Which LED strips would you buy?

diggs99

Well-Known Member
As already stated by @wietefras f series or Hinflux strips. Double row strips. I think he uses the 4 footers.
Personally I like the 2 footers because @diyled has the 'perfect heatsinks' for them
The f series 2 ftrs prices have dropped a tad. I paid £27 A strip, they're now £19
Hinflux 2 ftrs are now £24.50 they were £27 when I got them
The vesta strips seem a bargain at only £8 with a good spectrum and 90 cri although matching a driver for them is not as simple as the Sammie strips.
Is he selling both the strips and sinks ?

Or a couple of FOTOPS for minimum wiring and a big foot print! :wink:
lol I strongly considered buying prawns boards, but I just love my strips, so I'm gonna stick with them for the foreseeable future
 

Moflow

Well-Known Member
Is he selling both the strips and sinks ?



lol I strongly considered buying prawns boards, but I just love my strips, so I'm gonna stick with them for the foreseeable future
Yes, he does.
I was getting more heatsinks for a Christmas pressie but he's sold out ffs.
I've fired him off an email to see when he's restocking.
I use 3 x 2ft f strips on a hlg 120h 54a, it was a spare driver, 48a would be better but it does the trick, running at 84 wall watts for vegging.
4000K. I love it. Strips have great coverage and good par readings.
 

diggs99

Well-Known Member
Yep, prawns boards are really doing well for all the growers using them over at the other spot. They have tested well and have proved themselves in Ogs side by side, if i was going the board route, id be buying Prawns boards for sure. No doubt about it.
 

Moflow

Well-Known Member
Yep, prawns boards are really doing well for all the growers using them over at the other spot. They have tested well and have proved themselves in Ogs side by side, if i was going the board route, id be buying Prawns boards for sure. No doubt about it.
Fortunately I have the "Original" disco boards from China.
And I thought the Chinese were the copy catters...? Lol lol
 

diggs99

Well-Known Member
Hey @diggs99 @diyled Just emailed me back, he's gonna get me sorted with the heatsinks after all..
Now that's what you call Great Customer Service :D
No doubt, thats great customer service, ive seen his work, very nice lights.

Ask him to come visit this thread when he gets a chance, love to hear his input on all of this strip madness lol

Also post up a pic of the sinks when you can, would love to have a look, i might hit him up for some when im ready.


Fortunately I have the "Original" disco boards from China.
And I thought the Chinese were the copy catters...? Lol lol
haha.
 

diyled

Well-Known Member
Ask him to come visit this thread when he gets a chance, love to hear his input on all of this strip madness lol
I only tested EB gen2 80cri and they didnt test as good as the f series £ for £. Pricing is completely different now so id have to go back and test to give a fair opinion.

Hinflux are cheap and have just been upgraded again as the voltage is lower. Id stick with them. Although the gen3 in 90cri are tempting. All comes down to you own preferences. Id favor 90cri from my own experience. But some may just want high efficiency, high Umol/£, low upfront or just want a baddass light for no real reason.

Of course the best strip is mine :D
 

zypheruk

Well-Known Member
The best customer service in Europe for strip kits etc has to be diyleduk hands down, he wont take your money and run like some other firms do. Advice and actual knowledge of using the products sold really helps. Take a look at his on designed Par+ boards I don't see retail kits like that to often hlg should take a note.
 

diggs99

Well-Known Member
I only tested EB gen2 80cri and they didnt test as good as the f series £ for £. Pricing is completely different now so id have to go back and test to give a fair opinion.

Hinflux are cheap and have just been upgraded again as the voltage is lower. Id stick with them. Although the gen3 in 90cri are tempting. All comes down to you own preferences. Id favor 90cri from my own experience. But some may just want high efficiency, high Umol/£, low upfront or just want a baddass light for no real reason.

Of course the best strip is mine :D
Hey, thanks for the response.

Yep, im with you there , im a fan of the 90 cri, my fixtures are a mix of 80 and 90cri, im using the j series from cutter on my existing lights. Ive been nothing but happy with them. Id have no problem buying more for these builds but also have no issue with going a different route either.

I was on your site earlier, do you have any strips or sinks in stock or restocking soon-ish?

I was unimpressed with the sinks i got from heatsinkusa for my last build, i like yours, they appear beefier , more rigid than what i have. Even if i buy more J series from cutter, im gonna want sinks. Even tho i run them soft, i still sink them for overkill or just in case i wanna not run them soft at some point lol.
 

Chip Green

Well-Known Member
@Roger A. Shrubber
If you've built with boards, nothing really is different with strips, as far as driver selection, it's just a bunch more "boards"...

Here's what I used to do to figure out what driver to use.
Find a target amperage for each emitter(in this case a 20v BXEB 560mm)
Look at a data sheet for a MW constant current driver (stay with me on this)
Example : EBs rock at 1050ma, so a HLG-240H-C1050 has 277V available. That would allow at least 13 (maybe 14, it'd be close)BXEB 560mm 20V strips to operate at 1050ma.....
NOW.... since we really don't want to go with a CC driver with that sort of V involved, but we know that SIZE driver will run 13-14 of our chosen emitters at our targeted amperage, we look at an HLG-240-20a driver, and add 14(or more) strips of that ilk in a parallel wiring circuit, to achieve said targeted(ish) amperage!!!
OR, one could just refer to a CC/CV driver datasheet, and divide the total amperage output by as many strips as necessary to
stay in the desired range.

I prefer to build in 240w sections, even if it's a larger area to cover, I revere the flexibility of multiple panels.
 
Last edited:

Rocket Soul

Well-Known Member
@Roger A. Shrubber
If you've built with boards, nothing really is different with strips, as far as driver selection, it's just a bunch more "boards"...

Here's what I used to do to figure out what driver to use.
Find a target amperage for each emitter(in this case a 20v BXEB 560mm)
Look at a data sheet for a MW constant current driver (stay with me on this)
Example : EBs rock at 1050ma, so a HLG-240H-C1050 has 277V available. That would allow at least 13 (maybe 14, it'd be close)BXEB 560mm 20V strips to operate at 1050ma.....
NOW.... since we really don't want to go with a CC driver with that sort of V involved, but we know that SIZE driver will run 13-14 of our chosen emitters at our targeted amperage, we look at an HLG-240-20a driver, and add 14(or more) strips of that ilk in a parallel wiring circuit, to achieve said targeted(ish) amperage!!!
OR, one could just refer to a CC/CV driver datasheet, and divide the total amperage output by as many strips as necessary to
stay in the desired range.

I prefer to build in 240w sections, even if it's a larger area to cover, I revere the flexibility of multiple panels.
Great write up only a couple of things to add:
- Parallel connections can be made easy by "daisy chaining" which running all parallel connections thru the same wire. Much neater than a standard wago "octopus" which throws of loads of cables. I dont like daisy chaining cause the the first bit of wire takes full amps of all strips. This is just my personal preference.



After trying once to connect 14 strips in parallel without daisy chaining please consider the option of using 7 parallel connections of 2 strips in series, using a higher voltage driver, in this case something like a hlg240-42A. This can many times make the build neater and avoid daisy chaining.

The other thing: 240 drivers seem to be less prone to failure than 320 and above. And they are perfect for a tight 4x2.
 

Roger A. Shrubber

Well-Known Member
Great write up only a couple of things to add:
- Parallel connections can be made easy by "daisy chaining" which running all parallel connections thru the same wire. Much neater than a standard wago "octopus" which throws of loads of cables. I dont like daisy chaining cause the the first bit of wire takes full amps of all strips. This is just my personal preference.



After trying once to connect 14 strips in parallel without daisy chaining please consider the option of using 7 parallel connections of 2 strips in series, using a higher voltage driver, in this case something like a hlg240-42A. This can many times make the build neater and avoid daisy chaining.

The other thing: 240 drivers seem to be less prone to failure than 320 and above. And they are perfect for a tight 4x2.
would 50 of these units be enough?
https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/bridgelux/BXEB-L0560Z-30E2000-C-B3/976-1760-ND/7907655
the area is actually not quite 4x8, it 46 x 92 inches, which is just under 30 sq feet.
if someone could suggest a double row strip that would be better, i'd be glad to consider those instead.
price is an issue, but not a huge one, i'd like to stay under 400, but if i go over a little, it's not the end of the world
 
Top