Vero29 build. First build ever.

hello all, Ive completed (mostly) one of my 2 vero 29 SE bars. Still debating whether or not to remote mount my drivers on the wall opposite my flower room, or attatch them to the light itself. The second one will be complete by the end of the week.
Components per light bar. (All from Rapidled):
4 x Vero 29 SE (poke-in)
4 x 140mm pin heatsinks
1 x Meanwell hlg-240h-c1750b
7 x Wago (221?) connectors
1 x 0-10k ohm cased resistance potentiometer
**All of this for both lights (x2) came to $498 from Rapidled.com
*Wire management:
- Shaxon 18g solid core - 100ft spool from amazon ($14.99)
14mm x 19mm adhesive cable clips. 100ct bag Amazon ($6.99)
*Frame: 1/8" x 3/4" angled aluminum assembled with rivets. 44"L x 5"W. ($52 for 20ft Ace hardware)
Total cost: ~$572

About 80% power

Left is fully dimmed, right is about 75-85% (difficult to photograph at 100%)

Nice build. That 1/8 frame feels sturdy eh?

I have used 1/16" thick 1" x 1 " angle aluminum with no worries, hanging off 4 points.. with 3 drivers and 9 cobs on board ...

714steadyeddie said:

Nice build. That 1/8 frame feels sturdy eh?

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Plenty, I could have easily gone with the thinner stuff. Once everything is all fastened together its perfect. The only thing I don't like about the 1/8" is that my end pieces don't sit flush because the inside angle is rounded. Ill have to come out a little firther on the next one. It doesn't affect function at all, just bothers me.

It seems like your dimming is limited. Is that on purpose? What ohm pot did you use for each driver?

KushyMcKush said:

Plenty, I could have easily gone with the thinner stuff. Once everything is all fastened together its perfect. The only thing I don't like about the 1/8" is that my end pieces don't sit flush because the inside angle is rounded. Ill have to come out a little firther on the next one. It doesn't affect function at all, just bothers me.

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I used the 1/8*1*1 angle too.. I put these on the corners.. Cheap and makes a decent corner...

I wouldn't have wanted to go thinner than 1/8" .. I have 8 cobs and 2 drivers per panel and it aint light... Aluminium will slowly bend over time with stress..
Cheers

Danielson999 said:

It seems like your dimming is limited. Is that on purpose? What ohm pot did you use for each driver?

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What makes you say that? Honestly, Im not sure what ohm pot it is... its just sold as a cased pot on rapidled. It doesn't even say. Id assume its 0-10k. I just told them what components Im using and they recommended that one.

Jimmyclone42 said:

I used the 1/8*1*1 angle too.. I put these on the corners.. Cheap and makes a decent corner... View attachment 3923784

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Awesome, that looks really nice. I was actually thinking about just welding the next frame. If not, maybe Ill use something like that. Thanks man

Its a 350k pot.. I ordered two of them.. Once i found out i just went to the local electronic store and bought 2 50k ohm pots.. But im running 2 drivers in parallel.. If your running 1 driver you need a 100k pot with a 10k ohm resistor in series.. This will allow 10-100% dimming..

The encased pots from rapid are 350k...dont ask me why..

Jimmyclone42 said:

The encased pots from rapid are 350k...dont ask me why..

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That makes sense from my eyes anyway. They should dim all the way down to barely being lit, unlike the photo you showed. Glad all is good now.

Well, im only getting 1190ma with this set up... without the dimmer wired up. Getting 143.7v... which is 187w on my 240w driver. Well fuck. Everyone I talked to told me the voltage drop would be minimal... that Id maybe be pitting out about 1600ma minimum. Looks like Ill have to get the 320-1750's. fuck.
Edit: after being left on for about 10 min, its now at 1270ma.

What the **** is RapidLed selling you? 350k ohm pots? They didn't help you match up the right driver for your cobs? How many of the 29se cobs will fit on your driver?

Danielson999 said:

What the **** is RapidLed selling you? 350k ohm pots? They didn't help you match up the right driver for your cobs? How many of the 29se cobs will fit on your driver?

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They did not recommend this cob/driver set up. That was all me. I talked to 4-5 people about it amd all said that I would experience some voltage drop given that the vero 29 pull 37.5v at 1.7a... but that it would be minimal. Inwas not expecting a loss of 400ma. I think what ill have to do is either get the 320-1750's, or get a few lpc-60-1400's to run the 4th cob and just run 3 per 240-1750. After letting it run for about 20 min it did raise to 1375ma, then the display on my meter timed out, so it could have gone slightly higher. Not terrible, but not what I need.

I was modeling my build after a friend of mine who uses the same thing but with 3590's. those are true 36v chips, so ut works fine. I just wanted to do it a little cheaper. It was a risk and I knew that going in. I just didn't expect it to be this low.

HLG-320H-C2100 would fit 4 of those cobs perfectly, 80w a cob assuming you have D series.
If you get a 240-1750 and run 3 you'll be leaving a fair bit of voltage on the floor. Same with the 320-1750.

Also a first builder - got the HLG-320H-1400 to run 6x Vero 29. Also from R.LED. I also got the the encased pot and it dims the lights to a point (still pretty bright) and the driver shuts off completely within 5% of the edge of the potentiometer. Is this a case of a 350k vs 100k pot?

I found wago connectors good for prototyping - but expensive to leave in the setup. I used marettes and soldering for "permanent" connections, and wago's for "module" connections.

Without a resistor (I'm assuming there isn't one) the light will dim until it's off but I think the whole point of adding a resistor is to safeguard damaging your led by actually dimming it to off. And yeah, you'll want a 100k ohm pot for one driver and a 10k resistor.
The driver you chose fits 6 cobs real nice.

KushyMcKush said:

Plenty, I could have easily gone with the thinner stuff. Once everything is all fastened together its perfect. The only thing I don't like about the 1/8" is that my end pieces don't sit flush because the inside angle is rounded. Ill have to come out a little firther on the next one. It doesn't affect function at all, just bothers me.

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ive found from my suppier that only the 6061 has the radius. 6063 is square

blunt_tip said:

Also a first builder - got the HLG-320H-1400 to run 6x Vero 29. Also from R.LED. I also got the the encased pot and it dims the lights to a point (still pretty bright) and the driver shuts off completely within 5% of the edge of the potentiometer. Is this a case of a 350k vs 100k pot?

I found wago connectors good for prototyping - but expensive to leave in the setup. I used marettes and soldering for "permanent" connections, and wago's for "module" connections.

Click to expand...

I actually ordered a 320-1400b a bit ago. Gonna run 5 on that, and 3 on a 240-1750. That will work for now until I can figure out something more efficient. Ill have some voltage left over, but I just need to get this done so i can flip to flower. Shits getting to be a jungle.
With mine fully dimmed on the 240-1750 it was around 200ma and would flicker once in a while but didn't turn off. I think Im just gonna leave the pots off, I just don't need it now.
After sitting for about 20 min, it got up to 1385ma and stabilized there. So you can call it 1400. I thought of just doing that instead of buying the 320-1400, but I just felt better about not pushing the drivers to their max all the time.