Guide me to the Light....

I know you've mentioned that to me before and it makes sense. Comes in handy as a starter light then as well.

Do bear in mind that I'm used to having 3 x 1m secret jardin parabolic hoods hanging in there though brother, and believe me, moving them out of the way is a major pain in the ass. My idea with these strip builds is to put two hooks on the apex and two onto the light, and when I need to do so, I can just lift them up so they lay flat against the ceiling. Can you picture it?

My only reservation about having them all as 2's is whether it'd make that harder for me to do. Fuck knows really, I suppose I'll only know when they're in place.

I'm doing one side first, so what I'll do is make up the first two as 4x4s. and one of them separated in two pieces. See how I get on with that. In practice I might like them separated tbh.

So if I want the driver mounted away from the light itself, does that limit me to a certain type of driver or can I do that with them all?

Thanks

Rocket Soul said:

Could you maybe draw some stuff of this space?

Click to expand...

I should have posted this earlier. Here's a little sketch of the space

Rocket Soul said:

I think mark was talking about 90 cri of the new crees coming in a few months a bit back in this thread.

Click to expand...

the 80 CRI Boost with 660nm lifts to 92-93 cri, but will test the new 3030 boost with some 90cri and 660 to see what affect to CRI is, im guessing a 2700k 90 with 660nm should make a nice flower board
cheers
Mark

for remote drivers, you can check the voltage drop.
basically you can mount all of them remote but higher voltage or low amps is preferable then.

Not sure I'm entering the right parameters in that calculator but I've played around with it and I'm not getting much voltage drop at all. Drivers will only be 6 feet away from the light, which is maybe 10 feet in wire accounting for bends.

What kind of buffer in voltage would you recommend in that case?
I mean how much over should I go?

So for 8 F-Series strips with a forward voltage of 46V

Would this driver be good? https://www.digikey.co.uk/product-detail/en/mean-well-usa-inc/HLG-480H-54A/1866-2554-ND/7704117

And for my 240w builds with the BXEB strips, this: https://www.digikey.co.uk/product-detail/en/mean-well-usa-inc/HLG-240H-24B/1866-2431-ND/7703987

Thoughts?

DukeFluke said:

So for 8 F-Series strips with a forward voltage of 46V

Would this driver be good? https://www.digikey.co.uk/product-detail/en/mean-well-usa-inc/HLG-480H-54A/1866-2554-ND/7704117

And for my 240w builds with the BXEB strips, this: https://www.digikey.co.uk/product-detail/en/mean-well-usa-inc/HLG-240H-24B/1866-2431-ND/7703987

Thoughts?

Click to expand...

Both will work, but neither is a good option.
First: you want to have voltage dimming on your builds in parallel: this means you want the suffix to be either A or ideally but no super important AB for onboard voltage dimming and also possible external dimmer. This is especially important if your driver will be in an inaccessible place.

Second: matching voltage: both these drivers seem to have slightly high voltage for the chip at hand. First your f series: use 48V driver so same model but finishing in 48A (or AB).

Bxeb gen3: using 2 foot strips? They are around 20V so 24V is unnecessary headroom. 2 options, use 20A (or AB) suffix driver or even better for making easier connections: put 2 strips in series and then make a parallel connection, this will result in something around 40V and you can use 42A (AB) suffix driver. It pretty much means the build would work as a 4foot build as iirc the 4 footer is identical to 2 x 2 footers.

Tip: how to read hlg models:
hlg240 (wattage)
H-c2100 : indicates constant current driver at 2100mA, not usefull for your build
H-48: indicates constant voltage driver 48V
AB /A / B : B is for of board 3in1 dimming, in order adjust current you can attach an external dimmer. A: is onboard dimming, not super comfortable you need to push a screwdriver into a little hole carefully and adjust a screw. You really need to have access to the driver for this. However this driver also have another way to dim by voltage dimming which is so handy that it trumps any inconvenience, it allows you to adjust voltage up or down which adds flexibility and gives you a very important safety feature of being able to set a ceiling of how much power a strip candraw from the driver. This nullifies the problem with parallel connection that people used to be afraid of: current hogging if one part of the fixture fails. AB: both, best of both worlds but i havent been able to play around with them.

welight said:

the 80 CRI Boost with 660nm lifts to 92-93 cri, but will test the new 3030 boost with some 90cri and 660 to see what affect to CRI is, im guessing a 2700k 90 with 660nm should make a nice flower board
cheers
Mark

Click to expand...

Sounds great, but even better, but i dont know if the circuit architecture allows for it: one 660 and one 420nm. Is that an option?

Rocket Soul said:

Both will work, but neither is a good option.
First: you want to have voltage dimming on your builds in parallel: this means you want the suffix to be either A or ideally but no super important AB for onboard voltage dimming and also possible external dimmer. This is especially important if your driver will be in an inaccessible place.

Second: matching voltage: both these drivers seem to have slightly high voltage for the chip at hand. First your f series: use 48V driver so same model but finishing in 48A (or AB).

Bxeb gen3: using 2 foot strips? They are around 20V so 24V is unnecessary headroom. 2 options, use 20A (or AB) suffix driver or even better for making easier connections: put 2 strips in series and then make a parallel connection, this will result in something around 40V and you can use 42A (AB) suffix driver. It pretty much means the build would work as a 4foot build as iirc the 4 footer is identical to 2 x 2 footers.

Tip: how to read hlg models:
hlg240 (wattage)
H-c2100 : indicates constant current driver at 2100mA, not usefull for your build
H-48: indicates constant voltage driver 48V
AB /A / B : B is for of board 3in1 dimming, in order adjust current you can attach an external dimmer. A: is onboard dimming, not super comfortable you need to push a screwdriver into a little hole carefully and adjust a screw. You really need to have access to the driver for this. However this driver also have another way to dim by voltage dimming which is so handy that it trumps any inconvenience, it allows you to adjust voltage up or down which adds flexibility and gives you a very important safety feature of being able to set a ceiling of how much power a strip candraw from the driver. This nullifies the problem with parallel connection that people used to be afraid of: current hogging if one part of the fixture fails. AB: both, best of both worlds but i havent been able to play around with them.

Click to expand...

Thanks very much again.

I was compensating for voltage drop by going a bit higher on the drivers. I was originally matching the driver with the strip based on the exact voltage but @cobshopgrow told me to compensate for voltage drop. I think I misunderstood how to do that so mistakenly went higher on the drivers.

What you're essentially saying is the A version of the driver allows me to go a bit higher with the voltage? Is that right?

So the B version does not allow me to do that?
Only to adjust current?

So 3 quick questions based on that:

How do I use an external dimmer with the A version?

How do I calculate the approximate voltage drop from the driver?

How do I test that and match up the driver accordingly when I get it?

Thanks in advance to everyone helping me man, very much appreciated.

the driver will adapt the drop automatically as long it is in the CC region.
if not, the led simply go a bit dimmer.
nothing you can do much about.
you can roughly calc the drop you expect using these calculators.
you cant dim a A version with a external dimmer, just by the onboard screws, down to about 50% i think.

So This to match my 46V 48A

And this for the 20V 20V A

They've got the B version of the second one. But you're saying if it's either or, get the A?

cobshopgrow said:

the driver will adapt the drop automatically as long it is in the CC region.
if not, the led simply go a bit dimmer.
nothing you can do much about.
you can roughly calc the drop you expect using these calculators.
you cant dim a A version with a external dimmer, just by the onboard screws, down to about 50% i think.

Click to expand...

So will the driver need a certain voltage buffer to do that?

When you say nothing I can do much about,do you mean if my driver is under powered for the strips?

I'll just put it bluntly, what would you buy for an F-series 4ft 8 strip build?

Thanks bud

can you post a link to the strip you will be using?

cobshopgrow said:

can you post a link to the strip you will be using?

Click to expand...

Here COB

This is for the F-series
https://www.digikey.co.uk/products/en?keywords=SI-B8VZ91B20WW

These are the BXEB https://www.futureelectronics.com/p/lighting-solutions--light-engine-led-assemblies--light-engines/bxeb-l0560z-30g2000-c-c3-bridgelux-5115970

DukeFluke said:

So This to match my 46V 48A

And this for the 20V 20V A

They've got the B version of the second one. But you're saying if it's either or, get the A?

Click to expand...

Youre order of perference of driver should be AB, A and last B unless you absolutely need external dimming or automation of intensity. The AB and well, just try to get AB.

Bxeb. If youre planning on putting strips 2 wide, or 2 long, then go for 42AB/A/B etc, easier to connect tat way.

Thanks very much. Can't get the AB on Digikey so gonna go with the A unless I ca source them somewhere else.

DukeFluke said:

Thanks very much. Can't get the AB on Digikey so gonna go with the A unless I ca source them somewhere else.

Click to expand...

Not sure on the driver you are looking.
Have you tried
TME.EU
Or
MOUSER

Rocket Soul said:

Sounds great, but even better, but i dont know if the circuit architecture allows for it: one 660 and one 420nm. Is that an option?

Click to expand...

Let me check that today and will advise
Cheers

lets say your strip is running at 20.5V and your driver is capable of delivering 24V.
you have a "buffer" of 3.5V your cables or anything else in the chain can "burn".
sure , you need pick the right driver capable of enough overhead, while its often not much needed, a volt or so.
should be noted that a volt is percentage wise a lot on a 24V driver, not so much on a 48V driver, even less on 100V and so on.

just wanted to say dont go mad about it, thats just indirect related to how powerfull your drivers are.
You just cant change much other then take thicker/shorter cables, or go higher with the voltage to keep the A low to reduce the drop, IF its too high for your liking/usecase.

the 42V driver and 2 EB3 in series are a good choice in my mind.
for the sammies it sounds like the 48V driver is a better option.