Cheap LED Strips : A Viable Alternative

This sounds like constant voltage drivers instead of constant current. I wouldn’t use constant voltage unless you are under-driving the leds. With higher voltage the leds will get hotter and the resistance of the leds will drop resulting in more current used at the same voltage, resulting in even more heat and finally the leds will die.

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@Phozah @Mr.Sparkle
You both are correct . I take it this driver will suffice .
54v @ 4.5 amps
Or is there a iode I can put inline with the power supply to stop the led panals from drawing more current.

or 2 of these for my 2 boards …

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you will probably want to look at the 48 volt ones just due to their adjustable voltage range and the A or AB series drivers not the B, their spec sheets will tell you what you need

@Mr.Sparkle
Both of those driver listed are adjustable.
Im thinking I should just buy one large driver that will run six panels , if thats my goal. I was just going to buy the one Spider farmer units use . I dont know what stopped me but. ok
Thank both of you for your help. I will look at the A, AB serries driver too.

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It’s complicated isn’t it, I can’t get my head around it :thinking: probably because I rely on Mr Sparkle to do the thinking for me, with lights and drivers :slightly_smiling_face:

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Tell me about it. I’m happy some one said something though.

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Just a thought. When building a light I like to build it as 2 units so I can split them for other uses. You could wire two lots of 3 using 2 drivers. Would give you more options later on if you change your setup. But if you are certain it will never change then 1 is easiest, neatest, and probably cheapest.

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I wrote meanwell Australia the other day they told me not to use there drivers in parallel. 
Word for word they wrote
“Unfortunately you cannot connect MEAN WELL LED drivers in parallel. They do not have the necessary current sharing function.”

Kind regards

Edit Sorry I miss read your post your were not using your drivers in parallel.
At this point U think Im going to grab hlg-150h-48a drivers. They seem to fit my needs. I wish I was able to wire them together to use all their amperage.

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Whether you wired them as 2 separate units or if you wired them together in parallel the output of them combined would be identical. The only difference is that you can have them in separate rooms if you ever needed to. Just have them as completely separate circuits. Treated as 2 completely separate light systems. The output will be the same as if they were all in one. As long as you purchase the correct drivers.

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If I wire them in parallel there would be left over amperage I could use to add more led panels . I cant do that if I use them separately.

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Correct, i probably should not be slack and read the entire thread. I was more referring to if you had 1 driver or 2 drivers each with half the output. I will read your whole thread and bring myself up to speed. :slight_smile:

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Its fine, I bought what I bought and im ok with it. Im all set but thank you.

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For sure. I am sure you will be ok with it too. I am an LED newbie (last 12 months) and am well impressed.

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its for the boards he using, vs say bridgelux strips where the difference wouldn’t be as great, no need to read if you dont want to :wink:

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I have been meaning to post here actually about some cheap LED strips I have used to build lights for my mother plant tent and part of my veg tent.
They come in different sizes but I will speak of the 60cm ones I am using. they are 10 watts each, from what i could tell they use the same grade diode as the bridge lux strips many on this thread are using. They come in an aluminium housing which is a heatsink and a driver built in. They replace a T5 tube. I remove the diffuser off them and i can build a frame that has the clips that hold each one. They just clip in and out of the frame. Each one has a 240v plug on the end. So i made a cable that breaks out into 10 plugs. I can plug and unplug each one on the fly to change the wattage and interchange the strips to get different sprectrums. Literally grab and pull one out of the frame and clip in the other and plug it in. Each one costs me about 4 bucks US. Below is one i just found after a quick lookup. However the ones i bought were not in a 10 pack. i just bought them one at a time while i experimented. They are so low power, like the bridgelux strips you do not need any extra heatsink on them. They are probably super innefficient as you run a separate driver for each one and they would be cheap quality too. I have been using 19 strips for 12 months now and nothing has failed yet. I use the cool, warm and natural spectrum’s to get what i need. I will take a photo of the light when i next think of it in the room and post it. The plants love them.

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They look pretty good for the price.:+1:

I’ve got a 4x2x5’ tent, and will be putting a metal shelving unit inside so I can house a few domes for my clones. I will be starting with one shelf that will hold 3 trays that are 22x11" each.

Am I on the right track with choosing the following lights and driver?

7 Strips - https://www.digikey.ca/en/products/detail/bridgelux/BXEB-L0280Z-50E1000-C-B3/7907666
https://www.digikey.ca/en/products/detail/mean-well-usa-inc/XLG-50-AB/9858488

Scratch that I’ll double that to 100watt driver and get 14 strips. Will allow for upto 29watts for my area, and dimmable also.

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What would total cost be to do a 8x 4

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It would depend on how you wanted to do it, you can go with 8x 2x2 ft lights or 4x 2x4 ft lights or combinations and how many Watts per square foot you want.

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Enough to give the plants all they need

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