This is what I have

[Greenthumbskunk]

Bought for my new grow lights.

Going to be building led fixtures. Bought 2 different kinds of LEDs, strips and cobs both driven by HLG drivers.

I have 2 different kind of grow areas. One is a big room 12'x 15' foot the other is tents (2x4) tents four of them and a 4x4 and a 4x8 veg.
The big grow area is the problem I'm dealing with I'm in RDWC and the buckets line the walls in a U shape. The scrog net is 42" wide around the peremiter but don't use it all the time just when I have a large stretchy plant otherwise the net is being used around 30-36". These are the measurements of the scrog space around the perimeter

North wall 15 foot long 42 inches wide

West Wall 56 inches long 42 inches wide

South Wall 12 foot long 42 inches wide

I bought 94 -2' 3500k strips (bridgelux BXEB-L0560Z-35E2000-C-B3)

28 cxm-22 gen 4 cobs with 133mm heatsinks

Bought HLG-320H-48A for the cobs (10x)
Bought HLG-320H-C1400A (10x) for the bridgelux EB series gen 2 strips


What kind of footprint do these throw for decent lighting?
Which lights to use in the Ushape flower room?
How to wire the lights? Diagrams?
How far a part should the strips be from each other?
How far apart should the cobs be?
Was gonna run the cobs in the tents but second guessing myself because of the 2' distance of the strips. And not really seeing how to make a proper fixture for the area because I don't know the footprint of light thrown.

Any help greatly appreciated.

 

[Rocket Soul]

So you basicly got a very long and snaking 4 foot aisle, right?
Youve cone to the point were you need to get practical rather than planning. Id do this to get started:
Your drivers will divide your build into smaller units. Have you figured out how many strips to put on one driver? Im guessing yes. So build that first unit. Starting with the strips will ensure a 4 foot long foot print. Remember, this first unit should be able to cover aprox 2-2.5 feet of your 4 feet aisle.
Start out by putting 2 strips on a alu u-channel so you get a 4 foot strip, then repeat this until you filled the first driver, make sure you have some flexibility in the connections so you can move it around a bit. And start from there.

The cobs: a bit trickier as i dont know how much the heatsinks can take. Im guessing around 50-60watts should be ideal, maybe 6 cobs on each driver. That way you can organise them into 2 rows of 3 cobs, again over 2-2.5 feet section of your grow.
You would do parallel connections on the cobs, get some wagos for comfortable connections. You would need 2x 8way wagos or 4x 4 way wagos and 2x 3 way wago per driver for the dc side.

 

[Greenthumbskunk]

Thanks for the reply. I've already got some wagos that I purchased at the same time, They are the 4 ways.

I'm having trouble figuring how many strips per driver that I can use per fixture. Originally it was for a 3x3 footprint, the U shape flowering area is 42" wide so 3.5'. not the whole 3.5' is used I have some indicas that only take up 3 foot.

I originally bought the led strips for the U shape grow area and the cobs for the tents. I'm just having an ordeal in properly building the right fixture for the strips. Are the strips capable of lighting 6" to the side of it? If they are I can build a fixture with strips every 6".
If I combine 2 together to make a 4' long section then it would be 12-2' strips on a fixture.
Like this

 

[Chip Green]

I'm having trouble figuring how many strips per driver that I can use per fixture

The voltage of those drivers (234v) SHOULD, allow 12x BXEB 560mm strips, as they each have a minimum V of 19.4 at 1400ma, the typical is 20.5 at 1400ma.....Its going to be right on the edge though, and if they aren't cooled enough at that amperage, the V could end up exceeding the drivers output...I have no idea what happens then.
I have lots of experience with BXEB 560mm 3500K, though none of my current builds are using 1400ma, I use 1050ma as a standard. I have run at 1400ma before just to test the "max" , and I believe with proper thermal management they have no issues running at their quoted max...
I get plenty of light on the ends of my racks, even more than 6" from the strip, in my opinion....
There have been thermal tests done, running the BXEB at 1400ma without heatsinks, and they did manage to stay below the temperature threshold of failure. So, most believe that ANY heat removal at all, will keep them in safe operating ranges.

 

[Greenthumbskunk]

@Chip Green

I did read I believe on ledgardener that they always underrate the drivers a tad and they are capable of a little more but those are the safe specs from meanwell.

Would you mount the drivers on the frame? Mount a fan on the driver?

How would you wire those strips like that?

 

[Chip Green]

All my drivers are remotely mounted. I just always liked my frame to be as light as possible, I like to hang them at weird angles sometimes.
I never actually mounted a fan on to one, but I do have some mounted near the exhaust end of a scrubber in one of my rooms. No reason not to cool them, but not absolutely necessary.
With the constant current drivers you have for the strips, you're looking at wiring in series.

 

[Greenthumbskunk]

All my drivers are remotely mounted. I just always liked my frame to be as light as possible, I like to hang them at weird angles sometimes.
I never actually mounted a fan on to one, but I do have some mounted near the exhaust end of a scrubber in one of my rooms. No reason not to cool them, but not absolutely necessary.
With the constant current drivers you have for the strips, you're looking at wiring in series.

Okay thanks for the response. Do you think that would be adequate amount of watts for flowering at that square footage?

 

[Chip Green]

I do....Your rough U shaped dimensions totaled up to around 110sq feet. 3200 watts(ish) from the 10 HLG 320s, puts you just about 30w per sq foot, which in my experiences, is satisfactory for EB series units.
I consistently hit 1.5 gpw (for what thats worth) with around the same w/sqft....Same general style it appears too, rectangular areas, roughly 3x3 per plant...
Some may say more is better, but I get plenty with what I use, although aint' tryin to win any awards here either....

 

[Rocket Soul]

The voltage of those drivers (234v) SHOULD, allow 12x BXEB 560mm strips, as they each have a minimum V of 19.4 at 1400ma, the typical is 20.5 at 1400ma.....Its going to be right on the edge though, and if they aren't cooled enough at that amperage, the V could end up exceeding the drivers output...I have no idea what happens then.
I have lots of experience with BXEB 560mm 3500K, though none of my current builds are using 1400ma, I use 1050ma as a standard. I have run at 1400ma before just to test the "max" , and I believe with proper thermal management they have no issues running at their quoted max...
I get plenty of light on the ends of my racks, even more than 6" from the strip, in my opinion....
There have been thermal tests done, running the BXEB at 1400ma without heatsinks, and they did manage to stay below the temperature threshold of failure. So, most believe that ANY heat removal at all, will keep them in safe operating ranges.

I dont see how that would work well: typical fV is 246V for 12 strips. The driver might light them up but they will run at a lower drive current.

Also running them without heatsink would mean they are hotter which means fV will go lower, not higher. But id sincerely doubt they would go so low that it would come.in range of 234V.

 

[Chip Green]

Yeah I'm not certain that 12 is gonna work either. I was going off numbers in my head, based on nominal current of 700ma when I typed that out, then had to edit after I looked at the 1400ma range, and never redid the math.....

 

[Chip Green]

fV will go lower, not higher.

And how I came up with that blunder? Wooops...I check V drop all the time, I musta had too much glycerine….

 

[Greenthumbskunk]

I dont see how that would work well: typical fV is 246V for 12 strips. The driver might light them up but they will run at a lower drive current.

Also running them without heatsink would mean they are hotter which means fV will go lower, not higher. But id sincerely doubt they would go so low that it would come.in range of 234V.

So I need to stick with 10 strips per driver?

 

[Chip Green]

10 strips per driver will definitely run properly.

 

[sonmanc]

10 strips per driver will definitely run properly.

I wanted to try a build of strips like this however having hard time with proper heat sync. Could you possibly recommend what strip I should run on plain aluminum strips and how many to properly run a 3x3 . I was thinking the same strips however it's hard to find details on builds with no heat sync. I figure I'll need a few extra to make up for running lower temps however no real clue what to run at. Would appreciate any advise as it looks like you may have already done this. Trying to figure what is the max % to run them at. How many. And maybe shoul I be running ,different strips that perform better at lower %?

 

[Greenthumbskunk]

I wanted to try a build of strips like this however having hard time with proper heat sync. Could you possibly recommend what strip I should run on plain aluminum strips and how many to properly run a 3x3 . I was thinking the same strips however it's hard to find details on builds with no heat sync. I figure I'll need a few extra to make up for running lower temps however no real clue what to run at. Would appreciate any advise as it looks like you may have already done this. Trying to figure what is the max % to run them at. How many. And maybe shoul I be running ,different strips that perform better at lower %?

If your gonna run a 3x3 might look into 1 foot strips. Hard to mak 2' stretch to 3'. That's some of the problems I'm running Into

 

[Chip Green]

I've been carrying around this brainchild of a rack of EB series 1 footers, to get that elusive 3 foot square photon quilt.
I have many CC 700 MW drivers, might have to spring for some Heatsink USA profiles and see what those can do at full rip....

 

[sonmanc]

If your gonna run a 3x3 might look into 1 foot strips. Hard to mak 2' stretch to 3'. That's some of the problems I'm running Into

Yeah there hard to find though. What is the max percent do you run without heat sync? Any idea? Does 1000lumen strips doubled up run cooler or better to stick with 2000 or 4000 lumen strips?

 

[Greenthumbskunk]

Yeah there hard to find though. What is the max percent do you run without heat sync? Any idea? Does 1000lumen strips doubled up run cooler or better to stick with 2000 or 4000 lumen strips?

I think maybe it was digikey who had some when I bought my 2 footers