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CFGrow China LED with Cree 3590's?

M

MauriceDelTaco

New member
I've been scrolling through the crap LEDs on Amazon/Alibaba and came across these lights that actually look decent. They're branded CFGrow but seem to be made by "Shenzhen Panda Grow" that sells them on alibaba here. They use Cree 3590s with meanwell drivers and have active cooling and dimmer. However, in my searches I've struggled to find anyone using them. Does anyone have any experience with these?



I know it would be cheaper and better to build my own but I just dont have the time. Looking at all the amazon/alibaba LEDs this seems like the best option by far if (it doesn't burn the house down lol).
 
M

MauriceDelTaco

New member
I went ahead and pulled the trigger on it. Total came to $225 USD, $291 shipped. A bit pricey but we'll see how it goes. Grow journal incoming.
 
M

MauriceDelTaco

New member
Great find! They even have pics of the inside. Heatsinks look a bit better than I was expecting which is a relief. I was a bit worried about a fan dying and the led exceeding its max junction temp.
 
FranJan

FranJan

Active member
Picture of driver from [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread....fgrow&page=262
[/FONT]


picture.php


I'm wondering if that's a fake MeanWell driver. I'm not getting any info from:
https://www.meanwell.com/serviceReport.aspx with the SN # I'm seeing, (HB78J12248). You may want to talk to MW about this. Maybe there is a reason the SN isn't showing in their database :confused:? Not a good sign about this light IMHO. And if you do a search about the light on Google you may find out some other things discussed on other forums that aren't so great about this light.

Lotsa fake sh*t on Amazon and Alibaba. You may want to refuse delivery.
 
warpese

warpese

Active member
Veteran
FranJan said:
Picture of driver from [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread....fgrow&page=262
[/FONT]


View Image

I'm wondering if that's a fake MeanWell driver. I'm not getting any info from:
https://www.meanwell.com/serviceReport.aspx with the SN # I'm seeing, (HB78J12248). You may want to talk to MW about this. Maybe there is a reason the SN isn't showing in their database :confused:? Not a good sign about this light IMHO. And if you do a search about the light on Google you may find out some other things discussed on other forums that aren't so great about this light.

Lotsa fake sh*t on Amazon and Alibaba. You may want to refuse delivery.
Click to expand...

you're wrong man, look at hb7bj12248 it's genuine :tiphat:
 
M

MauriceDelTaco

New member
Haha gotta love the Chinese knock offs. The light arrived today. Seems pretty legit so far. The heatsinks seem pretty small but we'll see how the temps run once I get it setup. I might see if I can upgrade the fans to some proper Noctua fans or something if the power supply will support it. I'll see if I can post some pics later.
 
EcoNepenthe

EcoNepenthe

Active member
COBs Rock!!

COBs Rock!!

Greetings. Good thread. I use DIY Cree CXB3590 COBs w/great success. Looking forward to your journal.


Stay safe!!!
Success w/ya grow!!! :canabis:
 
M

MauriceDelTaco

New member
EcoNepenthe said:
Greetings. Good thread. I use DIY Cree CXB3590 COBs w/great success. Looking forward to your journal.

Stay safe!!!
Success w/ya grow!!! :canabis:
Click to expand...


Looking good bro! I think I'm going to start working on a DIY array of 3590s and some monos mixed in. I've got some old deep red and royal blue Luxeon rebels I'm going to try and mix in to fill out the spectrum as well.


Testing the light out on seedlings right now. At minimum brightness (5%) the light runs at 27deg. However I am seeing one of the temperature sensors is already not working. Kind of a big deal since this light will supposedly dim itself when internal temps exceed 65deg. Lets see what support says, hopefully it won't need to be shipped back.
 
S

St. Phatty

Active member
I think one step that is often avoided in the rush to out-source, is incoming receiving inspection, and outgoing QC inspection.

Cost pressures give them the incentive to skimp on Quality control when the light is done being assembled. To avoid burn-in, etc.

So then the burden falls on the consumer.

It's not a huge deal. A visual inspection is good.

Burn in is real important. i.e. running it for 24 hours before installing it. Because of it's going to spark and be a fire hazard, that's often when that happens.
 
M

MauriceDelTaco

New member
St. Phatty said:
I think one step that is often avoided in the rush to out-source, is incoming receiving inspection, and outgoing QC inspection.

Cost pressures give them the incentive to skimp on Quality control when the light is done being assembled. To avoid burn-in, etc.

So then the burden falls on the consumer.

It's not a huge deal. A visual inspection is good.
Burn in is real important. i.e. running it for 24 hours before installing it. Because of it's going to spark and be a fire hazard, that's often when that happens.
Click to expand...


Agreed. I'm running it for 24 hours continuously at the lowest setting. So far no increase in temp. I'm going to slowly edge the brightness up one setting at a time and run each for 24 hours.


Apparently the temp sensing issue is by design. I guess they used the same sensor as for their 6 COB models, so this one pulls some blank reading in between. I did see it pull two different temps consecutively so it does appear to be monitoring both COBs. I would really like to implement this temperature monitoring/dimming logic in a DIY board. I like the idea of having a failsafe if temps get too high.
 
M

MauriceDelTaco

New member
Just wanted do follow up for anyone that finds this thread in their googles. The lights have been running 24/7 since I got them with no issues. Actual draw at the wall is closer to 170w. My only complaint would be the timer function doesn't actually power off the lights, it just dims them to 10% rendering it completely useless. Other than that if you're looking for a cheap pre-built option this might not be bad. That said, I have already felt the need to upgrade to some quantum boards. With all the time and effort we put into our grows spend the extra couple hundred for a proper light setup.
 
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