need some help with samsung strip build

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loco41

Well-Known Member
Hey, first off I am brand new to the whole diy led builds. I have been reading a lot, but seem to be running myself in circles trying to figure it all out. I am looking to build a small veg light for a 2x2.5 ft tent to start with and then expand as I become more comfortable with the whole process.

I was looking at these two strips SL-B8T4N90LAWW (h influx) and the SL-B8U7N90L1WW (influx l09) as possible candidates. Any newer/older strips out that that you would suggest over these? I don't mind grabbing more boards up front as I will be sure to put them to use in the future in some way shape or form. Ideally I'd like to run more strips softly than pushing just a couple harder, so if more strips for this small of an area is feasible, I'm all ears. I was thinking in the range of 3-5 or so.

Which leads me to my first big hurdle, the driver. If, for example sake, I chose to go with 3 of the h influx strips, I was thinking about something along the lines of a HLG-185H-48A. The voltage range seems to be dimmable within the min/max spec sheets of the boards, but would this leave me enough current to run them or would I need to step up to the hlg-240h-48a for these? From what I understand, maybe the l09 strips would be better for me since they run at a lower current, so I could go with a smaller driver since I don't need a crazy amount of watts pumping into this small veg tent. Please let me know if I'm veering way off here.

I'm open to any suggestions moving forward. I really would like to start learning some things instead of trying to piece some info from a bunch of different sources together. So just trying to gather some advice. Sorry If these questions are basic and/or have been answered in previous threads, I have dug through a bunch of stuff, but was hoping someone could guide me through this a little. Thanks in advance to anyone willing to dive into this with me.
 
ChiefRunningPhist

ChiefRunningPhist

Well-Known Member
Strips, QBs, modules, etc are all just shapes. Imo, what's important is what the shapes are made out of. You're going to need multiple shapes to fill your grow regardless the shape you choose, so light spread can be achieved with multiple starting shapes, but where the biggest difference is imo, is the chips that are used to create the starting shapes.

In general mid power LED, ie 0.5W/chip LED is going to be the most effecienct type of LED around ~190lm/wt (+/-15). Then followed by COB LED at around ~170lm/wt (+/- 15). COB LED may not be as effecient, but they can be brighter per area than mid power because they can handle higher power density. So a COB may take 15% more power per lumen, but can also use more watts per area than mid power, so COBs can have more lumens per area or be brighter per area while being less effecient.

LEDs lose effeciency with higher currents flowed and subsequently increased heat. The lower the current the better the effeciency. This means that 100 chips at 1 watt each will produce more light than 1 chip at 100 watts.

Chip model, chip count, amps per chip, those are the important metrics imo.

A 2.0 × 2.5 area is 5ft2. Most reccomend ~35W/ft2. So 5ft2 × 35W = 175W.

If I were you, I'd shoot for 175W worth of LED, but the more chips you use to draw that 175W the better.

LM301B are about the best chip you can buy atm. Nichia 757 v3 are really good as well. Then it drops to LM561C which is older gen but still very good. CREE and Vero make good COBs, but all I ultimately base my decision by is the effeciency (lm/wt, or μmol/J) and price. 220lm/wt is supposedly what top binning LM301B can hit at low currents, and I think close to 2.8 μmol/J. These numbers are unrealistic in real world applications. If you're able to hit true 2.4μmol/J in a fixture that's pretty legit. Anything over 180lm/wt is going to be a top of the line product.

Lumens are weighted toward green, and μmol/J is weighted towards red. So a 5000k light will have more lumens than a 3000k light (for the same wattage). And a 3000k light will have more μmol/J than a 5000k light (for the same wattage). So just make sure you're comparing apples to apples and not oranges to apples.

After all that, I'd say anything that uses LM561C, Cree, Vero, LM301b, or any Nichia is good to start out with, I'd reccomend finding the product with the most high end chips (listed) and for the cheapest, and then you can dial it in further once you get an idea of what you're playing with.

4000k is good veg, 3000k is good bloom.

Attached are just some graphics for quick reference. There's lots other driver options, lots other chip models, lots of other everything lol, but hopefully it gets you an idea. Good luck :bigjoint:

loco41 said:
The h series ones are 1600 and the l09 ones are 1380 ma.
Click to expand...
The 185h-48 says 3.9A, so 3.9A ÷ 5 strips = 0.78A per strip, or 780mA. That would be very effecienct but may lack penetration (it's an ongoing debate).

3.9A ÷ 3 strips = 1.3A each strip, or1300mA. That would be just under the 1380mA max of the one strip, so it means you'd probably not be very effecient with the 1380mA model pushing 1300mA because it's almost maxed out. 1.3 ÷ 1.6 = 81.25% and still pretty hard driven, so it would be a bit more effecient to run (3) 1600mA strips over (3) 1380mA strips but not by much I wouldn't think.

(4) 1600mA strips at 0.975A each or 975mA is 61% of max and probably best bet imo. But you'd have to confirm that each strip is 48V, I've not built a strip light so I'm not sure what the voltage rating is for the h influx's you were referring to. If they are 48V strips then I'd go with (4) 1600mA strips and a 185h-48.
 

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