DIY with Quantum Boards

Airwalker16

Airwalker16

Well-Known Member
The drivers have a lot of internal protection . A fire is unlikely. I think @Humple and I both would advise against the drivers is for warranty reasons and having no knowledge of previous use time.

Buy then again... 2 hlg-240's for $40... I'd honestly say fuck it and just buy em. But try to use the fact that if they ever shit on you, there's no warranty, and you're out the cash, to try and get them for 30, or even $20 if you can.
 
ilovereggae

ilovereggae

Well-Known Member
Airwalker16 said:
The drivers have a lot of internal protection . A fire is unlikely. I think @Humple and I both would advise against the drivers is for warranty reasons and having no knowledge of previous use time.

Buy then again... 2 hlg-240's for $40... I'd honestly say fuck it and just buy em. But try to use the fact that if they ever shit on you, there's no warranty, and you're out the cash, to try and get them for 30, or even $20 if you can.
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Yeah Im still on the fence. My buddy at work thinks Im crazy too but as long as they still work, I am tempted. They been up there for a while. Ill lowball them and see what happens.

[update] - Got them down to $30. Going to sleep on it for a day or two and decide over weekend.
 
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Airwalker16

Airwalker16

Well-Known Member
ilovereggae said:
Yeah Im still on the fence. My buddy at work thinks Im crazy too but as long as they still work, I am tempted. They been up there for a while. Ill lowball them and see what happens.

[update] - Got them down to $30. Going to sleep on it for a day or two and decide over weekend.
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Are they on eBay or from a friend?
 
Airwalker16

Airwalker16

Well-Known Member
ilovereggae said:
Yeah he said they were given to him by a friend, and was told they worked fine. He says he will refund me if they don't. Its only 20 min drive, so worst case scenario I waste some gas and a few hours of my life.

What strips could I run on these?
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All bridgelux EB series and the 1&2foot Samsung's strips.
 
2

2com

Well-Known Member
Humple said:
I never buy veg-only boards, but that's just because I have an OCD thing about thinking I just MIGHT need to flower with them someday...
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Hah, me too. Well, my thoughts on "veg light" and "flower light" are changing (as information as new information changes).
Humple said:
Personally, I wouldn't take the chance on the drivers.
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Me neither. They don't even look well taken care of.
ilovereggae said:
Yeah he said they were given to him by a friend, and was told they worked fine. He says he will refund me if they don't. Its only 20 min drive, so worst case scenario I waste some gas and a few hours of my life.

What strips could I run on these?
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Why don't you bring a multimeter if you have one. You could at least check to see if the output is within spec (datasheet) or something. If you have a board(s) you could bring and see what it does (or, "what it do", cuz). You know? :)

(Edit: some words were left out.)
 
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Humple

Humple

Well-Known Member
2com said:
Well, my thoughts on "veg light" and "flower light" are changing (as information as new information changes).
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Honestly, I've been very pleased with the veg performance of straight 3000k, 80 CRI. The only spaces in my garden using different spectrums are one chamber of a grow cab that has a 3500k QB (I'll probably turn this into a space for mom plants), and the nursery, where I use a 65w 6500k CFL for the babies. Easily more than 90% of all the actual vegging I do happens under 3000k, and as long as the intensity is appropriate, I do not see inordinate stretching.
 
H

Hempire828

Well-Known Member
Budzbuddha said:
Quantum girls ..... ( QB96s ) Agromax finisher and Agromax Bloom bulb ( 3000k )

The Deputy - Bruce Banner #3 x Stardawg ( greenpoint seeds / delta 9 labs )
GsG - Girl Scout Glue ( Girl Scout cookies x GG4 )

Finished the KKP ( chop ) and a Sour Stomper x Purp Gorilla ( from a member here ;) ) and going into day 4 of dry ...
Cali RH is a bit dry lately so I have to keep my peepers on them . I turned a hall closet into a pseudo “ drying chamber “
because I had nowhere else at moment to use. Buds have been broken apart to eliminate any trapped moisture “ in between “ .
Ive been seriously thinking of putting a 3x3 tent up just for drying . Nothing fancy , just a space that can have some minor air extraction and darkness . Also , I could pull ready to harvest plants and shove into that dark tent , so I could let plants either
dry “ in pot “ and chop “ whenever “ since I don’t have to worry about it synthesizing any light. Like after work.

Just thinking out loud ....

All of the plants have been on that Layered FFOF / EB STONE mix with myco / MYCOCHUM and top dress.
Same ol tap water ( with a slightly higher ph as of late ) 6.7 ... to help keep the calmag issue with LED lights a bit more under control.
I learned quickly that the Quantums make plants crave more calmag ... FFOF is 6.3 out of bag. This mix keeps everything pretty green without much effort. I do tho bump the myco activity once a week ( great white ) , for flower I still just add only kelp to water and top dress. No more bottles for me ! But unfortunately I have 3 bags of megacrop that isn’t really being used since I layer soils.

The Deputy

One of the frostiness bitches I have ran across ... according to strain description it’s supposed to be a bit gassy / “ dieselish “ ,
but it smells literally like sugary candy . Who knows ? Trim from here will definitely be used for something. Word has it that this strain is discontinued- which is a shame in my opinion so I will have to pop another for seed making like I did for the KKP . I did minor LST and some selective pruning on her . No UV used on this one.

View attachment 4472700View attachment 4472701View attachment 4472699

GSG

This one was “ supposed “ to be reg but flowered like an auto ... she’s stacking up so I’m going to continue 18/6 until end or if I need to FLIP her at some point. LST her a bit and that’s pretty much it. Stretch has slowed so it’s moving on to stacking. No real definitive smell
characteristic ( other than weed smell ) but I am thinking this girl will go an easy 11 weeks or so because of its Sativa lean. That’s why I think it won’t speed thru like a typical auto. No hurry on this one. I will have to “ feed “ it later in the flower I’m guessing once medium begins tap out maybe then I will do Megacrop. I will see how long I can top dress.

View attachment 4472702View attachment 4472704View attachment 4472705

CASH ” THE PIT “

My poor CASH , guarding crops is hard fucking work I guess ...... lol

View attachment 4472712
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That is a beautiful pit man.. looks sorte like my guy.. RBJBT!!!!trees too as always...
 
ilovereggae

ilovereggae

Well-Known Member
I made a few spreadsheets last night and researched the strips as well. I think between not knowing where those drivers came from, the overall poor shape they are in, and being limited to QB120s/strips, I am going to pass.

Heres what I came up with. I want to plan to run my veg lights super soft like I am with my flower closet. My new cabinet will be 7 ft tall 2x4', with a shelf in the middle. This way I can have plenty of space for some bonsai Moms on one shelf and be able to have a full 2x4 tray of 8 vegging plants that I can transplant into their 2 gallon final pots a few days before flower to let them get over transplant before I flip them (current round I had to transplant the day I put in flower closet). So that said, I think 240W total, with 120W per 2x4 shelf (15sf/w) is my goal.

If I went with the used drivers, I could get a 4 pack of qb120s and run them at 60W each. Pros is this is my cheapest option since they dont need heatsinks, and mounting them would be super simple. My current veg is a hlg65 which is a qb120 so I think this would work fine. Cons is that there will be times when I dont need to run lights on both shelves, and having all 4 lights on one driver limits my ability to do that (like right after I flip a round into flower I have a week or so of downtime where i would be wasting a lot of light.). I could also get Bridgelux strips, but it looks like I would need a bunch of those, and with my math it would be more expensive than just buying v1 boards and less than half the amount of diodes.

My new plan is to just get 6 v1 288 boards, and run them 3 per hlg-120 @40w each with no heatsinks. You guys have me convinced I should just get them in 3000k since ill have a ton of diodes. This way I can turn off one of the shelves as needed and save some electricity. Plus I already have one driver, and one 288 v2 board to start with so I only need 1 driver and 5 boards. Overall its less than $100 more to go this route and I feel like this setup will last me a long time.
 
Humple

Humple

Well-Known Member
ilovereggae said:
I made a few spreadsheets last night and researched the strips as well. I think between not knowing where those drivers came from, the overall poor shape they are in, and being limited to QB120s/strips, I am going to pass.

Heres what I came up with. I want to plan to run my veg lights super soft like I am with my flower closet. My new cabinet will be 7 ft tall 2x4', with a shelf in the middle. This way I can have plenty of space for some bonsai Moms on one shelf and be able to have a full 2x4 tray of 8 vegging plants that I can transplant into their 2 gallon final pots a few days before flower to let them get over transplant before I flip them (current round I had to transplant the day I put in flower closet). So that said, I think 240W total, with 120W per 2x4 shelf (15sf/w) is my goal.

If I went with the used drivers, I could get a 4 pack of qb120s and run them at 60W each. Pros is this is my cheapest option since they dont need heatsinks, and mounting them would be super simple. My current veg is a hlg65 which is a qb120 so I think this would work fine. Cons is that there will be times when I dont need to run lights on both shelves, and having all 4 lights on one driver limits my ability to do that (like right after I flip a round into flower I have a week or so of downtime where i would be wasting a lot of light.). I could also get Bridgelux strips, but it looks like I would need a bunch of those, and with my math it would be more expensive than just buying v1 boards and less than half the amount of diodes.

My new plan is to just get 6 v1 288 boards, and run them 3 per hlg-120 @40w each with no heatsinks. You guys have me convinced I should just get them in 3000k since ill have a ton of diodes. This way I can turn off one of the shelves as needed and save some electricity. Plus I already have one driver, and one 288 v2 board to start with so I only need 1 driver and 5 boards. Overall its less than $100 more to go this route and I feel like this setup will last me a long time.
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I like it! Great use of space, man. The only problem I can see with the plan is the idea of running a v2 board in parallel with v1 boards. They all have the same voltage specs per HLG, but running different batches/generations of boards together like that is usually discouraged.
 
ilovereggae

ilovereggae

Well-Known Member
Humple said:
I like it! Great use of space, man. The only problem I can see with the plan is the idea of running a v2 board in parallel with v1 boards. They all have the same voltage specs per HLG, but running different batches/generations of boards together like that is usually discouraged.
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Thanks! Should have said that too. I planning on running them in series. Thats how I have my other boards run. Using the 204W 24A driver would have limited me to parallel, which was another reason I decided to go with 2) 120W 54A drivers instead.
 
Airwalker16

Airwalker16

Well-Known Member
ilovereggae said:
Thanks! Should have said that too. I planning on running them in series. Thats how I have my other boards run. Using the 204W 24A driver would have limited me to parallel, which was another reason I decided to go with 2) 120W 54A drivers instead.
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Use LRS drivers man. hLGs are so overrated and expensive. LRS work JUST AS WELL but can't dim. I don't think that's all too important . Especially if you use 2 or 3 drivers for a build, you can just use 1 of them turned on for less light.
LRS come in 50,75,100,150,200, & 350 watt options
 
Humple

Humple

Well-Known Member
Airwalker16 said:
Use LRS drivers man. hLGs are so overrated and expensive. LRS work JUST AS WELL but can't dim. I don't think that's all too important . Especially if you use 2 or 3 drivers for a build, you can just use 1 of them turned on for less light.
LRS come in 50,75,100,150,200, & 350 watt options
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He already has an HLG-120. And in my opinion, dimming is very important; not only can it extend the useful life of your boards, it provides yet another facet of control over your garden.

Edit: Oh, and for the efficiency-heads out there, the HLG/ELG/XLG offer around 5 percentage points greater efficiency than the LRS. Last I checked, anyway.
 
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