SeymoreNugget's DIY talk - Building lights - Sharing ideas

[JimmyJames905]

My very first DIY COB fixture

That's a nice price for pre drilled/tapped heatsinks including shipping, I'd be interested myself if I could get the equivalent over here. I'll send pics of mine once I've finished trimming up these girls, my fingers are too sticky for my camera atm and I'm trying to save a ball of black, sparing one finger for typing though lol

If you're across the pond try cutter electronics. His prices are fantastic.
Under 33 pounds for chip, holder, optics, heatsink and hardware is a hard deal to beat.

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[Kriaze]

If you're across the pond try cutter electronics. His prices are fantastic.
Under 33 pounds for chip, holder, optics, heatsink and hardware is a hard deal to beat.
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Funny you should mention them, they're the company that I was pointing Xobe towards without breaking the magazine rules. They're reasonably priced but shipping is a killer, didn't stop me last time though:

Here are the heatsinks that I'm going to use this time around as pin heatsinks just aren't available here:

These are the single COB kits that started me on my quest originally. They still work great and give impressive results for the wattage used:

 

[Omega Man]

It's going right below the 230cfm intake air filter. I may attach a digital thermoprobe through the cable port so I can monitor temps close to the core....if my probe fits.
I'm 1/2 way though assembly. May or may not use the optics.

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I got those ... 44MM glass lenses 60 degrees. Heh, yours even have the square hole for round cobs like mine I really think they are overkill with my cree cx3590's because instead of covering the canopy uniformly I got stuck with spotlights !

 

[XobeMan]

I got those ... 44MM glass lenses 60 degrees. Heh, yours even have the square hole for round cobs like mine I really think they are overkill with my cree cx3590's because instead of covering the canopy uniformly I got stuck with spotlights !

I am looking at cutter as i type this lol

Thks i will decide soon i hope.

A Licenced Medicinal Cannabis User

 

[JimmyJames905]

My very first DIY COB fixture

I got those ... 44MM glass lenses 60 degrees. Heh, yours even have the square hole for round cobs like mine I really think they are overkill with my cree cx3590's because instead of covering the canopy uniformly I got stuck with spotlights !

These are the 90mm. Pretty sure I won't use them though. They reduce projection to about 90°. I get 120 without any optics. I have to fill a 2x4 tent with 3 COBs so spread will be important.
Like you said...spotlights.

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[Kriaze]

I'm not sure why but those prebuilt single COB lights that I showed above always seem a lot brighter than the Cree DIY builds that I showed, they're driven slightly harder at 60w apiece but they're covered by a 3 year warranty. I wouldn't be messing around building DIY if the shipping didn't almost double the cost per light, damn they're great.

 

[JimmyJames905]

I'm not sure why but those prebuilt single COB lights that I showed above always seem a lot brighter than the Cree DIY builds that I showed, they're driven slightly harder at 60w apiece but they're covered by a 3 year warranty. I wouldn't be messing around building DIY if the shipping didn't almost double the cost per light, damn they're great.

What's the max you can overdrive a cree?
200%?


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[JimmyJames905]

Funny you should mention them, they're the company that I was pointing Xobe towards without breaking the magazine rules. They're reasonably priced but shipping is a killer, didn't stop me last time though:

Here are the heatsinks that I'm going to use this time around as pin heatsinks just aren't available here:

These are the single COB kits that started me on my quest originally. They still work great and give impressive results for the wattage used:

Round chips? Are those vero18's?


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[Kriaze]

I have no idea, they were recommended to me by CoFinest before I knew much of anything about COB's. He was testing them out in the states and I did the same for the UK, I don't know what they are but they grew buds nearly as long as my arm, their penetration is fantastic and beat hands down the Mars II 1600w that I was using at the time, probably along the same lines as HPS.

I've had them a good couple of years now so it must have been something from around back then

 

[fanleaf]

Im starting to hope I ordered the right Vero chip in that graph mentioned. Do you guys have the Vero part number for that 4000k 7 gen 36v model?

 

[JimmyJames905]

There's 40+ versions. The one in the graph is probably obsolete. The set I'm re-heatsinking were bought in July and they're already listed as "obsolete" at digikey. Replaced by a 156 Lm/W model that runs at 12000 Lumens.


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[JimmyJames905]

My very first DIY COB fixture

Which one did you order?
There is 12 versions of the 4000k available.


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[fanleaf]

There's 40+ versions. The one in the graph is probably obsolete. The set I'm re-heatsinking were bought in July and they're already listed as "obsolete" at digikey. Replaced by a 156 Lm/W model that runs at 12000 Lumens.


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Ok, the one I bought runs at 13,585 so that should be advantage for Vero. We shall see.

 

[JimmyJames905]

My very first DIY COB fixture

The 68v flagship is the BXRC-40E10K0-C-72

The 37.7V flagship is the BXRC-40E10K0-D-73



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[fanleaf]

The 68v flagship is the BXRC-40E10K0-C-72

The 37.7V flagship is the BXRC-40E10K0-D-73
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OK. 1st I bought the BXRC-40E10K0-B-73
I also just bought the BXRC-40E10K0-D-73 just now.

 

[JimmyJames905]

My very first DIY COB fixture

If you bought the BXRC-40E10K0-D-73 you can just not bother testing against any Cree on the market. That thing is dubbed "the cxb killer". Lol. Not even kidding.


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[fanleaf]

The specs dont say it will. At 50W and lower the specs say the CXB is on top. I have no idea but we will put all of them up for the test. One way to find out.
Being a 185W or so chip I'm sure the 135W Cree cant compete up high but down low my money will still be on the CXB.

 

[JimmyJames905]

The specs dont say it will. At 50W and lower the specs say the CXB is on top. I have no idea but we will put all of them up for the test. One way to find out.
Being a 185W or so chip I'm sure the 135W Cree cant compete up high but down low my money will still be on the CXB.

That's where it excels. On the high end of the curve.


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[JimmyJames905]

I just want to see the par results. So much crap data floating around the internet about lumens and watts. I'll gladly pay a few more cents per watt usage if I get 2100 PPFD.


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[fanleaf]

That's where it excels. On the high end of the curve.


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Yeah, I agree. I'm looking and calculating as we speak. There are many chips that are close the the CXB at low drive levels (where we run them) and some that are far more efficient at higher drives (where we don't run them). As I'm sure you know we don't build these things to run each chip at 200 watts. That would be silly and kind of defeating the whole purpose of making these awesome lights. Not you but it's funny how some guys I have seen find a chip that can run at 400W and think that makes the light the most powerful and best light for growing.
For those who may be confused about how COBS work let's explain it this way. It's not everything but it makes it simple.

First let's look at Ohms law. ___P___
...................................................I * E

In that graph P=power or watts which is the total power something is using,
I equals Intensity or amps which is how fast the power is flowing
E= Electromotive force or voltage! Voltage is what pushes current (amperage).

So to figure out what the wattage (total power) something is using or will use you look at the chart I made above and if P (wattage) is unknown just cover the P and look at what's left. its I times E so Amps times volts equals the missing P or total wattage.

If you need to know the Voltage then the math chart Icon I made above dont look like a multiplication chart anymore but division now. It would be P divided by I= voltage. You can figure anything out with ohms law. If you need to know the amperage then cover the I and its P divided by E equals the amperage.

So when it comes to COB lights used for growing the only part about Watts that matter is ow we can get the most light we can out of a chip with the least wattage. That gives us the most light for the power used.
So now we look at lumens per watt of power used. Lumens is in the par spectrum so is very important. We want the highest lumen per watt more or less.

So to think you need a 400w chip we can destroy that theory quickly like this

Let's say your 400w chip produces 100 lumens per watt at 400 watts. That's 40,000 lumens.
Now lets say our little 135W chip produces 220 lumens per watt at 40 watts. That's 8800 lumens.

Now we only used 40 watts to produce 8800 lumens but 40,000 lumens with 400w

Well we used 10 times the power to get 4 times more light? Why go with COBs then?

We could instead use 5 of our chips at only 40 watts and use 200 total watts of power and produce 44,000 lumens with half the used power as the 400w chip.

Those numbers are not exact but to give an example to those who think a 400w chip is the way to go. The chips wattage rating is the least important number.