Cheap LED Strips : A Viable Alternative

@TerpSneeze I’m gonna go get it tomorrow and bring this back… My apologies my short term memory seems to be barely existant.

Not to worry friend, I think everyone on this forum has a slight disadvantage in that department by nature, me included. Ultimately that’s what receipts are for. You will see how the connectors work and you will understand. Also for any future folks this is explained in the datasheet for the strips

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id just check the draw of each individual driver one at a time and compare just to see if one is off or if the circuit the half dodgy strip is on is different, some readings in general would help narrow down whats going on as they should be pulling roughly 215w at the strips and 238ish watts from the wall per driver. Of course it can be tuned up to maximize it though :wink:

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Does anyone know if it is feasible to use a set of these LED strips and the driver, to power two rooms that can operate independently?

A circuit that divides the LEDs in half, and have either one or both of the LED parts on?

This would be a good solution for a veg room/versatile clone&bloom room…

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If you were using one large driver to power 2 light set ups that’s possible so long as they are both running on the same timer, you dont want one light going off and the other getting double power and blowing all the chips. You could go 1 driver and 2 lights with one turning off as the other turns on, so you can use just the one driver powerful enough for 1 light if you’re short of cash for 2 drivers…

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Just use two drivers, they are cheap enough. There are ways to do this, but they are rather expensive and complicated. If you scroll up, I did something similar for my veg light. :wink:

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Be careful with this, LED drivers do not like being swapped while the DC side is live. They try to keep a constant current and hot swapping causes issues. You would have to power down the driver, swap the relay, then power back up the driver. Unlike an HPS ballast that can be hot swapped.

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Cheers ReikoX good to know, its not something I would do, as you say the drivers are cheap enough.That sounds more complicated than its worth trying to figure out.

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Yep, that’s why I went with seperate drivers on my workbench. Originally it was going to be an LED “flip/flop” circuit.

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Just wanted to thank Mr.Sparkle and others for the help I received recently with my 320 watt quantum board setup. I have only been running them for 3 days now and I am so impressed with this technology . These lights are going to be fantastic I can’t get over how much light they put out and how cool they’re running I can stick my hands on the heat sink and they are almost cool. I do have a active exhaust fan that is pulling all the heat outside of my cabinet but this is crazy. I’m trying to squeeze 2 Oregon Huckleberry about 4ft tall into a cab that’s 4 ft tall so I had to lean them over to fit but it’s going to work out well. Again thank you OG for all your help love the construction of new ideas.

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Messing around with a cart on digikey like the one @mr.sparkle created above. I put in the 16 strips and the driver and Im at $122 USD before shipping. Probably need $20-$50 in other supplies to make the 240w.

Have checked w Alibaba and I can get the lm301h 240W dimmable w hangers and assembled from Meijiu for $180 each w shipping (buying 2). They say they have some in a US warehouse so it will be Relatively quick delivery. Won’t the Meijiu be pretty comparable to the bridgelux build?

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I think you could get the rest to build the frame and wire for 20-30$ US. No idea how they would compare though.

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@Icculus I just bought everything for the 16strips 240 watt build only thing left is something to fasten the strips to the frame and i have $258.61 into it, figuring will be about $275 when it’s complete.

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$250 CDN is ~ $185 USD. Sounds about right. Seems like I can get it already built from China with newest Samsung diodes for around same price. Wondering if the QB from China will significantly underperform or if it is hotter or any other differences.

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Yes you can but look at the dimensions of the ones from china i thought the the same until i realized this is giving me a 22"×44" light rather than a smaller China light best price to watt i could find close to the cost of this build was 7"×24"

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Yeah they are putting the diodes too close together. I agree. Especially as @mr.sparkle starts to show in his grow log that 35w/sqft isn’t needed with LED. Although I see some mega yields being reported by some doing over 35w/sqft. The fall off on the edges of these lights is significant so a 240w that is 2x1 doesn’t make a ton of sense.

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That was what made my final decision to go DIY i knew if I settled for something that size when I could have had something cover my entire tent for the same cost I’d regret it. I originally ordered a 2nd $100 Amazon light and they lost it in transit and I got refunded for once a screw worked in my favor otherwise I’d have 2 cheap Amazon lights rather than this DIY. If you aren’t in a rush I’d do some more research this may be your best option. I haven’t seen any complaints and I’ve done a fair bit of research.

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Well also autos so i can get away with less, but in general if the plants can handle more light that also means more bud…

Also consider due to you being in the states your gonna have to tack on 25% extra of trump tariffs on electronic parts, which when considering prebuilt Chinese lights like those meijiu wont come with them… “backwards i know” so either or, form factor or ease…

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@Icculus, I think you may find the watts per square foot is less than 35 for @Mr.Sparkle because of the height of his grow space. The grows giving huge yield at over 35 are usually larger spaces with more height. The extra wattage reaches further down to the lower branches. If you use that same wattage in a smaller space then that extra wattage is going to reflect back up and overload the plant. @Mr.Sparkle might have a better answer but this is what I have found in my little experience.

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I’m planning on doing autos.

Haven’t seen anything about an additional cost besides the expensive shipping quote from the seller on Alibaba. I think the tariff maybe only comes into play on higher purchase amounts.

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