Vero29 Gen7 + Meanwell Drivers

Hey guys,

I want to buy some Vero29 Gen 7 68v and was wondering about the driver. If I choose a HLG-320H-C1050B, I can run 4 cobs if my calculation is right. So now I saw somewhere on here that people use things like HLG-600H-54A, wouldn't that blow the cobs? I also read that the more cobs you add to that driver, the less they consume each and therefore become more efficient. Can someone please enlighten me?

Meanwell 600w drivers are used with several cobs in parallel, sometimes controlled by Voltage dimming to avoid feeding too much current to the chip if you lost a connection or a chip.

But its moot for that cob, i dont know of any CV drivers that will go as far as 68V, 54 seems to be max.

thank you. but if I want to have them in series I should go for the first driver mentioned? Also, with all the hype on quantum boards, are vero29 gen 7 DIY still a good option?

Yes, you need that type of driver, constant current. But you might have a problem: that many high voltage chips in series gets you very high voltage, almost 300v which i believe is max for the connectors and most cob holders. Please build with a lot of caution, ground youre frame etc cause a shock might be very dangerous. We allways try to use low voltage solutions in our builds and put the chips in parallel. Maybe 2 hlg150h-c1050 or similar is a better option, also means you can use them in 2 separate tents in the future.

Cobs good alternative? Depends. They are easy and cheap(ish) to replace if they break down or if you wanna change spectrums or similar. Some grow environments are not good for the chips and they can degrade from spraying/burning sulfur or similar. It used to be that (low wattage per chip ~35w) cobs was good for spread in comparison to quantum boards which need more distance to cannopy. But now we have strips and cheap china boards so you can use more of them which counters this.

Heatsink: thermal management is harder when the chip is 29mm in comparison to a larger board or strip. Hlg96 will run fine at 150w on a 100w heatsink. Also, no matter how big your heatsink: smaller LES will allways run hotter than a larger at same wattage. Check the lum/w at 85C in the datasheet instead of going with the impossible 25C values and the picture is different.

Cobs are easier to source in specialty spectrums.
Also, i hear a lot of people had tried both and prefered the growth under cobs but i havent seen hoow these grows where constructed and if they had a good solution on spread and hanging height.

@Renfro is the last person i saw doing a big cob build he might wanna chip in.

Rocket Soul said:

Yes, you need that type of driver, constant current. But you might have a problem: that many high voltage chips in series gets you very high voltage, almost 300v which i believe is max for the connectors and most cob holders. Please build with a lot of caution, ground youre frame etc cause a shock might be very dangerous. We allways try to use low voltage solutions in our builds and put the chips in parallel. Maybe 2 hlg150h-c1050 or similar is a better option, also means you can use them in 2 separate tents in the future.

Cobs good alternative? Depends. They are easy and cheap(ish) to replace if they break down or if you wanna change spectrums or similar. Some grow environments are not good for the chips and they can degrade from spraying/burning sulfur or similar. It used to be that (low wattage per chip ~35w) cobs was good for spread in comparison to quantum boards which need more distance to cannopy. But now we have strips and cheap china boards so you can use more of them which counters this.

Heatsink: thermal management is harder when the chip is 29mm in comparison to a larger board or strip. Hlg96 will run fine at 150w on a 100w heatsink. Also, no matter how big your heatsink: smaller LES will allways run hotter than a larger at same wattage. Check the lum/w at 85C in the datasheet instead of going with the impossible 25C values and the picture is different.

Cobs are easier to source in specialty spectrums.
Also, i hear a lot of people had tried both and prefered the growth under cobs but i havent seen hoow these grows where constructed and if they had a good solution on spread and hanging height.

@Renfro is the last person i saw doing a big cob build he might wanna chip in.

Click to expand...

thanks for this extensive answer!

Also, is there a reason to take the 68v cobs instead of the 34v? i have some cxb3590 running at 35w each, learned everything from growmau5 yt channel. so do the 68v provide double the light of the 34v version?

Not really. The 68V version has mmoore diodes and superiour performance, watt per watt. But they are more expensive. double the light (aprox) if run at same current..

No such thing as a 34 V vero 29 iirc, i think its around 38 @ nominal, 36 if run reeeeeally soft..

B-version is a good compromise, better than D/38V but cheaper than C, and also it can do parallel on standard CV drivers.

You could also check out with @CobKits he has luminous cobs which give better performance than vero on most wattages and fair bit cheaper. I think greenngene said they werennt all that on some stream asswell.

And look at Renfros build for some ideas. 1 bare cob per square foot at 30-40w is the ticket id say

not sure about green genes, was probably answering some question where someone was claiming one chip is dramtically better than another and he was tempering their expectations

in reality difference isnt hugely dramatic

vero C,B, and D are all completely different chips that share the same package. i would never rec vero Ds for the price, citi 1212 gen 6 is about the same or way cheaper. vero Cs are good chips but the high voltage makes driver matching more challenging

luminus cxm22 gen3 close to vero b at our typical wattage
luminus cxm22 gen4 close to vero c at our wattage

unless youre going to run chips ar super high wattages (which i dont recommend), i never rec anything over a cxm22. they really are the sweet spot on performance and price for our application.

if i had to pick a vero it would be B, at 50-75W
but id pick a luminus over that ideally

Cobby have allways been a very helpfull dude and can help you with any cob setup. Dont know how his prices compare to digi et all but id say mostly the same. Added value of him being knowledgeable and dedicated to finding the right and cheapest solution for you

Rocket Soul said:

Cobs are easier to source in specialty spectrums.
Also, i hear a lot of people had tried both and prefered the growth under cobs but i havent seen hoow these grows where constructed and if they had a good solution on spread and hanging height.

@Renfro is the last person i saw doing a big cob build he might wanna chip in.

Click to expand...

its personal preference

keep in mind many peopel dont even have a light meter and in most cases 4 boards are not gonna cover as uniformly as 9 cobs...

CobKits said:

not sure about green genes, was probably answering some question where someone was claiming one chip is dramtically better than another and he was tempering their expectations

in reality difference isnt hugely dramatic

vero C,B, and D are all completely different chips that share the same package. i would never rec vero Ds for the price, citi 1212 gen 6 is about the same or way cheaper. vero Cs are good chips but the high voltage makes driver matching more challenging

luminus cxm22 gen3 close to vero b at our typical wattage
luminus cxm22 gen4 close to vero c at our wattage

unless youre going to run chips ar super high wattages (which i dont recommend), i never rec anything over a cxm22. they really are the sweet spot on performance and price for our application.

if i had to pick a vero it would be B, at 50-75W
but id pick a luminus over that ideally

Click to expand...

Thanks for the answer. I was looking for the C models, and I agree, I can light 7.72 Vero 29 cobs with a HLG-320 driver, so 7 Cobs per Driver. This just means that I need more drivers in total right? Its not that energy is wasted?

I had a look at you shop. You are US based right, I'm in the EU unfortunately.

we do ship to EU but drivers get expensive

chips/holders/etc arent too bad

which hlg-320 driver?

HLG-320H-1050B, sorry. I dont want to run it at a higher current for efficiency. And they should run 4 Cobs per driver, miscalculated above.