Thanks for all the info. Your videos have helped a lot with my DIY build. I actually am beginning to have a basic understanding of how these work.. Definately boosted my self confidence. You were right though in your discussion with greengenes. Listening to the intro music to your videos 5 or 6 times in a row can be challenging.
I just built my first cob grow light thanks to your videos. This thing is brighter than the sun! I would never be able to understand how this stuff works without your help.
Hi growmow5, I love your work. There are a lot of knowledgeable people on RU-vid, but few have your presentation abilities which is just as important as the knowledge itself. Thank you for all your hard work. I do have one question and a comment for you if you have the time: Q. If you had a completely separate flowering room from your veg, would you still use the same LEDs? C. The silver reflective material you have is actually not very good at saving light. Paint or cover them with something matt white. You will get a significant increase in your light efficiency and when you are trying to push up your g/w...food for thought. Take care Johnny B. Good
Bro this was the most comprehensive guide to build my own light, thank you for this, I learned a lot, I'll try building my own light soon, in my country led panels are waaay overpriced and I can get good quality hardware relatively cheap
I was searching just for some easy, cheap diy build that would fit my needs, but I'm glad I stumbled upon this series. Now I have the basic knowledge to build my own grow light :)
That was a very well organized series. A lot of information was given in a simple to follow example. Than you again growmau5, for all the effort you put into this series.
great serie of lessons i hope more growers watch these and really learn the tech behind led grow lights. i also found u video chatting with greengene. very educational. thank you!
theres no explanation about pwn dimming and 1-10v voltage apply. no arduino based pwn. why only potetentiometr and couple of controllers with no explanation. no info about parameters and type of controllers and dimmers can be applied. many words, almost no info.
you ever thought of going into development with a manufacturer? these muti coloured single diode 1.3.5 watt chips are old tech.they need someone like you on board.its good to hear people recycling their old units and replacing the tired leds with cobs.where are we going to be in 2 years time i wonder.someone may even bring one out you can just pop a chip in and out without soldering.then people will just buy blank units and chips and work around the drivers installed in your unit.those mars hydro lights and others have great running gear.most people just dump them when a few diodes break.if you convert them they will last forever with new cobs.some of them units are 1500 bucks.for another 2/300 you have a brand new version to last 2 years or more.great work.dimming i havent sussed out but im running cobs at 50% anyway.with lenses they produce about 2.5 x magnifcation.
all the componants are out there but its getting suppliers to be consistent.but look how far you and greengenes and the other developers have brought led up to date.well done.im about to order my aluminium flat bar for passive heatsinks so i can start making my 500w/1000w spider..i think once you get over a 4x4 i think a moduler spider light type of light will work best.i think the max in a 4x4 would ideally be about 500mmx500mm hood.
Thank you for taking the time to put these together! It's really helpful, to say the least. I was wondering about using different light spectrum's for veg and flower. Do you just use this one spectrum (3500k) for the entire grow?
Hey man! thanks for sharing the video! very very educative. I'm wondering if you could make another video for dummies on how to make an "elegant" and cheap switch between 50% and 100% power? ie. assuming I'm using 1400mA driver, I'd like a switch to bring the lights to equivalent of 700mA.
if i have a driver with 1,4 a and i dimm it to 50% it needs the same watt (and effectiveness) if i use a 0,7a driver at 100%? or loos i the watt in the resistor and need the same watt but it is not so bright? and about the optic.. optics or feflector dont reflect 100% of the light, also glas or silicon does thake light (i think the glas from a cooltube take 20% light) is it not better to take no optic or reflector and go closer to the plants? and maby give a reflector around the panel so i loos less to the side , or use no reflector becaus the tent will reflect it back?
Hey brother, right on. Gonna start saving. Gonna make a multi chamber flower room. This setup I am thinking bout will be tight. Gonna do a 4x20ft room. With chambers every 3ft-4ft. Gonna make my walls moveable I think. I'm in my crawl space so I have 70in height just dirt floor and sure ain't even. So these will allow me to only have the heat sink with cobs and I can make a panel for drivers and everything else. Have u guys ever had any voltage/line drop? I know u r only going a few feet to the cobs. I talking like my panel will be 10-20 ft away. I know always Times by 120% I was told. Used to be a marine electrician and mostly dealt with 480v 😨 . So I do know over certain length u will lose voltage but since u Kats r running mili-amps and all, I'm sure 12gauge will be more then enough. Like running a t-3or t-4.that is 3-4wires at 14-12gauge wire. That is what I'm looking to run from the drivers to the lights and heatsink. Though for electronics u want more wire with more strains I think not solid for crap moveability. But not sure. Looking to run 4-6 cobs with soft white and white. I know u Kats can use only certain ranges, ( I.e 4 k, 3k, etc). But with just running these for. Now. I think will cover the vast majority of the spectrum. Unless their. Is a cheaper way but if it is just a driver or lens then no prob. Man I wish I found u before I put the $ into what I use now. But I see u made mars to cobs so yup will be checking intothat. Otherwise keep u knowledge coming to the not so tech savvy people. Stay medicated and ill let u Kats look at my setup before I go full bore into it. Thanks for all. One
Hey there, just found your series on how to build a cob led, more information than I thought was possible! Im actually growing cacti and succulents indoors, and Im looking for full spectrum cob led's , can you make a suggestion on what cobs are ideal for this? Thanks!
thank you for replying. I have a problem. I have a 50 watt 30 to 36v led driver and two 30 watt chips. I can't run them in series only parallel. can you help me, what am I doing wrong?
A few questions. There is a wives tale that says it is good to plant/germinate on full moon. Do they do better under constant full moon lumen or would it be better to cycle intensity throughout the month if one were so inclined. 2, Can the light system be ran on capacitors? say for 3x2 for 3-5 plants? Have a switch to charge capacitors when they get down to a certain level? i wonder what kind of power that would save...if any?
Outstanding! Glad I could finally get to catch up here. I'm looking forward to learning about Arduino. I have questions about the Typhon pwm controller, does each driver need its own channel or can one channel regulate multiple drivers? Do you think the Typhon would be good to control multiple pwm fans if they are on the same 12v power supply per channel? I was thinking that if you could synchronize the fan speed with the light dimming that would be sweet. If one Typhon could control 4 driver/cob arrays and the cooling fans that would be nice.
Watched all your videos. Laid out real nice and clear. You are the man. Thank You. What supplemental light do you recommend in addition to the big 3500k cree"s.
Hey, man. Just subbed after watching all your videos. Good stuff on here. I'm planning a future project, and planning to diy my lights. I just can't seem to find UV or IR chips that seem to be of any quality. Do you know of a good place to get them? I'm looking for 280-320nm for the uv, and then 730-760nm for IR. Dunno if that's necessarily correct, but it seems to be about the best guess i can get for proper wavelengths. Any help you can provide would be great! Keep up the awesome work, and thanks for all the info!
nice job bru..! for realz! thanks a lot for your efforts. I have some questions, what is the height you hang your leds from the canopy? 20 cm? do you change it with flowering / veg ? also , do you need to cool your cobs with a fan??
I may have missed this part, but do you use different LEDs that hit different absorbance peaks? How has this light system preformed for you? Do you get the same results as previous lighting, or better? I would love a video devoted to nothing but the conclusions you came to as I have almost begun to build my own LEDs and am wondering if im going to be spending to much time building and would rather purchase a pre fabricated one. Thanks so much for your videos and your organization!! We all can thrive off of this technology!!
Thanks...hungry for more! What makes the cxb3590 the best, any idea what the future COBs will be, is it worth waiting for? What about UV lights or white light. My head is spinning to much to ask.
If let's say you'd wire 4 COB's; + lead from the driver goes to the + terminal of the first cob, the - terminal of that first cob gets connected to the + terminal of the second COB, - terminal of the 2nd COB goes to the + terminal of the 3rd COB again, and - terminal of the 3rd COB goes to the + terminal of the 4th and final COB. The - terminal of the last COB goes to the - lead on the driver. If that makes any sense :p
Just soldered mine today :) Just make sure to solder them in series and not parallel! Letting mine run for a bit now to see how warm the heat sinks get. Got 4 CXB3590's running at 200w for a fridge growbox.
Sir I was wondering if you could answer a question for me please. I have 4 phat slim xl v-7 100 watt lights. By Optic Led. I believe it's very similar to the chilled puck. I was thinking of putting them into one light with there bloom board in the middle to cover a 4x4 area. Here's the question can I combine all there dimmers to the one on the bloom board? I'm not sure if il need a larger dimmer. I can combine all the power cords to one
You sir...are a legend. I have a set of 3 x BXRC L-23 chips (36.8fV) powered by a HLG-240H-C2100. 3 people on Rollitup (Trollitup?) have told me I can't use that driver, 5 people have told me I can use it. Regardless, it works fine. Not the best efficiency for chip vs driver but I drive them hot on 140mmx100mm fin pin sinks. Will you ever do a Bridgelux video for their 2.1A (test) Gen7 series chips and clear up the wide amount of misinformation on the interwebs?
so i have build a 4x cxb3070 light and got a 100k ohm potentiometer but it won't dimm my led's they run but only consuming around 8 watts alltogether and not being controlled by the potentiometer at all. can you tell me whats wrong here?
HI, I am a led noob, however been growing some years. I love your video's and am learning that my hps and metal halide most go. I have already purchased a kit to replace my 1000 watt has set up. only have four 250 watt cobs with power supplies heat sinks and everything else however already thinking about the hlg240s and the 12 cob per 4'x4' set up. Do you think that will be the best for my 10x12 or more?
thats indeed an awesome series of Videos. thanks for that, growmaus5! i'm planning of an quite simmilar grow-setup as yours. can you please tell me the advantages oh cobs with lenses compered to ones without? it seems to me that they aren't really necessary when the lights aren't that far away from the canopy.
+growmau5 wow, thanks a bunch for that information. didnt expect them to be so important and thought the cons like blocked heat from the cobs outweigh the pros. i'm so glad that guys like you exist, keep on rockin!
Id love to hear more about arduino's and any recomendations for controlling 24 drivers? only need dimming function....they dont make the typhon anymore and the blue fish is pretty expensive and has less channels and storm has less channels also.
Hey, I am still confused on PWM dimming. Looking into building a light and if I want to incorporate other spectral LED's like blue, red and far red, is there a way to dim these colors individually if they are not running on separate drivers. There are several controllers that talk about blue/white/red dimming but never mention if these have to be on separate channels?
Thanks for all the great info. I just finished two builds based on the canopy 10 sans the monos. I'm on roll it up. Where can I get more info on the Typhon and similar controllers that work with the hlg series? PWM? Is that okay? Thanks!
Just want to say thanks for the work you do. Very inspiring and gives people the confidence to dive in to a build.i have a question regarding the kingbrite glass lenses for a vero 29 build. I cant seem to find any for sale without going the alibaba route. Any online vendors sell them? Keep up the awesome work bro. Always look forward to your new vids.
Hi can I use a single 288 quantum board with an HLG-240H-C2100? I want to use only one board an maybe add another one later without buying a new driver. The board has 45-58Vdc input and the driver 59V-119V output.
Will these Angelina Jolie reflectors work without properly mounted cob holders? I'm still trying to decide if I should order this Eric Klapton tape or drill and tap. What drill bit and tap bit size is required? bmw m3, m4? Lol I have a heap of questions still before I can figure out where, how and what parts to even order. :) You should upload a tech talk video to your channel because you need the views! lol =D
+prndownload In this grow series he shows you how to drill and tap your heat sink using a 3/32 drill bit and a 4-40 tap. Re-watch the videos and join rollitup.org....there is tons of useful info there.
How do you get a hlg 185-1400 driver to dim all the way down to 0% duty with a storm controller? I cannot get complete darkness with controller. Thanks!
you need to have your drivers on a seperate timer and sync times with your controller storm/bluefish and turn on your drivers when your controller is set to turn on and turn your drivers off after your controller is set to turn off, or you can just buy a bigger driver
@Hideus Penguinboy Hey, I'm researching a lot about the topic, and considered to get HLG-185H-C1400B with 4 cxb3590 3500k, all heat sinks and required accessories are included for 220$. I thought that this would not be enough for 3.3'x3.3', and would need to get HLG-240H-C1400 with 5 COBs? I see you suggested other setup, is it really that noticeably better? Or for a personal grow it won't make much difference which lights I get? Would getting HLG-320-C1400B (for 78$ is this normal price?) with 4 Bridgelux_VERO_29_Gen7_B(22.5$ ea.) and 4x heatsink Φ163*H70mm(for 75-85W) better than my original idea? Would that be more efficient/enough light for a 3.3'x3.3' ? What wattage would each COB be? And if the drivers maximum wattage is 320W all of the COBs wattage can't exceed that amount? But would 4 come close to those watts? Does running lights with 700mA driver increase the life time of the leds vs 1400mA one? Also If I went with only 4 COBs would placing them in an X array be better or 2 in 2 parallel lines | | or just 4 linear COBs? AND in the end, how long do these setups last and are they reliable? I have thought about just buying couple 300w LED marshydro lights from ebay and calling it a day, but read reviews and saw pictures that half of the panel fails often.
So, in general: *** it doesn't matter what COB you get. The efficiency isn't that far off (save for very high wattage Veros) so what you want to base it off of is cost. Cree cost 2-4 times as much as other COBs, so fuck 'em. ***Also in general, for various reasons Mars Hydro can suck a butt. They are crap, build your own. (they've quoted bullshit PPF maps to me multiple times, after I tested my own) ***I've been told 5 years is a reasonable amount of time for an LED/driver combo to work perfectly, but I haven't heard @growMau5 or anyone else saying theirs have failed. What PPFD are you shooting for? Are you using CO2? Do you want to get SUPER efficient to avoid police seeing a spike in your electricity bill / because $kWh? Are you vegging and flowering in the same room? Is heat a big concern? Hit me back and I'll be better equipped to answer.
Alright that's weird I guess my other account is blocked or something... No idea what PPFD, I won't be trying to reach any records, just a personal grow. I would want not to use any other equipment except dehumidifier/humidifier and some fans , don't care about electricity it would be only max 300w more right? All stages in one tent 3.3'x3.3' ( 1m x 1m). For heat I would put some fans in the tent. For the start no exhaust system.
Were you a jerk to Growmau5? (; So it's about 11 square feet and you want around 35W per square foot. So that's 385W you are looking to have to get you a 750PPFD. (respectable and what I use, growmau5 stays around 800-850) You can go with 4-5 Veros and push them super hard to get your @385W . OR you can go with 9 luminus or citi pushing 43W each, or 12 pushing 32 each. You are still going to want some exhaust for either, because you want an amount of fresh air, plus even LED heat builds up over time. The CXB light you are talking about is good for like... 6.5 square feet. So you would need two. Also, fuck Cree at that price. The wattage of each light will be the around the listed forward voltage x the amperage. 36V Cree CXB run at 1050mA is 37.8W. Drivers generally have the amount of wattage listed HLG-185H-C1400B is around 185W. There are small differences with each due to heat, amperage, efficiency. As for 700mA vs 1400mA: This is where you talk about efficiency. The lower the amperage, the less energy goes to heat and more goes to light. Better electrical use, less heat to push around, smaller heat sinks, BUT you need more COBs to light an area. I would also think that lower amps would extend the life of your COBs, but ideally, you won't have to worry about that for 5 years at the earliest. And by then the COBs that are around will be WAY better than what we have now. (; In general, if you run low amps, you want to use luminus or citi COBs. If you run high amps, you run Veros. This is because they have better efficiencies at those levels vs their cost.
No, my first comment on his vids was to you :) So the 52v veros with 1400ma driver would be about 290W, that would be not perfect but still closer to the ideal than the 4 cx3590 at 200w. Would that wattage generate enough ppfd to grow plants? Or there would be not enough light? Because in one of the videos growmau5 used 5x cx3590 at 269W(should be 252W by calculations) and had enough par to light 1m x 1m (3.3x3.3) I guess I could go with a smaller tent for a small grow? Also if I'm growing just 2 or 3 plants in that 3.3'x3.3' would I still need the 385w? Does it matter how the lights are arranged? in an X , parallel lines or all 4 in 1 line
Is the dimmer switch controlling the amperage to the leds or the voltage to them? As if I had say 4 cobs using all of the drivers voltage, if the dimmer is dropping voltage, wouldnt the cobs just cut out?
Hi friend, one question please; if i want to make just one lamp, whit one cob led, i have to use the driver? because i see a lot in the market without it, thanks for your time.
Hi. I have BESTVA X4 1200W LED Grow Light COB LED. My tent size is 120*120*200. So im askin can I increase light intensify/optimize area of installing lenz/reflectors? If someone can help im very pleased.
Hey I've got we 2x hlg240b that I want to dim with a controller. Where can I find the one used here? Steve's doesn't show it. Will that work with my driver?
You could also use an arduino's pwm output to control brightness, that way you can also hook up humidity and temperature sensors and integrate the timer. I have it set up to dim automatically when temp gets too high or humidity too low.
The drivers are using PWM dimming? LED is more efficient at low currents. PWM dimming is high currents for short durations. Shouldn't PWM dimming be inefficient in a LEDs?
hi again growmou5, i no you would of answered this somewhere but cant find it on the comments, what size potentiometer would i need to dim 1 hlg240 and hgv 320 driver together? Thanks man, great as always
Great info mate ! I'm curious about the mean well driver version A with the internal dimming function , do you have any examples of this driver ? Or any disadvantages ? Sounds like less work but haven't seen a working example
Thanks mate. I ended up with the B version, took the challenge on. Ill come find you on RUI as i progress and need advice with putting together Jerry's gear.
Hi, I am new at this and have watched your videos on how to build a LED array. I am considering building a lamp 100 cm x 30 cm for chilli growing using 5 CXB3590@3500K and have a couple of questions. First, the COB:s are expensive as hell, can you advise on where to buy these, or can you recommend any cheaper alternatives that will work? Is 3500K the best or can I go with 3000K or 4000K as well? Thanks for your great videos! /The swedish guy.
+Fredrik Hörnfeldt if you value efficiency (more light from less power) you spend more on the cobs and drivers. You need to match the cobs with the right driver. The CXB3590 3500K CD is considered by the DIY community to be the best bin for light quality and efficiency.The CXB3070 is very good and a little less efficient but easier on the wallet. Either way, driving five 36V cobs from one driver would be fine with the correct driver. One 200W Meanwell HLG-185H-C1050 can run five 36V CXB3590s in the range of 525ma to 1050ma, that's 19W to 38W each, which is highly efficient use of energy to make light (36V CXB3590 can be 64% efficient at 700ma). The 250W HLG-240H-C1400 can run five such 36v cobs with at up to 50W each which is roughly 56% efficient using the top bin CXB3590. There are cheaper alternatives but you give up efficiency and it changes the choice of driver due to voltage requirements. The CXB3070 however is comparable and you can substitute it but again you lose about 6-12% efficiency, which is not a huge problem for the power bill but in the long run it might be. Less efficient also means more heat per watt instead of light per watt. kingbriteled.en.alibaba.com/product/60259719620-801574224/CREE_CXB3590_3500K_CD_CXB3590_0000_000R0HCD35G.html you can get high quality CXB3070 www.pacificlightconcepts.com/product/cxb-3070-3500k/ You can use a smaller driver for one or two cobs www.mouser.com/ds/2/260/LDH-45-SPEC-806090.pdf www.mouser.com/ds/2/260/LDH-45-SPEC-806090.pdf look at the spec sheet where is says Output Pwer/Voltage Range and you can see the various models have different voltage capacity. One that can handle at least 72V can power two 36V cobs. These are also dimmable with PWM.
+kingknut it's not a diatribe at all. Just solid info that actually answered his question regarding the CXB's and has nothing to do with you. And it's not ten times the price to use Cree cobs. The CXB3070 is available for $36 or less (for top bin cobs) and the single driver is $60. You were trying to be helpful mentioning that there are cheap parts but you give no specifics. In my opinion cheap is costly and a waste of time and money in the short and long term, except for learning laboratory, because the parts quality is a crap shoot, you may spend more money going through garbage parts. But if that's all that's affordable it is still worth doing. I would advise against running 100W cobs of any sort at 100W unless you have really good active cooling and solid driver circuits.
+Salty +kingknut Thanks both of you for the really good info. I think I will go for the CXB3590, maybe I will choose 4 COB:s instead of 5 to save some money, that will probably be good enough for my chilli plants anyway. Do you have any specific retailer to recommend where to get the COB:s, driver and lenses? I got a 120x20cm 10mm thick aluminum plate and on top I will mount a 120cm heat sink (this will require a lot of thermal paste...). Do you think I need to add 2 CPU fans to this if I run 5xCXB3590, or will the cooling be enough anyway? Another question about cooling: If I mount two fans, I´m thinking that I should have one on each end of the lamp, sucking in air on one side and blowing out on the other side to get a good air flow over the heat sink. That sounds logic, right?
Four cobs at 50W each should be good for about two square meters or so, maybe a bit more or less. I'm not sure how much intensity peppers need. Again I'll mention that the 3070 is very nearly as good as the 3590. 3500K is the color of choice it seems. I pointed to online sources for those in my last message to you. The driver: www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Mean-Well/HLG-185H-C1400B/?qs=%252bmCJZPMmHFNyZddMqMvYFQ%3D%3D runs four. Not sure about lenses but growmau5 has them listed on his other videos. Your 120mm heat-sink materiel sounds sufficient. I would use the cooling fans, it never hurts to keep it cool and the LED's will run more efficiently that way. Generally cooling fans are placed blowing down onto the heatsink, but do whatever seems to get the best flow in your situation.
+Salty Thanks I really appreciate the quick response and all the info! I think I know everything I need now to start ordering some material! Again, thanks for the help and thanks to +growmau5 for the great videos!
Looks like the output is only 60v pr driver. Ordered 100k potentiometers so now in doubt if it is the correct one. Hope you can help point me in the right direction. Thanks
Ronnie B that depends on the driver. If youre using a meanwell driver, theres basically 2 ways. The a series has a little rubber cork. Pull that out and in the hole is a little phillips head dimming screw. If its a b series, there are 3 cords. Power in, power out, and dimming. In this case you would need to add a potentiometer to the dimming lead.
hey gm5 i have a question that needs ur expertise, I order the typhon controller from steves led. Well they up graded their typhon controller and the power pins are different than the older version that is shown on ur video . instead of 8 single pins down the right side of the controller, now it has a row of 4 double. My question to you is since steves led dont have the answerfor me , i was hoping that you will. I wanted to know what pins i can use for dimmimg and can one typhon controller control 6 meanwell HLG 240h-c1750b?
hey GM5 got everyhing hook up with the typon controller but for some reason when i set controller to max 100% out put its not super bright,but when i unplug the dim leads from controller it cobs will be 80% brighter. Any suggestions bro
spoke with them and they say that the driver might be defected, but doubt that cause i switch to 5 other driver, have 20 driver total so forsure its not driver and my wiring?(stuck)
Why not an Angelina WITH a lens? And Can you go over the double lens idea? Supposedly super focuses the light. Can you also put a PAR meter in front of the output at certain length away (say 1 foot, 1.5foot and 2 feet) across the entire photon flux. I'm wondering if the Angelina and reflectors reduce the PAR because it immediately causes a bounce of the photon.. while a lens actually bends the light in the correct direction. I would hypothesize that the reflectors reduce PAR. Prove me wrong Grow Mou5!
Lens + Reflector isn't usually talked about because of the width of the reflector means you won't be able to fit any current reflectors over it. Reflectors absolutely reduce PAR, as anytime a photon bounces it loses energy. You would lose that energy only on the photons that bounce. Lens also reduce photo energy as it passes through. You lose this energy on ALL photons, since they all go through said lens, however the energy loss is much less. If you want to know exactly how much, I'd suggest getting both for a single COB and testing it with a PAR meter! It would be a nice little experiment.
