If you are using Bridgelux Gen 2s then the max operating temperature is 85C. I imagine that is typical for similar products. I found I was about 35~40C at flower. Basically if you can keep your finger on the back for 5 seconds you are under 50C (I also use an IR thermometer)
Cheers
G
thats good to know. I never let them get hot. Plenty warm, but there was never a limit to how long I could touch them or anything. I just want to get them heat sinked a little, and something to get a decently close measurement, so have some idea where Iām at. I didnāt get to use them last winter. I just used my closet with a solstrip and my chambers. So Iām looking forward to this winters fun with more space again.
What would happen if I made one of these, with the same driver, but added more strips? Sense I donāt turn it all the way up anyway, would I just have to turn it up a little more to get the same brightness per strip, or would it all go horribly wrong?
You ask a valid question. 
With this type of driver, the only thing more strips does is spread the current out between them evenly. I think 10 strips per driver in this build is already borderline too many, as they can be run harder, but I like running LEDs below their recommended power levels to reduce heat and increase the lifespan.
Also along that same vein, in a parallel build, more strips = better behavior if one fails, since its current gets distributed evenly among the rest of the strips. So, running them a little less than theyāre rated is actually a safety feature in the case of a catastrophic failure of one or more of the strips. Itās like a built in safety tolerance.
To answer your question, you wouldnāt have to turn it up anymore to get the same total output per fixture, actually likely slightly less because it will probably be slightly more efficient per watt. Obviously, this is all up to a point of diminishing returns, and YMMV, but you wouldnāt care about each stripās output itself, just the total fixture PPF output. Hope that makes sense!
Thanx for the reply. I was actually asking because I thought maybe I could cover a larger footprint per controller by making larger frames with more strips. So each strip would still be running at the same strength, but with it turned up a little more to compensate for the extra strips.
I donāt need to do this. I was mostly curious. I will probably change things around again if I ever get around to getting tents. I think using 10 strips in a 2.5X4ft frame was ok. But I donāt want to spread them out to far. Having so many extra strips just makes me think about whats possible.
Absolutely, thatās a good idea if youāre doing production! Just remember these frames get heavy. For personal hobby grows, I like to have two fixtures for each quadrant for different size plants.
What are you thinking - veg or flower or both?
Iāll be using them for flowering. Iāll probably leave it how I have it for now. I change my mind almost daily tho. I really want to get tents at some point. Then I got thinking about trying to fill a 4X8 or similar and how many 2x4 lights it would take, and thats what got me wondering about just using less controllers. Its also about how much of a pain it was to make the frames the way I did. Iād like to make as few of those as possible. lol.
So hereās a breakdown for the MeanWell drivers youād use for parallel wiring builds:
HLG-480H-42a = 2x HLG-240H-42a
HLG-600H-42a = 2x HLG-320H-42a
So you could wire 20 of the 4ā EB3 strips on either the 480H (520w output) or 600H (630w output) if you wanted fewer drivers, and you could still do two fixtures per driver. Youād have to calculate wire sizes and lengths properly so you donāt lose a lot of voltage, but it wouldnāt be hard. Youād just have to have a separate wiring pigtail per fixture, and run larger single wires from each fixture to driver. Youād probably want to use some type of terminal block rather than Wagos, and make sure wire lengths are the same to each strip to manage wire losses. Totally possible!
Cool. Thanx for the info. Iāll update the thread if I end up doing it. It will probably be a while tho. Cost on those drivers goes up quite a bit, so weāll see. Actually, it looks like the cost of my drivers went up quite a bit sense I got them, so it might be a supply chain situation.
I saved 15 bucks going with 2x 320watt drivers instead of the 600 but that was a couple years agoā¦
Cheers
G
Yeah, I like the 320w drivers too. Not only are two cheaper than 1x 600w, they also put out about 360w per, so you get quite a bit more bang for your buck. But, if you want to have fewer drivers and plugs, you gotta do what you gotta do.
Badass build! I miss my HLG550 clone. I saved about $400 building it myself compared to the actual 550 r spec.