I would go with the sheet since its cheaper, simpler, and has more heatsinking properties. If that price is the cut price, I would say it’s a no-brainer.
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Yeah that’s cut price after tax. I can’t believe how expensive aluminum has gotten. Just a couple years ago I got twice as thick angle for 1/4 the price of today. It’s the most ridiculous inflation I’ve ever seen.
I’m leaning the same direction Reiko. It seems worthwhile but it’s a different style of build. Hopefully the shearing is nicely deburred. I’ll prolly still file down all edges and wrap them in some sort of rubberized tape to protect the tent walls.
I’m thinking a few holes between every other strip with grommets to protect the wiring. Lag bolts pulled in 12" on the long dimension and 6" on the short dimension from each corner to hang, so there’s no sheet sag.
I’m thinking mount the driver on top of the sheet with I guess metal standoffs so it remains “grounded.” I will want the extra heat in the tent this winter, and consider adding longer wires for next summer if I need to take them out.
Guess the next issue will be mounting the strips. I have 3m thermal tape, the spendy shit, but I think I might need to fasten the strips with plastic screws + nuts. What do you think? Should I drill 3x thru-holes lined up with each end and one middle mounting hole locations in the strips? Goddamn that’s a lot of work without a shop and/or a drill press.
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I went through the same exercise, my Metal Supermarket order was dropped off this morning 
.
The thing for me was rigidity. The angle is a lot stiffer than the sheet but so long as your driver is mounted externally, it will work.
You have another option using the HLG-320H-42B (var. 10% - 100% remote dimming).
If you are in the GTA I can make a suggestion where to get the requisite parts cheap.
Cheers
G
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Thanks man. I was thinking about it a lot and I think that I can prevent sag by hanging from those lag bolts mounted within the sheet like I mentioned, not at the edges. Any sag would be from the lag bolts to the edges of the sheet, and I think that’d be minor. Am I way off base here?
For the driver, my thought process was that 1) I’ll never be running this less than 50% available with the HLG-320H-42A driver, so dimming down to 10% was immaterial to me 2) the A version was cheaper than the B version by a $10 per driver at Mouser compared to all other sites and 3) I don’t have to buy and wire a dimmer this way.
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FWIW, I used aluminum rivets to mount my Gen2 strips. Only issue is removing them will require a bit more work.
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I spent the bucks and built aluminum frames for my 2ft strips.
But then I switched to a lightweight setup.
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Hey what’s going on dudes? I’m trying to build a 2x2 light it fit in my 2x2 by 3:10 I want as much lightest I can get in there for Bud density as well as vegetation. So what I need to know is how how many strips I need 22in long I’m not sure exactly how wide I imagine I can but them pretty close to each other and exactly what driver what I need? Any help will be greatly appreciated as I have no knowledge of the strips
I’m on digital I’m more digit here right now so before I pull the trigger on something that I don’t know I’m not sure of just a little advice I’ve been looking through this thread and I’ve gotten a lot of good information most of the designs I see are for 2 by 4.
Thank you guys I appreciate that so very much I want to get this thing underway while I got the money before I blow it on some dumb shit.
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Have a look at this:
It will help fill in the blanks and gives you a couple of examples for a 2 x 2 design.
Cheers
G
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I have a good source for inexpensive heatsink if you want. I got 36"L x 12"W for $40+ shipping it fits 4 QB 288’s.
I put two of those in a 5x5 and dial them down to about 380w each for maximum efficiency.
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I do post it up.
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Thanks bud. I wasn’t sure how thick they are. I need to download some PDFs. Thank you kind sir. .
Im off to locate a driver. Can I run 2 small setups on one driver?
Thnk you.
PawPaw
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How thick are the Bridgeport strips?
The base material is .062" (1/16"), with the parts, total height is .240".
2 setups with one driver? Sure, that’s going to be the setup I’ll use when I get my cabinet built.
Also, one big light with two drivers (mounted remotely) for the main tent light.
Cheers
G
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Hey @SCJedi , good to hear from you. 
I’d love to take a look. I was going to pick up metal this week at $135ish for both 44.25 x 20 sections, but I’d be happy to check out alternatives. I am a bit concerned about drilling through heatsink for all the mounting holes and wiring holes, but curious how it’d work out. Thanks for the suggestion!
Depends on which Bridgelux series, but the normal EB2 and EB3 are 24mm wide x 6.1mm tall including parts/diodes and 1.6mm thick PCB. The EB3 slim series are 12.7mm wide x 4.3mm tall including parts/diodes and 1.6mm thick PCB.
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for a 2x2 all you would need is 10 of the 560mm bridgelux strips and a xlg-150 driver. Would be about $90 before frame material and wires.
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guys have heat sinks for those thinner led boards cheap on ebay 14$ . If I were to buy those I would use these.
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Hmm, allow for discreet wiring. I guess this means people won’t notice the use as grow lights?
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I appreciate it Mr sparkle I’m going to go one digit key today to order some stuff I guess I should go ahead and get a couple wagoss and some wiring. I’ll go back through the thread and look at some odds and ends that I need. I just like to avoid pitfalls and get right down to it. I assume just being a small setup like that I don’t need any type of dimmer.
You know when I left where I was staying at all my stuff got taken on my drills and things like that so I’m just trying to get this guy together. I guess I should go out and buy a drill get a rivet gun I think guys are just pop riveting in those strips together aren’t they.
As far as mounting them to the heat sinks pop rivets will be perfect I would assume I mean you’re not going to ground the board itself out on the a heat sink. Thermal tape? Do I need thermal tape to cover up the any exposed stuff?
I appreciate it sir I’m going to go back and get information from the thread I just needed to know how many and what driver so that’s not bad 10 strips in a driver for a hundred bucks sweet. 
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In case anybody’s looking for them, I’m posting three spec sheets for Bridgelux strips series that most people would want to buy because they’re such an incredible value for the money:
EB2
DS131 Bridgelux EB Series Gen2 Data Sheet 20171020 Rev A.pdf (940.9 KB)
EB3 regular
DS132 Bridgelux EB Series Gen3 Data Sheet 20190617 Rev A.pdf (963.2 KB)
EB3 Slim
DS171 Bridgelux EB Series Slim Gen3 Data Sheet 20190620 Rev A.PDF (980.6 KB)
And goniosphere measured efficiency and spectral test data of the EB3 Slim 90cri 2700k 2ft strips from @TEKNIK on another forum:
What this data tells us is that the Bridgelux spec sheets don’t lie or exaggerate their strips’ performance… TEKNIK noted that EB3 Slim strips should perform exactly the same as the regular 3rd gen strips, with slightly better thermal characteristics on the regular strips due to greater mass.
These are widely considered within the industry to be the best strips on the market for the money. Other strip and board manufacturers privately wonder if Bridgelux is able to make any profit because these perform as good or better than just about any other strip that costs twice as much, with actual top shelf 3rd party measured efficiency, accurate CRI, and the most red and deep red (in 90cri) of any midpower white strip on the market.
The EB2 in 3500k 4ft strips are available from Digikey for $8.40, or 2ft for $4.82.
The EB3 Slim are available in a number of sizes and color temps at DigiKey and other online retailers.
The EB3 regular in 2700k 4ft 90cri (the best for flowering) are available for $11.20 through FutureElectronics.com either in stock or backorder, with backorders usually shipping in 3wks or less to US and Canadian residents.
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EDIT: my bad - missed that those are 4ft strips.
Been waiting on a 20pack of these 2ft. Ordered a month ago.
Just today - 9/28 - Showing 80 in stock.
https://www.futureelectronics.com/p/semiconductors--lighting-solutions--light-engine-led-assemblies--light-engines/bxeb-l0560z-27g2000-c-c3-bridgelux-4115970
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Very cool, man. Congrats! They just had 40 in stock last week. You might want to email them. They were super duper responsive when I bought mine and turned around the backorder in 21 days from my order. I know some people recently got theirs even faster after placing a backorder, so it’s worth a shot.
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