Driver confusion

Hi everyone. To make a long storey short like a year and a half maybe two years ago I was upgrading my mars leds to cobs based on a tutorial put out by growmau5 on YouTube. i mixed up what I thought I was purchasing bought the wrong cobs thought damn that was cheap ..got the package completely wrong cobs... and then realised why so cheap lol . Got angry put the box away and forgot...untill today lol .. so currently i have

16 x bridgelux Vero 10 3000k Starboard

4 x bridgelux Vero 10 4000k Starboard

4 x bridgelux Vero 10 2700k Stsrboard


Now I've read through the guides and to be completely honest I really don't understand it at all. I am having a very hard time trying to grasp what I will need in terms of a driver. I have some but VERY minimal experience soldering but the guides on here explained it quite well. If anyone is feeling gracious enough to point me in the right direction or helping decide on the best way to use these and or best driver choices. Can use in flower or veg room but based on spectrum leaning towards flowering. Any assistance is greatly appreciated. Thank you!!

Well, your COBs are 25.3V and there's 24 of em. So why don't you tell us what size space your build is gonna be lighting up.

Thanks. I presently have a grow going on 2x hlg 550 alibaba knock offs and 4x mars 2 400w converted to citi1212 cobs was looking to just add some more light in there the room is 7.5x 9.5 ft im using about 5x8 of it right now just attached a few pics to give an idea on lay out

If i understand correctly take voltage x amount of leds so in this situation 25.3v x 24cobs = 607.2 total volts so the driver has to have an out put 608v or greater? Or run multiple drivers say 3 drivers 8 cobs each ?

mxer_kx said:

If i understand correctly take voltage x amount of leds so in this situation 25.3v x 24cobs = 607.2 total volts so the driver has to have an out put 608v or greater? Or run multiple drivers say 3 drivers 8 cobs each ?

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There's a VOLTAGE MAX on Constant Current drivers(HLG-***H-C****) that you can't exceed. This is different for every single model driver. But yes, the voltages of the strip x # of strips, will be your voltage amount. If your driver says it's lower than that, you'll need to remove some strips for it to turn on and work. Keep in mind, the higher wattage you push through the strip, the higher the voltage goes up. Not by a ton, but a few 10ths of a volt for sure. Luckily. The drivers have a bit of flexibility and usually can handle it just fine if your voltage with the math adds up, per the 23.5v, but being a higher current could be closer to 24. You're running very low wattage though,so it shouldn't be an issue at all for your But you've got the jist of it I think.
You're MUCH better off using multiple, smaller, drivers just for fail safes.

Thanks for the reply was wondering could i go 2 boards 6 chips in series 2 drivers each board for a total of 4 drivers if i understand correctly i take the voltage per chip multiply by how many chips in series and matching driver needs to have more volts in the output then the total amount of volts of all chips in the series.? In terms of board do you think i need passive heat sinks or could i go say 1/4 inch aluminum sheet?

mxer_kx said:

Thanks for the reply was wondering could i go 2 boards 6 chips in series 2 drivers each board for a total of 4 drivers if i understand correctly i take the voltage per chip multiply by how many chips in series and matching driver needs to have more volts in the output then the total amount of volts of all chips in the series.? In terms of board do you think i need passive heat sinks or could i go say 1/4 inch aluminum sheet?

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I'm not understanding that post very well at all. I don't get what it is you're asking.

Sorry for confusion basically i wanna set up 2 boards. On each board i was thinking of using 2 drivers and 6 cobs each driver wired in series. 30.7 is max voltage so was trying to clarify if 6 cobs x 30.7volts each which equals 184.2 do i just need a driver with output of 185v or higher... or have i misunderstood

mxer_kx said:

Sorry for confusion basically i wanna set up 2 boards. On each board i was thinking of using 2 drivers and 6 cobs each driver wired in series. 30.7 is max voltage so was trying to clarify if 6 cobs x 30.7volts each which equals 184.2 do i just need a driver with output of 185v or higher... or have i misunderstood

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I don't get what you mean by boards. Are you meaning heatsinks? Also, WHAT SIZE of space are you building these 4x 6 COB fixtures for?

Sorry what i meant by "board" was something along the lines of could i use 1/4 inch sheet of aluminum and mount the cobs to that like a qb ? or will it generate too much heat and id be better off with using L channels and heat sinks with the cobs mounted to heat sink ? Regarding space ideally if i could cover like 1ft x 1ft area with 6 cobs or 2ft x 1 ft area for a 12 cob configuration basically want to fit it inbetween my current cobs and quantum boards for more coverage

Not sure if you can see it jn the pictures i posted but badically what i currently have is 2 rows adjacent to eacher set up
X O X
Id like to do
X I O I X

X = Mars 400w converted to cobs
I = New cob build
O = qb 550 (knock off)

Hopefully that makes sense the way i worded it

Still somewhat confused sorry if im being a pain here but to clarify is it when wired in series the driver output needs to be greater then (in this case) 25.3 v so i could use something like ameanwell hlg-185h-36a driver to power 6 of the cobs in series? Or can i do more ? Or less? ...Orrr alternatively is it the total voltage of the cobs in series so in this case 25.3v x6 cobs which equals 151.3 volts requiring a driver with an output greater then 151.3 volts.....sorry again for all the questions i dont know if im over thinking it or just really not grasping it... if at all possible can you recommend a driver to power 6 or 12 cobs in series?

mxer_kx said:

Still somewhat confused sorry if im being a pain here but to clarify is it when wired in series the driver output needs to be greater then (in this case) 25.3 v so i could use something like ameanwell hlg-185h-36a driver to power 6 of the cobs in series? Or can i do more ? Or less? ...Orrr alternatively is it the total voltage of the cobs in series so in this case 25.3v x6 cobs which equals 151.3 volts requiring a driver with an output greater then 151.3 volts.....sorry again for all the questions i dont know if im over thinking it or just really not grasping it... if at all possible can you recommend a driver to power 6 or 12 cobs in series?

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You gotta tell me what wattage your trying to run these 16 COBs man.
They can't be ran much higher than 1400mA so let's go with and HLG-185H-C1050A/B which will run 95-190V. So you could run 6 on it but 7 would be better and closer to Max. You want to fill it up as close to it as you can. Here's the data sheet of both the MEANWELL HLG 185 and 240 Constant current (series) drivers and their voltage limits are on the very far right at the top.
The HLG-240H-C1400A is almost a perfect fit for 6 running of them all at 35 watts about. But see what you wanna do by looking at these:

Hey thank you sorry was confusing my self when you were asking about the wattage. i believe i MIGHT be VERY slowly grasping it lol.... you are asking the amount of miliamps i will be powering it with? The chips have a max current of 700ma which leans me to want to run them at around 500ma. The info on the data sheet has the current test at 350ma with a fv of 25.3 (0.35a x25.3v)which would give me a wattage of 8.6 watts a chip does that look correct? The only thing i cant figure out is what the voltage would be at 500ma. But if im understanding correctly i could run 12 even at higher estimated voltage of 30v would still give me a total of 360v from all 12 in series i could then run them off the hlg185h-c500 which has a constant current range of 200-400 ... am i underdtanding correctly and these numbers sound right? Or am i completely lost Lol Thanks again !!

Voltage won't be raising that much at all from 350 to 500. I didn't realize they had to be run at each a low current. You'll only get 12 watts even at the higher 500mA. Thats limiting you to only being able to get like 200w total out of all 16 at the higher 500mA. But yes, a 185H-C500A will get you there perfectly buddy. You'll be right there at the limit. It should have enough give on the driver to fit all 16.it does come out to 408V but worst case, you'll only fit 15. No big deal.

Thanks man really glad you helped me out i THINK im starting to finally get it now just gotta decide heat sinks and im ready to rock ... i think since i already got 24 cobs im gonna order a few more 2700k cobs when i order my driver and do as you suggested and run 15 in series and make 2 fixtures out of the total 30. Thanks again!!

mxer_kx said:

Thanks man really glad you helped me out i THINK im starting to finally get it now just gotta decide heat sinks and im ready to rock ... i think since i already got 24 cobs im gonna order a few more 2700k cobs when i order my driver and do as you suggested and run 15 in series and make 2 fixtures out of the total 30. Thanks again!!

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That'll work! Cool to see someone using those Vero10's. They're great chips and people never used them cause they ha e to be run so low and you need so many. But bro, you're gonna ha e a killer light with AMAZING spread having so many light point sources.

Im actually quite excited ill definietly post some pics when done one last question though if you dont mind...how do i go about grounding? And wish i could send you some nugs from harvest as a token of my appreciation...but customs lol...unless your in canada got lots of beans too though lol
Congo, gorilla zkittlez and c99xblueberry

mxer_kx said:

how do i go about grounding?

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Your driver will have a green wire on the supply cord. Connect this to the ground on your power cord and mount the driver to the aluminum chassis. The case of the driver is grounded internally and will have continuity with the green wire.

And if you want your driver to be outside the tent or area you're light will be in, you can remotely mount it. Just be sure to sand down a spot on your frame or heatsink and use a ring connector to crimp onto a good length of wire, and screw down onto it. Use green wire if you got it. Then, run that wire down along with the 2 lengths of wire on the DC side of the driver and connect it to the green wire on the AC side that your driver and wall plug have that you're connecting together, like Renfro said.