COBs with integrated drivers? + Other on-the-cheap ideas

Growroom Design
#21

Very fair point, here’s how I think about it:

  1. Use as much of the stuff I have on hand. This includes some drivers and lots of extrusion for heat sink. The more I use of the stuff I have, the less cluttered my storage is, and the more my wife likes me.
  2. Spending as little as possible, while maintaining levels of illumination/efficacy equivalent to about 8x 15W 1250lm LED screw-ins, because i have hoarded those too… But those i can keep guilt-free under the premise of “for the house”
  3. Evaluate and accept value propositions that allow me to better utilize existing material for nominal increase in cost. I’m willing to spend a little more to get a disproportional amount of “more” out, but definitely not hundreds of dollars.

The longer this thread goes, the less sure I am…

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#22

You’ve got drivers and heat sink material, so COBs or strips make sense. For mounting COBs, a combination of heat sink compound (applied properly) and kapton tape is sufficient.

Totally up to you which design philosophy you decide to follow when choosing the COBs (if you do in fact decide to use COBs). I made it clear which philosophy guided my decisions, and doing so didn’t break the bank.

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#23

If it makes your life any easier I’ve got a load of solstrip heatsinks remaining in my shed that never went with strips. I’ll send them to you no charge other than postage costs. You would need to order the strips themselves from baudelaire or find something suitable to take their place. But if they help. They’re yours

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#24

Been thinking about this.

8 x 15w = 120w
8 x 1250lm = 10,000lm

Well, 2 of the COBs I mentioned (at ideal V and A) can do:

2 x 36w = 72w
2 x 4500lm = 9,000lm

60% of the power use gets you 90% of the lumens - AND a much better spectrum.

The COBs are only $17 each (including shipping), but unfortunately that source (which is very good, as cola said) only sells groups of 5. So you’d end up with 3 extra COBs (to do other things with?).

Just figured these numbers might be interesting to you.

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#25

thanks for the offer brother, but i’m swimming in heatsink stuff. still haven’t fully decided what i’m gonna do. might need to sleep on it again…

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#26

that certainly sounds better than screw-ins

the 36v drivers I have are 3A/18-34V 100W chinese constant current units (QH-100LC)
I guess if I drive 3 of those cobs in parallel that would be even better

1 Like
#27

Since you brought it up…
We can ship up to 6 SolStrips to Canada for less than $25. Can’t do much about the exchange rate but it’s been that ratio roughly for decades.

The cheapo chinese flexible strips are cheap upfront and costly thereafter. Very poor efficiency, below HPS and even MH (70 l/w) compared to Samsung diodes in SolStrips (202 l/w avg). No heat management at all, just adhesive foil that will fail in a year, fall off their mounting frame, and start burning out diodes.

I’m a fan of the Citizen CLU COBs, but lumen/watt to lumen/watt, when all costs including heatsinks, active cooling equipment and other buildout costs are included, SolStrips are less cost over a 2-3 year life, and not even close over a 5 year life.

DOBs aren’t even a player in this field, and LED “bulbs” are barely any better (very low efficiency like the flexi-strips). DOBs, IMO, are electrocutions waiting to happen - think about how many 120/220v AC leads you will be soldering to aluminum backed DOB emitters screwed into aluminum heatsinks mounted onto metal frames, inside of your damp, wet floor grow space, before you go that route.:electric_plug:

6 Likes
#28

Oh why do you have to make so much sense… LOL
Ugh
Now i have to look into them closer

2 Likes
#29

Exactly.

I’m driving my 5 with a Meanwell HLG-185h-36a (36V @ 5.2A) in parallel.

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#30

@Baudelaire, how hard do you recommend the X3s to be driven for a nice balance of heat, output, and longevity?
Crunching numbers here…

#31

I like to drive them at 60 watts. But anywhere between 60-70 watts is very workable.

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#32

id go with baudelaires strips man
how many and what kind is totally up to you and your budget
the safe route is better than the cheap route for this

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#33

So, hehe, I think I know the answer, but I gotta ask… I bought a small 2x2x4 tent, and then found(!) this 200w CFL in my garage attic. As in, the previous owner of the house forgot it there.

20181017_172746.jpg1808×2419 1.16 MB

I have never grown with cfl and quite honestly never seen a beast this big - are these any good? I’m pretty sure I can use it for sexing clones, but what about a seed run? Flowering things in solo cups? Are these worse than a bunch of led screw-ins?

This one is an 8U 200w 2700k.

If it is complete shit compared to even screw-ins I’ll turf it

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#34

Looks like the previous occupant was a grower as well, that’s a flowering CFL, will work great for a plant.

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#35

Go for it, @HappyHemper, if nothing else it’ll definitely root some clones but it’ll probably be good enough for a single plant WITHOUT the reflector - i reckon you’ll get more light …
anyway good luck with this, what you growing mate .? !
Happy growing/smoking ,
Gaz

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#36

Those high wattage CFL bulbs usually cost more money to replace than theyre worth, and efficiency is only so-so.

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#37

Thanks @Gaz29, I’ll set it up today give it a shot. Free light that may work for a while, can’t complain.

I have two tents going now, one with a haze in dwc and one with autos in coco. I bought this little tent for sexing clones and seed runs. I have NL that just sprouted, and some of the haze in coco as well. The dwc plants are not doing super well - stunted from a root slime problem. 2 days still no new growth, but not dying either… in limbo

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#38

I dont think I’ll be replacing it if it dies - I’ll be building an led rig, but in the meanwhile might as well run this one. :+1:

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#39

If it dies mid-grow, do you have something to bridge the gap?

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#40

screw-ins? I got 8 of those at 15W each. I guess i’ll have to get a piece of some sheet good to hold the sockets, but that’s pretty easy