RockStonedJesus
Active Member
Hiya all,
I've gone the route of DIY and sourcing parts directly from distributors and over-seas manufacturers instead of purchasing pre-made kits as I found I would be saving myself a significant mount of money over the course of a few grows in comparison to purchasing something already made of similar spec. I also like to get hands-on as well, so it's definitely a plus in my books. Yay, go me!
Essentially, I've been doing a lot of reading, and still not sure with regards to the terminology I should be using when researching what I'm about to ask - so I sincerely apologize in advance if my questions seem obvious to answer, as it's a lot to juggle working full time, doing my own side-business & trying to start up my grow.
Essentially, my past couple of grows were done under 3500K CXB3590 36V chips, powered by.... Meanwell HBG-100-48A.
Back then, I must have completely mis-read the driver voltage, and instead of purchasing 36V drivers (-36A variant), I purchased the 48A variant like a complete noob.
I am now re-assessing everything, and I have done some reading with regards to dimming the chips down so they aren't running at such high power, as to my understanding, the performance to power ratio starts to decrease the more power the CXB3590's are given - I've read some people dim them down to 50% power, around 50W each.
So I guess my questions would be:
Again, I am so sorry if these questions sound stupid - it's a LOT of information to take in, especially when you're building your own lighting fixtures VS purchasing pre-made ones. I do have a fair understanding of how it all works, though clarification and input is appreciated.
I've gone the route of DIY and sourcing parts directly from distributors and over-seas manufacturers instead of purchasing pre-made kits as I found I would be saving myself a significant mount of money over the course of a few grows in comparison to purchasing something already made of similar spec. I also like to get hands-on as well, so it's definitely a plus in my books. Yay, go me!
Essentially, I've been doing a lot of reading, and still not sure with regards to the terminology I should be using when researching what I'm about to ask - so I sincerely apologize in advance if my questions seem obvious to answer, as it's a lot to juggle working full time, doing my own side-business & trying to start up my grow.
Essentially, my past couple of grows were done under 3500K CXB3590 36V chips, powered by.... Meanwell HBG-100-48A.
Back then, I must have completely mis-read the driver voltage, and instead of purchasing 36V drivers (-36A variant), I purchased the 48A variant like a complete noob.
I am now re-assessing everything, and I have done some reading with regards to dimming the chips down so they aren't running at such high power, as to my understanding, the performance to power ratio starts to decrease the more power the CXB3590's are given - I've read some people dim them down to 50% power, around 50W each.
So I guess my questions would be:
- Is it fine to run my 36V CXB3590 chips from Meanwell HBG-100-48A drivers, or am I best swapping them all out for the correct, 36A drivers? More clarification would be sincerely appreciated so I don't FKK up my COBs, as it seems I just completely derped it when purchasing the drivers.
- How should I fine-tune each lighting fixture? As in, what is the most efficient way to run the CXB3590 chips to ensure I am getting a long life-span out of each chip, and to also ensure I'm not over-powering them, and wasting energy and just creating unnecessary heat? The Meanwell drivers I am running have in-built petentiomiters which I can adjust to my desire - I just need some help figuring out how to actually adjust them and to what power draw - I have a power meter which I can use in-line to figure out how much each lighting fixture is drawing in terms of Amps and Watts.
- Are CXB3590 chips still OK to use in 2021 in terms of performance? Or have I jumped back onto an old bandwagon?
- What are your thoughts on 2700K, 3500K and 6500K COBs? I tend to run 3500K + 1/2 6500K COBs during Veg, and then switch over to 2700K + 3500K during flower. Keen to hear some more thoughts more surrounding 6500K and if it's best for vegging?
- Any further advice or information that would be useful with regards to the Cree CXB3590 + Meanwell HBG-100-36A would be sincerely appreciated.
Again, I am so sorry if these questions sound stupid - it's a LOT of information to take in, especially when you're building your own lighting fixtures VS purchasing pre-made ones. I do have a fair understanding of how it all works, though clarification and input is appreciated.