LED Driver Advice.

[G.V]

Hi. Trying to get some sort a design together for my first LED build. I have a space of 1.2m X 3.6m to cover, or 4 feet by 12 feet for anyone working Imperial. I know tech is changing but I would like to stick to the Cree COB's as I know I can buy them in the UK with little or no hassle.

Trouble is I want to add single LED's to broaden the light spectrum and boost Lumens etc per m2 / ft2.

I have a rough plan put together but I'm concerned about the amount of drivers I would need to run this unit, as I do want a large single unit. It save tones on cash, and components / build time.

I already have 3 HLG-240H-C1050B planned to run the COB's (6 COB's each), but when I get to the single colour LED's I hit a snag. The maximum Current is 0.35a for the singles, but I need to power 63 LED's, and I cant seem to find a driver that can do that without having multiple drivers as most of the heavy Voltage drivers would fry the led's..

If I need multiple drivers for that amount of LED's that's great, not a problem as I have plenty of mounting space, but the issue is wiring them all in to take the power from the wall.

Hoping some of you experienced builders can show me what I'm missing out on and throw some knowledge my way.

Many Thanks.

GV.

 

[OrgrO]

Your rough plan looks almost identical to my rough plan as for area, number of COBs, mono LEDs and drivers.
As for power distribution to the drivers, I was planning on a junction box with a terminal block to tie everything together. From the electrical plug take the hot wire and jump it to several screw terminals then the same for the neutral wire and ground wire. Then tap into the terminal block with each driver. Make sure to ground the frame also and size your plug wire to handle the total load.
As for driving the mono LEDs, I'll leave that to those in the know. I was planning on using multiple drivers myself.

 

[sixstring2112]

if you wire the singles in parallel you could cut the amps down to whatever you want just by adding another string.so lets say you used 1.05 amp driver in 3x parallel strings it would be .35 amp per string.4x strings will be .2625 amp ect,ect. but as for the 4 x 12 space using cree @ 1050ma with just 18 cobs,will those be the 72v cree cobs? if not your going to need more cobs.i run a bunch of 1050ma setups and 11 to 12 inch spacing seems to work very well.i do have a 72v fixture using the same drivers and theres alot more dead spots due to me spacing them 20 inches apart so im not real happy with that one.but to go back to your single question,you could look at using a hlg-240-c700b in 2x parallel to hit your .350ma mark if you wanted to max your amps @ .350. gl

 

[G.V]

if you wire the singles in parallel you could cut the amps down to whatever you want just by adding another string.so lets say you used 1.05 amp driver in 3x parallel strings it would be .35 amp per string.4x strings will be .2625 amp ect,ect. but as for the 4 x 12 space using cree @ 1050ma with just 18 cobs,will those be the 72v cree cobs? if not your going to need more cobs.i run a bunch of 1050ma setups and 11 to 12 inch spacing seems to work very well.i do have a 72v fixture using the same drivers and theres alot more dead spots due to me spacing them 20 inches apart so im not real happy with that one.but to go back to your single question,you could look at using a hlg-240-c700b in 2x parallel to hit your .350ma mark if you wanted to max your amps @ .350. gl

If I can't do this in a simple manor I will stick to COB's only. I have another plan drawn up with just COB's, but I'm concerned it's overkill for the space. A few folks have suggested I would better of leaving the single LED's out and possibly adding some in at a later date if need be.

I'm trying to cut down the end draw / consumption. At the minute in that space I have two 600w HPS with a 400w HPS in the middle. But having seen what is achievable with LED's at much less wattage out the plug I can resist a go.

Hard to source the parts in the UK though.

 

[coreywebster]

Yeah on 36v chips your ppfd would be too low with that number. It would be good with the 72v version but you would need twice as many of those drivers. To give you an idea a 600w top quality hps is about 690ppfd in a 4x4. Your Cobs if you run 36v cxbs would be 360ppfd in the same 4x4 running 6 cxb3590s @1050ma.

 

[sixstring2112]

If I can't do this in a simple manor I will stick to COB's only. I have another plan drawn up with just COB's, but I'm concerned it's overkill for the space. A few folks have suggested I would better of leaving the single LED's out and possibly adding some in at a later date if need be.

I'm trying to cut down the end draw / consumption. At the minute in that space I have two 600w HPS with a 400w HPS in the middle. But having seen what is achievable with LED's at much less wattage out the plug I can resist a go.

Hard to source the parts in the UK though.

i would go cob only to get it up and running and you can add stuff later.35 to 40 cobs in there would do well,if your plan is to totally pack the space then maybe think about using 48 cobs to get 1 cob per sq foot.but also you can mix em up and try some 2700k 3000k and 3500k cobs if you are looking for a better mix of light..also this place has free world wide shipping now and has good stock on a few dif color cree cobs,plus holders,adapters,heatsinks.and if you use the growmau5 code they will give you 5% off at checkout. http://www.rapidled.com/cree-cxb3590-3000k-80-cri/

 

[licoricetree]

MeanWell HLG-600H-36

Max current: 16.7A can power 36V COBs at the following approximate wattage (actual wattage varies slightly by particular chip -please note driver has a hard limit of 36V and cannot drive CXB3590 above 2.1A. CXB3070 above 1.6A, CLU048-1212 above 1.2A, or Vero29-D above 1.3A):
[email protected] (~63W ea) (CXB3590)
[email protected] (~51W ea) (CXB 3590, CXB3070)
[email protected] (~43W ea) (CXB 3590, CXB3070, CLU048-1212, Vero29-D)
[email protected] (~37W ea) (CXB 3590, CXB3070, CLU048-1212, Vero29-D)
[email protected] (~29W ea) (CXB 3590, CXB3070, CLU048-1212, Vero29-D)


info taken from cobkits site

 

[licoricetree]

Parallel all the way for your amount will help you on $ because of less drivers. Just add fuses and resisters and you are good.