Cheap LED Strips : A Viable Alternative

They are attached to Aluminum L Channel, with 2 pieces of straight stock in the middle for rigidity. About ~30USD at home depot. I attached them with nylon screws.

7 Likes

Well finally had time to attach my lights to some 18x26" aluminum pans. I used double sided thermal adhesive tape, and also used some electrical tape to cover up the solder points in the end.

I’m about ready to start wiring the lights, and just wondering which way is best? Option A or B.

Can’t wait till get these lights up and running!

8 Likes

@cdnBuddy depends on what driver you got, but if its those xlg-200-l-ab that was mentioned previously then you will want it in series, so the second one, but connect the other side of the strips as well and have the positive and negative sides go to opposite corners diagonally or have it dual conncected , just cause electricity will follow the path of least resistance and if left on the top like your picture it will probably push more on just that side of the strips.

Something others should be aware of too if they only have one side wired “i had initially as well”

10 Likes

Thanks! Should have them all done this week, may need to track down some more wire.

1 Like

I run Bridgelux strips in my Veg/Clone cabinet. 24”x40”x36”H. I have 12x560mm @ 3500k. Driven by an HLG 100H-24A. I have the voltage at minimum which is about 21.3v

Kill-o-Watt draw from the wall is from 30w -96w. I generally have it set to about 50-70w depending on the clone/Veg timing of things.

The strips are screwed directly to the plywood ceiling of the cabinet. Barely warm as I’m not pushing them at all.

Bigger plants moved up to flower a couple weeks back so the next run is in there taking shape. In 5 weeks. I’ll cut clones from these as they move up.

11 Likes

Very slick…

1 Like

Where are you man?

1 Like

He is in the North of the UK.

@Mr.Sparkle one of my 150W drivers has died, I unplugged the light from it 2 weeks ago, left the driver plugged into the power bar. This morning I plugged the light back into it and no light. The light works on the other driver. I have r connected both the male and female plugs on the driver cables, still nothing. I have a replacement coming from Digikey spent a couple of minutes in live chat and they are sending a new one for Wednesday and I dont have to send the old one back, which is great service.

I dont want to repeat anything I may have done wrong, would having the driver left on, without the light connected cause a problem ?

2 Likes

shouldn’t , but where was the driver located and how was it temperature wise as that is something i noticed with mine is i had mine previously located in probably the worst spot for heat management which caused my one driver to be a little flakey right at or above stock max settings especially when it was running quite warm, with its new location havent had the issue.

2 Likes

It was sat next to the other one on top of my clone cab which is plywood 7ft off the floor, so the warmest part of the room. I actually just moved the other one lower down the side of the cab, doesn’t get much air flow there. I think I am going to have to see what I can do to keep them a bit cooler.

Thanks for the help.

2 Likes

I moved mine to inside my cabs, as the air movement from my circulation fans helped decently with the heat of them even if its mounted in a corner, for you with your open light setup id have no qualms directly mounting it to the center or anywhere on your light frames themselves.

3 Likes

I just grabbed two 288 led samsung quantum lm301h boards @ 50$ a pop.
I work at a machine shop so I will make my own heat sinks . I have a sheet metal press I will either make my own hood or adapt an umbrella style hood.
If it works out well Ill grab 4 more boards. I still have to buy drivers for the boards. I think I will get meanwell drivers.

2 Likes

Has anyone tried overclocking the led boards by adding few extra volts to the boards ?

3 Likes

extra current you mean, yes well a little voltage as well as it follows the current.

the bridgeluxs by spec sheet say you can overdrive them almost to 200% , i still say to drive them around nominal ratings though, and for the price you dont really need to unless you just want to run less strips.

As for your LM301H diodes the specsheets have ratings up to around 280% over driven for them but consider extra heat, lesser efficiency, and shorter life “which we probably wont see considering upgrades over time” the more you overdrive them.

4 Likes

Really … I have to look at its spec sheet.
My broads were sold as being 52volts , spider farmer runs the meanwell 48v 250w power supply. Ive decided to get an adjustable 60v /350 watt power supply. Ive used a few of them with cnc automation equipment. If this works out I plan on grabbing 4 more led boards.

2 Likes

well consider its constant current adjust ability that you want not just voltage, as for the 52v that is just how they made the chip arrays in their strips/boards for whomever made them but at 288 diodes total im gonna guess its a 18series x 16parallel array , which if running at the exact voltage of 52v and it is 18 chips in series per string of them, then its like 2.88v or whatever per chip which would be at 140mA which is 200% of nominal

3 Likes

I didnt realize nominal voltage was 2.8 . Now it makes sense . Wow they could really take some voltage huh.
so I take it x amount of rows are run in parallel to get x volts
x amount are run in series to get yours amps. The higher the volts the smaller the apms.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/288pc-Samsung-LM301H-LED-Grow-Board-3000K-3500K-Quantum-V2-54V/133383617036?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

1 Like

Again Current, voltage varies depending on heat and how much current your running.

And no you go past say 2.95v per chip they are done, pop smoke sizzle

and the chips in series adds the volts required but current remain the same, so say one chip is 2.75v at 65mA, 3 of them in series = 8.25v but remain at that base 65mA all together, when running in parallel the current is added so say 3 chips are in parallel then that would be 2.75v but at 195mA.

Thus all these strips and made of series parallel arrays.

and that listing printed ont he bottom edge of the board is 18s16p, which is what i guessed the circuit would be 18 chips in series with 16 of strings in parallel with each other.

5 Likes

works out to be 1A at 49-50v if running at nominal, or 2.25A at 51-52v if running at 200%

2 Likes