Samsung F Strip Build

Laserbeams said:

Sorry folks. I did not mean to insult the u channel at all . Cheap, effective and available. Quite possibly the most sensible choice. I am another one that scooped up some strips in the latest deal offerings and got a load off Arrow They really were just about giving them away. I couldn't resist and seem to going through a equipment hoarding phase at the moment.

Lots of strips driven gently is the plan if indeed there is a plan. Def winging it so far. Seen some pretty smart builds here in the last few weeks.

This probably wont be the last you hear from me. Still have to choose drivers

Keep her lit

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No worries, all good. Thought that would have come out with the humour i meant it.
Just sayin the u-eys gives loads of options. Like 2 strips wide per U and custom.lengths and get it with the rest of the frame. The.pro sinks benefits are generally if you wanna run your strips hard.
Personally id find it very annoying paying more for sinking than leds, then just buy more.leds and run the super soft.

Haha, My newbness with forums is shining through. I normally just lurk around and read. As someone way cleverer than me said its better to look like an idiot than open your mouth and confirm it.

Still trying to make up my mind on the way forward. Carry on with the low cost theme or go for the Rolls Royce option. Both will work just as well and produce. Went through checkout options on heatsink US. Delivery would more than double the cost. Waiting on a price from european supplier, the only one that bothered to reply.

I will let you know how I get on.

Laserbeams said:

Haha, My newbness with forums is shining through. I normally just lurk around and read. As someone way cleverer than me said its better to look like an idiot than open your mouth and confirm it.

Still trying to make up my mind on the way forward. Carry on with the low cost theme or go for the Rolls Royce option. Both will work just as well and produce. Went through checkout options on heatsink US. Delivery would more than double the cost. Waiting on a price from european supplier, the only one that bothered to reply.

I will let you know how I get on.

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My advice is check your yellow pages for an good Alu shop, which will jut everything at length.

My local is lumetal, for price reference. Heres their u channels:


If uk well its going to cost more but shouldnt be double or tripple. Check where builders and similar buy their stuff.

Thanks for that., will check it out. Planing to look round some local shops before I place any orders. My original idea was to use some ally tread plate or diamond plate as it sometimes called. Pretty sure that's available in a couple of different thickness. Might just get a bit to try on a couple strips and use them to boost up the spectrums and watts in my current setup. It could end up as a veg light or a get a couple of mother plants going if I can sort a dedicated space. It would be good experience for the big build.

@iPerculate
Much respect for starting a thread that has acquired so much information. Cheers!

I thought I would just throw this in for the sake of conversation. There is a fair amount of discussion on the heatsink topic, so I will share this with you.

I had ran Bridgelux EB Gen 2 strips at 700mA with no heatsink for the last two grow cycles. I wanted to change up the lighting some and decided to buy different drivers that would allow me to push the strips harder, twice as hard actually. Now running them at 1400mA, and of course that would require some heatsinks. I looked into all the options that have been discussed here, and was a little butt hurt over the price of the heatsinks. I drug my feet and kept my eyes open, and eventually came upon another option. I stumbled on some salvage 3/16 inch (4.75mm) aluminum plate, and figured it was worth a try.
I was concerned about a 24 X 24 inch solid plate blocking to much airflow in the tent, so I chose to drill ventilation holes. (thought this might help with keeping the heat down as well)


this is a pic of the back side when I light it for the first time

And this is it in the tent.
Note: The red is not coming from this light.


I let it run with Zero air movement to see how hot it would get and after an hour the back side of the plate read 116 F (warmer that what is comfortable to hold your hand on)
In the tent I have 3 computer fans blowing on it from above, and the plate is barely warm to the touch.

I was able to go from approximately 100 watts to 200 watts, for the price of a driver and a little labor.

So far so good.
I thought the idea of running a plate might be helpful to those having difficulty locating heatsinks.
Cheers,
WillieP

Very resourceful. I was gonna do the barefoot EB's @ 700. Did you not like the light output at that amperage. Or did you want to expand your grow space?

tincdink said:

Very resourceful. I was gonna do the barefoot EB's @ 700. Did you not like the light output at that amperage. Or did you want to expand your grow space?

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Thanks Tinc,
I would diffidently try them at 700mA. You can always up the amperage later on if you would choose to, I ran my first two grows under a 'Frankenstein' type of light with salvaged 5K street light modules that I added the 3.5K strips to in an attempt to round out the color spectrum.


I had a friend offer to let me try some factory LED fixtures he wasn't using so I could use them to add some red during bloom as well.


My situation was more of a changing things up kinda deal.
I was growing 2 plants in veg, 2 in flower. Flower tent had a 2 X 4 Scrog screen, and a 2 X 4 light.
I decided to go with a more staggered approach and still grow 4 plants, but have them spaced out at different stages.
1/2 Veg, Full Veg, 1/2 Flower, Full Flower. That meant I needed two separate 2 X 2 screens and I chose to rework the strips into 2 X 2 lights also.

Hope that all made sense.
I would not hesitate to use those strips at 700mA.

Good Luck,
WillieP

Good to know. I'm a sunlight grower now (with minor supplementation), but eventually wish to try indoor exclusively. My goal is to use angle iron to create a frame, but run the strips naked. Perhaps its a weird aspect of my persona, but I don't mind paying for more strips. But paying a lot for heatsinks when it actually isn't necessary bugs me. Eventually I'll pull the trigger on some EB gen 3 (not the slim) strips. Take care.

Would a 50mm wide x 10mm high heatsink be big enough for the influx L09 strips/ f-strips or should I stick with the slightly larger heatsink Usa profile. Not planing to run the strips balls to the wall. Thinking along the lines of more strips at lower power.

I think I may have answered my question already, just looking for confirmation.

I run the Influx strips on 1/4" x 2" flat aluminum. At 7-800mA per strip, the heatsinks are barely above room temperature

Sweet as, will order the 50 x 10s tommorrow.

BlackmoreRulz said:

I run the Influx strips on 1/4" x 2" flat aluminum. At 7-800mA per strip, the heatsinks are barely above room temperature

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H-Influx or just Influx? I got 12 of the Influx L-09 because they were $2.73 each and was thinking of running them with no heatsinks in a 2x2.

@WillieP I really like that single plate you used with holes in between strips. My HLG lights seem to be constantly blowing around by all of the fans but yours would allow air to flow through it. All of the pieces used to build a frame with heatsinks gets expensive quick. I was contemplating a 24"x24" plate build in the past, may borrow your idea with the holes.

iPerculate said:

@WillieP I really like that single plate you used with holes in between strips. My HLG lights seem to be constantly blowing around by all of the fans but yours would allow air to flow through it. All of the pieces used to build a frame with heatsinks gets expensive quick. I was contemplating a 24"x24" plate build in the past, may borrow your idea with the holes.

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I have 3 12vdc computer fans blowing down on it from above, powered by an old cpap power supply, and you can barely tell it's warm.
It has worked out well so far. I just to light readings the other day and needed to raise the light up. It was ranging in the 110K-85K lux at 3-4 inches. Moved it up to more like the 85K-70K range.

I'm just running the reds in flower.

Good Luck if you choose to proceed.
WillieP

iPerculate said:

Strips - https://www.digikey.com/products/en?keywords=1510-2222
Driver - https://www.digikey.com/products/en?keywords=1866-2490
Heatsink - https://www.heatsinkusa.com/2-079-wide-extruded-aluminum-heatsink/
Aluminum Frame - https://ecommerce.metalsupermarkets.com/Location.aspx?ProductId=AA6063/343418

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Is this enough power for a 4x4 ?

Mrgoodsusa said:

Is this enough power for a 4x4 ?

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Try doubling that, or you will only have 20watts/ft. Will it grow plants yes

This is 300 watts in a in a 3x4 area
Left is the 300 watts, right is 240 watts

iPerculate said:

I built this unit yesterday and since I can't show it to anyone personally, I am going to show it off here instead. It was very helpful for me to look at other builds and there is a ton of information on this website so thanks everyone.

Overall Dimensions 37" x 24"
Strips - 6 x Samsung F-Series Gen3 3500K Strips, SI-B8U521560WW
Driver - HLG-320H-48A
Heatsinks - 6 x Heatsink USA 2.079"W x 24"L
Frame - 3/4" x 3/4" x 1/8" Aluminum from Metal Supermarkets


Wired in parallel circuit to give output voltage to each strip. Since it is parallel, I have inline fuses attached to positive side of each strip with 1.5A fuses. Actual readings with unit turned all the way up; 1.25A per strip, 47.7VDC. 375 Watts total from the wall.

It was a long project with all of the time planning and building. It is hard to try to find a balance between power, cost, looks, and size. I am overall happy with the outcome, let me know what you guys think.

View attachment 4486927View attachment 4486928View attachment 4486929View attachment 4486930View attachment 4486931View attachment 4486932View attachment 4486933View attachment 4486934View attachment 4486936

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Hi. Did you go with this design of separation between bars because it’s a better spread ?

jarvild said:

This is 300 watts in a in a 3x4 areaView attachment 4804080
Left is the 300 watts, right is 240 wattsView attachment 4804084View attachment 4804084

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What size pots are those? Also how tall are plants from the soil up?
They look great, I tend to grow shorter plants, wondering if growing them so tall may be better, how far do you lollipop

Has anybody actually experienced any thermal runaway in a parallel setup?