And while I’m at it… ive got somthing parralel circuits can suck on… with all its extra wires n shit lol
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I have 78 1n148 diodes you can hand solder onto switches for me when you’re done if you want 
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Woohoo! The price per strip alone has wheels spinning. Didn’t Jake build a 4ft strip rig? Hmm 
Thanks nube, Gram, Mr. S, Hugh, GPaw for helping out in here. Those strips are a miracle. Reading on LED gardener the guys use baking sheets and thermal paste or zip ties. Very cool.
Thanks for helping me see the light. Reiko decimated me in the solo cup comp with strips. At first I was really like he might as well be using cfl’s. Lol Yeah right. He spanked us. Hehe! Senor Suave.
I wonder if they’ll penetrate a decent canopy as the grow spaces increase in size?
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Questions have been asked as to how Bridgelux is doing it. 
I’ve spec’d and bought offshore and local PCBs for over a decade so I know pricing.
A regular manufacturer would be paying about $5.70USD for the 1120 mm strips - bare PCB, no parts.
Add the parts, plant overhead and packaging… and Digikey is selling them like hotcakes at $8.40?
Part of the answer is the internal pricing inside mainland China allows significant savings but that’s some 10th level wizardry to pull that off. 
Cheers
G
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Some really nice thought going into this stuff and that’s what we need man we get some people together who are really technically sound and see how far we could possibly bring the cost of the lights down It’s just hard to dump out $1,200 or even $900 for a light. I guess I’m a hobbyist grower so just save and take it day by day for real.
But the bridge lock strips I don’t understand how they can keep them that cheap. Hehe! You know I look at a mammoth lighting and they have these 10 bar units that I absolutely smash and a lot of them are using the same diodes it’s all prepackaged and ready to go but I mean I wonder exactly how much you’re paying and b******* just fluff? As opposed to building it yourself.
I appreciate that I’m in back Mr gPaw
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I was poking around at prices and availability…many drivers out of stock.
In-stock 2ft - 20-packs at Future.
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Dummy check before I finalize this build… 4x4ft space, 6 EB-3 (The 4’ unsure of what color) and one of the Meanwell drivers. Everything checkout here? Run in parallel… I do have a thought, how do able is it to push it up to 30w per strip? I could then go down to 5 strips… Right? Plus any tips on mounting? I haven’t decided between an aluminum or steel panel or angled aluminum. Thermal compound anyone? I feel like it’s probably not needed granted how much surface contact, but I like to worry.
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What is the basic P/N of the strips you are looking at (I want to look up the specs)?
Cheers
G
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976-BXEB-L1190U-30E3000-C-C3-ND is the Digikey P/N BXEB-L1190U-30E3000-C-C3 Manufacturer
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Ok, you have a 4’ x 4’ (almost 1 meter squared), what are you planning to do in that tent? (need that to pin down your max. light intensity)
Side point, unless you have a specific requirement that requires Gen 3, you can save a few bucks going with the Gen 2. (Gen 3 is about 14% more efficient but cost about 75% more).
Cheers
G
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Grow will be SOG (edit: ScrOG sorry) of sort. 5 plants or so at a time. I need to get start to finish without moving, so it’ll need to be enough to get through flower. Would rather buy the “full” basic setup so I can be growing for a year or two before I have to buy all new shit again, so that’s the only reason I am thinking Gen 3 over Gen 2 and the efficiency is nice. Plus I figure the next fixture I build would use them so I can cannibalize it.
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Sounds to me like you want a ‘Swiss army knife’ light that can deal with everything from seedlings through flowering sativas. How deep into the math do you want to go?
Just for reference, I’m in the middle of a build and your requirements sound similar to mine so here is what I’m building.
20 strips of BXEB-L1120Z-35E4000-C-B3
2 x HLG-320H-42B drivers.
Aluminum angle, 1" x 1" x 1/8" thick
20 x strips 46" long
2 x strips 34 " long.
The B option on the drivers allows me to vary the power from 10% to 100%
I am also mounting my drivers external to my tent (4’ x 4’)
My design goal was 30 watts per square foot. Color wise there are two options available from Digikey, 3500K and 5000K. 3500K is a good choice but you can swap in a couple of 5000K (same $, same specs) to bump up the blue end of the spectrum if you wish (I’m going with all 3500K).
Cheers
G
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I realized my error, lol, alright. I calculated for 30W per PLANT so I only needed 150W… Anyways, yeah I’ll probably just go with that you have there, 30W/sqft was my intention lol.
At this point I just don’t know what I’ll want to grow, so something small and gives me some options to play with. Was thinking a 2x4 to save initial costs (especially lighting) so I may still go that way- so a symmetrical design like yours that is easily split in two is great, thanks!
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The nice thing about the Bridgelux strips is they are available in 22" lengths, great for building 2’ x 2’ lights.
Cheers
G
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emphasized text Are the eb gen2 still available?
I have a few and don’t regret buying them at all.
Gen 3 is prolly way better but I’m positive in two years these gen 2 will still be growing and could easily pay for the upgrades down the road.
We live in a disposable time where people think a few moves ahead where you are already planning the next big move but time doesn’t wait for anything lol next year the people with gen3 will still be thinking damn I should have waited for these gen4 and improved efficiency by 1.6%
My advice would be to get as many as what’s available/affordable to you and build small frames like 2x4 instead of monsto 4x4’s that are tough to work with)
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I defiantly plan on building in 2x4 sections, as I can’t imagine trying to fit a 4x4 into the tent, it’s worse than getting a couch out of the basement (always seems harder to get it out than when you put it down there though, eh?)
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Thanks @Gpaw.
@ChemicalDependant This is what I was recommending you build for that 4x4 when we spoke in PM. That’s the $400ish option to cover a 4x4, although I think my recommendation is the HLG-480-42AB driver so you can save a few bucks and simplify the wiring. That’s what @Torontoke built. If you only want to build for a 2x4, go with 10x of the strips on a single 320h-42(a or b, but B requires a separate 100ohm dimming pot) and mount them to either
1x1x1/16 6061 square corner aluminum angle (10x 46" pieces for the ribs, 2x 20" pieces for the frame ends that the ribs screw into)
or
a single 44.25" x 20" slab of 1/8" thick 5052 aluminum plate. This will be cheaper but a slight bit different build, routing the wiring through holes between each strip that have a rubber grommet inserted in them.
To mount the strips on either plate or angle, use 1" double sided thermal tape and also drill 3x tiny #3 mounting holes thru the plate to fasten the strips with plastic screws and nuts - one on each end of the strip and one in the middle. With angle you could get away with zip ties instead of screws, but then it looks bad.
Hope that helps!
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If it helps anyone Here’s a few pics of mine.
The rig in the back of the tent is a solid 4x4 frame and is a bitch to move around.
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It most certainly is pretty much what we talked about, that’s where I got 30w per sq ft!
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I think building a light in 2x4 sections instead of a 4x4 is solid advice. Sounds much easier to move around if needed and gives some added flexibility.
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