First Grow - Complete setup with Canadian sourcing - Need advice/approval!

After a week of researching and reading on here, I've finally decided on a plan for my complete setup from scratch. Many of my choices were shaped around finding components that were either sourced Canadian or nearby in the US, to avoid excess import fees and taxes.

Please let me know if you think there's anything I should change! (Prices are CDN dollars unless noted, and end up being more expensive than American sources unfortunately, but still cheaper than paying import duties and shipping from usa.)

Tent: 100cm x 100cm x 180cm (3'x3'x6') Mars Hydro Grow tent - $160 (emailed them for a slight discount)

COB LED Lighting

Cobs: 4x Vero29 Gen 7 - Type B 52V 3000k 80CRI from Digikey canada - $36ea $144 total

Driver: 2x HLG-185H-C1400B from Mouser Canada - $78ea - $156 total - I think I could do 4 cobs with one HLG-320H but it's basically the same cost so from what I've read on here I'm going to go with the safer route of two lower voltage drivers.

Heatsink: 4x SST X Passive Heatsink (flared pins) from NorthernGrow $24ea USD - $96 total

4 x Pico-EZmate™ Harness for Bridgelux Vero from Digikey canada $2.50 ea

4x LEDiL Reflector Adapter from Mouser Canada $3.50 ea

4x Ledil F13838_ANGELINA-XW Reflector from Mouser Canada $14 ea

2 & 3 Position Wago 222-412 / 222 413 connectors (still trying to determine best CDN source for these)

Thermal Paste: Gelid Solutions GC-Extreme

Frame made of aluminium angle from local hardware store


Air

Active Air 4 Inch In-Line Fan 165 CFM from Amazon.ca - $105
iPower GLFILT4M Air Carbon Filter from Amazon.ca - $65
Active Air ACSC Duct Fan Speed Adjuster from Amazon.ca - $30



I was considering doing a 6" fan but it costs nearly $100 cdn more for the "6 fan and filter, will the 4" fan will be enough for this setup?

I think thats everything! What do you guys think of this plan, is there anything I'm missing or should change? Big thanks to everyone on this forum, I thought this was going to be really hard at first but reading through all the threads here and mau5 video has made it possible, now I just have to assemble and use it without electrocuting myself!

Update: I've actually found some 3500k in Canada and someone has recommended to me that I do 4x 38v cobs on a HLG320H-C2100B instead, would this be better? The 38v * 4 would exactly match the 152V max output of the driver if I understand correctly. Is this ok to be exactly at the limit?

Very cool! I just started sourcing parts today now that I know what kind of set up I'm looking for! Would love to just buy from timber or someone but the exchange rate and shipping is killing us!
Looking forward to following this!

72camaross said:

Very cool! I just started sourcing parts today now that I know what kind of set up I'm looking for! Would love to just buy from timber or someone but the exchange rate and shipping is killing us!
Looking forward to following this!

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Yeah, right now the biggest problem I'm having keeping the budget tight is the heatsinks. Northern grow has the best deal but with shipping and duties it still ends up being at least 200 cdn just for 4 sinks.

The heat sinks are the biggest drawback to DIY here, if you can't find a Canadian source for them, ideally where you can pick them up it's about as cheap to buy pre-made from either side of the border. BTW: I've never paid duties or taxes on any US purchases for equipment, the exchange sucks but other than that it's unlikely you'll have to pay either taxes or duty.

Have you looked at these guys and compared pricing? They're in BC...
http://www.bcblondes.com/category-s/100.htm

You will pay duty and whatever taxes that are applicable for your province. The duty isn't much. I ordered pin heatsinks from NGL also so I know. The tax is the biggest fee but we are used to paying tax on everything anyway. I sourced my wago's straight off amazon or ebay from China. Took a few weeks to get here even though they say it could be 6 or more. Depending on how many you need I can mail you some and they'd be there within' a week. I have 2, 3 and 5 prong wago's.

I used 1/16" square aluminum tubing for my frame and love the added strength and rigidity it has over angle aluminum. It's very easy to work with and you don't have to be too precise with measurements. I bought a Vortex vtx-400 4" fan and if I don't have a vent open or an intake fan running it would probably implode my 4'x6' tent. I also bought a speedmaster fan controller but it only drops it down to about 75% power max. It helps but I wished it was at least to 50%. Everything you have listed looks great. I wish I had gen 7 Vero's but I have gen 6. I can't use the pico ezmates because they don't handle enough voltage on gen 6 cobs so I had to solder all mine.

Someone pointed out to me that digikey Canada sells Vero29 sinks Aavid Thermalloy NX300160 , they are apparently for up to 82w cob but they don't seem nearly as nice as the pin cobs sold by Northern and others, and at $30 bucks CDN plus tax they aren't much of a deal either. Think I still still end up going with the SST X from NorthernGrow.

Danielson999 said:

I used 1/16" square aluminum tubing for my frame and love the added strength and rigidity it has over angle aluminum. It's very easy to work with and you don't have to be too precise with measurements. I bought a Vortex vtx-400 4" fan and if I don't have a vent open or an intake fan running it would probably implode my 4'x6' tent. I also bought a speedmaster fan controller but it only drops it down to about 75% power max. It helps but I wished it was at least to 50%. Everything you have listed looks great. I wish I had gen 7 Vero's but I have gen 6. I can't use the pico ezmates because they don't handle enough voltage on gen 6 cobs so I had to solder all mine.

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Your setup looks great! Thanks for the tip on the 1/16" square, I think I will go for that too. Can you tell me where you sourced the switch box and the transparent box for all your connectors from?

Danielson999 said:

I sourced my wago's straight off amazon or ebay from China. Took a few weeks to get here even though they say it could be 6 or more. Depending on how many you need I can mail you some and they'd be there within' a week. I have 2, 3 and 5 prong wago's.

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That would be amazing but to be honest I don't even know how many I need. I think I'm going with the 4 x Vero 29 38v with the Ez-Mate harness powered by one HLG320H-C2100B, but I haven't really figured out all the wiring yet.

Before I pull the trigger on the order can anyone offer opinion on my cob/driver choice:
4x Vero 29 Gen 7 38v 3500k driven by one HLG320H-C2100B
or
4x Vero 29 Gen 7 50v 3500k driven by two HLG185H-C1400B

I'm just concerned that the 4x on one driver is right at the limits of the driver, and I read somewhere that running 4 in one series increases the voltage of the circuit and makes it more dangerous. It's a lot more cost effective for me to do, but is it safe and efficient enough?

TheHypnoToad said:

Your setup looks great! Thanks for the tip on the 1/16" square, I think I will go for that too. Can you tell me where you sourced the switch box and the transparent box for all your connectors from?

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The box on the right was made by @robincnn at NGL.
He builds them to your needs but I'm not sure if he is doing them anymore.
The junction box on the left was made by me with a simple 4"x4"x2" box from home depot. They sell the glands also there. Underneath the top cap with the red switches are 2 light switches that the red levers operate.

I lost my patience on that build. You can see the rubber grommets along the tubing where the heatsinks joins. I intended to run all the wiring from the heatsink and into the grommet where it stays hidden inside the tubing. It would have looked very neat but I needed to lay the wire through them before I finished putting it together instead of after. In the next build I will have them going through the tubing.

GroErr said:

The heat sinks are the biggest drawback to DIY here, if you can't find a Canadian source for them, ideally where you can pick them up it's about as cheap to buy pre-made from either side of the border. BTW: I've never paid duties or taxes on any US purchases for equipment, the exchange sucks but other than that it's unlikely you'll have to pay either taxes or duty.

Have you looked at these guys and compared pricing? They're in BC...
http://www.bcblondes.com/category-s/100.htm

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That is a pretty sick price, I think my DIY budget for the same power will end up being quite a bit over that. If they sold a kit without a frame I'd be all over it but I don't really like the area of an enclosure where I can't adjust spacing or make easy modifications as needed.

Danielson999 said:

The box on the right was made by @robincnn at NGL.
He builds them to your needs but I'm not sure if he is doing them anymore.
The junction box on the left was made by me with a simple 4"x4"x2" box from home depot. They sell the glands also there. Underneath the top cap with the red switches are 2 light switches that the red levers operate.

I lost my patience on that build. You can see the rubber grommets along the tubing where the heatsinks joins. I intended to run all the wiring from the heatsink and into the grommet where it stays hidden inside the tubing. It would have looked very neat but I needed to lay the wire through them before I finished putting it together instead of after. In the next build I will have them going through the tubing.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the picture! Excuse my ignorance for what are all those orange bars in the box? Is that a potentiometer? I thought the B series had them right on the driver or am I mistaken?

TheHypnoToad said:

Thanks for the picture! Excuse my ignorance for what are all those orange bars in the box? Is that a potentiometer? I thought the B series had them right on the driver or am I mistaken?

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The orange bars are simply holders for the wago's. You can see a 5 prong wago inside one of them, I just hadn't put all the others inside them yet. It keeps them nice and tidy.
The B series has the connections for a potentiometer coming from the driver. The DC side of the driver has 2 cables, one running to your cobs and the other cable is for dimming. It's just 2 wires that connect to the potentiometer and dim from 10%-100% assuming you're using the proper resisitors. If you leave them capped off you get a slightly higher output at max, like a few percent more but then you obviously have no dimming. The A series has a small dial you can turn to adjust dimming from 50%-100%.

Danielson999 said:

The orange bars are simply holders for the wago's. You can see a 5 prong wago inside one of them, I just hadn't put all the others inside them yet. It keeps them nice and tidy.
The B series has the connections for a potentiometer coming from the driver. The DC side of the driver has 2 cables, one running to your cobs and the other cable is for dimming. It's just 2 wires that connect to the potentiometer and dim from 10%-100% assuming you're using the proper resisitors. If you leave them capped off you get a slightly higher output at max, like a few percent more but then you obviously have no dimming. The A series has a small dial you can turn to adjust dimming from 50%-100%.

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Oh nice...do you have a lot of connectors left that you aren't going to use? I could paypal you a fair price for them, don't really want to wait 3-4 weeks just for the connectors as everything else should arrive much sooner.

I don't really understand the wiring of these systems because I have no idea what so many connections are for, are these wired in series of 4? Since I'm running one driver I figured I would only need only three connectors because I thought you only needed one for each Neutral/Ground/Hot. What are the other connections for?

If you are using 1 driver it's so much easier. Yeah I have a series of 4 cobs on each driver.
On the AC side you would take your power cord and run it into the junction box where the ground will go to a wago that also accepts the ground from driver and also a wire that runs to your frame. Your (+) wire from the power cord will go into a wago that also has the (+) wire from the driver and a wire that runs to your light switch. Your neutral from the power cord goes into a wago that also has the neutral from the driver and a neutral that runs to your light switch.
On the DC side you can simply run your dimming wires straight to the potentiometer (I used 2 drivers so I connected these wires to wago's and then from the wago to the potentiometer). If you use an A series driver than you don't need to worry about that wago. Then you run your (-) wire on the DC into a wago and then a wire from that wago to your first (+) connection on the cob (then you run a wire from the (-) on that cob to the (+) on the next cob). Then your neutral wire from the driver to a wago and then a wire from that wago to the (+) on the last cob in your string, assuming you're wiring in series like I did.
You'd need about 6 wago's, or 5 if you use an A series driver.
You can PM me your mailing address and I can send you 2 - 5prong wago, 5 - 3prong wago and a few 2 prong wago's also.

Danielson999 said:

If you are using 1 driver it's so much easier. Yeah I have a series of 4 cobs on each driver.
On the AC side you would take your power cord and run it into the junction box where the ground will go to a wago that also accepts the ground from driver and also a wire that runs to your frame. Your (+) wire from the power cord will go into a wago that also has the (+) wire from the driver and a wire that runs to your light switch. Your neutral from the power cord goes into a wago that also has the neutral from the driver and a neutral that runs to your light switch.
On the DC side you can simply run your dimming wires straight to the potentiometer (I used 2 drivers so I connected these wires to wago's and then from the wago to the potentiometer). If you use an A series driver than you don't need to worry about that wago. Then you run your (-) wire on the DC into a wago and then a wire from that wago to your first (+) connection on the cob (then you run a wire from the (-) on that cob to the (+) on the next cob). Then your neutral wire from the driver to a wago and then a wire from that wago to the (+) on the last cob in your string, assuming you're wiring in series like I did.
You'd need about 6 wago's, or 5 if you use an A series driver.
You can PM me your mailing address and I can send you 2 - 5prong wago, 5 - 3prong wago and a few 2 prong wago's also.

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Awesome thanks so much! Can you send me a PM because I don't think it lets me start a PM conversation as a New Member.

Ugh it seems that the Pico Ez-mates have a max voltage of 130v, I guess I'm going to have to solder as well.