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I mostly just pick numbers that speak to me. Like, on a particular day, I might be really feeling a “4” vibe, so I’ll throw that into a few cells.

I know it! I’m still trying to figure out what I can do to get more power. When I’m ready to throw in the towel, I’m just going to run it with no heat sink and literally cook the thing I guess. I’d like to kill it fair and square though...

After failing the first time, I took a second run at overpowering a QB288, this time armed with a 600W driver and a boost converter. Don’t try this at home :grin:

If you dim the current on a driver, it doesn’t increase the max voltage output of the driver, but by dimming and putting less current through the diodes, the voltage drop across them decreases and may bring the total system voltage drop down into the constant current range of the driver. In this...

I just tested this the other day. I took a 260W kit and tested PPFD in open air with and without reflectors, then tested in a 3x3 tent with and without reflectors. Will be sharing the video this week.

Almost all the "A" type CV drivers I've gotten are set pretty much on the nose at their rated voltage (54v in this case). Either way, you can turn the 135W kit driver right up to max and the QB will do just fine.

You're talking full power like 1600mA for the 304 or 3000mA for the 288? Open air or reflective walls? I can test this. Cheers :D

Shit! I was about to buy a 2800mA driver since I thought for sure that would do the trick. Maybe I'll go 3500mA just to be sure... :o

This is a great explanation. Your 40W example has a typo in it - I know you meant to write "1.00A" but I'm just pointing it out because I'm a nitpicking asshole :lol:

Likewise :lol: Cheers

Oh shit, there's a club?! I've been missing out. There are some sweet builds on this thread.

Bahaha "muppet"! My wife's got a new insult for me now. Dirty deeds must be done for the greater good!

Thanks dude :grin:

Thanks! That PPFD should be pretty easily attainable at that distance but I'm not sure how far out from directly beneath the lights you could maintain it. I'll give it a try next week sometime and see.

How many people run setups like this? I'm not being snarky either, I'm genuinely curious. I'd think that running this close to the light would severely restrict its coverage.

Thanks! The reckoning is coming for those boards and I'll be sure to film it :fire:

I'm partial to the QB288 since I feel like they're inherently more flexible at 54V. If you ever expand, you can run more in series and not have to worry about current distribution. With the 304s, you'd need to run parallel and there's a chance they'll vary in terms of how much current they pull...

Agreed. I'd go 36V for flexibility. And yeah OP I think it makes more sense to go constant current if you're new to electronics. They're much more forgiving. Check out this constant current driver calculator if you haven't seen it already - it'll make it easier to compare options.

Those passive sinks will probably be fine and you can always add air to them later if you have to. Just monitor the current on each COB for the first while and make sure it's stable. The current through each 1818 will depend on the voltage you set on the driver. To get 1600mA through an 1818...

I've been doing some testing on parallel/constant voltage setups lately to see if I could get COBs to go thermal. I found that they were very stable until I threw a ton of current at them (like 3 Amps), at which point they did go into thermal runaway on me. Interestingly enough, when I...