Switching HPS to LED

a mongo frog

Well-Known Member
So mongo, you are a long time member of Riu and have been dabbling in led for a bit - what is your impression of the tech with where it is and what you have tried?
i only did one run and switched back to hps. Ran 2 600 watt QB's and a 750 watt cob fixture in a shed that i usually run 3 1000 watt hps. The yields were fine but the quality was good not great. I may try it again and just run them at lower wattages because the heat was incredible. Or if the op wants he can have one of the 600's to try. Irun a 1000 watt DE where i was going to give the leds another go, but if i don't run them again i really don't care. All in all from my experience and bud I've seen on this site very few beat hps looking bud.
 

DH1980

Active Member
I’ve pretty much decided to only grow HPS lights during the winter. Now I’m buried under LED research. My friend essentially said to build a LED light setup but the price tag that’s attached to that is not what I want to do until I know Led is where I want to stay. So for this experimental stage I have one big question. For overall bud weight and quality, should I go with a white, red/blue, or a mixture of all 3
I am currently running both during flower with a Coliseum setup. And having amazing results!
Vert 600 hps x 3
2000w replacement leds(forget the manuf)...x3

Amazing results

But, cooling!!!!!!!!
 

budman410

Well-Known Member
i only did one run and switched back to hps. Ran 2 600 watt QB's and a 750 watt cob fixture in a shed that i usually run 3 1000 watt hps. The yields were fine but the quality was good not great. I may try it again and just run them at lower wattages because the heat was incredible. Or if the op wants he can have one of the 600's to try. Irun a 1000 watt DE where i was going to give the leds another go, but if i don't run them again i really don't care. All in all from my experience and bud I've seen on this site very few beat hps looking bud.
By quality do you mean fluffy buds, potency, or the actual shape of the buds?
 

a mongo frog

Well-Known Member
By quality do you mean fluffy buds, potency, or the actual shape of the buds?
Size of bud and actual shape of bud. Not fluffy at all. Potency fine i guess, although i never had it tested which i have shown many times here. Look around for finish product on the site. Nasty fox tailing with weird tip of bud growth all over this site.
 

ANC

Well-Known Member
people intentionally grow for fluffy buds these days.

If you expect 1200W of LED chips to beat 3000W of HPS you are being unreasonable.

AS long as you are not buying crap made from chinesium, you will be fine.
 

budman410

Well-Known Member
people intentionally grow for fluffy buds these days.

If you expect 1200W of LED chips to beat 3000W of HPS you are being unreasonable.

AS long as you are not buying crap made from chinesium, you will be fine.
Really?! How times have changed on RIU, I’ve brought the Chinese and American branded boards to compare and test quality. I prefer seeing facts then people ideals of something unless you have first hand experience with them?
 

toaster struedel

Well-Known Member
I love my Chinese made lights, China's always been the leader in electronics in my book. Stereos,televisions,cellphones and growlights. You just have to know what you're looking for.
 

BinaryTT

Member
I love my Chinese made lights, China's always been the leader in electronics in my book. Stereos,televisions,cellphones and growlights. You just have to know what you're looking for.
I work with manufacturers in China on a regular basis - so I'm always traveling over there. Here is what I can tell everyone about products made in China....

When it comes to electronics (and most other categories as well) - China is the undisputed manufacturing GIANT of the world - the vast majority of all electronics are made there. And they have all the pollution problems to prove it. Even products that say "Made in America" or Made in XXXX (where XXXX is not China), the chances are that many of the components of that product were also made in China. The company just meets the legal requirements for stating "Made in America". or Made in XXXX.

Now here is what you should know about China manufacturing. They have the infrastructure to make ANY QUALITY of product that you want made. The reason for "cheap Chinese products" isn't because all Chinese products are cheap. It's because we Americans want "low prices" and in order to achieve those low prices, companies that manufacture products in China for the American market make business decisions about what they are willing to sacrifice quality wise to be able to offer their products at a certain price. So the reason for "cheap Chinese products" has nothing to do with the Chinese and their manufacturing capability. If you have a "price goal" you need the manufacturer to meet, they'll be happy to tell you HOW to meet that by cutting the quality of certain aspects of the manufacturing process (lower quality materials, less precise forms of manufacturing, etc...).
 

ChiefRunningPhist

Well-Known Member
I was trying to get a 600h driver included in my free shipping order but that’s not going to happen. So between a 480 or 600h ain’t no way around another 200$? For a driver for my 8 132 boards
Ya I think if I'm understanding correctly, you're asking if there's anyway you can make a 480h work with 8 boards over a 600h? You could use a 480 but you'd only be getting 480 watts for your 8 boards. If you're trying to get 600w in there a 480 won't work. You could use the 480 for your veg area.
 

budman410

Well-Known Member
Essentially I was asking for a cheaper place to get one, I seen on digikey they have 600h for 190. I was able to fit a 240h driver in my order that I am going to use for veg. My order came with a 480 that I’m going to use with the 132 and I’ll just have to order a 600h to go with my 288s. Or would that 600h do better with my 8 132 then 4 288. I’m really going to have to freshen up on my math lol...there’s a/b/ab, and 36 or 48 on kutop I think I’ll go with them once I figure which model to go with anyone have any experience with them?
 
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ChiefRunningPhist

Well-Known Member
Essentially I was asking for a cheaper place to get one, I seen on digikey they have 600h for 190. I was able to fit a 240h driver in my order that I am going to use for veg. My order came with a 480 that I’m going to use with the 132 and I’ll just have to order a 600h to go with my 288s. Or would that 600h do better with my 8 132 then 4 288. I’m really going to have to freshen up on my math lol...there’s a/b/ab, and 36 or 48 on kutop I think I’ll go with them once I figure which model to go with anyone have any experience with them?
List the board arrangements and drivers you already have. We'll get it figured out. I haven't found any cheaper driver solutions yet. :blsmoke:


Here's a quick refresher on series and parallel...
https://www.rollitup.org/p/14628809/
 

budman410

Well-Known Member
List the board arrangements and drivers you already have. We'll get it figured out. I haven't found any cheaper driver solutions yet. :blsmoke:


Here's a quick refresher on series and parallel...
https://www.rollitup.org/p/14628809/
Very simplistic and easy to understand thank you, now I can go back and reread some other threads :clap:, so i have 2..240h 36b and a 480H-C2800AB.. a 4 pack of hlg 4K 132 v1, and 2 4 packs of hlg 132 v2.. lastly a 4 pack of 288s that came as a kit with the 480 driver.I’ve been toying with the idea of red lights but that’s for later and also why I figured to just get an extra driver.
 

ChiefRunningPhist

Well-Known Member
4 × QB132 V1 - 4K
- (2) 240h 36b's will be plenty for this set up, wire (2) QB132's per 240h-36 and wire in parallel. Connecting positive to positive, negative to negative.

- (1) 480 2800ab could be used here as well but you'd have to wire all QB120's in series, and dim the driver output to 2A instead of 2.8A or 2800mA.

- the ideal driver for this setup is a 320h 36. Or a 320h 2100. With (2) 240h's or (1) 480h you will have more driver than board can take.



8 × QB132 V2
- the ideal driver for this setup is a 600h 36. (8 ) boards will be able to consume 75w each or 600w alltogether. So you'd want a driver with that capability.



4 × QB288 (V2?)
- The QB288 has a forward voltage of 48v. This means that it takes at least 48v to fire it up. If you want to pump 600w into the 4 boards you'd want a 600w driver or a 600h 48. If you do that you'll want heat sinks and some fans probably. Anything over 75w and you'll want to have some heatsinking.



Jerry rigging...
You could use the 480h 2800ab on the (4) QB288s but if we wired in parallel only 1/4 of 2800mA would go to each board (parallel wiring divides current), and because each board has a forward voltage of 48v, that would end up being 48v × (2.8A ÷ 4) ~33.5w/board, or 134w total (48v × 2.38A = 134w).

If we wired in series (positive to negative, 1 wire connecting lights) we'd have to determine how much voltage 4 panels would need to pass the first little bit of current, ie the forward voltage. 48v × 4 = 192v (series wiring divides total V by how many there are). At around 192v you'd finally start to see light. 480w ÷ 192v = 2.5A. So in series your driver (constant current or CC) would be limited by your forward voltage requirements, but in terms of power consumption it's the exact same. 480w is 480w whether it took 36v × 13A to get there or 112v × 4.28A to get there (just some arbitrary numbers).

The "a" style drivers tend to have a little more current than what's rated so if you were trying to get away with using one of the drivers you've got for the (4) QB288 setup, I'd say the 480h 2800ab wired in series would be your best bet. You'd have to dim your driver till they lit up, past a certain current level they'll start to flash, I'm guessing it will be closer to 2.8A than the calculated 2.5A as the Meanwells are underated.

If using the 480 2800ab on the (4) QB288's you'd be left with the 480h for the (8 ) QB132's. I don't know whether the 480h is a CC (constant current, models with 4-digit mA ratings in the name) or CV (constant voltage, models with only 2-digts in the last part of their part number) driver, and what its ratings are. If its the correct CV rating, ie its 36v then you could wire all (8 ) in parallel but you'd only see 60w/QB132 instead of the 75w/QB132 capability.

If you're thinking of adding supplemental in, then your room wattage would go up. Say you added 120w of supplemental to the (4) QB288 setup utilizing the 480h 2800ab, you'd then be at 600w for the grow so would be hitting your photon density target.

If it were me, and I could return them, i probably would. I'd get the most ideal solutions possible, but that being said they can be made to eork, and if adding supplementals, wouldn't really be that bad. So if you can't return them, no worries you can still make some hay :bigjoint:
 

budman410

Well-Known Member
4 × QB132 V1 - 4K
- (2) 240h 36b's will be plenty for this set up, wire (2) QB132's per 240h-36 and wire in parallel. Connecting positive to positive, negative to negative.

- (1) 480 2800ab could be used here as well but you'd have to wire all QB120's in series, and dim the driver output to 2A instead of 2.8A or 2800mA.

- the ideal driver for this setup is a 320h 36. Or a 320h 2100. With (2) 240h's or (1) 480h you will have more driver than board can take.



8 × QB132 V2
- the ideal driver for this setup is a 600h 36. (8 ) boards will be able to consume 75w each or 600w alltogether. So you'd want a driver with that capability.



4 × QB288 (V2?)
- The QB288 has a forward voltage of 48v. This means that it takes at least 48v to fire it up. If you want to pump 600w into the 4 boards you'd want a 600w driver or a 600h 48. If you do that you'll want heat sinks and some fans probably. Anything over 75w and you'll want to have some heatsinking.



Jerry rigging...
You could use the 480h 2800ab on the (4) QB288s but if we wired in parallel only 1/4 of 2800mA would go to each board (parallel wiring divides current), and because each board has a forward voltage of 48v, that would end up being 48v × (2.8A ÷ 4) ~33.5w/board, or 134w total (48v × 2.38A = 134w).

If we wired in series (positive to negative, 1 wire connecting lights) we'd have to determine how much voltage 4 panels would need to pass the first little bit of current, ie the forward voltage. 48v × 4 = 192v (series wiring divides total V by how many there are). At around 192v you'd finally start to see light. 480w ÷ 192v = 2.5A. So in series your driver (constant current or CC) would be limited by your forward voltage requirements, but in terms of power consumption it's the exact same. 480w is 480w whether it took 36v × 13A to get there or 112v × 4.28A to get there (just some arbitrary numbers).

The "a" style drivers tend to have a little more current than what's rated so if you were trying to get away with using one of the drivers you've got for the (4) QB288 setup, I'd say the 480h 2800ab wired in series would be your best bet. You'd have to dim your driver till they lit up, past a certain current level they'll start to flash, I'm guessing it will be closer to 2.8A than the calculated 2.5A as the Meanwells are underated.

If using the 480 2800ab on the (4) QB288's you'd be left with the 480h for the (8 ) QB132's. I don't know whether the 480h is a CC (constant current, models with 4-digit mA ratings in the name) or CV (constant voltage, models with only 2-digts in the last part of their part number) driver, and what its ratings are. If its the correct CV rating, ie its 36v then you could wire all (8 ) in parallel but you'd only see 60w/QB132 instead of the 75w/QB132 capability.

If you're thinking of adding supplemental in, then your room wattage would go up. Say you added 120w of supplemental to the (4) QB288 setup utilizing the 480h 2800ab, you'd then be at 600w for the grow so would be hitting your photon density target.

If it were me, and I could return them, i probably would. I'd get the most ideal solutions possible, but that being said they can be made to eork, and if adding supplementals, wouldn't really be that bad. So if you can't return them, no worries you can still make some hay :bigjoint:
This is the kit I bought https://m.alibaba.com/product/60827075916/MARCH-EXPO-qb-288-quantum-board.html?s=p&spm=a2706.wap_new_search.1998817009.5.1bba284fa3Ltbw
 

ChiefRunningPhist

Well-Known Member
Awww man, so cancel the drivers or the kit or both?
Are you trying to flower with the (4) 288s? Are they V1 or V2? [EDIT: I see the link you posted, you're V2 and 48v] V1 has a higher forward voltage. Itd be the differnce of buying a 600h 48 or a 600h 54. If you want 600w in there then you'll want a 600h 48. Otherwise the 480h will work, if its a 480h 48. [The driver in the kit will work just fine if you only want to power them to 480w, its up to you how many watts youll need for your area, if its veg or flower ect]

For the (8 ) QB132's you'll want a 600h.

So return 1 of the 480h's for sure for a 600h, and depending on how much wattage you want in your QB288 room then possibly return both 480h's for 2 600h's. But (1) will be a 600h 36 and the other a 600h 48 (54 for V1).

The (2) 240h's will work. But buying (2) drivers over (1) 320h is probably more expensive, so if you can, I'd return those too so I only had to buy 1 driver.
 
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