Cutter Electronics: Complete DIY COB kits

Redoctober

Redoctober

Well-Known Member
Just got the Mau5-V kit and put it all together...It's so awesome!!!
I'm assuming I did everything correctly because nothing exploded or caught on fire!
I caught myself after wiring positive to negative from cob to cob but nearly forgot that for the wire that comes out of the final cob in the chain connecting to the leads on the driver, it's positive to positive, negative to negative.
Wonder what would happen if you reversed it?

One question though, I need more cob to cob connection wire than what came with the kit but home depot didn't have 18 awg "solid core" wire as growmau5 recommended, can I use either 18 or 16 awg "stranded" wire?
The wire that came with the kit is stranded...
I have 14 awg solid core wire but it's too thick to fit into the cob holder connector
 
BOBBY_G

BOBBY_G

Well-Known Member
Redoctober said:
Just got the Mau5-V kit and put it all together...It's so awesome!!!
I'm assuming I did everything correctly because nothing exploded or caught on fire!
I caught myself after wiring positive to negative from cob to cob but nearly forgot that for the wire that comes out of the final cob in the chain connecting to the leads on the driver, it's positive to positive, negative to negative.
Wonder what would happen if you reversed it?

One question though, I need more cob to cob connection wire than what came with the kit but home depot didn't have 18 awg "solid core" wire as growmau5 recommended, can I use either 18 or 16 awg "stranded" wire?
The wire that came with the kit is stranded...
I have 14 awg solid core wire but it's too thick to fit into the cob holder connector
Click to expand...
they sell 18-2 solid doorbell wire you'll have to cut it down the middle but will be rewarded with red and white single conductors
 
Greengenes707

Greengenes707

Well-Known Member
Redoctober said:
Just got the Mau5-V kit and put it all together...It's so awesome!!!
I'm assuming I did everything correctly because nothing exploded or caught on fire!
I caught myself after wiring positive to negative from cob to cob but nearly forgot that for the wire that comes out of the final cob in the chain connecting to the leads on the driver, it's positive to positive, negative to negative.
Wonder what would happen if you reversed it?

One question though, I need more cob to cob connection wire than what came with the kit but home depot didn't have 18 awg "solid core" wire as growmau5 recommended, can I use either 18 or 16 awg "stranded" wire?
The wire that came with the kit is stranded...
I have 14 awg solid core wire but it's too thick to fit into the cob holder connector
Click to expand...
Ideal holders work pretty well with stranded wire. Don't twist...just strip and insert straight in like ideal says to. Solid is very snug and hard for anyone to mess up, but stranded is also nice snug and shouldn't have an issue.
Only weak china wire I have had issues with personally and ideal holders. I have used both types a lot, and prefer stranded when I can use it.

Watch out for "door bell" wire. Most is only rated for ~20v. So check what it's rated for if going that route.
Would rather see you take a couple strands off a 16awg and keep it snug as possible than run low voltage wire like door bell. But trust me 18awg stranded works fine with ideal.
 
BOBBY_G

BOBBY_G

Well-Known Member
Greengenes707 said:
Watch out for "door bell" wire. Most is only rated for ~20v. So check what it's rated for if going that route.
Would rather see you take a couple strands off a 16awg and keep it snug as possible than run low voltage wire like door bell. But trust me 18awg stranded works fine with ideal.
Click to expand...
my bad they sell it as t-stat wire

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Cerrowire-50-ft-18-2-Brown-Solid-Thermostat-Wire-210-1002BR/202750277

CL2R rating = 300V, but thats as a cable assy.
 
welight

welight

Well-Known Member
Greengenes707 said:
Ideal holders work pretty well with stranded wire. Don't twist...just strip and insert straight in like ideal says to. Solid is very snug and hard for anyone to mess up, but stranded is also nice snug and shouldn't have an issue.
Only weak china wire I have had issues with personally and ideal holders. I have used both types a lot, and prefer stranded when I can use it.

Watch out for "door bell" wire. Most is only rated for ~20v. So check what it's rated for if going that route.
Would rather see you take a couple strands off a 16awg and keep it snug as possible than run low voltage wire like door bell. But trust me 18awg stranded works fine with ideal.
Click to expand...
GG is correct, we typically when selling assembled kits will put a light solder finish on the 18 AWG wire to make it solid, however it is not required, but you should be careful putting to much on or you will have problems fitting it into the Ideal Holder, certainly check the rating of the wire you purchase, 250-300v, 600v is better if you can find it
Cheers
Mark
 
welight

welight

Well-Known Member
Redoctober said:
Just got the Mau5-V kit and put it all together...It's so awesome!!!
I'm assuming I did everything correctly because nothing exploded or caught on fire!
I caught myself after wiring positive to negative from cob to cob but nearly forgot that for the wire that comes out of the final cob in the chain connecting to the leads on the driver, it's positive to positive, negative to negative.
Wonder what would happen if you reversed it?

One question though, I need more cob to cob connection wire than what came with the kit but home depot didn't have 18 awg "solid core" wire as growmau5 recommended, can I use either 18 or 16 awg "stranded" wire?
The wire that came with the kit is stranded...
I have 14 awg solid core wire but it's too thick to fit into the cob holder connector
Click to expand...
Would not recommend running reversed polarity at any time, if you did you might get away with
'one ping and one ping only Vasily,' sorry could not help but use the Red October line, but never recommended. Please post picks when your up and running
Cheers
Mark
 
Redoctober

Redoctober

Well-Known Member
welight said:
Would not recommend running reversed polarity at any time, if you did you might get away with
'one ping and one ping only Vasily,' sorry could not help but use the Red October line, but never recommended. Please post picks when your up and running
Cheers
Mark
Click to expand...
Thanks very much for all you're help Mark! "Most things in here, don't react well to bullets!"
I will post pics when I get everything assembled.
I'm actually doing it a little bit unorthodox and not mounting all heatsinks to a single frame but keeping them separate and hanging them individually with ratchet hangers so that I can move them to any position as needed. Still working out the details....
 
T

todd86

Active Member
I understood that I needed around 0.36 Thermal Resistance
C/Watt for 80 °C rise to passively cool my cobs.

Thus my 1.4 kg heat sink per each COB at 50 watt 3950.

MF20-151.5 http://www.conradheatsinks.com/products/flat100_350.html#MF20

are these smaller pin heat sinks at 1.07 Thermal Resistance
C/Watt really up to the job for passive cooling?

How do they compare to the MF20-151.5?

my light weighs more than my car, lol . 3590 x 8 lol20160729_215205.jpg 20160729_215251.jpg 20160729_224125.jpg

build completed (more or less) today ....about a hour ago

next time ill save a lot of bother and buy cutter, my concerns are however, cutter doesn't use thermal grease, instead uses sticky and can those heat sinks really provide long cob life when in passive situations in summer. (some peeps even run passive cobs along side HPS for example)

I used thermal grease

Brand: Halnziye
Model: HY880
Appearance: Grey
Thermal Conductivity: >5.15W/mK
Because this is an OEM product there are not a lot of comparison reviews online but the following review showing it out performing Tuniq TX-4 should give you a reference point for its real world performance: http://www.pureoverclock.com/Review-detail/hy810-and-hy880-compound-review/

c&p or google this site seems to break the link?

https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=http://www.pureoverclock.com/Review-detail/hy810-and-hy880-compound-review/&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b&gfe_rd=cr&ei=QkebV5u3HtHu8we9h6TYBA

did I just build a passive light with unnecessary weight in heat sinks?
 
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V

VegasWinner

Well-Known Member
todd86 said:
I understood that I needed around 0.36 Thermal Resistance
C/Watt for 80 °C rise to passively cool my cobs.

Thus my 1.4 kg heat sink per each COB at 50 watt 3950.

MF20-151.5 http://www.conradheatsinks.com/products/flat100_350.html#MF20

are these smaller pin heat sinks at 1.07 Thermal Resistance
C/Watt really up to the job for passive cooling?

How do they compare to the MF20-151.5?

my light weighs more than my car, lol . 3590 x 8 lolView attachment 3744434 View attachment 3744436 View attachment 3744439

build completed (more or less) today ....about a hour ago

next time ill save a lot of bother and buy cutter, my concerns are however, cutter doesn't use thermal grease, instead uses sticky and can those heat sinks really provide long cob life when in passive situations in summer. (some peeps even run passive cobs along side HPS for example)

I used thermal grease

Brand: Halnziye
Model: HY880
Appearance: Grey
Thermal Conductivity: >5.15W/mK
Because this is an OEM product there are not a lot of comparison reviews online but the following review showing it out performing Tuniq TX-4 should give you a reference point for its real world performance: http://www.pureoverclock.com/Review-detail/hy810-and-hy880-compound-review/

c&p or google this site seems to break the link?

https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=http://www.pureoverclock.com/Review-detail/hy810-and-hy880-compound-review/&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b&gfe_rd=cr&ei=QkebV5u3HtHu8we9h6TYBA

did I just build a passive light with unnecessary weight in heat sinks?
Click to expand...
I have used both with the same result. The positive of the thermal pads, you can remove the COB and replace it with no mess, unlike the thermal paste. I like using both, but the thermal pads are more expensive. Nice add to a DIY kit expensive components, usually you get cheap stuff, but not with these guys. Nice job @welight . peace.
Vegas
 
Redoctober

Redoctober

Well-Known Member
Is there a rule of thumb as far as the gauge of wire and the distance between COBs?
Like for instance, if you are going to use more than 10 feet of wire from one COB to the next, use 16-awg instead of 18-awg?
Or is 18-awg sufficient for anything but absurdly comical distances like 20 feet?

I know that growmau5 said that if extending the distance from the driver to the first COB up to 10 feet, use 16-awg wire, and if over 10 feet, use 14-awg, (although 14-awg won't fit into the COB holder's connection port).
Probably best to have the driver close to the COBs, and just use a heavy duty extension cord for long distances from driver to the wall.
 
G

goofy81

Well-Known Member
welight said:
Would not recommend running reversed polarity at any time, if you did you might get away with
'one ping and one ping only Vasily,' sorry could not help but use the Red October line, but never recommended. Please post picks when your up and running
Cheers
Mark
Click to expand...
Hi. When I was diy, my grow partner actually put a red wire into the - (at the end of the bar). I connected for about 5 seconds. It didn't light up so I switched it around. Lights been running fine now for the past few weeks. The driver is the ZPE so they might have reverse polarity protection.
 
welight

welight

Well-Known Member
goofy81 said:
Hi. When I was diy, my grow partner actually put a red wire into the - (at the end of the bar). I connected for about 5 seconds. It didn't light up so I switched it around. Lights been running fine now for the past few weeks. The driver is the ZPE so they might have reverse polarity protection.
Click to expand...
Yes ZPE is a Dual stage driver, that uses all european components and has some protection built in, as I say you can get away with it some times, personally just never comfortable with it when using high voltage potentials on these rigs, always best to triple check, good to hear your system is working well
Cheers
Mark
 
Z

Zulunature

Well-Known Member
Mark can you say when the new LDD drivers you have coming might be available?
Can you say what the ma ranges will be? And cost?

Just deciding if to wait for these to come or to just order the meanwell ldd's that you have.
 
welight

welight

Well-Known Member
Zulunature said:
Mark can you say when the new LDD drivers you have coming might be available?
Can you say what the ma ranges will be? And cost?

Just deciding if to wait for these to come or to just order the meanwell ldd's that you have.
Click to expand...
Yes they are shipping on the 4th so thursday, factory just sent me piccys

so from 1.5amp version Max 46Vout you could run a CXB3590 at 50 watts, will be posting YOUTUBE COB build on these
Cheers
Mark
 
resinhead

resinhead

Well-Known Member
Why aren't more people remotely mounting their drivers? Wouldn't that decrease the heat output of the unit by 25% or more as with HID? Does anyone know the amount of heat coming from the driver compared to the diode?
 
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