DIY with Quantum Boards

[Budzbuddha]

Im just about to sodder up my lights, for the potentiometer how do I wire it? First tab is ground? Hot for middle and then return wire is the last one?

Also is the brown or blue wire powering my hlg driver the main power?

Here you go ...

 

[Budzbuddha]

Here you go ...

View attachment 3986713

Just remember ....if your panels are gonna be parallel or series .
The diagram is a guide only.

 

[Budzbuddha]

is there a trick to tinning stranded wire??? I can't get this to work to save my life... I'm trying to put together my lights, but to connect the power cord to the AC side of the driver using the waterproof connectors, I need to tin the stranded wire on the driver and the power cord. I've literally been trying to get this to work for two days now and I just can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. I've watched youtube videos and looked at several tutorials with pictures online and every one shows the exact same thing and makes it look so simple but I cannot get it to work for some reason!!! I'm trying to heat the wire with the soldering iron and then touching the solder to it but it WILL NOT melt and coat the wire!! I can only get the solder to melt if I touch it directly to the iron, but then it's still really hard to get a droplet to stick to the wire or coat it... it just beads up and drops off.. I've wasted so much solder and I'm losing cm of cable with every failed attempt..... what am I doing wrong here?? I'm using a 55W soldering iron set to 430 C and lead-free rosin-core silver solder that melts at 422 C.... help! I'm so frustrated... I'm literally at the point of wanting to just sell everything to someone who's more DIY inclined because I'm honestly hating this and really just wishing I'd bought a pre-assembled light... :/

Buy " soldering flux " .... It's in a small jar ... Problem solved

3 dollars ... Lowe's

 

[ganjamystic]

finally got one put together!! and it works! I just twisted the wires and screwed them down with no solder for now... should I get some flux and go back and tin them or just leave them alone??

I found this info: http://reprap.org/wiki/Wire_termination_for_screw_terminals
it says

Q: Should stranded copper wires be tinned with solder for connecting in screw terminals.

A: Industrial best practice is to NOT tin wires that are to be terminated with screw terminals.

First the reason this is so is that the differing thermal expansion rates of copper and solder cause a problem. The solder in the tinned wire end expands more than the copper (brass) terminal and a big peg in small hole causes the softer metal to yield (it gets softer with increasing heat as well). When the temperature drops later the parts contract again but now the tinned wire end is smaller than it was and causes a bad connection.

seems to agree with what wietefras said earlier

Well it depends on the application, but for instance for use in screw terminals you shouldn't tin the strands.

Tinned wire can work itself loose under screw terminals.

thoughts?

 

[thebluntman]

@ganjamystic It will be fine without tinning them. Glad you got a panel together. Should be easy for you to do your others.

 

[Balko186]

Is there any eye protection I should get when I open my tent with these? I always feel like I'm damaging my eyes when I look at my plants lol, usually put on normal sun glasses but still gives me a headache

 

[thebluntman]

@Balko186 I wear some cheap Apollo Horticulture ones for led lights block all Uv rays and good for bright leds. Just google led light eye protection.

 

[Marky Bluntz]

Any thoughts on using 4 of these boards running at 700ma in a 2x2.5 gorilla tent?
https://horticulturelightinggroup.com/pages/board-guide

 

[Seedjunky]

Thanks Stephen I'm only use to wiring in series.. never doubted your answer for the record but when searching the hlg website I came across this pic of how to wire and gettin from others opinions is has confused me. Anyways at the end of the day all I'm wondering now ,does this picture from hlgs website accomplish what your trying to explain to me? With the 4802100b. Thanks and final question about this lol

Any thoughts on using 4 of these boards running at 700ma in a 2x2.5 gorilla tent?
https://horticulturelightinggroup.com/pages/board-guide

i think an hlg 3202800 in paralell should do the trick , maybe others wanna chime in?

 

[Marky Bluntz]

Another question, will the uniformity of 4 QB304 boards be better in a 2x2.5 tent than 4 COBs?

 

[thebluntman]

@Marky Bluntz I would think so just look at a quantum board as a spread out cob. Instead of all the diodes being all packed together. They are more spread out on a qb.

 

[pop22]

Going to stick a couple cobs in it, and use it to light my shed lol!

That led panel makes a great doorstop ... Lol

 

[thebluntman]

what glue are people using to attach the F14304_FLORENCE-1R-Z90

 

[Seedjunky]

what glue are people using to attach the F14304_FLORENCE-1R-Z90

I used wire..Lol worked great! I'd also like to know tho , one that doesn't make them sag when the temps rise up

 

[thebluntman]

lol how did u use wire?

 

[superfreak86]

Revamping a little cab, just test fitted some QB's before wiring everything up.

Pretty happy with how they look so I thought I'd share

 

[BobCajun]

These always work well for connecting wires. Still all I use myself. Just twist the wires together clockwise and screw it on.

source

 

[superfreak86]

Let there be light

 

[robincnn]

Thanks Stephen I'm only use to wiring in series.. never doubted your answer for the record but when searching the hlg website I came across this pic of how to wire and gettin from others opinions is has confused me. Anyways at the end of the day all I'm wondering now ,does this picture from hlgs website accomplish what your trying to explain to me? With the 4802100b. Thanks and final question about this lol

Both are Correct


OR

 

[thebluntman]

@robincnn He is asking about the 304 I think.