Thoughts on 90W Led UFO Ebay- 40 USD

Feetypajamas said:

Hey all, quick question: How do I supply power to the APC-25-350? Do I need to purchase any extra wires or will the ones from the driver suffice? I am confused as to how to do all this electrical work.

Airwalker16- I will definitely be constructing a carbon filter and making the box airtight.

Tomate- Thank you for the guides!

JorgeGonzales- I decided to roll with the 4 cobs (5000k and 3000k) swapping. I just need to know how everything is wired together. I'll be handling the cooling real easy.

Bill Lidgate- Thank you for the comparison!

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Well...you need something to plug into a wall, like an extension cord. That has three wires, live, neutral, and ground. You can just use wire nuts, or solder and heat shrink to attach live and neutral on the driver to the extension cord. Google or use a multimeter to identify the wires.

Attach the ground wire to the case with a machine screw, nut, and star washer. These are cheap at Home Depot.

Finally you need an SPST or SPDT switch, whatever is cheap and easy to find. Goes on the AC side of the 3000K driver, switching the live wire. This lets you turn the driver on and off. Solder the power cord live wire to the middle lug of the switch, and the driver live wire to an end lug.

Maybe a small project box to hide the wire nuts and attach the switch.

That's all I got. Probably not super clear, but easier once you see everything.

Bill Lidgate said:

$0.35/watt
vs. HLG super bargain at
$0.12/watt
http://www.bgmicro.com/hlg-185h-48a-led-series-power-supply-48v-3-9a-constant-current-high-efficiency-by-meanwell-1-1.aspx

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thanks for bgmicro link - first time hearing about them

caretak3r said:

thanks for bgmicro link - first time hearing about them

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if ordering before 5/25, use 'RCW' for 10% off

caretak3r said:

if ordering before 5/25, use 'RCW' for 10% off

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Wish they had HLG-###H-C#### A/B/C models.

Airwalker16 said:

Wish they had HLG-###H-C#### A/B/C models.

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ya, it appears to be a surplus site, so you get what you get If I'm reading the stats right from the data sheet, the hlg-120H-48a can do 43-53V and 1.2a-2.5a via potentiometer. With some creative stringing (series/parallel) you can make quite a few things work.

Airwalker16 said:

Wish they had HLG-###H-C#### A/B/C models.

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What do you need. I have (2) brand new 240H-C1050B's......

caretak3r said:

ya, it appears to be a surplus site, so you get what you get If I'm reading the stats right from the data sheet, the hlg-120H-48a can do 43-53V and 1.2a-2.5a via potentiometer. With some creative stringing (series/parallel) you can make quite a few things work.

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I still dont understand how to figure out what those models can run and why. I understand completely the others though.

Airwalker16 said:

I still dont understand how to figure out what those models can run and why. I understand completely the others though.

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Looks perfect for one of these.

https://led.cdiweb.com/ProductDetail/CLU0581825C4353M2K1-citizen/585073/

So just to be recap, I have 4 Cobs that can put out 30W each and I have TWO "APC-25-350" Drivers. Now I know I dont need all four Cobs going at once, which is why I am going to have only two running at a time.
Two questions:
1. Can a SINGLE driver power two of the Cobs at once?

2. Is the most efficient way to wire this by:
A) using some SPDT switches so I can just switch between veg and flower lights from each driver
OR
B) I just run two cobs on a single driver so I can have one driver plugged and the other driver unplugged **this option is only viable from what I see if the answer to #1 is "YES"**

Any input would be amazing because I am a dunce with ALL electrical work.

Grow Box Talk:

On a side note... When I insulate my grow box... Can I just buy a mylar windshield visor and glue that to the walls of my box? My plan is to glue them to the wall and then seal the creases between each of the pieces with some silver duct tape.

The carbon filter will probably be a little PVC tube thats sealed off by tape and has a fan pushing OR pulling air through the pvc filter mechanism.

Any thoughts?

Feetypajamas said:

So just to be recap, I have 4 Cobs that can put out 30W each and I have TWO "APC-25-350" Drivers. Now I know I dont need all four Cobs going at once, which is why I am going to have only two running at a time.
Two questions:
1. Can a SINGLE driver power two of the Cobs at once?

2. Is the most efficient way to wire this by:
A) using some SPDT switches so I can just switch between veg and flower lights from each driver
OR
B) I just run two cobs on a single driver so I can have one driver plugged and the other driver unplugged **this option is only viable from what I see if the answer to #1 is "YES"**

Any input would be amazing because I am a dunce with ALL electrical work.

Grow Box Talk:

On a side note... When I insulate my grow box... Can I just buy a mylar windshield visor and glue that to the walls of my box? My plan is to glue them to the wall and then seal the creases between each of the pieces with some silver duct tape.

The carbon filter will probably be a little PVC tube thats sealed off by tape and has a fan pushing OR pulling air through the pvc filter mechanism.

Any thoughts?

Click to expand...

Rather than using sun visors odd shapes, buy reflective 4x8 board from home depot or lowes. If it's too thick, just use regular old mylar or even white poly film.

I just looked up some boards, @Airwalker16 and I think they're a tad pricy. What I am going to probably do then is just get some double reflective insulation that I can probably just velcro or tape into place then with some reflective tape. I think it should be a fairly simple task to insulate this box!

Feetypajamas said:

I just looked up some boards, @Airwalker16 and I think they're a tad pricy. What I am going to probably do then is just get some double reflective insulation that I can probably just velcro or tape into place then with some reflective tape. I think it should be a fairly simple task to insulate this box!

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Yes reflectex is also a good choice. Same material as sun visors, but in 4'x25' rolls.

Feetypajamas said:

So just to be recap, I have 4 Cobs that can put out 30W each and I have TWO "APC-25-350" Drivers. Now I know I dont need all four Cobs going at once, which is why I am going to have only two running at a time.
Two questions:
1. Can a SINGLE driver power two of the Cobs at once?

2. Is the most efficient way to wire this by:
A) using some SPDT switches so I can just switch between veg and flower lights from each driver
OR
B) I just run two cobs on a single driver so I can have one driver plugged and the other driver unplugged **this option is only viable from what I see if the answer to #1 is "YES"**

Any input would be amazing because I am a dunce with ALL electrical work.

Grow Box Talk:

On a side note... When I insulate my grow box... Can I just buy a mylar windshield visor and glue that to the walls of my box? My plan is to glue them to the wall and then seal the creases between each of the pieces with some silver duct tape.

The carbon filter will probably be a little PVC tube thats sealed off by tape and has a fan pushing OR pulling air through the pvc filter mechanism.

Any thoughts?

Click to expand...

OK a few things. You aren't running those cobs at 30W, only 12.5W each. That's kind of the whole point, run them soft and efficiently, especially at $3 each.

Second, you will certainly use all four at once. 50W total. This is the plan, my man, and a good amount of light. Real good.

Third, 2 cobs on each driver. This way you have 25W of each color.

One switch is all you need, to kick in the extra warmer cobs.

So after all this excellent information. What did you go for? an how did your computer case work out?
Thanks for all the input from everyone I got a lot from this.