Light Setup - 4x4 w/ 4 plants, COB LED (Luminus CXM-32)

chatoo123

chatoo123

Well-Known Member
I w
TrainingPineapples said:
Yes, seek out a computer recycler and go to their warehouse ... most will have a showroom with salvaged parts like heatsinks and fans for server applications

You should be able to find what you need no problem for cheap ... plus having the ability to mount a fan directly to your heatsinks would be handy methinks
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I would use the arctic Alpine 11 plus pc coolers you can get em for 12-16$ a peice and they keep my Vero 29 se's at 36 vt 1400 ma very cool to the touch
 
INF Flux

INF Flux

Well-Known Member
Hadez411 said:
I like, got a link?
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I dont think I did a build thread on them. Ended up using 6 strips on the final. All you need is the strips, some double sided thermal backing tape. a 26x18 cookie sheet from winco or wherever waygo connectors or solder and shrink wrap tubing, and driver of choice. I used a MW120-24a.
A friend saw how mine were doing and made the switch from HPS to led. Because he wanted to hang them higher and spread them out like he had with the bulbs we upped the strip count to 8 and used a more powerful driver. The calculator led gardener put together makes pairing a driver easy. http://ledgardener.com/parallel-strip-build-tool/
 
Hadez411

Hadez411

Well-Known Member
INF Flux said:
I dont think I did a build thread on them. Ended up using 6 strips on the final. All you need is the strips, some double sided thermal backing tape. a 26x18 cookie sheet from winco or wherever waygo connectors or solder and shrink wrap tubing, and driver of choice. I used a MW120-24a.
A friend saw how mine were doing and made the switch from HPS to led. Because he wanted to hang them higher and spread them out like he had with the bulbs we upped the strip count to 8 and used a more powerful driver. The calculator led gardener put together makes pairing a driver easy. http://ledgardener.com/parallel-strip-build-tool/
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Thank you for the reply!

I've decided to go with 6 of the Bridgelux 560mm(22")3500k strips and an HLG-120h-20A, per 120w grouping of strips. The web tool said go with the HLG-150h-24A, can anyone justify that to me over the hlg-120h-20A? I only want 1amp and 20w per strip and I read that meanwell can perform fine under full load.

I'm aiming to run at 1 amp and 20V, these strips should produce 20W each, for a 2'x2' light with a total of 120w. Which I read is the suggested amount of led wattage to get ~700 par. The current I'm running them at should need a little heat sinking, so I'm bending fixtures/heatsinks from a 25$ roll of unpainted aluminum flashing. The flashing comes 18" wide and 10metres long and I'll bend it with an aluminum break, into fixtures that resemble a t5 fluorescent fixture. Glue the led strips to that with two sided heat sink tape and suspend it all. Also, I'll make sure the room fans cycle past the lights, for some extra cooling. Hope it's enough cooling. I can always spot weld some more aluminum fins on to the lights if not.

Cool tip for aluminum: you can spot weld it with a normal 220v spot welder if you sandwich the aluminum between two thin sheets of steel. The steel makes the resistance high enough to generate the heat needed to weld without stupid high voltage and amperage.

My goal is to be as cheap as humanly possible without compromising on longevity and efficiency. Please tell me if you know of better prices and if you know whether Canadians will get hit with any duties/tarrifs, by ordering led lights and power supplies through arrow.com. The prices on arrow are significantly cheaper even with the exchange rate. Like 20$ less per 120w power supply. The led strips themselves aren't any cheaper on arrow though (compared to Digi key).

Here's the pricing and items in (CAD), without tax:

(6) 22" EB strips: 60$ (Digi key.ca/arrow.com)
(1) HLG-120h-20A: 77$ Digi key/55$ Arrow
(1) 10m roll of 18" wide "factory finish" (unpainted) aluminum flashing - 25$ (home depot/home hardware)
(1) roll of 20mm wide thermal tape: 20$ amazon.ca
(1) roll of wire: 20$

Comes to around 153$ per 120w fixture with taxes in.

I'm looking at the plc-100-20 power supply as well, it's another 20$ cheaper and can do 100w, with 5 of the 2 foot bxeb strips, for 80$/100w.

Anyone see any issues with using the cheaper plc power supply? It says it's smooth power and made for LEDs in the manual, so it seems ok to me.
 
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eyderbuddy

eyderbuddy

Well-Known Member
I see no issues with your build, but the HLG-120h-20a goes up to 170W (at the wall), not 120. So unless you're going to be measuring your power draw, you should add 2 or 3 more strips to reach a maximum potential of 160 watts or 180 watts... This way, no matter how much power you run through the LEDS, they wont get any damage

The problem is, that there's always the potential that you crank your lights all the way up, thinking you're at 120W, while you're pushing 170W through them, and eventually kill them.
 
Hadez411

Hadez411

Well-Known Member
eyderbuddy said:
I see no issues with your build, but the HLG-120h-20a goes up to 170W (at the wall), not 120. So unless you're going to be measuring your power draw, you should add 2 or 3 more strips to reach a maximum potential of 160 watts or 180 watts... This way, no matter how much power you run through the LEDS, they wont get any damage

The problem is, that there's always the potential that you crank your lights all the way up, thinking you're at 120W, while you're pushing 170W through them, and eventually kill them.
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Please, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you're talking about the hlg-120h-c1050 series. All the controlled current models that are below 1A output have wattages that are elevated.

sketch-1551799528651.png sketch-1551799487778.png

My main reason to only go with 120w per fixture, in a 2'x2' configuration, is that will give the par I need and be independent of the other lights, in case I'm growing things at different rates or stages and need to raise/lower them separately. I grow from seed so I'm often switching between raising a bunch of mixed male/female then ditching all but a couple of the most prime looking females. I like to separate my lights for this process and still have another plant already growing
 
Hadez411

Hadez411

Well-Known Member
eyderbuddy said:
I see no issues with your build, but the HLG-120h-20a goes up to 170W (at the wall), not 120. So unless you're going to be measuring your power draw, you should add 2 or 3 more strips to reach a maximum potential of 160 watts or 180 watts... This way, no matter how much power you run through the LEDS, they wont get any damage

The problem is, that there's always the potential that you crank your lights all the way up, thinking you're at 120W, while you're pushing 170W through them, and eventually kill them.
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Thanks for the heads up though, I'm definitely going to be doing the assembly and testing with a voltmeter.
 
eyderbuddy

eyderbuddy

Well-Known Member
Hadez411 said:
Please, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you're talking about the hlg-120h-c1050 series. All the controlled current models that are below 1A output have wattages that are elevated.

My main reason to only go with 120w per fixture, in a 2'x2' configuration, is that will give the par I need and be independent of the other lights, in case I'm growing things at different rates or stages and need to raise/lower them separately. I grow from seed so I'm often switching between raising a bunch of mixed male/female then ditching all but a couple of the most prime looking females. I like to separate my lights for this process and still have another plant already growing
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I'm speaking from experience brother, i've never had the constant current types but i have a few HLG-120H-48A's and a couple HLG-185H-48A's.

The 120H's can do 170W (at the wall), and the 185H's go up to 240w.

On a 2x2 you can go up to 160W if your temperature control is dialed in. But honestly there's no need to go over 120W, as you've said.
 
Hadez411

Hadez411

Well-Known Member
eyderbuddy said:
I'm speaking from experience brother, i've never had the constant current types but i have a few HLG-120H-48A's and a couple HLG-185H-48A's.

The 120H's can do 170W (at the wall), and the 185H's go up to 240w.

On a 2x2 you can go up to 160W if your temperature control is dialed in. But honestly there's no need to go over 120W, as you've said.
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Hmm.. Ya it says it draws 1.4A and 115v at the wall which is 161W then factor in efficiency x0.9 and you get ~145W left.

Well it's nice to know I've got the overdrive potential to reach 1.2a if I add some aluminum fins or put in fans. I guess I'll wire in some digital readouts so that I'm never tempted to be lazy and guess, if my voltmeter isn't around.
 
GreenMitten

GreenMitten

Well-Known Member
I just started looking into the DIY route... Just reading this thread tells me I have a ton of learning and reading to do yet
 
Hadez411

Hadez411

Well-Known Member
GreenMitten said:
I just started looking into the DIY route... Just reading this thread tells me I have a ton of learning and reading to do yet
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It is certainly a steep curve to start but it levels out.

The cheapest, easiest and most effective setup, by far, is the Bridgelux EB strips in a 3500k colour. I have 12 of the 560mm hooked in series to a meanwell HLG-240H-C1050A. Works well. You can either run angle aluminum perpendicular to the strips and simply air cool them or stick them on an 1/8" aluminum plate if you wanna have them be more cool.

Also, Amazon sells "corn" led bulbs now at about 145 lm/W in 5000k and 6500k. Sold by Kukuppo. They are decent efficiency and cheap veg lights imo. They are a bulb format though so you have to consider that there's some reflectors needed and some losses (~5-10%) from the 145 lm/W in the reflection.
 
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GreenMitten

GreenMitten

Well-Known Member
Hadez411 said:
It is certainly a steep curve to start but it levels out.

The cheapest, easiest and most effective setup, by far, is the Bridgelux EB strips in a 3500k colour. I have 12 of the 560mm hooked in series to a meanwell HLG-240H-C1050A. Works well. You can either run angle aluminum perpendicular to the strips and simply air cool them or stick them on an 1/8" aluminum plate if you wanna have them be more cool.

Also, Amazon sells "corn" led bulbs now at about 145 lm/W in 5000k and 6500k. Sold by Kukuppo. They are decent efficiency and cheap veg lights imo. They are a bulb format though so you have to consider that there's some reflectors needed and some losses (~5-10%) from the 145 lm/W in the reflection.
Click to expand...
 
GreenMitten

GreenMitten

Well-Known Member
Thank you for the advice. What does that draw from the wall? I like the idea of being able to customize the light in the DIY route. Plus it's always fun to tinker and learn. I was also curious on the LED bulbs... I was told to stay away from them as they generally don't put off enough light. I just wanna bang out some killer buds.✌
 
Jhef

Jhef

Active Member
eyderbuddy said:
1 x LRS-350-36 connected to 8 x bxeb-l1120z-35e4000-c-b3 in parallel
1 x LRS-150-36 connected to 4 x bxeb-l1120z-35e4000-c-b3 in parallel

Total wattage would be 500 watts, dimmable (with screw driver), doesn't need a heatsink, and the spread beats cobs with a slap in the face

Total $218.52 + Other stuff like aluminum to mount the strips, wires, connectors, etc

Look it up man, you wont regret it
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Do you need to run any resistors when running this in parallel?

Considering:
2 x Lrs-350-36
16 x 1120z
 
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