DIY with Quantum Boards

eminiplayer said:

Hey guys,

DIY imbecile here...

Could you guys have a look and check if my build looks wired up correctly, please?

http://imgur.com/a/Ms7Te

This is the first light I've ever put together so I'm somewhat nervous.

Also, what's this yellow and green wire attached to the frame with a 3 way Wago(222) on the end of it? Am I meant to plug something in to the two open ports?

Peace.

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It looks like you have them wired in series. You need to wire them in parallel with that driver. So all positive (+) go to the red wire all negative (-) go to the black wire on the DC side. On the AC side the green is ground blue is neutral and brown is the line.

this is not a quantum board. it is made from 7 bridgelux 2ft eb strips. running at 500ma. I am waiting for a second driver to finish this light before beginning a test grow but I believe these will replace C.O.Bs. 165 lumens per watt at 80cri and more uniform light distribution. damn still can't upload pictures but this puppy is bright

Hello,

I have 4 boards that will run on 1050Ma on Slate 2. Space 4 X 4 X 7.

I am trying to figure out spacing. Sexy implementation on the HLG site, a 24 x 24 square. I might mimic this unless others have interesting ideas.

Thanks.

ChaosHunter said:

There is such a thing as too much light via not enough canopy/plants. I'm in a 2x2.5 tent "5sq ft" and find 100w veg and up to 150-175w flower plant and canopy dependent.

I'm doing a one plant Scrog atm "should have done 2" and just flipped to flower. I pulled 7oz from the two autos I test ran with no training and the results are staggering. Mind you this was at 100w veg and 125w flower.

With this new grows denser canopy I will ramp up the wattage/intensity through flower as needed, nice to know we can do that.

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could you upload a few pics of this grow if you have any?

zzerg85 said:

could you upload a few pics of this grow if you have any?

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Page 94 showed one of them a few weeks before chop. I posted through the this thread and not in a journal

Day 56, just before chop.

captainmorgan said:

Day 56, just before chop.

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They look so nice Capt. Nice job so far!

zzerg85 said:

I would really like to see pictures of others results and how many boards are they hanging in their space. I know upload doesn't work at the moment but if you could use any other upload service and link the pics that would be much appreciated

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Hey @zzerg85

Here is 2 boards in a 3x3, at about 90 watts per board but I actually am still dialing in how much wattage I need for my height.
You can really the effect the light spread has on the plants, they are literally training themselves. This one I only topped once, no LST.
And these clones, no training at all.
I'm not that experienced but I've seen enough to know the benefits of the light spread over some other lighting systems.

Stephenj37826 said:

It looks like you have them wired in series. You need to wire them in parallel with that driver. So all positive (+) go to the red wire all negative (-) go to the black wire on the DC side. On the AC side the green is ground blue is neutral and brown is the line.

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Thanks Stephen... got it figured out and cranked up the light for the first time, can't wait to get my grow started!

@Stephenj37826 yo sup man. What gauge wire did you send out with the kits? I ordered 22 but realised it might not be the same? Does it have to be the same if I've already wired up half of one with your gauge. Sorry for the silly questions!

@lukio 18awg if I recall

lukio said:

@Stephenj37826 yo sup man. What gauge wire did you send out with the kits? I ordered 22 but realised it might not be the same? Does it have to be the same if I've already wired up half of one with your gauge. Sorry for the silly questions!

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@robincnn

Now if Robin could design ones that run on AC he'd be onto something. Here's what I mean. One power cord, which costs $3.99, can power any length of LED strip up to 150 feet. You could daisy chain several boards together. Seems better than the high priced Meanwell power supplies, which are usually the biggest cost of a system. Might be more flicker but I doubt the plants would complain.

BobCajun said:

Now if Robin could design ones that run on AC he'd be onto something. Here's what I mean. One power cord, which costs $3.99, can power any length of LED strip up to 150 feet. You could daisy chain several boards together. Seems better than the high priced Meanwell power supplies, which are usually the biggest cost of a system. Might be more flicker but I doubt the plants would complain.

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You aren't really comparing a 12v wall wart to a 200-400v meanwell driver, are you?

No, 110v. Meanwells are good if you need high consistency of light, like in a store, but for plants it doesn't really need to be that clean.

BobCajun said:

No, 110v. Meanwells are good if you need high consistency of light, like in a store, but for plants it doesn't really need to be that clean.

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But those are DC, not AC. LED's don't run on AC. You have to tranny them somehow. Even if it is on board, you still need a driver.

I use a lot of those strip LED's for accent lighting and night vision on boats. You can use just about any 12v power source, including ships battery power. But when you step up to 100+v dc, it gets expensive.

I guess a bridge rectifier converts it to 110v DC, you just avoid the transformer because there's no stepping up or down involved.

I think when you cheap out on drivers, you will usually lose out in efficiency. I don't think any of the cheaper drivers come close to 90+ efficiency. If you are in a tent or small closet, no big deal. But as you start adding a 1000w here and another 1000w there, an 80 something efficiency driver is losing you easily a 100w per 1000w or more. Say you are running 3000 watts of leds, one with 83% efficient drivers and 3000 watts of MW HLG@ 94% efficient.
The cheap room will only produce 2490 watts of light output.
The MW room will produce 2820 watts of light output.
So, if you are cheap, then you are throwing away 330 watts or nearly a pound per grow. Worst case, the driver will fail in the middle of a run and you lose a lot more.

Here's a good one, 1440w of LED string for $199. China of course.