Question about drivers

Heisengrow

Well-Known Member
The Bridgelux EB Gen2 and Samsung F-Series, cannot be beat for cost or performance.

I just bought 7 strips to measure the actual irradiance vs. the simulated. For you setup you'd add an 11" EB strip to the 44" EB. I have a $3,000 spectrometer to measure the actual PPFD. I am expecting well over 1000 µmol/m²/s based on a Reddit post.

I am not a fan of QB either. LEDs are too concentrated vs. strips for uniformity. And cost. The EB Gen 2 are dirt cheap. QB's too expensive for me and not good enough.
How far apart do you space them?there is 48 inches in 4 feet why would you add another 11 inches to it?seems you could just go down the 5 foot side with 44 inch strips.What am i missing
 

CobKits

Well-Known Member
you wont go back... welcome to team cob!

i didnt know you were so close to pulling the trigger on the veros, i woulda recommended the B veros over the Ds (same price, more efficient) - youd have the exact same setup just running 1050 instead of 1400 mA drivers

its really only a few % more efficient tho, not night and day. difference between cob rigs is nitpicky. difference between a cob rig and your old rig will be very noticeable
 

Heisengrow

Well-Known Member
you wont go back... welcome to team cob!

i didnt know you were so close to pulling the trigger on the veros, i woulda recommended the B veros over the Ds (same price, more efficient) - youd have the exact same setup just running 1050 instead of 1400 mA drivers

its really only a few % more efficient tho, not night and day. difference between cob rigs is nitpicky. difference between a cob rig and your old rig will be very noticeable
I put them in the calculater and couldnt come up with a configuration to run 15 or 16 cobs at around 1400 watts.This is where i am trying to stay around no more than 700 per 4x5.
6 vero B's would pull around 219.9 on the 1050 so 18 cobs would only be around 660 watts total and i would have needed 3 more.

At 5 cobs per 1050 they would have put out 183 watts so 15 cobs would be less than 600 watts.I would have needed 20 B's to get closer to 750 watts.

I kinda went back and looked and saw the citizen 1212s on the 1400 mA driver would have also worked well.246 watts per driver with 5 cobs x3 also.
My goal here was to run more cobs and less voltage for an even spread of low wattage cobs.i could have also went with 20 cobs per 4x5 but when i added it all up 40 cobs per 4x10 would have been alot of money to fill 3 rooms .120 cobs total plus heat sinks and drivers lol.

Ill try these and order the citizens next and put them side by side and see if there is a difference.They will both have the same drivers and be very similar in wattage.If no difference ill probably order the other 60 cobs i need in 12 12 citizens.
 

Heisengrow

Well-Known Member
ill probably go with the citizen 1818's next.5 cobs per 320H 1050 driver giving me around 261 watts per driver so around 783 watts per 4x5
Im old school man i have to go by wattage and i have heard from numerous sources that 35 to 40 watts per square foot is decent for cobs and growing dank.
I just didnt want no big wattage cobs making hot spots on my canopy and getting bleached out plants and shit.I wanted a nice even spread across because i run 99 percent scrogs in RDWC.scrogs and recirculating DWC is my baby.
 

ANC

Well-Known Member
You are going to have to learn or experiment.
A Watt of light these days can result in a 200% difference in the molls of photons coming out of the shiny side.

I still want to change my units to accept lenses or diffusers as the 115-degree radiation is a bit wasteful on LED strips unless you are doing long beds that benefit from lots of overlapping..
I use the PAR calculator to get a feeling for how much light I need or will produce at a set point. Working in reverse I take the area my fixture covers, divide it into the number of strips to get a grip on the area each strip has to light up.(ignoring for the time being the light from adjacent strips)This allows me to play with the calculator until I find the height at which my strips cover that area. All that remains to be solved then is how hard to drive the strips to produce the minimum number of molls of light to reach your targeted total for the day.
 

CobKits

Well-Known Member
yeah those vero Ds just fit on that driver (36.3X5=181.5V) its almost perfect for that driver (179V limit) . none of the 50V cobs (even the low voltage clu058-1825)really fits@ 5 on a 240H-C1050

thats one of the reasons i like parallel, no such limitations, esp as we are all prone to change things up later ;)

again all the differences between cobs are subtle, you'll love the veros, welcome aboard!
 
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GrowLightResearch

Well-Known Member
How far apart do you space them?
Space them equally across the grow area. The size of the grow area and length of the strip would determine whether the grow area's x or y axis would work better. I have found seven strips give the optimum uniformity at close proximity (≈4") to the canopy.

at around 1400 watts.
You cannot limit you assessment of an LED to just watts.
That wall watts per sq. ft. is bullshit. Watts applied to light bulbs (e.g. HPS) Wall watts does not apply to LEDs. LEDs are not anything like a light bulb. Whole different ballgame.

lm/Watt at the same CCT and CRI is much more important than watts/sq. ft.
There are no CoBs that will have a better lm/W than a Samsung F-Series with the same CCT and CRI.
CoBs have thermal management issues ($$$ heatsinks), strips need no thermal management.
There are only a few Bridgelux CoBs that have a better cost / lumen than EB Gen2 and Samsung F-Series.
Height and Uniformity of CoBs are pathetic vs strips.
Strips can be as close as 3" to the canopy. CoBs typically more than 12"
Difference in irradiance at the canopy at 6" vs 12" is 4x.
Strips give you more photons per watt, cost less per lumen than CoBs
Strips can be positioned at a height giving you 4 times the irradiance of a CoB.
F-Series and EB Gen2 Strips have no thermal management issues at test current so do not need a heatsink.
Strips are better, cost less, and use significantly less electricity.
Which also means CoBs will give you a higher watt/sq. ft. but less irradiance at the canopy
 
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Heisengrow

Well-Known Member
yeah running lights 3 inches above the canopy just seems suspect to me.Seems like there wont be much downward penetration.Not really interested in getting 10 ounces of top buds and 4 pounds of larf.
I will look into them though and see what i find.Just not seeing much in terms of research ive done.
 

Heisengrow

Well-Known Member
I cant even find the strips you are talking about or how many to run on what drivers.Have no clue what im even looking at.
 

ANC

Well-Known Member
It does feel weird. When I have the cobs hanging next to the strips, the air under the strips is cooler than the air under the COB banks.
The area lit by the strips are clearly brighter to the eye.

the strips can be found at Digikey. If you want another option you could get the QB panels GML is pushing, they will assist with advice too. I suggest you look at some of growmaus' vids on the basics. For the Samsung strips, you can also use their calculator, it even has a function at the bottom that can suggest drivers.
 

Heisengrow

Well-Known Member
Do they make the strips in 5 foot lengths or 4 foot?How many strips can you put on a driver or are there pages that explain the math.I dont know jack shit about them but im interested.
 

Chip Green

Well-Known Member
For electrical design purposes, each strip, will have values such as Min/Max ratings, just like COBs do.
For instance, a Bridgelux 2 foot EB series gen 1, has a forward voltage of 22.1, and a max current rating of 1400ma....
Learning the language is the first step I took, and it has paid off....
The Growmau5 videos are worth watching.
 

ANC

Well-Known Member
Do they make the strips in 5 foot lengths or 4 foot?How many strips can you put on a driver or are there pages that explain the math.I dont know jack shit about them but im interested.
They make 2 and 4-foot units. The distribution angle is more than adequate to use a 4' in a 5' tent.

You need to look at the typical current and voltage requirement of the strip or COB on it's datasheet. then decide on using it in parallel or series.

 

CobKits

Well-Known Member
Do they make the strips in 5 foot lengths or 4 foot?How many strips can you put on a driver or are there pages that explain the math.I dont know jack shit about them but im interested.
2,3, and 4 foot are common

they come in all different flavors of voltage, usually dependent on length

for your purposes they are similar to cobs, in other words the difference between all the current cobs and strips out there is within say a 10% range, and this entire range is 30-40% above HIDs
 

Heisengrow

Well-Known Member
Really love this light setup.it runs really cool compared to my cmh and the coverage is fukin nice.i got even lights across the whole canopy and not so centerd like the hps.using my lux app I'm getting like 32 to 40k across the whole canopy.under my hps is less out to the edges.love this setup.

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