Transforming shitty Mars to ass-kicking LED

Atulip said:

Had 2 drivers in mine, 55-100v, .6, .65, .7A in various versions of the Mars300(60x5). Glass removed so the thicker heatsink would fit, the 4.85" was the largest I could fit in there for thickness and still keep everything inside the frame, 2 heatsinks each, and 7" length. With a 72v cxb3590 on each driver, one driver had 2 outputs, one to the fan, left it alone. The other driver I opted for a couple 18v 1512s in parallel after the 72v to get a little more oomph outta the light. Another has 77v cxas with 1512s, so those work too.

View attachment 3721852

4.85"x7" 2 fit side by side in the case
View attachment 3721853

Kapton tape and arctic silver 5
View attachment 3721855

In the case and silicone around the heatsink to keep it in place.
View attachment 3721856

View attachment 3721858

View attachment 3721857

Click to expand...

That heat sink looks waaaay better. Nice build! Simple and cheap and much better use of those drivers and case.

Yeah it's a great value from HSUSA too. I worried about throwing $120 in leds on that crummy sink in if lol. But the fan could probably use an upgrade, no complaints here though, these are very quiet fans, figure they'll die eventually. I overpaid a bit though, mouser, and re built one light, paycheck by paycheck. 4 total.

The 3000k 90cri cxb2530s look like a good option on Mars drivers. Cheap at ~$12 per and with a LER of 276 I think, puts them at 45% through the leds. The $45 72v for 56% being the next best option. I thought about some of those 24v Samsung hard strips on the Mars drivers too. Got a couple more lights I can gut, wanna do some kinda under lighting next. (Plenty of top light now)


My 2x 72v and 18v one pulls 129w at the wall, 2x 77vand 18v pulls 136w. Pretty close to the original wall wattage, but should be ~45% efficient at the wall now.

Phase 2 begins! This phase is the part where the cob leds are attached to my piece of aluminum/heatsinks. For the screws, I bought some #6 x 1/2" self-drilling sheet metal screws since i have a lot of experience using these for all kind of projects. One thing i have learned to do with these over the years is to drill a small hole before using the self-drilling screws. This allows them to have a place for the tip of the screw to sit and level it out before drilling it in. I set up where i wanted the holes by putting the holders where i liked them on my piece of aluminum/heatsinks.

So basically i used a very small drill bit to make a primary hole then put in my self-drilling screws 4/5 of the way and then removed them to clean up any debris from the drilling.

Next for the phase was putting the cobs in the holders, attaching the graphite pads, and then attaching the holders to my aluminum/heatsinks.

I went onto youtube and looked up Growmau5's video of how to configure his cutter kit, and learned how to slip the cobs into the ideal holders and did it. Very simple when you see it done. I then attached the sticky side of the graphite to the back of the cob led. I noticed there are two problems you can run into pealing off the graphite. One thing that happens is it can actually take the plastic sheet it is on off with it; or if you peel the graphite pads apart, they will come apart as layers.

I then lined up my holders with my holes and carefully screwed in my self-drilling screws by hand until i could see the side of the holder come into firm contact with the aluminum.

Here it is - Phase 2 complete! Only things i have left to do is to drill and put in the grommets, then connect my electricity from cobs to drivers. I'm hoping to pick up some grommets and wire tomorrow and some kind of connectors. Any ideas at what i could find at a local hardware store for connectors?

I have practiced a little with soldering, but am not very comfortable with it. If i can't find something that makes me feel assured there is going to be a good connection, i may try to solder and wrap it in shrink tubing.

I prefer a good soldered connection. But every hardware store should have butt splices.

SamsonsRiddle said:

Here it is - Phase 2 complete! Only things i have left to do is to drill and put in the grommets, then connect my electricity from cobs to drivers. I'm hoping to pick up some grommets and wire tomorrow and some kind of connectors. Any ideas at what i could find at a local hardware store for connectors?

I have practiced a little with soldering, but am not very comfortable with it. If i can't find something that makes me feel assured there is going to be a good connection, i may try to solder and wrap it in shrink tubing.
View attachment 3723104

Click to expand...

Man that looks nice. Great job. I also have 2 of the 600's i plan to convert later the same way. Thanks for the thread.

Mine are the 120x5 and still work fine but the cobs have really taken my interest for how efficient they are for less wattage from the wall and less heat dissipation for more light. Heres the inside of my 2 lights.

VenomGrower6990 said:

Man that looks nice. Great job. I also have 2 of the 600's i plan to convert later the same way. Thanks for the thread.

Click to expand...

I'm just passing on the knowledge, and appreciate your kind words.

I was a little intimidated by some of the builds i saw and the prices of some of the cob lights out there were just out of my range. I'm not saying they shouldn't charge as much as they do, because a lot of them are using quality parts - such as the ones Rahz sells and the kits made with GrowMau5's name on them.

I don't want to take any credit for anything, other than showing another configuration that i haven't seen anyone do yet (since i have the old old 100x3). Here's the video that gave me the idea, just in case anyone stops by and hasn't seen it.

VenomGrower6990 said:

Mine are the 120x5 and still work fine but the cobs have really taken my interest for how efficient they are for less wattage from the wall and less heat dissipation for more light. Heres the inside of my 2 lights.
View attachment 3723204

Click to expand...

you should take some close ups of those drivers and fans. looks like your heatsink is about 3 times the thickness of the one on my shitty mars.

SamsonsRiddle said:

I'm just passing on the knowledge, and appreciate your kind words.

I was a little intimidated by some of the builds i saw and the prices of some of the cob lights out there were just out of my range. I'm not saying they shouldn't charge as much as they do, because a lot of them are using quality parts - such as the ones Rahz sells and the kits made with GrowMau5's name on them.

I don't want to take any credit for anything, other than showing another configuration that i haven't seen anyone do yet (since i have the old old 100x3). Here's the video that gave me the idea, just in case anyone stops by and hasn't seen it.

Click to expand...

I know right. Im still a little intimidated by the cxb3590 prices but want to try to go with them. Gotta save to retro fit two of the fixtures but one at a time will do. I have a couple of months to save for the cobs though because i am currently a month into a grow. I will try to get some more info on the parts inside my lights and take some close pics of the parts inside so i can get some options on the build. Really have enjoyed watching your build though. Really got me motivated to do it too. That looks so nice and bet it will kick ass. Cant wait to see a grow with it.

Phase 3 is complete!!!

I wanted to solder the connections, but unfortunately my learning curve is a little longer than my patience. I wish i could show you my work area, but let's just say it's less than ideal.

I ended up buying some 18awg 300v wire and some butt connectors to make the connection. I used the wire strippers to strip my new 18awg wire, but the little tiny wire coming from the drivers (i'm thinking about 24awg) was too small for my wire strippers. I went ahead and used my trimming scissors to split the wires and pull back the insulation from the wire.

I did notice after clamping the butt connections that i could see the wires in the clamping locations so i added some electrical tape on the outside of them; i can't risk this not being safe.

After that, i drilled some 1/2" holes on both sides of the aluminum for my grommets and worked them in. Then, i pulled the wires through the grommets from underneath and marked the red wires with red electrical tape. I made sure to put the two wires that came from the same driver together.





After that i stripped the other side of the wires and put the red into the + slots on the ideal holders with the matching wire from the same driver plugged into the other side of the holder. I did notice that they didn't lock the wires in as well as i had expected. I was able to tug a little bit and disconnect them, but on the instructions i read i was supposed to need a screwdriver. I checked a couple times and decided the amount of force to pull the wire out was too firm to happen just by moving around the fixture and feel safe as they are. I still have to move the wires and snug them up inside the case so they look better and tighter.



And that's it, this piece of shit mars hydro 100x3 has become an ass kicking cob led!!!



I turned it on and still have the lines and circles from looking at it too closely. The brightness is a huge difference from what was put out by those cheap ass 3w diodes it had before. I'm hoping to do some tests with temperatures during long periods of usage (18 hr continuously on) to know if anything else will need to be upgraded next.


A big thanks to everyone in the DIY LED forums here and elsewhere. Particularly i would like to thank everyone who commented along the way to help make the project a reality. Credit to @Rahz for the 72v idea and helping even though he runs his own led company, @Growmau5 for the whole Mars turd polishing idea, @SupraSPL for his continuous contributions to the led forums, @Atulip for all his help, and everyone else who freely shares all this information!