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Bueno Grows w/ DIY COB LEDs

Bueno Time

Active member
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Sweet that badboy should rock! You probably know Im going to ask. Cost with all the aluminum as setup?

Thanks unc, it should work very well and last me many years of growing. :tiphat:

She wasnt cheap, I spent a good $50 on cheap drivers and different Vero 10s to test different spectrums out before building, not including the testing components cost, it cost about $525-550 US for everything to build it including components and drill bits, taps, screws, thermal paste all that good stuff (that price also includes the 50mm fans and Meanwell 12v supply for them which I havent installed on the sinks yet). About $90-100 less without the red led string I included (which I already had running along with my CXA COBs setup and modified to include in the new fixture).
 

Bueno Time

Active member
ICMag Donor
Veteran
That's not bad, looks like it is nice even lighting.

Yeah the spread was one of the main goals of the build and it seems have worked very well. Now I just want to get some healthy plants under it to flower and see what it can do, hopefully these current ones I have going dont end up too haggard since they are having some issues in this current batch of soil mix it seems.

I plan to crank the wattage up on her too once the time comes, probably next run with healthier plants that arent already deficient underneath it, right now its dimmed down only running at ~65% of max current on the driver, 140w power draw of 215w max (200w LED dissipation max plus the 15w loss due to efficiency). Even at 140w draw with the Veros only running in 6 sq ft it is surprisingly bright.
 

Unclecrash

Member
Yeah the spread was one of the main goals of the build and it seems have worked very well. Now I just want to get some healthy plants under it to flower and see what it can do, hopefully these current ones I have going dont end up too haggard since they are having some issues in this current batch of soil mix it seems.

I plan to crank the wattage up on her too once the time comes, probably next run with healthier plants that arent already deficient underneath it, right now its dimmed down only running at ~65% of max current on the driver, 140w power draw of 215w max (200w LED dissipation max plus the 15w loss due to efficiency). Even at 140w draw with the Veros only running in 6 sq ft it is surprisingly bright.

Im in an 8ft ceiling basement @ about 30inch x 5ft maybe a bit shorter cant remember, but I bet I could spread that out and get decent coverage. But my bro just gave me one of his 600 hps/mh lites and ballast to run for now. I was hoping he brought it sooner to finish this run only got it installed for the last week so cannot tell how much better yeild I will get than my 400watter. I been having ph pen trouble myself, im about to break down and buy a ph/ppm monitor or a decent pen ,or maybe just drops for a bit.
 

exploziv

pure dynamite
Administrator
Veteran
That is mostly for led strips, and RGB led strips. works with 12 or 24V and up to 4 amps per channel. So it won't work with more than 24 V, or 4 amps/ circuit.
 

Bueno Time

Active member
ICMag Donor
Veteran
I was watering tonight and finished sexing all but one of the plants, OX2 that hasnt shown yet so probably female but so far Sour Bubble 2, OX 1, StarKiller 3, Truepower OG 1-5 all female and the other 3 Star Killers, 2 Sour Bubbles, 1 OX are males going to toss all but the best one or two Star Killers to make Star Killer F2s and maybe really lightly dust a bud or two of the TPOGs since they are both OG type strains. All 3 SK males are taller than the female (they are the tallest plants in the tent overall too the three male SKs) and one of the 3 branches out just like the female, one is a straight stalk with no branches and one has mostly straight stalk with small under developed far lower branches, the branchiest seems to have the strongest smell on a stem rub of the 3 not far behind the beanstalk one.

The other day I took 2 cuts off each of the 5 TPOGs and am going to pull a cut or two off OX1 and SB2 tonight, then decide which male(s) to keep and cull the rest to give the ladies some elbow room. Today is day 16 12/12 BTW nothing really picture worthy yet to update with.
 

williamclinton

New member
Yo Bt. I frequent Riu and am hitting supra up. I asked about leds and it seemed everyone had converted on the forum from buying to building. So I am taking the step. I was looking at all the diy threads. Just alot to filter through. I got a 600-700$ budget and am looking for a flower light. I got a mars 2 1200 But I want to up the anty and see How much I could beat it by. Let me know if you have any recommendations. I saw the system someone just made that was 500. It looks legit. Ill def post a pic of what I build. :) excited.
 

myhomeboy

New member
fullbloomhydroponics.net/kind-LED-k3-series-l300/

Bueno, I bought a couple of these 3 years ago, the leds all burnt out within days. It turns out all the drivers work, I have 12 of them! They pull about 60 watts and they are 1400ma, 42v.

My question is, how would I wore my vero13 cobs,and how many cobs per driver. The drivers have 2 "leads" 700ma ea.
 

Dion

Active member
Bueno, are you sanding down your heatsinks before adding the cobs?

supra's thread suggests sanding down to 1000grit before attaching heat sinks, i plan to use double sided thermal tape precut square thingys, wondering if its moot?

cheers
 

Bueno Time

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ICMag Donor
Veteran
Bueno, are you sanding down your heatsinks before adding the cobs?

supra's thread suggests sanding down to 1000grit before attaching heat sinks, i plan to use double sided thermal tape precut square thingys, wondering if its moot?

cheers

I sanded my Alpine 11s for the CXA3070s but further testing by Supra has shown that there is no need to sand and polish the sinks, the gains are extremely minimal if at all, unless of course there are gouges or large scratches in the surface. I wouldnt bother with it anymore after seeing the results of his testing on sanded vs non-sanded and factory thermal paste (Arctic Silver MX4) vs a better paste like Prolimatech PK3 or similar, the gains were VERY minimal, basically none for the effort and cost involved.
 
C

Cinderella Man

Bueno Time... man I loved this thread so much, great info and beautiful plants...
Thanks for taking so much time out to post up!
 

Dion

Active member
i look forward to this round, im sure it will be the best yet

good luck
 
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And I tested the reds only (Veros off) and for fun I took some pics to see how things are with only the 630nm and 660nm red LEDs running. When I had the 4 450nm LEDs running in the string previously, used along with my CXA3070s, there was red, blue, and purple (to the human eye) areas of lighting now its all just pure red and looks a lot different I thought it was cool.

View Image

View Image

View Image

Sweet! :biggrin:
 

funnymath

Member
Thanks for this thread Bueno, it's convinced me to do an led build instead of trying for some type of vertical. My space is a good bit smaller than yours at 23"x20" and I can't decide what lights to go with. Two or three cree's sound good since I can get AB bins for 50 bucks or so. I know you didn't like the light spread on them but I was thinking for me in a smaller space it wouldn't be as big of a deal. I'd bet I still have enough space to get 1gpw with 2 crees but with 3 I think my limiting factor would be space (well, growing skills too). But your vero 10 set up really has me thinking (especially since I'd like to limit the headroom the led takes up). I could fit it all in my cabinet with a couple inches of room all around (6 vero 10's on 6 heatsinks would work better for my cab I think). But I'd probably aim to keep it turned down to the 140w that you'd using so then I wouldn't need the 50mm fans and it would just simplify everything. But with my smaller footprint I'm still at 43w/sqft.

Would you think this is a good idea or would it be better for me to cut down the amount of vero 10's and run them higher (since they're more efficient when you push them harder)? Or would a different set of led's and drivers do better for the area?
 
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