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Project: Alpha

Big Perm

Big Perm

Well-Known Member
I have these old greenhouse prototypes that are years old. They are called Alpha. This light project ended and a new model was designed. These run hot and are normally 400w. I have them on some regular houseplants and vegetables.
Hydro Grow LED designed these lights a while ago. It was a prototype, and the cooling was so bad on the air flow that it always ran way hot on one side and would overheat drivers. They haven't changed the spectrum in their product line from the very beginning. Half of the boards have been unplugged so that it would run at 200w. I showed my pics in a thread and was recommended I wire up the boards in series to be able to power them all at half wattage instead of half the boards at full wattage.
This is the thread for all of the modifications I am going to do to this light. I will also be doing a veggie grow with these after I do the modifications.
Thank you.
 
cobshopgrow

cobshopgrow

Well-Known Member
that should do it, hopefully, those alu boards are pretty demanding :-)
But its a Weller with a big tip, good choice.

if you like post a apicture of the internals, we may can see some.
Would be good to know the driver used and from pictures we may can see the wiring.
Cant gurantue sucesss, just some soldering practice.
Not so unimportant, try to make the wiring in parallel not in series, it is driver dependend, i guess they use CV.
Btw. you have a multimeter at hand?

Think in best case we can see a efficiency gain when the current is halved.
As there is hardly any data for driving epileds reds low, efficeincy wise, i think that could be interessting stuff.
 
Big Perm

Big Perm

Well-Known Member
cobshopgrow said:
that should do it, hopefully, those alu boards are pretty demanding :-)
But its a Weller with a big tip, good choice.

if you like post a apicture of the internals, we may can see some.
Would be good to know the driver used and from pictures we may can see the wiring.
Cant gurantue sucesss, just some soldering practice.
Not so unimportant, try to make the wiring in parallel not in series, it is driver dependend, i guess they use CV.
Btw. you have a multimeter at hand?

Think in best case we can see a efficiency gain when the current is halved.
As there is hardly any data for driving epileds reds low, efficeincy wise, i think that could be interessting stuff.
Click to expand...
Will do.
 
Big Perm

Big Perm

Well-Known Member
cobshopgrow said:
Not so unimportant, try to make the wiring in parallel not in series, it is driver dependend, i guess they use CV.
Btw. you have a multimeter at hand?
Click to expand...
I do have an old cheap one.
I'm wiring them in parallel, sorry I misspoke earlier.
Going to wire them up tonight.
Anything you want readings on?
 
cobshopgrow

cobshopgrow

Well-Known Member
oh wow, thats a lot of drivers!
didnt thought that, i am worng those are cc drivers and as far i count 9 drivers, omg, 9.
Would need quite a bit to figure this wiring out, what a mess, haha.
One single driver for each board, plus a small unknown one on the right.
It is also a bit late here.

We could say, ok let the drivers be drivers and put the boards in parallel, if CC or CV driver doesnt matter.
One dirver will then power 2 boards at halved current each.

Check if the boards are the same, led wise.
In the end, connect one- with anothers minus of a corresponding board, same for plus, simple parallel wiring.
Repeat for the other board.
Hope it wont give magic smoke.
Probably there are more elegant ways to skin the scat, but that aproach is the simplest, also simplest to revert.
Thought the internals are a bit clearer... man lots drivers.

Good luck!
Dont worry too much about the multimeter, just always handy to check for shorts or you could trace down all in theory, while, wouldnt touch the internal wiring myself, more hassle may then the simple bridge.

edit: didnt saw the pics of the board, you where too quick
oh and what i describe is simply whats done everyday with qb boards, same procedure.
 
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Chip Green

Chip Green

Well-Known Member
I, personally... would be inclined to Frankenstein
that beyatch with aftermarket upgraded active cooling.
Run it full nuts until it gives out.
Then, reclaim the heatsink, fashion it with updated emitters of some sort, add a brand new Meanwell and run it again.
 
cobshopgrow

cobshopgrow

Well-Known Member
somehow also thought nice heatsink could be a nice diy base.
thinking of the emitters, theyre easy to solder, upgrading them with a bit more recent chinese reds and see.
Mean thats more for toying around, but it is just a few dollar to try, as far i see.

Big Perm said:
One driver for each board and one for the fans.
Click to expand...
got it! easy then.

youre on track, good luck again and dont blame me if i caused unhealthy smoke.

forgot to say, flux helps a lot when soldering these leds, if not allready knowen.
 
Big Perm

Big Perm

Well-Known Member
Chip Green said:
I, personally... would be inclined to Frankenstein
that beyatch with aftermarket upgraded active cooling.
Run it full nuts until it gives out.
Then, reclaim the heatsink, fashion it with updated emitters of some sort, add a brand new Meanwell and run it again.
Click to expand...
That was kind of the point of the project. I'm doing these minor mods, and going to see how it performs. I have four of these and am running them all on some houseplants and stuff. Mainly leafy greens.
I can't run them all out like that for a few reasons. The main one being that would be 1600 watts, and I'm not looking to throw that much wattage out of these. I will take the coverage area though that four alphas will provide, so I'm just going to run them at half for roughly 800w.
 
Last edited:
Big Perm

Big Perm

Well-Known Member
cobshopgrow said:
somehow also thought nice heatsink could be a nice diy base.
thinking of the emitters, theyre easy to solder, upgrading them with a bit more recent chinese reds and see.
Mean thats more for toying around, but it is just a few dollar to try, as far i see.


got it! easy then.

youre on track, good luck again and dont blame me if i caused unhealthy smoke.
Click to expand...
Those are great ideas.
 
Big Perm

Big Perm

Well-Known Member
I have a smaller heat sink just like this laying around. Probably half the size. Anyone ever run cobs on one of these with fans?
 
Big Perm

Big Perm

Well-Known Member
Can I just solder a jumper wire from one pos and neg from a live board to an unhooked one?
Probably just do that.
 
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