Trying to pick the best COB. CXB5690 or CXM-22 or what?

Horselover Fat · Sep 16, 2020

Weird grow space

a proper scrog and a diy board or a strip light would be my choice. You could also fit a nice vertical scrog in there, but it would be a lot of work.

Klompen · Sep 16, 2020

I know its an unusual plan given today's prevailing logic(which I am not sure I agree with), but its what I have space for and it makes one stall per one or two plants. That way I can do autos, photos, or veg without worrying about their neighbors. This is definitely what I am building and its really just a question of what to light it with.

Horselover Fat · Sep 16, 2020

If you don't want to scrog then vertical strips might be an option to think about.

SuperBadGrower · Sep 16, 2020

PCBuds has a cool micro grow box with top & side lighting. Maybe check out his thread for inspiration.

Horselover Fat · Sep 16, 2020

Horselover Fat said:
If you don't want to scrog then vertical strips might be an option to think about.

Which was what you were looking for. Short term memory

something like these? https://www.futureelectronics.com/p/semiconductors--lighting-solutions--light-engine-led-assemblies--light-engines/bxeb-l0560z-30e2000-c-c3-bridgelux-8115969

Klompen · Sep 17, 2020

Horselover Fat said:
Which was what you were looking for. Short term memory something like these? https://www.futureelectronics.com/p...es/bxeb-l0560z-30e2000-c-c3-bridgelux-8115969

Yeah I am looking for something along those lines. Ideally I want something cool enough that the plants can touch it without issues. The space is only 18"wx28"dx72"h, and the plants can easily fill that floor space. Think of it sort of like a vertical scrog with an intense top light.

Its just that using a full sun board or whatever on each side and then have a light on top would add up to a silly amount of wattage for the space. I was considering a very high efficacy 24V tape light to surround the plants. I have seen some that claim 150-160lm/w and they have them in a variety of spectra. Those boards you link to look good too, but can I get them close to the plant?

Horselover Fat · Sep 17, 2020

Klompen said:
Yeah I am looking for something along those lines. Ideally I want something cool enough that the plants can touch it without issues. The space is only 18"wx28"dx72"h, and the plants can easily fill that floor space. Think of it sort of like a vertical scrog with an intense top light.

Its just that using a full sun board or whatever on each side and then have a light on top would add up to a silly amount of wattage for the space. I was considering a very high efficacy 24V tape light to surround the plants. I have seen some that claim 150-160lm/w and they have them in a variety of spectra. Those boards you link to look good too, but can I get them close to the plant?

The 150lm/w tape should be good if the price is right. I haven't used bridgelux strips, but sure, if you use enough for the light level you want. These are commonly used for diy striplights. I'm using lm301b and my tops are at six inches from my boards now. At that distance I feel slight warmth on the back of my hand. Since dropping my boards down I've touched the diodes a few times accidentally and they weren't hot really. I would not want to touch my vero cobs!

Phagoos · Sep 17, 2020

Even if you can touch the diodes with your hand does not mean the leaves are fine too when touching. The leds I have are only warm to the touch (42-46C) but any leaf touching it will still get white burn marks.

Horselover Fat · Sep 17, 2020

Phagoos said:
Even if you can touch the diodes with your hand does not mean the leaves are fine too when touching. The leds I have are only warm to the touch (42-46C) but any leaf touching it will still get white burn marks.

Sure, but the more diffuse the source the closer the leaves can be. Same principle.

Klompen · Sep 17, 2020

I know it may hurt my PAR rating a bit, but I think I will put a Lexan(non UV-filtering) strip out in front of the strip light to limit how close the plants can get. I am thinking about one of these strips in each corner and high-efficacy tape light on the panel sides where the plants can't help but touch it. I will under-drive all my diodes and cobs to keep temps down and life span up and make them easier to get close to the plants.

With high efficacy diodes and/or COB lights, what do you suppose I should aim for on wattage per foot? I mean, I know it would probably be better to calculate needed PPF using cubic feet, but in simple terms I would like to establish a wattage I am aiming for.

I am kind of leaning toward an under-driven Luminus CXM-32 overhead with those Bridgelux strips in each corner and then high-efficacy tape light for where the plants touch. So maybe 75W over top and 80-100 around the plants? That would make max wattage per square foot around 50-60ish depending on what I get. For all four chambers it will equal about 700W max draw.

Klompen · Sep 19, 2020

I have redesigned my space so now its 24"W x 28"D x 72"H. I think I may go for the QB96 V2 after all, but I am still on the fence. Money is a huge issue. This year has been disaster after disaster for us with a few decent things mixed in here and there; it hasn't left us with much. My Chinese cobs are $1.70 each and they did a decent job, but they also produced a very problematic amount of heat. I want proper lights but its going to mean gambling everything we have to really do what is ideal in there. A lot is riding on my outdoor grow working out(unclear if that's going to go remain unbothered)

Do you recommend the Bridgelux strip modules for that side light, or are there competitors of similar quality?

Frosty Nuggets · Sep 19, 2020

I have a HLG135 V2 Rspec in a space like that and it does really well with little heat, you should do really well with a HLG96 and side lighting. :smoke out:

Horselover Fat · Sep 19, 2020

Samsung h-series strips (lm561c diode) would be good https://www.samsung.com/led/lighting/led-modules/ambient-light-module/h-series-gen3/
and lm301b/h strips too. It comes down to the price you can get them. Lm301b is the efficacy king, but if you can get many more lm561c for the same price you can drive them softer and get the same or better efficacy.

Klompen · Sep 20, 2020

Frosty Nuggets said:
I have a HLG135 V2 Rspec in a space like that and it does really well with little heat, you should do really well with a HLG96 and side lighting.

What does "Rspec" mean anyway? HLG's website doesn't explain it anywhere I could find.

Klompen · Sep 20, 2020

I am seriously looking at Samsung's Q strips, but I really just don't know for sure. Its going to be a bit longer on this than I had hoped though because the money situation here is pretty bad. Hopefully I can at least scrape together enough to buy a single QB96 to get started. I've done a lot of thinking about it and it really does seem like a good option. In some ways two in each chamber dialed down low would be sweet, but right now winter is approaching and my shoes are falling apart lol

The good news is that the chamber build is getting more complete every day. I have the main frame in place and have the frame for the divider that will form the ceiling for the chambers ready to install. This has all taken longer than I had hoped. We just finished up one crop of autos and I had intended to get another crop flowering ASAP but all I have is photoperiod plants right now and no way to seal them up yet. We're pretty heavy medical users and we definitely want light that is going to get us the quality we need. I have some pretty nice genetics waiting to be flowered once I get some of this sorted out. I'm just really hoping our guerilla op doesn't get discovered and chopped/ripped. If that happens we're definitely going to be going without for a while. I'll probably need to at least get one chamber going even if I have to use these overly-hot blurples again. The blurples actually did an amazing job in late veg and early flower for me, but they didn't bulk up the buds like I wanted or get the potency, which in turn has us going through the bud way faster than we otherwise would... that's not even mentioning the power bill....

Horselover Fat said:
Samsung h-series strips (lm561c diode) would be good https://www.samsung.com/led/lighting/led-modules/ambient-light-module/h-series-gen3/
and lm301b/h strips too. It comes down to the price you can get them. Lm301b is the efficacy king, but if you can get many more lm561c for the same price you can drive them softer and get the same or better efficacy.

indagroove · Sep 20, 2020

Klompen said:
What does "Rspec" mean anyway? HLG's website doesn't explain it anywhere I could find.

It means Red Spectrum, because they add red diodes to the white diodes. They also have a BSpec, which is added blue diodes instead of red.

Klompen · Sep 20, 2020

That makes sense, thanks

Horselover Fat · Sep 20, 2020

Yeah, the 660nm reds are there to up the efficacy mostly. I'm not sure it's worth the extra price, but I can't know for sure.

Ledgardener.com has info on the strips. I'm not sure if its upto date on all developments now, but there is good info on bridgelux, and samsung h, q and f series there.

Klompen · Sep 20, 2020

Horselover Fat said:
Yeah, the 660nm reds are there to up the efficacy mostly. I'm not sure it's worth the extra price, but I can't know for sure.

Ledgardener.com has info on the strips. I'm not sure if its upto date on all developments now, but there is good info on bridgelux, and samsung h, q and f series there.

I do have to wonder if they're really all that different. I think maybe some of them have UV/IR/RED, but I have so much more to learn about DIY grow strips.

I am thinking I'll aim to get our first chamber fully built and then expand as I can afford it. I'll aim first to get together the money for the QB96 V2 and a driver for it. After that I'll add in improved side light as I can afford it.

Would a cheaper driver work as efficiently as a MeanWell driver? Also, do you have any idea if one can run a DC cooling fan off of an LED driver?

indagroove · Sep 20, 2020

Klompen said:
I do have to wonder if they're really all that different. I think maybe some of them have UV/IR/RED, but I have so much more to learn about DIY grow strips.

I am thinking I'll aim to get our first chamber fully built and then expand as I can afford it. I'll aim first to get together the money for the QB96 V2 and a driver for it. After that I'll add in improved side light as I can afford it.

Would a cheaper driver work as efficiently as a MeanWell driver? Also, do you have any idea if one can run a DC cooling fan off of an LED driver?

There are less expensive meanwell drivers outside of the HLG series that work quite well. I'd suggest a XLG-100-H-A dimmable driver for one QB96, which are less than $30 each. Also when you order the QB96 from HLG don't forget the "diy10" coupon code for 10% off.

Trying to pick the best COB. CXB5690 or CXM-22 or what?

Member

Active member

Member

Active member

Member

Active member

Member

Attachments

Member

Member

Active member

Active member

Well-known member

Member

Active member

Active member

Active member

Active member

Member

Active member

Active member