looking into diy led options and found these chips. Anyone had experience of em, tips please.
Dont forget to factor in the cost of heatsinks and fans and fan power supplies.
I prefer the strips for a few reasons.
No active cooling needed = less cost.
The LED’s are spread out for better, more even coverage of the canopy.
Ive got my strips down to within about 6" to 8" of my canopy. Because the led’s are spread out on the strips, they cover the canopy much more evenly than the same wattage of COBs would at that distance.
5 Likes
Yeh the strips make far more practical sense all round but cost plus shipping to the UK is going to be way more than i can afford just now. Probably better stick with hps for now till i can afford to do it properly.A
1 Like
the Bridgelux vero series is cheaper for the same performance
6 Likes
I currently run 16 of those cobs off 2x hlg-320-36b drivers. That work great for my 100x100cm tent. I think I was reading 65-70k lux at 18" with my meter.
Edit: you can check it out here
4 Likes
I also run SOLstrips from @Baudelaire in a smaller tent. Plus Bridgelux strips in the veg/clone tent.
5 Likes
Nice setups bro. How are you cooling your COBs, individual passive heatsinks? I’m thinking LED’s are probably the future but it will take an expensive rig to better my air cooled hps system and i just cant afford it at present. I am looking at all options though including CMH because i can air cool them without buying any additional kit. A
1 Like
The cobs run the west lf all three setups. I run it with passive cooling and my temps stay around 82°F during lights on. The Bridgelux strips run the coolest and closest to a flouro aa far as heat goes.
3 Likes
I’ve used citiled cluo48s they’re not too bad at all mate. Someone else said they used a straight 36 driver above which would mean wiring in parallel. I used a hlg320h c700a to power 9 cluo48s (could handle another 3 on that driver but didn’t work with my design so wasn’t running max efficiency)
Still drew between 80ish and 280ish Watts.
I’m currently building with cluo38’s and solstrips. 4 x 5000k strips.
10 x cluo38 1206’s 5 x 3000k and 5 x 3500k.
Hlg320h c700a again for the cluo38s.
Hlg 150h 24a for the strips.
Also got 10 x Arctic alpine 11 plus cpu heatsinks on the way. Will be running all 10 fans through a touchscreen pc pwm controller which will drive all the fans via a 12v 4a driver.
4 Likes
Just one Tip:
Never invest in cheap chips of any kind.
6 Likes
Sound advice pal. I don’t want a load of extra cooling fans either making noise. I borrowed a friends blurple panel to help light the missis small tent but you could hear it over the extraction and circulation fans in the larger tent so shes got a 250w hps, cooltube and RVK 100 which running at 3/4 speed is far quieter than that LED panel was. She also has a couple of 35w CFL’s for a boost when flowering. A
1 Like
What do you class as a cheap chip?
2 Likes
You could have ran my old cob passive. I added 3 arctic f12’s to the top. Didnt even wire them in as I sold the light when I was moving house. To an electrician. He’s still using it and it’s still going strong after a good year or so. Those chips ran me a tenner a piece. Look for export_estonia on eBay. It’s a guy called ivo. Shippings efficient. Prices are good.
In all honesty by the time you have bought fans and cpu heatsinks. Driver. Fan controller and cables. Large heatsinks are cheaper
2 Likes
Looks a well built unit, you certainly do have skills to show off bro. Funny thing is i’m on here talking about cooling issues and outside is a total blizzard ffs! only a few inches of snow so far but that wind blowing all the way from Siberia is evil.
3 Likes
Thats my garden today mate. I understand your troubles. Guessing you’re in the uk aswell bro.
Thankyou. I always put 100% in if I’m making something. I’m semi documenting my light build on my “starting from scratch garden” thread. Solstrips should be here tomorrowish too. So will be getting on with a bit more of my build hopefully.
You should definitely chance having a go building one
6 Likes
I won’t ever go back, it’s LEDs or nothing lol.
Any LM561c based arrays are awesome.
Citi 1212s are decent and cheap.
Hell even a de-globed 9-15w screw in array does well.
8 Likes
Yup west of Scotland, the last 2 days have been interesting 
I will be following your build cos you sure seem to know your game. I am a bit of a diy fiend too but usually restrict it to audio kit, not built much in a while though. I am interested in the SolStrips, maybe if you could include build costs it might help folk like me to decide which way to go. A
2 Likes
I’ve just put a bill of materials together with enough to find every item for my bloom booster light. Built with a prospective customer in mind. Being as transparent as I can be.
(So transparent you could order every bit and build your own if you wanted to and had the tooling)
bill of materials
Item
Amount
Source
Price per unit
Total for all units
Citizen cluo38-1206c4-273h6k2 (2700k) (58.8w each)
5
Ebay (export estonia)
ÂŁ5.00
ÂŁ25.00
Meanwell hlg185h-c700a
1
Mouser
ÂŁ60.13
ÂŁ60.13
Holders for cluo38
10 (minimum order)
Ebay (export estonia)
ÂŁ1.20
ÂŁ12.00
M5 allen head countersunk bolts 5mm pitch 6mm length
10
Ebay (bolt world)
ÂŁ0.11.9pence
ÂŁ1.19
Aluminium U section (3x2x1/8”) 600mm length
2
Ebay (streamlinemetal)
ÂŁ10.51
ÂŁ21.02
Aluminium sheet 1.2mm thick. 300mm width. 600mm length
2
Ebay (streamline metal)
ÂŁ6.84
ÂŁ13.68
A3 cpu cooling fan heatsink radiator cooler for amd754 939 940 athlon 64 5200+ uk
5
Ebay (beauty_makers)
ÂŁ3.50
ÂŁ17.50
M4 x 10mm allen head bolts
100
Ebay (kays fasteners)
ÂŁ0.389pence
ÂŁ3.89
100a digital led power panel voltmeter ammeter
1
Ebay (326fruit)
ÂŁ8.74
ÂŁ8.74
12v 1a led driver 0.5-12w
1
Ebay (auto parts fair)
ÂŁ3.47
ÂŁ3.47
Misc items
multiple
multiple
ÂŁ10.00
ÂŁ10.00
2 Likes
Seems you got this covered 
2 Likes