1000 real watts, DIY cobs

[Jimmyclone42]

Im finally starting my build, i have been lurking around at others projects for a while and tring to decide what i actually needed... Or wants vs needs... Had looked at timber, pacific lighting concepts, northen grow lights, etc, etc.. Then i stumbled onto "rapidled".. They had better prices, and actually had product in stock, imagine that.. As i was an electrician for 8 years before getting a cushy mill job, i decided i should build my own instead of paying someone else to do it.. So i through in my order to RAPIDLED and here we go..

16x Vero29 gen7's SE(poke in) 3500k-D
16x 140mm passive heatsinks
16x thermal pads
4x HLG 240-1750B
2x Incased pot's 0-10v
16x 3' pieces of angle aluminium
All needed hardware

I have been slowly putting together the frame over the past week as i have been waiting for the parts to arrive. The outter frame and reinforced angle corners are done. Had to wait on the heatsinks to have exact measurements before drilling those holes. Im not in a huge race to finish as i have about 2 or 3 weeks more to go on my current hps run... I will hopefully have 1 of the panels finished this week or next..

Ok, so the plan is 2 panels of 8 cobs each. Each panel will have 2x hlg240-1750's on it, powering 4 cobs each. So we should be right at 1000w.. Give or take.. These chips should run at about 37v at 1750ma, between 11,000-12,000lm's a pop. Around 64.75w per cob.. My plan is a 3-2-3 setup on each panel.

I run a 8x8 tent, but by no means fill it. I usually run 10 plants at a time. There is a center bar in the tent, so its like having a 4*8 on ethier side of the bar.. I only use about a 4*4 spot on ethier side of the bar for 5 plants... Right now i have 10 cramped under a 1000w hps.. Not very ideal... I have the largest hood they build, but still not good enough spread.. This setup should provide much more even coverage, 8 cobs per 5 plants.

I live in climate that is cold in the winter(-20 Celsius) and hot in the summer(25-30 Celsius), so hps was i big issue last year for summer. Way too hot.. Its great in the winter as i can reuse the heat in the house, so the hps might still get used for a month or 2 each winter.. Or mabe just take a winter break??? Hahaha.. Probably not.. I bought a plug in thermostat to regulate the exhaust fan in the tent, to keep tempetures ideal.. What a change it will be to not having the fan blasting 18hrs a day... Next post will be the pics..
Cheers everyone

 

[Jimmyclone42]

Doing a hang test for a couplr days to make sure the ferrules on the cable hold..

 

[Joe34]

Hey nice build, Im about to do something very similar but with 40 Veros...

great to see u didnt choose overpriced CREE!

Why did you get the 29 D?(and not the B, or C)? What CRI are those?

 

[Jimmyclone42]

80 cri.. The d's are the 36v chips.. So u can get more per driver.. Cree cxb's are older tech(2yrs) at a premium price for the Cree name.. Its veros or citi's all the way.. I didn't like the holder/adapter bs of the citi's though... The poke ins are a all in one.. They even have a little lip on the chip housing.. A mini built-in reflector if you will... 40 Veros???? You must have a lot of space my friend, or running them Pretty soft??
Cheers

 

[Jimmyclone42]

Im already using 4 drivers just to run 16 chips... Drivers get expensive

 

[Joe34]

Hey, Ye vero/citi all the way!!

How much did each 29 SE cost? I also noticed the little reflector lip haha

Yes I have 5x10 sq ft area, but going to run them soft so that I get 190+ L/pW

How does it work out that you get more per driver with x voltage? I thought realisitcally that just depends which volt/amp setup you use? Or is there something im missing.

 

[Jimmyclone42]

The drivers will have a max voltage that they can put out. On meanwells site you can see the difference between models. So wiring the cobs in series adds the voltage of each cob to the next in your chain.ex.4 of my vero c's is 36+36+36+36v=144v..So if u use the c version that is a 72v cob , i can only run 2 on the same driver... Now yes i could push those two 72v cobs with 1750ma and run them to 126w instead of the 63w i plan on, but that is a little too hard for my liking. You have to check what the fv(forward voltage) of the driver is and add your cob voltage together to figure out how many you can run on that unit. The lower the amperage the higher the voltage will be and the more cobs u can run in series.. But they will be at a lower wattage overall..
Power (watts) = voltage x amperage
I chose to drive them up to 63w. You want the type B drivers so you can dim them.. So in reality i can dim my 1000 cob watts down to 100w and anywhere in between..
Make sense??? Clear as mud... Hahah..
Cheers

 

[VegasWinner]

The drivers will have a max voltage that they can put out. On meanwells site you can see the difference between models. So wiring the cobs in series adds the voltage of each cob to the next in your chain.ex.4 of my vero c's is 36+36+36+36v=144v..So if u use the c version that is a 72v cob , i can only run 2 on the same driver... Now yes i could push those two 72v cobs with 1750ma and run them to 126w instead of the 63w i plan on, but that is a little too hard for my liking. You have to check what the fv(forward voltage) of the driver is and add your cob voltage together to figure out how many you can run on that unit. The lower the amperage the higher the voltage will be and the more cobs u can run in series.. But they will be at a lower wattage overall..
Power (watts) = voltage x amperage
I chose to drive them up to 63w. You want the type B drivers so you can dim them.. So in reality i can dim my 1000 cob watts down to 100w and anywhere in between..
Make sense??? Clear as mud... Hahah..
Cheers

I like your build I shoot for 50w per sqft for best light dispersion. The lower the power you drive your cobs the more efficient the light will be plants thrive at lower power can absorb more energy that way. I veg at 25w bloom at 50w at it is beautiful to watch at lower power less cost cooler temps fewer fans etc etc etc. Nice build like your details. I am an old electrician too

 

[Jimmyclone42]

The veros are actually more efficient than the crees over 50w, where as the crees are better below 50. Power is super cheap where i live as almost all power comes from hydro electric dams, so that isnt an issue for me. The reason i chose this wattage is i actually need some heat in my tent as its in the basement.. Ether i ran them soft and would need a heater, and probably 8 more cobs, heatsinks, drivers, etc, etc. Or do what i did, drive them a little higher, 65w, and hopefully wont need a heater at all.. And a lot less cost in materials..
Cheers

 

[Jimmyclone42]

So the day has arrived.... Put on your glasses people.... This is only 250ish watts.. Started at 36" above overnight.. Dropped it a bit today.. Finishing up my last 2 girls..
Next run will be Brooklyn sunrise.. DP genetics.. Only doing 4 so 1 panel should be enough... I did change my pot to a 50k and ran a 4.7k resistor with it.

 

[nevergoodenuf]

You mean something like this

 

[visajoe1]

You mean something like thisView attachment 3904297 View attachment 3904307

 

[Jimmyclone42]

Wholly heatsinks batman...
Very nice

 

[Hawoodrose]

Nice work man !!

I'm looking for change all my setup. Actually i have 3 spot tgl star 60w of todogrowled for the mother room, and i will try one spot on flowering for see if it's nice. Led is future !

 

[Raging Stalk]

Vero C are a much better option than D. Efficiency wise, cooling requirements and a higher optical output.

It goes in order C then B then D (maybe a Bridgelux easter egg) for performance. Value is dependent on price but most suppliers have B and D the same so it is better to get B with C being the highest cost but best value.

For even more cost efficiency you can go v22 which are a close match to vero 29 B for efficiency but are half the cost. You will need to provide a holder and do some soldering though. Vero SE is great with the poke in connectors and holder making it easy to swap out chips.

 

[KonopCh]

Vero C are a much better option than D. Efficiency wise, cooling requirements and a higher optical output.

It goes in order C then B then D (maybe a Bridgelux easter egg) for performance. Value is dependent on price but most suppliers have B and D the same so it is better to get B with C being the highest cost but best value.

For even more cost efficiency you can go v22 which are a close match to vero 29 B for efficiency but are half the cost. You will need to provide a holder and do some soldering though. Vero SE is great with the poke in connectors and holder making it easy to swap out chips.

You don't need holder for V22. It has holes for screws.
And V22 C is as good as V29 B if driven under 40-50W or 1050 mA. Higher the amperage, better buy Vero V29 B.

 

[Jimmyclone42]

Vero C are a much better option than D. Efficiency wise, cooling requirements and a higher optical output.

It goes in order C then B then D (maybe a Bridgelux easter egg) for performance. Value is dependent on price but most suppliers have B and D the same so it is better to get B with C being the highest cost but best value.

For even more cost efficiency you can go v22 which are a close match to vero 29 B for efficiency but are half the cost. You will need to provide a holder and do some soldering though. Vero SE is great with the poke in connectors and holder making it easy to swap out chips.

The c's were the same price on cutter as the d's i bought in the us.. I didn't want the c's because i would need 4 more drivers to push them at the wattage i wanted.. The cost to run the c's is not worth it in my eyes.. Drivers are more expensive than cobs.. And there an eye sore in the tent. My panels are heavy enough with just 2 attached.. I did consider the 50v citizen chips.. But again, 2 more drivers.. Electricity is cheap where i live, so to gaining a few more lumens per watt is not a concern for me.
Cheets

 

[Raging Stalk]

The c's were the same price on cutter as the d's i bought in the us.. I didn't want the c's because i would need 4 more drivers to push them at the wattage i wanted.. The cost to run the c's is not worth it in my eyes.. Drivers are more expensive than cobs.. And there an eye sore in the tent. My panels are heavy enough with just 2 attached.. I did consider the 50v citizen chips.. But again, 2 more drivers.. Electricity is cheap where i live, so to gaining a few more lumens per watt is not a concern for me.
Cheets

Respectfully, that is the completely wrong approach to take. You shouldn't build your light source around the drivers. It should be built based on light output for the best value on what you determine is important, i.e. efficiency, SPD, etc, for your best plant growth.

The difference in the CBD series isn't just vf but performance. Think of it similar to binning with Cree. Taking each of the 3000k 80 29s run at 40w we get the following efficiency numbers according to the simulator:

C - 65.2vf, 613ma, 40w 198lm/w
B - 49.4vf, 810ma, 40w, 171lm/w
D - 35.7vf, 1122ma, 40w, 166lm/w

So on a watt for watt consumed basis, the C version is 20% better performance wise over the D. The difference is even greater the lower the wattage goes, at 20w the spread is 240lm/w versus 174lm/w for a 38% improvement.

Sorry to be the one to let you know, but the D version are basically the lower quality batches in the Vero series. If you got SE versions then they are simple enough to swap out when you want to upgrade later.

 

[Jimmyclone42]

And i would also need 4 more drivers to push the same amount of chips. It doesn't make financial sense, unless stating your chip efficiency is your only concern. 4 more drivers creates more heat, which means cooling the tent. So any efficiency gain in the chips is lost in power consumption to run extraction fans, ac units..4 more drivers would be around 250$, as i stated power is cheap here, it would take me years to recover that money in the small efficiency gains of the c chips.. Also im always upgrading everything i own, i guarantee within a year there will be better 36v cobs and i will switch. Until these drivers get a higher forward voltage, 72v chips are not worth the cost.. To each there own, i chrunched though all the numbers b4 buying my setup, i would make the exact same choice again...
Good luck with your build
Cheers

 

[Jimmyclone42]

And its a 16.2% efficiency gain at 40w..i built my rig to run at 50-60w.