What would I need to replace a 1000w eye hortilux hps in a 4x4?
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Not sure what Baudelaire is going to suggest.
But I’m going to try to cover a 4x4 with 12 Sol Strips and 2 Red/Blue strips.
I’m building 2 of these 18" x 48" rigs. 6 Sol Strips and 1 Red/Blue strip on each rig.
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Like @ray said, 10-12 Solstix in a ladder-style rack or 2 SolSheetX’s will compare to a 1000w hps lamp. However, the SolStrips will deliver the photons more efficiently and evenly across the canopy.
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What’s the price on that exact setup and how many watts Will it pull?
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$29.99 x 12= $359.88 plus shipping (free to North America til Jan. 1).
Each SolStrip pulls a max of 48 watts, so ~600w total max output for 12 strips.
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That’s everything needed? Heat synchs, drivers etc?
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SolStix are 1 SolStrip and a pre-tapped custom SolSink heat sink sold together, to be mounted on a mounting frame such as angle aluminum. More about SolStix at the SolStrip website. Drivers are sold separately, are fully wired with AC and DC connectors, and available here. Several driver configurations are possible depending on your planned configuration and desired power/efficiency ratio, but for a 10-12 strip rig these are all good options:
2 x HLG-185H-24A
2 x HLG-240H-24A
1 x HLG-320H-24A
1 x HLG-480H-24A
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I love researching stuff. I just don’t have time to put in on researching LEDs. Just as a suggestion. I recommend putting together all in one packages for folks like me that just want to buy a kit and know everything is compatible and what the light output is comparable to. IE… All in one package 400w hps replacement… Just an idea.
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Good idea. One of the great things about SolStrips is their flexibility and customizability. To your point, a 12-strip rack set up as two 2x4 ft racks of 6 strips, each wired in parallel to a Mean Well HLG-240H-24A dimmable driver, would give you all the photons a 16 sf canopy could use at 12" from the tips, with even, cool, full daylight spectrum, high-efficiency, 50,000 hour-life light. $509.88 all-in with free US shipping til Jan. 1. Hope that helps. -b420
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Yes indeed. I appreciate that very much. I just thing some folks would appreciate packages set up how your explained that one. It’s easy and fast. All the work has been done as far as knowing what goes with what. Unfortunately things haven’t been going to well for me or I’d order that setup polis replacement for 2 250watt boxes too. I’ll be covering to led sometime.
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Hey @Enstromentals. He does have kits if that is what your talking about. But the driver is sold separately…however if you look in the description it will recommend a driver for your kit. And he sells all the compatible drivers for them too.
If your ever in doubt, You could email @Baudelaire to make sure your kit would work. Hope this helps, didn’t know if this is what your talking about? Cheers!
https://solstrip.com/en/solsheets/16-134-solsheet-x.html#/43-cct-2700k/61-output-200w
Maximum output: 250 watts
LED components:5 SolStrip X1-400 strips with a total of 480 Samsung LM561C diodes
Coverage area: 2x3 ft bloom, 3x4 ft veg at recommended operating output
Recommended operating output: 125-200 watts
Recommended driver: 24vdc 5-8.3A constant current dimmable
Power connector: waterproof screw-together connector
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Stock update
Quite a lot of folks taking advantage of free North American shipping on orders over $100 through Jan. 1.
-b420
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I’m glad to see you succeeding 
Low stock means you’re doing something right.
You brought a truly affordable and amazing product to the masses. I wish you health and prosperity
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I ordered 6 Solstrips and a 320H driver on New Years Day and got my shipping/tracking notice today! Im excited.
Mini review so far - Id give Solstrips.com and Baudelaire a solid 4.9/5 stars so far. The deduction is for some very minor hickups in the checkout process (there are still some issues he is working on with the new website) and a minor misunderstanding about the sale he had going. Baudelaire answered my emails quickly, answered all my questions and concerns, and resolved all my issues in a prompt and very professional manner. In the end, he made sure I was a happy customer. He promised to ship within 1 to 2 days and thats what he did.
My rating so far = highly recommended!
Hopefuly, they will get here this weekend and I can get started assembling the fixture.
I ordered 6ea 3500k strips and a 320H-24 CVCC driver. My DIY grow tent is roughly 27"x38"x60" tall. Im going to build a frame along the lines of this drawing. The strips will be 2ea to a row in 3 rows. Im going to use some scrap aluminum I have on hand for the frame. The strips will be mounted (with thermal paste) to some 3" wide x 1.5" x 1/4" thick C channel. The three channels will be bolted to some 3/4x3/4 L material along the ends.
The frame will be mounted directly below a 20" box fan I have mounted near the ceiling of the tent, so there will be active cooling. I understand there is some concern about how well my U channel will work as a heatsink, but I plan to test that before installing them permanently.
Based on the graph for volts vrs current from the chip spec sheet, and the numbers for the 320H, I am anticipating the following min and max power levels. All strips will be wired in parallel.
With 6 panels, my max amp draw is going to be 13.34 / 6 = 2.2 amps per board. With 12 parallel sets of led’s thats .185 amps/led. Looking at the graph again, that works out to roughly 2.98 volts or .55 watts per led x 98 led’s = 52.9 watts max per board x 6 boards = 317 watts total. Thats great because that driver is max 320 watts.
My minimum however is zero watts. If I turn down the voltage on the 320H down to 12 volts, thats below the minimum voltage for the led’s if they are in an 8S string, so they wont light up at all.
If I go with the minimum amps in CC mode at 6.67amps / 6 boards = 1.11 amps per board or 1.11 / 12 = 93 ma per led. Looking at the graph again, when drawing 93 ma, they will be at roughly 2.83 volts, so my minimum ‘operating’ power will be roughly .93 x 2.83 x 98 = 25 watts per panel x 6 panels = 150 watts total.
So for my roughly 7 sq ft tent, I will have an adjustment range from 21 watts/sq ft up to 45 watts/sq ft
Of course, all that assumes I am understanding how these drivers work. I have not actually used one yet 
To monitor the volts/amps/watts Im going to be using an in-line Wattmeter I have from my RC flying hobby. I fly electric powered sailplanes and other electric models. It has better than 1% precision, and can handle up to 100 v @ 100 amps = 10,000 watts, so close enough for this. The Wattmeter will be between the driver and the panel, so it will be measuring the actual volts and amps the panels are operating at rather than the power out of the wall.
Some of you may recognize those connectors as Anderson Powerpoles. I’ll be using those (45 amp rated) for the connections between the driver and the frame. Im going to run 14 ga flexible wire to the frame, then 18ga solid to the individual strips.
Im about 1 month into my first ever grow. Im using CFL’s now and hoping these new strips will get my babies growing even better
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That’s what I’m talking about. A 2700K plug and go 12 strip rig for us 4x4 tent warriors.
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That usually gets someone back to a 5 in my humble book.
Good little story.
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Sounds like a nice design. Just a few comments:
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When you order your drivers from Photon Solutions, we do the cabling for you, so they come ready to plug and play with AC and DC connectors. Of course you can always switch them out for your favorite connectors if you choose.
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The X1 strips are specified to operate in an 18-24v range, so yes it won’t light at 12v. I recommend operating at 24v and using the current (I/O) pot to adjust in a range of 1400-2000 mA, and to not exceed 48 watts total per strip.
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With the above in mind, a 320w Mean Well HLG driver will top-out at around ~335w, which means you’ll want to operate your 6 SolStrips at somewhere below 80% of full power to keep from exceeding their rated maximums. You’ll also want to have some serious heat mitigation in place if you plan on running them at higher than 40 watts. U channel with ambient airflow may not be enough. That’s where SolSinks come in.
-b420
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Hi Baudelaire, I wish I had realized you included connectors - I would have told you that I didnt need any - at least on the output side. Could have saved you a few $.
Thanks for the tips and the reminder about the max wattage. I had forgotten your rating is a bit below what the LED’s are capable of. With the number of strips I have now, I wont be able to exceed that by much, but I will be careful. When budget allows, I am going to add another 4 strips, so that will keep me below the max easily.
I will have active cooling on my C channels, but it may not be enough. I plan to proceed carefully with the initial testing. As I said, I can monitor amps/volts/watts in real time and I have a temp probe I can attach to the strips for testing.
What is the recommended initial adjustment procedure for the 320H-24 CVCC model? Do you turn the voltage pot to max and the amp pot to minimum, then adjust as needed? With any of my other CCCV supplies, I would set the max voltage to what ever the LED string was rated for, then slowly increase the Io pot to get the current I wanted.
Based on that graph above, it looks like the minimum voltage will need to be in the 20-21 volt range 2,55volts x 8 in series = 20 volts, but you might need to start at closer to 21 volts to get them to kick on enough to see. Setting the volts to 24 would be fine as long as the driver is operating in CC mode.
Thanks again for the help and great customer service!
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That’s what I would recommend.
As for the max current, you’re right that 24v at 2 amps is a bit conservative, 2400 mA is closer to the OEM max current rating, and the Samsung’s are tough little chips overall. The real issue most will run up against at those currents is heat management. If you can keep your strips below 50C, you can run them at 2400 mA. But most will find operating currents of 1400-1750 mA far easier to manage. In most situations, it’s as easy as adding a couple more strips to the array.
WooHoo! My new toys arrived today! Thats fast shipping. The tracking on-line is way off. They said it would not arrive until Monday, but here it is
Very happy camper.
Now to warm up the soldering iron and get busy. This is good timing - I just finished assembling the frame last night!
Oh - nice job on the cables/connectors on the driver! Nice clean work.
My Andersons are not water proof, but they dont corrode either - all silver contacts and plastic housing. On the other hand, that screw lock connector you provided cant accidentally get pulled loose, so I may use it on the fixture end…
I’ll post some pics later if anyone is interested.
Thanks!
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