dyi hlg 320 from a hlg 260

Am i a fool?

  • Total voters
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Gman94

Member
Hey guys, so i already have a hlg 260 light, like this one https://horticulturelightinggroup.com/collections/kits/products/260w-qb-led-kit

It has the qb304 panels.

Now what i want to do is buy another qb304 panel and a xl heatsink that fits 3 panels, and running it on 320w.

But, hlg does not sell the meanwell drivers seperately, and i dont know alot about this stuff really, i see there are 320 drivers with a bunch of different names and such.

So basicly what im wondering is if anyone can tell me exactly wich meanwhell driver do i need to run 3x qb304 boards at 320w.

Or maybe if 3x qb304 boards can be run safely on more than 320w then maybe theres a bigger driver that would be better?
 
WeedSexWeightsShakes

WeedSexWeightsShakes

Well-Known Member
What size is your grow space?
I’d think for the price, of switching your 260w kit to a 320w kit, it wouldn’t be worth it.
Maybe add some 120 or 132 qbs or strips?
Make another fixture is what I’d do.
 
G

Gman94

Member
WeedSexWeightsShakes said:
What size is your grow space?
I’d think for the price, of switching your 260w kit to a 320w kit, it wouldn’t be worth it.
Maybe add some 120 or 132 qbs or strips?
Make another fixture is what I’d do.
Click to expand...
Im gonna buy a 320w for a seccond setup and want to upgrade my 260w to 320w just so they are identical.

The total cost of building the 320w from the parts i already have will be 250 usd.

https://horticulturelightinggroup.com/collections/kits/products/hlg-40

I could add two of these for almost 100 dollars less and get 340w total so yeah i guess you’re right that would be better, lol i hadnt even thought of that.

https://horticulturelightinggroup.com/collections/kits/products/hlg-35

Or maybe this would be a better option to get some red light in the room ? My current light is 3000k.

What do you think benefits me the most? The 35w red supplement or the 40w white?

Any tips are greatly appreciated. Thanks
 
G

Gman94

Member
WeedSexWeightsShakes said:
What size is your grow space?
I’d think for the price, of switching your 260w kit to a 320w kit, it wouldn’t be worth it.
Maybe add some 120 or 132 qbs or strips?
Make another fixture is what I’d do.
Click to expand...
Im growing in 2 secret jardin dark street ds120w

They are 2x4x5’’7.
 
Randomblame

Randomblame

Well-Known Member
You want a HLG-320H-48A(50-100% dimming) or B(0-100% dimming) and wire all the three QBv2 in parallel. Max. output would be ~350w at the wall.
With last years QBv1 you need an HLG-320H-54A or B by the way and you can not mix v1 and v2 boards because of their different voltage requirements.
 
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Gman94

Member
Randomblame said:
You want a HLG-320H-48A(50-100% dimming) or B(0-100% dimming) and wire all the 3 boards in parallel. Max. output would be ~350w at the wall. Would work very well!
Click to expand...
Thanks! Is 350w the highest to safely run the qb304 too ? If not is there a bigger driver i could use to get more power out of them?

Horticulturelightinggroup sais on their site that the max of a qb304 is 150w but idk if that means you can safely run them on this amount of power for x amount of time and not expect them to break.
 
Randomblame

Randomblame

Well-Known Member
At first, I've edited my post above and added some more information.

Yeah, 150w is safe but the next bigger driver would be the HLG-480H-48 or 54A or B, which is a 550w driver. This driver is normally used with 4 boards in their HLG-550 kits. You could use the HLG-480H-54B and use a 50k dimming potentimeter with added 20k resistor to turn it into a 70k poti. This way you get only 70% of its maximum output (~385w) and its safe to fully ramp it up. But the HLG-480 is ~100$ more compared to an HLG-320 and I don't think its worth the 30-40w more.
350w is a shit load of light and enough for 1m² or a 3x 3' area. If you realy need more light you could add a few Samsung F-strips(same LM561c S6 diodes like on Quantumboard v1). 2ft single row strips(144 diodes) are ~50w each(single row is ~25w(72diodes)). But they need their own driver..
 
G

Gman94

Member
Randomblame said:
At first, I've edited my post above and added some more information.

Yeah, 150w is safe but the next bigger driver would be the HLG-480H-48 or 54A or B, which is a 550w driver. This driver is normally used with 4 boards in their HLG-550 kits. You could use the HLG-480H-54B and use a 50k dimming potentimeter with added 20k resistor to turn it into a 70k poti. This way you get only 70% of its maximum output (~385w) and its safe to fully ramp it up. But the HLG-480 is ~100$ more compared to an HLG-320 and I don't think its worth the 30-40w more.
350w is a shit load of light and enough for 1m² or a 3x 3' area. If you realy need more light you could add a few Samsung F-strips(same LM561c S6 diodes like on Quantumboard v1). 2ft single row strips(144 diodes) are ~50w each(single row is ~25w(72diodes)). But they need their own driver..
Click to expand...

Hmm yeah, there seems to be alot of options but it all boils down to whats most cost effective, how to get the most amount of light with the least amount of cash.

Seems like getting some supplementary lights alongside the 260w is more cost effective, its a shame the qb136 are out of stock or i would do like @WeedSexWeightsShakes said, that would give me almost 1000w in total.

Since those are not available atm, my remaining option seems to me to be the qb96 then but i dont like the dimensions of them, the qb136 would spread the light just perfect with 1 on each side of my 260w.
 
G

Gman94

Member
I actually found qb132 boards om amazon!, now i just gotta decide how to drive them.

Whats the pros / cons of wiring them in series vs wiring them parallel?

Anyone got any tips for best drivers for 6x qb132 in one tent + 2 in the other?

Thanks guys.
 
G

Gman94

Member
WeedSexWeightsShakes said:
Could use this for 2 132 boards
https://www.arrow.com/en/products/elg-150-36a/mean-well-enterprises

If you want best efficiency hlg drivers are what you want.
Click to expand...
Okay yeah that one would save me money, and actually give me a higher power output to both boards. but thats the non dimmable one, so i found the dimmable one called ELG-150 36B. Saves me money and able to max the boards out at 75w each, thats perfect.

If i knew more about electronics i would be able to tell for myself what drivers are compitable and wich are not but i dont so the ones i found on my last post was just some that horticulturelightinggroup had listed as driver options for their qb132 board.

Is there any driver that can get more power of the 6 board setup aswell perhaps or is the 320 my best option without spending alot more for the 550w driver mentioned earlier ? .
 
WeedSexWeightsShakes

WeedSexWeightsShakes

Well-Known Member
Gman94 said:
Okay yeah that one would save me money, and actually give me a higher power output to both boards. but thats the non dimmable one, so i found the dimmable one called ELG-150 36B. Saves me money and able to max the boards out at 75w each, thats perfect.

If i knew more about electronics i would be able to tell for myself what drivers are compitable and wich are not but i dont so the ones i found on my last post was just some that horticulturelightinggroup had listed as driver options for their qb132 board.

Is there any driver that can get more power of the 6 board setup aswell perhaps or is the 320 my best option without spending alot more for the 550w driver mentioned earlier ? .
Click to expand...
I am not good at drivers either lol.
Someone with more knowledge will chime in.
I went with those elg drivers for my 132 boards.
Maybe a dimmable 480 driver for 6 dimmed down?
 
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