@Fela
Here are some pics of my light and tent. My strips are mounted on 4’ pieces of angle aluminum. After measuring my tent, it is actually more like 47” wall to wall. I have no need to close my tent, so it doesn’t affect me.
So you might want to find out the exact dimensions of the tent you have or are interested in to verify
So will it touch the sides. I’d say definitely maybe. 
Well I think you have me sold. I can get one with ballast for under 400 eur. If anyone has any other recommendations then I’d be interested if it’s ok to put them in the thread (or DM me).
They advertise some serious ppf levels.
I’ve just put mine into 12/12 last night set at 400w. I’ll obviously try to push the power higher over the flower period. in all honesty I reckon they would do fine being left at just 400w
I agree with @Mr.Sparkle, @nube and @Esrgood4u
These guys will give you very sound advice. We are at a point in time where there really isn’t any cost savings by diying your own led light.
After I crunch the numbers on my strip build I could have bought a prebuilt from a reputable company with a warranty.
And @Esrgood4u , what lights run off HPS ballasts? This is first I’m hearing this. I have a few hos ballast laying around that I would love to use.
Thank you all
Lumii black 720w
maxibright juno 720w pro
Omega black 720w
And a few others buddy.
I own the Lumii 720w and it puts out a ppf of 1870 umol turned up to full
Thank you. I will check them out.
In the US or elsewhere with retail options, it’s probably better to buy retail, but out here where indoor growing of certain plants is still illegal… grow lights are super overpriced (3-5x the US pricing). So am very thankful for this information being shared by kind folks. Even KingBrite on Alibaba has $200 in shipping costs + then Indian govt custom duties and taxes.
I have actually bought the 1120mm version of the eb gen 2 strip. I’m guessing 12 of them being run at 700ma should be enough for a 4x2 tent? I’m probably not going to use a heatsink with them.
Very true. It definitely depends on your location.
Those strips should serve you very well.
You won’t need the heat sinks, just an additional expense. They work well w/o them.
More than enough when running at nominal power well depending photo/auto/co2 supplementation, consider getting a bit more driver wise though so even if your running them at nominal you have some extra buffer like say two XLG-200 drivers over the 150’s or whatever just cause you can over drive the strips to a point even without heatsinks like @Tejas also mentioned not needing them.
Cost only a couple dollars more for that extra.
I actually finally built mine a few weeks ago. I originally had 8 4’ eb gen2 strips on a 320w driver, but it wasn’t nearly bright enough. I put in a 480w driver and it is doing great! At 1 strip per 6", it seems to cover the whole tent very well. Overall the costs were about $200-$250, but I had to purchase the drivers used.
I had some arcing on one of my lights and it wont turn on anymore and I am trying to replace a few of the junction boxes but I am not sure which ones I can use. This is for an older solsheet build. The ones I have I can’t tell the copper coloured side from the silver side anymore because it’s all black. The lights share a 480w driver.
The only ones I can find on Canadian amazon are 3 pin or more. I have used a couple of 4 pin ones to connect the wires that worked as long as I put the wires in the same holes, is it the same for the 3 pin? Use 2 and leave the third empty? I checked the continuity of all the wires on the connectors and the thing beeped so hopefully the thing will still work if I replace some connectors.
These are a few of the ones I have atm connecting most of my lights.
Links to a few of em I found (choices seem pretty limited on Canada Amazon). Are any suitable? I’d prefer to get the 10 pack if I can because they’re the cheapest but if any of the 3 are better I’ll just buy that. Hopefully at least one can work.
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07HVGFXQM/ref=ewc_pr_img_4?smid=A22BOC61GVT942&psc=1
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B08FZLBNN7/ref=ewc_pr_img_2?smid=A1WADNNW217M8O&psc=1
All these replies with these cool ass LED strip boards and I’m over here with an Amazon garage light that emits 16000 lumens at 150w.
yes they will work. the 3 way are for white black and green (ground) i think you have a direct short some where in the built or was the crispy white wire not tied tight keep in mind 3 wires is a bigger gauge than the one you are rocking there so there will be a space in the connecter at each end.
Black will be your AC hot side, white your neutral and green your ground, you just need to play matchy matchy with them but pull up some connector pinout diagrams to follow recommended standards.
what id check though, is first see if ac voltage is getting to the driver side of the plug, and then if it is checking if your getting dc voltage from the otherside of your driver, that should determine if the driver is gone or not or say possibly a broken or faulty connection on the driver side of the plug connector.
Another member stated I should ask in this thread my questions about what to consider led strip wise in 2024. My last light was bridgelux gen2. If you guys were to build a light currently what strips would you be looking at? What color…is 3500 still encouraged? Another question was regarding heat-sinks or no sinks. some say they don’t use heat -sinks, my question is how hard can you drive them without sinking based on a % over the overall manufacture rating? My last light used flat bar to sink but I did push them. Here is the questions and picture of my last light in this thread.
Not sure if this is the right place to post this question but I didn’t know where else to ask.
I have a couple PhotonTek x600w pro LED lights. They come with dimmer switches that work in 25% increments (0-25-50-100). I am looking to swap them for fully adjustable dimmer switches (0-100).
It looks like PhotonTek uses M12 3 pin connectors for the dimmer.
But all the aftermarket 0-10v dimmers I’m finding are 2 wires.
Like these:
Anyone know of a 0-10v dimmer switch that would work for these lights? And how I would wire it?
I tried to take apart the female connector on the dimmer switch to see how it was wired but I couldn’t get it apart. I got the twist connector off but the wires weren’t visible and I didn’t see a way to access them. (I can take pics if that would help)
All of the LED drivers I’ve worked with were 2 wire. The only thing that comes to mind is maybe a safety ground.
You might be able to prove or disprove that idea with a multimeter (verifying the ground).
Fun fact:
The standard setup (one light) is with a variable pot (100K ohm)
if you are running 2 lights you pair them up and use a 50K. (mind the polarity)
Cheers
G
Go with Samsung strips, they are worth spending a little extra on, and lots of options.
I built a 4’x3.5’ light (8ft strips) with the 3500 Birdgelux strips. I made a simple frame from wood, and just screwed them to it on the end screw holes, and I used silicon washers to avoid over tightening. The strips don’t get hot enough to burn the wood so I am good.
