Seems chargery has a c version that’s 10-100v and your def right about the 24v max but I really want to try those osram ssl120 diodes cheapest I found besides that link was 12 diode chip for 36$
P.s. looking at that chargery reminded me of my stick welder hmm 
Lol! it’s way smaller than a stick welder
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It’s a small one and adjustable lol
I was looking at digital ballasts and they seem to be very efficient and will do higher voltages… if you are somewhat knowledgeable in wiring I believe you can achieve being able to wire some quantum boards or solstrips boards in series successfully using digital ballasts and a rectifier, because I believe the ballast outputs ac volts, anyone please correct me if I’m wrong… however Digital ballasts can be very efficient and may be worth looking into if trying to get the absolutely most efficient setup…
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Did you find the voltage out put? Bc i couldn’t even find that. I think i’d have to take it apart and pull out whatever starts the hps bulb bc it will begin the arc at up to 2500v but then evens out.
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I didn’t even think about the igniter, that’s a good point, maybe messing around with those ballasts is outside of my skill range… but if there is a way to just remove the igniter completely from the ballast’s circuitry it may just work… I know I have a couple of ballasts That will probably never get used again and I would not mind using them if I can do it safely in my setup…
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Im no electrical engineer (software actually), but I think we ate talking appels and oranges here. Those ballasts are pushing out A.C. voltage while the Xbox power supply (and most laptop/pc power supplies) delivered 12 volts D.C.
Also, please be careful with the capacitors in the ballasts as they can hold a charge even after they are unplugged. I don’t want anyone getting hurt.
@Uncle_Al is pretty good with ballasts, maybe he can chime in here with some ideas.
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Unless you know what you are doing, and design the supply correctly, you will spend more money on new LED’s, that you blow up by mistake, than you save on the power supply - by a lot 
You absolutely must have a supply that regulates the current/voltage and they must both be kept within the range the led’s require. That means a CCCV type supply. Ballasts, computer supplies, and game board supplies, are NOT the same as a CCCV supply.
Apples and oranges is right, but a ballast is more like apples and elephants.
Good luck though
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What @anon32470837 said. Mean Well has pretty much figured everything out for us, and delivers it in a waterproof, fused box with a 5 year warranty at a price even the Chinese can’t really beat. I’ve looked and looked for alternatives, and end of day, it came back to Mean Well for price, quality, safety and certainty of performance.
Computer supplies are a tempting alternative, but I’ve never got one to work for very long before switching into blink-mode. @anon32470837, why is that? It seems a 24v 5A DC power supply would be perfect for a 3-strip lamp. What are they lacking?
-b420
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Thats going to depend on how the power supply is built, and the quality. but it really goes back to the LED. LED’s are not a fixed resistance like normal loads.
Look at this graph (the one on the left) for the LM561C chips. For a given voltage,they draw a specific current, but the current does NOT change based on ohms law. At 2.55 volts or less per LED, you have zero amps drawn, and it peaks out at 3.05 volts at 2 amps.
What that graph doesnt show is what happens to the current as you go past 3 volts per led. The change is non-linear.
In short, very small changes in the voltage result in huge changes in the current flowing. So if the voltage is allowed to fluctuate at all - as will always happen in any PS that isnt CCCV - the current will fluctuate wildly, and if the voltage OR current goes beyond the max, the LED can go into thermal runaway. At a minimum, you reduce its life.
An LED driver needs a very stable output voltage AND current. Even very small fluctuations are bad. That means a quality CCCV type supply that is designed to drive LEDs.
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Yes, leds require dc current… and those ballasts output ac current which if you hook them up directly you’re probably going to see some fireworks… with the ignitor in place there will also be dramatic spikes in voltages which will probably also create fireworks… Taking out the ignitor and installing a rectifier and an ac dimmer could possibly make a ballast useable… However I agree with all of you in that it is better to stick with whatever is simpler. Modifying a ballast can potentially cause a fire if not setup correctly which is why I wouldn’t want to take the risk, at least at my current skill and knowledge level. Meanwell is easiest and super efficient. So I tend to steer others in that direction too. With the sol strips I really like the chargery s1200 because the max voltage is 24.3v and can push up to 50 amps. Plus I like the digital display and built in current knob potentiometer because it makes it super easy to control the intensity of the leds.
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Someone should make the BucketSol… (SolDisc?)
A circular 30-50w LM561 based lighting solution for space buckets…
With proper substrate use you shouldn’t need to have any active cooling, drive the Leds soft and use thicker aluminum backed PCB’s and profit!
You heard it from me first lol. I’ll take my royalties payment in seeds, thanks! lol.
In all seriousness, if there was an affordable “GOOD” lighting solution for bucket growers, while a niche market, I don’t really know of any sleek products for them. I’ve seen people use the 90w UFO chinesium crap lights, but those are bulky and don’t work well.
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Growmau5 announced the idea on Instagram a few hours ago. Great minds…I don’t use IG so I had no idea lol. That looks to be about the size of a cd, I could see the useful applications.
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The GrowMau disk looks nice. I’ll have a SolStrip solution for space buckets in a couple of weeks.
The problem with bucket grows is side lighting. A disk on top is only a partial solution.
-b420
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It’s the part about it fitting on a PIN heatsink that gave me a chubby…
Retrofit all those early COB panels (hope it’s at a decent cost)…
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I’m just not sure why you would want to do that (retrofit a pin heatsink from COB to SMD panel). What would be the benefit? The pin heatsink can only dissipate so much heat, and premium COBs have similar efficiencies as premium SMDs used in strips and boards, so there’s no efficiency or output upside that I can see. I’m an SMD guy, but with pin sinks I think COBs are the best solution.
Photon Solutions will introduce a COB retrofit solution in a couple of weeks that will allow COB growers to upgrade to mid-power LED strips using their existing drivers and (non-pin) heatsinks.
-b420
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Sorry… mesmerized by the spinning disk…
You are correct, WHY would you retrofit with these…
When I price out a ‘light unit’ it has to include all the hardware for
mounting and heat management. If those run hot enough to require
the same amount of heatsink as cobs, where’s the benefit.
Send in the strippers…
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I don’t think it’s designed to provide better efficiencies than COBs. The main allure seems to be addition of the red spectra, which current COBs can’t mimic. “Pink” lights are gaining in popularity, this is just Mau5’ answer to PCB boards that can incorporate several spectra like Chilled or Fluence.
So if someone is a COB user and wants to incorporate pink spectra, this would allow them to swap lights without an entire teardown and rebuild. I’ve heard many a COB users say that they wish they’d waited on their build because the tech is evolving so rapidly.
I’m just glad I didn’t spend $800 on COBs and wind up stuck with last-gen tech.
I see. If more red is what you’re after though, there’s several choices in 1750-2700K COBs from Citizen and Bridgelux. Or augment with a string of single deep red diodes or deep red strips.
I believe the main benefit of strips over COBs is spreading out the light and the heat across the canopy area. Cramming a bunch of SMDs into the same area as a COB defeats the benefit. I wonder how he’ll even be able to come close to matching output of the COB with mid-power diodes in that small of an area. And a 48v board won’t work as a retrofit with most COB systems that have 36v drivers. Scratching my head on this 
-b420
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