DIY with Quantum Boards

Nice job.
Beautiful looking rig, & will serve you very well for years to come if they're not run too hard or too hot.

HLG is just the kind of company that deserves repeat business because they treat customers well and support products, even when it's been user error.
I fully understand why we can't buy Diablo boards right now and looking forward to when they are going to be able to offer them (or a similar substitute) again soon.

TOTALLY LEGIT!

sfw1960 said:

Nice job.
Beautiful looking rig, & will serve you very well for years to come if they're not run too hard or too hot.

HLG is just the kind of company that deserves repeat business because they treat customers well and support products, even when it's been user error.
I fully understand why we can't buy Diablo boards right now and looking forward to when they are going to be able to offer them (or a similar substitute) again soon.

TOTALLY LEGIT!

Click to expand...

Sssssshhhhhhh......

I'll be quiet if you buy me four...

Waiting for a tracking number RN...lol

sfw1960 said:

Nice job.
Beautiful looking rig, & will serve you very well for years to come if they're not run too hard or too hot.

HLG is just the kind of company that deserves repeat business because they treat customers well and support products, even when it's been user error.
I fully understand why we can't buy Diablo boards right now and looking forward to when they are going to be able to offer them (or a similar substitute) again soon.

TOTALLY LEGIT!

Click to expand...

Thanks man! I have a few more sets to wire up before it's all set up. This is a projects months in the making lol.

Airwalker16 said:

HLG Samsung QB 648 Diablo – CobKits.com

cobkits.com

Sssssshhhhhhh......

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I'm guessing that HLG is still selling them to other businesses or maybe fulfilling the last of their business orders? I guess they are being sold without a warranty now? I wonder if that's the case for people who bought them before that notice was put up. That's a gem for people who have been trying to find them!

Federucci said:

I'm guessing that HLG is still selling them to other businesses or maybe fulfilling the last of their business orders? I guess they are being sold without a warranty now? I wonder if that's the case for people who bought them before that notice was put up. That's a gem for people who have been trying to find them!

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Afaik no warranty on the diablo diy boards, at least not for wiring them the wrong way and wrecking the reds. Id be surprised if HLG didnt honor some kind of service if something else happened due to manufacturing and not misswiring but id leave that to hlg to answer.

Got a question....So I am running 2 -240 meanwell drivers on 16 strips. 8 per driver. per light with 2 lights. Now....I want to replace the current dimmers with an automatic one that will mimic sunrise/sunset. Do I need to run seperate dimmers for each driver ? Also.....can I change my drivers from 240s to something else if I wanted less wires in the room?

TheSadBadGrower said:

Got a question....So I am running 2 -240 meanwell drivers on 16 strips. 8 per driver. per light with 2 lights. Now....I want to replace the current dimmers with an automatic one that will mimic sunrise/sunset. Do I need to run seperate dimmers for each driver ? Also.....can I change my drivers from 240s to something else if I wanted less wires in the room?

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Maybe this isnt the right place to be asking this as this is a sponsored thread by HLG for their products.

PJ Diaz said:

OK, but what does that have to do with QB144's?

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Think 144's and Mau5Pucks happen to run at around 36v making reuse of drivers from old cob setups. Both attractive as upgrade option. The beauty with the 132's is that you could possibly do without heatsinking, but still use on-hand 36v drivers?

Rocket Soul said:

Maybe this isnt the right place to be asking this as this is a sponsored thread by HLG for their products.

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Thread title threw me off...

TheSadBadGrower said:

Thread title threw me off...

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Quantum boards is originally a HLG product, that later on, unfairly, became synonymous with midpower diode pcb boards. I try to use the term china-board or qb-clone to differentiate. Thread your question or put it in the how to power diy led thrread stickied in the led section.

Question from someone who knows very little about electricity....
I came across the HLG 320w XL QB-324 DIY Kit about a year ago over at GL, (2 boards on one Slate 2 Triple Pre-drilled 891mm Heatsink ) I think it has a HLG-320H-54B driver. The driver is supposed to be adjustable from 33-338 watts. I'm curious to know if maxing out the dimmer knob will put strain on the boards? There is a 'notch' you can feel when turning the knob that seems to be the half way point for the dimmer. Since I know nothing I've always kept the dimmer set to that halfway point notch. Am I under utilizing these lights like that? Should I be cranking them up? I did not use any TIM when attaching the boards to the slate. However they do have fans blowing directly over the top of the slate/driver and also some airflow beneath the lights themselves. My main goal is to not burn these things up anytime soon while getting max performance from them.

Even without a fan blowing across the heatsink, I would crank that pot up. With a fan, you can turn it to 11. Lol

Twobs said:

Question from someone who knows very little about electricity....
I came across the HLG 320w XL QB-324 DIY Kit about a year ago over at GL, (2 boards on one Slate 2 Triple Pre-drilled 891mm Heatsink ) I think it has a HLG-320H-54B driver. The driver is supposed to be adjustable from 33-338 watts. I'm curious to know if maxing out the dimmer knob will put strain on the boards? There is a 'notch' you can feel when turning the knob that seems to be the half way point for the dimmer. Since I know nothing I've always kept the dimmer set to that halfway point notch. Am I under utilizing these lights like that? Should I be cranking them up? I did not use any TIM when attaching the boards to the slate. However they do have fans blowing directly over the top of the slate/driver and also some airflow beneath the lights themselves. My main goal is to not burn these things up anytime soon while getting max performance from them.

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While I can't tell you just how much strain operating the boards at almost 170 watts a piece limits their service life, I can tell you that anything that's ran at max will not last as long and will not be as efficient as something run at 60-70% power. I adjust the lights according to a Lux meter nowadays(something I didn't have the luxury of 25 years ago!), and set my lights to that. I highly recommend the "Dr. Meter", you can find one for closer to $30 than $40 on Amazon during a sale. I also highly recommend using TIM and a 140mm fan on top of each board. At a setting of 140 watts draw, my B-Spec diodes are sitting at a comfortable 32-33C when hit with the IR thermometer. You are already doing the best thing for longevity, heat and efficiency in my opinion by using one of the higher powered drivers for two boards and operating it well below max. Now you just have to fine tune it somehow.

Federucci said:

While I can't tell you just how much strain operating the boards at almost 170 watts a piece limits their service life, I can tell you that anything that's ran at max will not last as long and will not be as efficient as something run at 60-70% power. I adjust the lights according to a Lux meter nowadays(something I didn't have the luxury of 25 years ago!), and set my lights to that. I highly recommend the "Dr. Meter", you can find one for closer to $30 than $40 on Amazon during a sale. I also highly recommend using TIM and a 140mm fan on top of each board. At a setting of 140 watts draw, my B-Spec diodes are sitting at a comfortable 32-33C when hit with the IR thermometer. You are already doing the best thing for longevity, heat and efficiency in my opinion by using one of the higher powered drivers for two boards and operating it well below max. Now you just have to fine tune it somehow.

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If the lights were bought expecting 320 watts, but only run at 160 watts, you will not get max performance from them.

I agree, however, that turning the lights down will increase the longevity and efficiency per watt.

Twobs said:

Question from someone who knows very little about electricity....
I came across the HLG 320w XL QB-324 DIY Kit about a year ago over at GL, (2 boards on one Slate 2 Triple Pre-drilled 891mm Heatsink ) I think it has a HLG-320H-54B driver. The driver is supposed to be adjustable from 33-338 watts. I'm curious to know if maxing out the dimmer knob will put strain on the boards? There is a 'notch' you can feel when turning the knob that seems to be the half way point for the dimmer. Since I know nothing I've always kept the dimmer set to that halfway point notch. Am I under utilizing these lights like that? Should I be cranking them up? I did not use any TIM when attaching the boards to the slate. However they do have fans blowing directly over the top of the slate/driver and also some airflow beneath the lights themselves. My main goal is to not burn these things up anytime soon while getting max performance from them.

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For reference, I run 3 qb324s on one hlg 320h 54a. I run them soft. Two shouldn't be an issue, but I'd dim them some

I can't find any reference on the 324's for Vf vs If.
The board will only allow a fixed current at a specified Vf.
When 54Vdc is applied, that's the amount of current that will flow.
The power supply is capable of delivering almost 6 amps @54V, but the internal resistance of each board will only allow much less.
It's like the wiring in your home. You may have a 200A service to your home but that doesn't mean that plugging in a light to an outlet is going to have 200 amps trying to push through the light.
It just takes what it needs-simple physics.

Alright, thanks for the replies People!

I cranked them up early and checked temps. I actually have two of these kits in a 5x5. Ambient room temp is about 26c/79f. As I stated above I have decent airflow under the boards and to be a bit more clear I have one 6" clip fan above and at one end of each slate, (blowing down and across). With my cooling setup like this I'm seeing Board Temps at 43c/109f on the hot end, (opposite of the fan side). While the Slate on that 'hot' end is roughly 7c cooler than the board, about 36c/97f. On the side I have the 6" clip fans attached the boards are reading around 40c/104f with the slate above the board reading about 8c cooler 32c/90f. This is with no TIM and the driver installed on the center top of each slate, (standard kit build). If I'm not mistaken I think I read that the Operating Temp max on these boards is around 90c. Is this correct? If so I should be good. Probably just going to add a second 6" clip fan on each end that doesn't have one now.

My initial thinking was that this driver would be outputting roughly 170w per board since the info on GL said the dimmer would range from 33-338w. And I wasn't sure if that would be a little much. I'm just not sure how voltage and all that affects LEDs like it does a CPU for instance. But if I'm understanding and assuming correctly, this driver doesn't output more than 320w even if the dimmer can hit 338w? Or is this just a non-issue no matter? If my calculations are correct at 338w output that would put each board at 3.13amps / 54v. But at 320w output it would be sitting around 2.96-2.97amp / 54v.

Question about TIM. I'm very versed in using TIM on computer builds as I regularly build custom water loops. I've been overclocking CPUs and GPUs for years now. My first question is, would thermal tape be a better alternative to thermal paste on boards like this? And what thickness would be best. When dealing with PC cooling and transferring heat from Chip to Heatsink its best to use as little as possible because you get best thermal transfer when only filling in the micro scratches from the machining process. So I'm curious to know how much TIM and what sort of TIM you people who use it actually use.

Thanks again for the info. This site has been a wealth of knowledge when it comes to lighting, for me. So again, thank you everyone!

Edited for initial incorrect slate temp.

Federucci said:

While I can't tell you just how much strain operating the boards at almost 170 watts a piece limits their service life, I can tell you that anything that's ran at max will not last as long and will not be as efficient as something run at 60-70% power. I adjust the lights according to a Lux meter nowadays(something I didn't have the luxury of 25 years ago!), and set my lights to that. I highly recommend the "Dr. Meter", you can find one for closer to $30 than $40 on Amazon during a sale. I also highly recommend using TIM and a 140mm fan on top of each board. At a setting of 140 watts draw, my B-Spec diodes are sitting at a comfortable 32-33C when hit with the IR thermometer. You are already doing the best thing for longevity, heat and efficiency in my opinion by using one of the higher powered drivers for two boards and operating it well below max. Now you just have to fine tune it somehow.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip on the Dr.Meter. I'll be grabbing one of those soon me thinks.

GBAUTO said:

I can't find any reference on the 324's for Vf vs If.
The board will only allow a fixed current at a specified Vf.
When 54Vdc is applied, that's the amount of current that will flow.
The power supply is capable of delivering almost 6 amps @54V, but the internal resistance of each board will only allow much less.
It's like the wiring in your home. You may have a 200A service to your home but that doesn't mean that plugging in a light to an outlet is going to have 200 amps trying to push through the light.
It just takes what it needs-simple physics.

Click to expand...

Ahhh, okay. That makes sense. Thanks!

Heat will generally become an issue as well as shortening the life of the optoelectronic components if you're hitting them hard.

The LEDs are far more efficient running @ around 50% rated power handling. If you're interested in getting more GPW then add more lighting driven for efficiency, if you're looking to upgrade go ahead and beat the snot out of your investment & HLG will be glad to sell you some new stuff after a failure may occur...

I ran 16 - QB 132's @ around 800 W (or so) last run over 3 sativa based girls (in a 4 x 8 ) with 4 - 240 W drivers and temps were higher than I wanted, but I can't complain about the results the HLG panels brought in the least.

Next run I'm planning on adding another 4 of the QB 132's unless I find enough spare change in the couch to make it another 8
driven lightly.

First I'm going to modify the QB 288 configuration in another space by adding more of those 288's like I originally planned.

Again, driven quite a bit softer and replacing one "generic" fixture with the gear that is indeed genuine HLG goodness.

Take good care of your gear and it will take good care of you...