I agree. I’m a major proponent of the KISS method. If I do end up going with the 280s (would have to either convince the wife or sell the current setup) I would likely just get an L to make wiring simpler. I might have to just suck it up and hope for the best and deal until I can afford the 280s. It actually might be a good idea to get the L either way so I can easily switch between the two different lengths
side note not gonna fudge the truth but those kallax shelf’s are typically only good at being just that kallax shelf’s, no sense trying to sell or buy new stuff to try and make it work imo, and that’s coming from someone who considers ikea as one of his favourite grow stores 
lol .
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Well, it’s actually a repurpose. We have the 3x4 kallax already and the wife wants it to go somewhere else and the stealth cab just takes up way too much space in our bedroom. So in the interest of being broke, we’re planning on reusing the kallax shelf we already have. I honestly would prefer to just build a purpose built cabinet, but that would likely cost an extra $200+ plus I’d have to travel 3 hours away to build it. We also gain about a foot in both directions with repurposing the kallax shelf. We’ve already done a ton of kallax ikea hacks. We have 7 sets of shelves and not a single one is how it’s supposed to be lol.
I’m not too concerned with stability as I’ll be securing everything with 1/8" ply for a backing. Should hold everything together nicely and keep it from being wobbly. Outside of that, the only issue is the light orientation and sizes.
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Just looking up on the bridgelux high output gen 3 strips. Does anyone run these and how many watts do you run per sq ft?
Edit: looking at the thrive gen 3 strips too. Much lower lumens per watt but 98 CRI? can anyone help me make more sense out of it and how it effects the plants.
Yeah man, @Vagabond_Windy built the same fixtures a few months back that I recommended to you. The 240-a version. Check out his threads for pics and review.
You can completely ignore watts/sqft metrics. It’s so outdated with LEDs because it’s not about the wattage like it was with bulbs. Since LEDs vary so much in efficiency, wattage is meaningless. Now it’s about the amount of photons (system efficiency) put out in the ePAR range (the spectrum of: 400 - 750nm) and the equal distribution across the whole canopy (coverage).
The build I recommended is about the best value for money right now when considering system efficiency, spectrum, and coverage, and will cover your 4x8 space with ease when you build 4 of those 240-a driver fixtures.
Also, Thrive strips are not worth considering for horticultural applications. They are not efficient enough for our use.
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Hey resident light builders I’m here for some more advice as I have pretty much no clue what I’m doing when it comes to leds. Last grow I did one of my lights started acting weird and flickering/ jumping up and down in brightness automatically. I took a shit video and uploaded it here:
Hopefully it’s visible enough. I checked all the connections between the strips with a multi meter and they’re all good it seems. The only thing I could find that might be wrong is that there’s 2 wires that don’t have the most perfect tin job (one red and one black that come from the plug in connector on the light itself). I’ll try to upload a pic in on my phone after this post.
What I’m wondering is could this less than perfect tin job (It might have been better in the beginning and then flaked off or something) be causing an issue like this or is it the driver itself? It’s only 2 or so years old so I want to make sure before I try and get a new one. I Would have expected a driver to last much longer unless I’m unlucky.
I can’t find one in my country that isn’t back ordered until next century so would probably have to order from the states and pay much more because of shipping and duties. I want to avoid that if at all possible. Driver is a Meanwell HLG 320H 24A.
I’ve had lights flicker in the past from some of the leads not being connected as secure as they should be that was fixed by connecting them tighter but that was flickering, mostly when I touched a wire. This one the brightness actually goes up and down while it flicks which I haven’t experienced before. Sucks because otherwise the lights “work”. The flickering/jumping doesn’t start until the light has been on for around 5 mins too. I’m hoping it could be the tin job so I don’t have to buy a new driver just some more solder wire. I am running out of wire to work with though, the connector is getting very short.
Now that I look at the tinning on the 2 wires it honestly looks way shittier than I remember. It’s almost half off on on side of both the wires . Not sure if some fell off or not but I’m hoping that’s the issue. I won’t be able to buy more tinning stuff for a bit though.
Would the issue on these 2 wires cause jumps up and down in brightness or would that just make it flicker?
Edit: here’s the pic of the wires that had the really bad / falling off tin job. I cut it shorter just now and I am going to try re tinning it. I only have lead free solder atm though I want to get the one with lead as I find it much easier to coat a wire properly with that then what I have, even with flux. I don’t have much wire left to work with so not trying to make any more mistakes.
Edit: Edit: lol. I wish I could have some kind of copper braided wires to practice my tinning on before doing it on these and fucking it up.
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any junk spare power cable would be good practice, but make sure to use rosin core solder if soldering cause without it or using rosin flux separate your gonna be making very bad cold solder joints as the solder wont flow.
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Definitely the LED driver.
I’m seeing zero at Digikey but the MOQ is 1 meaning they should accept an order. They are a huge disty so they will have priority on the restocks meaning they will restock first. I’d just keep an eye on that unit and order when they restock.
Cheers
G
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Thanks @Mr.Sparkle and @Gpaw Was hoping it wasn’t the driver haha, guess I gotta shell out a bit before having a working grow room again, what a shame.
This is the wire I was planning on buying for the solder:
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B09BZRT2W9/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=AU9XIJBVHZV90&psc=1
Before buying the lead free one I had a tiny bit from a buddy that I was using and it was the only stuff that actually seemed to flow properly based off my limited non existent skills. When I was using that stuff it was actually pretty easy to tin a wire which I had trouble with up until then. With the lead free stuff I find it difficult af even though my iron goes way hotter it doesn’t seem to do that thing where it melts around the wire and form a very nice tin without being too big or weird shape. Once I get the proper one I’m going to redo all my lights just to be safe.
I was also looking at digikey and kinda shat myself when it says 32 week lead time 
I know international shipping is gonna be rough for awhile too so hoping it isn’t anywhere near that long. I’d be better off paying extra to get it from the usa if I had to wait months for it to restock. Hoping I don’t though since they ship free off digikey.
I was just browsing the usa version of amazon (I’m in Canada) and I might have found one there but I’ll post it here just to be sure. I don’t mind paying 12 bucks usd shipping instead of much higher if it was from elsewhere.
Says it has a 7 year warranty kinda shit mine crapped out in 2 years.
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lead free is a pain aswell, i use some kester solder with either 40% or 34% lead.
now before just blanketly thinking the driver is bad, does the flickering still occur if say the current is turned down abit on it, also how hot have youve been running it as in watts from the wall and temp for its location
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I think the one from my buddy had lead and rosin core because it was the only one that I didn’t have an insane amount of trouble with tinning. It almost did itself.
Is the current the I/O thing on it? When I took that video that screw was turned all the way down to as low as it went. When I was growing before it started doing the weird stuff it was pretty high, like 300+w and it was producing quite a bit of heat. Maybe a touch lower than as high at it can go. I believe I was messing with both the I/O and the voltage screws at one point and it still did the flickering/jumping in brightness no matter where it was. I don’t understand why it works fine at first and then starts doing it after around 5 mins though.
My grow room is currently using 2 lights each 4x4 tray/canopy area with that 320 driveron both of them.
Once I get all this figured out I’m going to run my lights a lot lower since I’m not using co2 in the grow room. More like 800 ppfd instead of the 1000-1300 ish I was getting at the canopy when the lights were turned up very high.
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Check over your wiring for good connections the plug also, could be the driver going but connections first and setup if you had the AB model and you had an external pot wired up i would say to check that one first but you have just an A so for reference turn up the VO all the way as it will self regulate based on current draw, then just adjust light output by only adjusting the IO Pot, also the drivers especially the big ones to get quite warm even kinda hot to the touch especially if its located in a crappy place.
for your soldering look up what a cold solder joint looks like check all your over jsut as step one
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What type of iron are you using? Can you adjust the heat? What type of tip is on your iron? +1 on the kester solder. Since everyone’s soldering skills are different, maybe looking at a few videos on soldering might help you going forward. Cold solder joints can be a bitch to run down, so it might be helpful to resolder all your connections to rule those out. Good luck!
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Thanks for the tips everyone. @Tejas this is the soldering iron I use. The pic is shitty for the close up on the tip but I think it’s wedge/chisel shaped at the tip.
I watched some videos on soldering awhile back this was the one I liked the best and made me realize the solder wire I was using wasn’t great (Without lead/flux core). I’m definitely going to re do all the shitty ones on all my lights when I order the leaded one. The one I bought at the store is lead free and it’s too difficult/sloppy for me.
I forgot to mention awhile ago I was also suspect of the plug itself so cut it off and re stripped it and used a connector to put it back together and it sadly didn’t end up fixing the issue. I’m pretty sure I tried plugging the light into a separate driver of the same model I use for some other lights and it didn’t do that weird flicker/jumping so I’m guessing it’s the driver after all? Don’t know why I didn’t remember this at first.
This is what my solders look like when i was using the lead ones. I think a lot better/ cleaner than what i was trying with the other stuff. Gonna order some lead stuff asap.
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But it sure smells ‘pretty’… 
The flux of the lead-free isn’t as ‘active’ as leaded solder. That’s the reason I’m still using leaded.
Cheers
G
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That is a good solder station and the tip is ok. If you have a flatter tip, it will distribute the heat more evenly. Your solder on the wire ends looks good. It could be as you said an issue with the driver. Is it still in warranty?
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I’ll get some different tips soon I think they sell some on Amazon. The driver itself apparently has a 7 year warranty and I’ve been using it 2-2.5 ish years but I think I’d have to send it back to where I bought it from and that might end up costing almost half of the price of getting a new one (shipping from here to usa and vise versa usually costs quite a bit). I also don’t know if resellers count under the warranty. Wish it was done more directly.
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Hi, First of all thank your for this great thread, I’m thinking to diy led grow light I have some questions.
( Bridgelux EB gen 2 vs EB gen 3(slim) ) vs samsung F series???
Best design for 480w and 600w @700m 2ft strip so that I won’t have to use heatsink ( is it true)??
Best cheapest way to power them???
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Do any of you led gurus know a part number for 6 inch UV led strips? I’ve got a rechargeable UV light for curing windshield resin that I think needs a few more horsepower
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The meanwell driver on my strip light seems to have gone bad. ( xlg-150-H-AB) it has turned into a strobe light.
Digikey has no stock. Is there another site or driver I can use?
Edit… Mouser. Ca had a bunch for a similar price.
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