D.I.Y. 200W CITIZEN COB LED BUILD

[TerpyTyrone]

Alibaba a good place to order D.I.Y. kits? They seem really inexpensive cxb3590...clu0048 are seemingly most efficient?

Ya get what ya pay for. That platform is a lol sketchy to deal with. Ya dont know what type of diodes your getting either. With horticulturelightinggroup you get samsung diodes. The real deal, most efficient. Not too expensive

 

[Greenthumbskunk]

I'm using 4 of the Gen 4 of this cob. https://cobkits.com/product/luminus-cxm22-gen3-3500k-80-cri/

with this driver

https://cobkits.com/product/meanwell-hlg-320h-48a/


Got the frame built lights mounted and wired in series. Touching the negative and positive wire with a multimeter shows resistance so I think the cobs all have connections.in their holders.

Problem is their is no light at all when hooked up the driver.

Anybody know what might be the problem?

Ive built quite a few fixtures with bridgelux EB strips wired in series with this driver https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/mean-well-usa-inc/HLG-320H-C1400A/1866-2499-ND/7704057

Never had a problem with any of them after I built them. Fired right up and all the rows were nice and bright.


Also do you guys run these wide open or leave at factory settings?


Also do y'all think that's too much power for a 2x4 tent with the cobs?

For example this light here is for a 3x3 and only is 280 watts.

Horticulture Lighting Group HLG300 280 Watt LED Grow Light

Buy Horticulture Lighting Group HLG300 280 Watt LED Grow Light. Product ships free! Save 35%.

hydrobuilder.com

 

[Hydro]

I'm using 4 of the Gen 4 of this cob. https://cobkits.com/product/luminus-cxm22-gen3-3500k-80-cri/

with this driver

https://cobkits.com/product/meanwell-hlg-320h-48a/


Got the frame built lights mounted and wired in series. Touching the negative and positive wire with a multimeter shows resistance so I think the cobs all have connections.in their holders.

Problem is their is no light at all when hooked up the driver.

Anybody know what might be the problem?

Ive built quite a few fixtures with bridgelux EB strips wired in series with this driver https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/mean-well-usa-inc/HLG-320H-C1400A/1866-2499-ND/7704057

Never had a problem with any of them after I built them. Fired right up and all the rows were nice and bright.


Also do you guys run these wide open or leave at factory settings?


Also do y'all think that's too much power for a 2x4 tent with the cobs?

For example this light here is for a 3x3 and only is 280 watts.

Horticulture Lighting Group HLG300 280 Watt LED Grow Light

Buy Horticulture Lighting Group HLG300 280 Watt LED Grow Light. Product ships free! Save 35%.

hydrobuilder.com

Do you have the polarity of all the cobs matched up correctly with the polarity of the holders?
Also at 80+Watts per cob, that thing is probably gonna put off some heat in a 2x4. Will be great for a flower light. May need to dim just a hair depending on the height of the tent?

 

[shimz]

You said you have the COBs in series, but you linked to a parallel driver that may have insufficient voltage for those 54V chips. The way my CXM-22 rig is wired I have two parallel strings of 5 in series driven by a 480-C1750 driver.

If your driver is an 'A' version, be sure the Vo is cranked. You can use the Io to adjust output. If your driver is a 'B' you may be screwed as it will not have enough Vo.

 

[Greenthumbskunk]

Do you have the polarity of all the cobs matched up correctly with the polarity of the holders?
Also at 80+Watts per cob, that thing is probably gonna put off some heat in a 2x4. Will be great for a flower light. May need to dim just a hair depending on the height of the tent?

Tent isnt real tall maybe 72"? I have some bought LEDs in em now but ain't worth a pickle as far as light footprint and eat up around 360 watts. I have an exhaust fan in the tents with the flap not zipped on the bottom to let air be drawn in from below and exit through the top.

Yes all cobs are snapped in with the positive on the positive and negative on the negative. We took a multimeter and put one prong on the wire coming from the negative side and other prong on the positive side of the frame. It showed resistance so it's obviously a complete circuit from one side to the other.

I guess I can go though and take em all off again and make sure.

What driver would you of used for a flower setup?

To me the more efficient the light is the less watts you have to have to reach the correct amount of par. Am I right?

I think the Gen 1 EB series strips was something like 157 lumens per watt and the Gen 2 is 180. So it's 15% more efficient, thusly you need 15% less watts?
So if you needed a 320 watt driver before to cover a certain footprint now with the more efficient LEDs you only need a 270 watt driver? Am I right?

 

[Greenthumbskunk]

There may be a few no brainer ones here but I've seen sillier things happen.
Is the driver even getting power?
What Red said too. Check all connections for proper orientation. Neg to pos to neg to pos etc.
Check power cord to driver is wired correct also.
Check Voltage coming from lead wire of driver when under power. What does it read?

Yes it's getting power, was using the same extension to run the air compressor for the rivot gun.

Yes the cord is wired correct, I looked at it and pulled on the connection and seemed to be real tight. We even tested with the multimeter and showed fine.

We never checked the unit while it was plugged up. I'm using wagos on the output side. So it will be easy to unsnap and check that.
I had to leave for work and was late fiddling with that, so def gonna check that tomorrow. Thanks

If all else fails I'm just gonna replace the driver.

 

[Hydro]

Tent isnt real tall maybe 72"? I have some bought LEDs in em now but ain't worth a pickle as far as light footprint and eat up around 360 watts. I have an exhaust fan in the tents with the flap not zipped on the bottom to let air be drawn in from below and exit through the top.

Yes all cobs are snapped in with the positive on the positive and negative on the negative. We took a multimeter and put one prong on the wire coming from the negative side and other prong on the positive side of the frame. It showed resistance so it's obviously a complete circuit from one side to the other.

I guess I can go though and take em all off again and make sure.

What driver would you of used for a flower setup?

To me the more efficient the light is the less watts you have to have to reach the correct amount of par. Am I right?

I think the Gen 1 EB series strips was something like 157 lumens per watt and the Gen 2 is 180. So it's 15% more efficient, thusly you need 15% less watts?
So if you needed a 320 watt driver before to cover a certain footprint now with the more efficient LEDs you only need a 270 watt driver? Am I right?

When I first responded, I thought you were using citis. Didnt realize they were luminous til shims mentioned the 54V.

 

[Greenthumbskunk]

You said you have the COBs in series, but you linked to a parallel driver that may have insufficient voltage for those 54V chips. The way my CXM-22 rig is wired I have two parallel strings of 5 in series driven by a 480-C1750 driver.

If your driver is an 'A' version, be sure the Vo is cranked. You can use the Io to adjust output. If your driver is a 'B' you may be screwed as it will not have enough Vo.

No it is an A driver. And the driver I bought was put into the cart for me by cobkits. I did crank both knobs up all the way. So you suggest I should rewire in series?

Here is a screenshot of what he made up for me, I still have the email.

 

[Greenthumbskunk]

Thanks guys, sounds like I need to rewire parallel.

Anybody got any pics of decent looking wiring for parallel runs to make it look neat?

This frame is 42" long by 5 1/4" wide.

I have 7 of them built so far but only one wired up wrong lmao . I guess 1/7 isn't bad for doing it wrong huh? Haha!

 

[Greenthumbskunk]

Maybe a foolish question, but what is the general cost of 1 kilowatt in the US, beacuse were I am located I pay almost 40 cents, which kinda puts a downer so to speak on the amount of wattage I can use...

Depends on where you live, where I'm at it's 12 cents. Used to be over 16 until we joined another cooperative.

In the areas where it's urban with a lot more people it's half the amount I pay here.

How much is your median household income? Where I live it's around 26k a household. So it's all relative.

 

[Greenthumbskunk]

View attachment 4622

I screenshot the same image from Led gardener when I posted last and went on a hunt for a wiring in parallel cob lights. Lol

 

[Greenthumbskunk]

Another bit.
Once the cobs are up and running with V set where desired, test the amp draw of the cobs and use the current pot on the driver to lower it's available amperage to just above what the cobs are pulling at normal run temps.
IE: cobs pulling 5.6amps , lower available current to 5.8 on the driver. Will prevent thermal runaway chances as it will cap the current level. Not that there's much more left on the driver, but it's an added safety net should one cob fail or try to suck too much juice.

Thanks for the tip and thats one reason why I like a constant current driver

 

[Mellow old School]

How much is your median household income? Where I live it's around 26k a household. So it's all relative.

Here according to the data I have its 44k...

 

[Greenthumbskunk]

The same safety overhead can be designed into a CC driver. IE: I can run two series of 6 in parallel on my 2100ma or one series by itself. Were one series to fail, the single set of 6 can handle the additional load with no issue, just run warmer, but stay in spec.
They both have there benefits and drawbacks. All in the design of the circuits etc.

I have a HLG 320h c1400a driver laying around not doing nothing. Could I use it to drive that one frame I already have wired up in series on those cobs? I'll wire up the other 6 frames in parallel with the other drivers I have.

 

[shimz]

Thanks for the tip and thats one reason why I like a constant current driver

You have a constant voltage driver.

 

[Greenthumbskunk]

You have a constant voltage driver.

Which one of the drivers?

 

[Greenthumbskunk]

Here is some of the stuff I been doing.

Here is some of the frames with cobs attached.
One that is wired up
25' sticks of angled.aluminum bought 300' of it for $1.05 a foot.
Here is one of the lights I built using bridgelux 2' eb strips.

 

[shimz]

Which one of the drivers?

The -48A is constant voltage (48V), the C1400 is constant current (1400mA).

If you're still having trouble lighting up the Lumi chips, try parallel wiring (all + to driver +, all - to driver -) and crank the Vo to max and the Io to min. My thoughts are you are running out of voltage at higher current, but you might find a window at the bottom of the current range that will light them.

 

[Greenthumbskunk]

Yep, it'll work great.

I hooked it up with cobs still in series and it was working just fine. Wish I had gotten another 10 of those drivers instead of buying 10 of the ones cobkits told me to get. Wiring is so much easier.

 

[Greenthumbskunk]

The -48A is constant voltage (48V), the C1400 is constant current (1400mA).

If you're still having trouble lighting up the Lumi chips, try parallel wiring (all + to driver +, all - to driver -) and crank the Vo to max and the Io to min. My thoughts are you are running out of voltage at higher current, but you might find a window at the bottom of the current range that will light them.

Yes I wired up the cobs in parallel and worked fine, got 3 of those done today. The one frame that was wired in series I took a c1400a driver I had and hooked it up and it drove those cobs just fine.