dependent on the driver or board type to any degree buddy?
 
pop22

pop22

Well-Known Member
actually, constant voltage drivers are used in series. Lets look at meanwell drivers. A 320H-C1400b driver is a constant Current driver. The voltages of the luminaires add up when run in series on this driver. This is why its important to read the data sheets for drivers. it can run up to 4, 50-54V boards or cobs in series, but is limited to 4 because its max DC voltage for this driver is 229V. ( your also limited by the max voltage rating or the wiring connectors, which for QB boards is 300V. It is a good choice however for higher voltage boards like the QB 304 as you can run either 2 to 4 in parallel or 2 strings of 2 in series.
A 320H-54 is a CV-CC driver, constant voltage and constant current. This driver can run as many 50-54 V boards as you want, limited only by the current being shared by the series wired boards but won't run 100+V boards. You can run 24V boards on it, 2 in parallel to get to the minimum 48V of the driver.

This is why reading Data sheets is important. The sheet will help you figure out what driver you need to run x amount of boards or cobs to the power level you want to run.

Hope this helps. And yeah, I'm an old guy too lol. And I think my learning skills are better now that when I was younger.

Thanks for the information, this old guy can still learn! It seems that I have read a lot of misinformation out there. It makes sense then that people use a constant voltage driver to run boards wired in paralleI then, right? Is this at all dependent on the driver or board type to any degree buddy?
[/QUOTE]
 
TWest65

TWest65

Well-Known Member
pop22 said:
... A 320H-54 is a CV-CC driver, constant voltage and constant current. This driver can run as many 50-54 V boards as you want, limited only by the current being shared by the series wired boards but won't run 100+V boards. You can run 24V boards on it, 2 in parallel to get to the minimum 48V of the driver.
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You wire the 54v boards in parallel, not series. You wire the two 24v boards in series, not parallel.
 
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