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Yeah the Blackstars are crappy engineering. Lighthouse Hydro just set up a ODM agreement with one of dozens of clone-like manufacturers and has made a killing on it. If you do your research on alibaba you'll see what I mean. Several options exist with small resistors so that you only lose 1-3...

Hey I've been away from forum, sorry I didn't see the replies. The one dude who replied is right, just match positive (+) which is usually red, to negative (-) which is usually black. If there is a 3rd wire it is just for PWM (fan speed control) and can be ignored. If your wires aren't...

Sorry I missed the questions, I've been away from the forum for a bit. Here's the responses: I attached the heat sinks to the aluminum plate using the thermal paste for thermal conductivity, and a couple of the tiny screws from PCB were used to hold the heat sinks down tightly to the aluminum...

The holes you see in the heat sink are the dozens of tiny screws which mount the PCB to the heat sink. You shouldn't have any empty holes (unless some screws were left off during factory assembly). Back in January or February there was some discussion about the effectiveness of these heat sinks...

Your drawing is very similar to the reasoning given in Jorge's Bible for three 600W vs. two 1000 W. I think an additional image for the sake of LED would be a bird's eye view showing how multiple light sources could hit a plant from more angles than fewer sources and help to limit shading. Good...

I can only say that the Blackstar LED has some obnoxiously loud fans, but only because they're cheap. I'm curious how the other panels sound. Fan noise is related to CFM naturally, but the bearing system and blade design can have a huge impact on their performance. A single ball bearing is...

Even if the post is totally unrelated to the topic, thanks for being helpful. I think you're confused with flushing though, because drowning the plants will make them soak up all that water, and the excess nutrients are supposed to get used up since they're starved of oxygen in the roots. What...

WTF indeed! I assume they will simply say that its an older PCB, while still using 3W chips or some similar excuse, but I need to research a bit more to find out exactly what these are. Either way the panels produce well, so I hope you enjoy it! Thanks for checking out the thread!

OK all done... Like I said earlier, I should have left the film and paste alone, that stuff caused major headaches. But, I ended up with a dot-grid of Arctic Silver 5 paste above and below the film, so it worked out anyhow. Here's the salvaged heat sinks, pasted and screwed. Here's the new...

So after cursing DHL and Newegg I realized I hadn't checked the mail in several days and, of course, there were the fans. The normal fans were very loud (I'll guess around 55-60db), while the new ones are close to 30dB, which is less than my 16" oscillating fans on low speed. The new fans also...

Hehe, if you can afford ~$1500 for 350W from the SG302, you may consider jumping on the Blackstar band wagon and getting 6 of them shipped for that price, which would give you ~720W of LED. Your 600W HPS uses close to 700 /w ballast. 5 Blackstar would be right at 600W, though. You won't look...

Yeah I won't be swapping the drivers just yet, hehe. A billion tiny screws later (I only lost 2) and I have the heatsink tighter than it was initially, so I need to back them out to make them flush, OR modify the extra heat sinks, which is what I will probably do. The orange film I should have...

30 seconds of light won't hurt :D

Great stuff. FYI, Blackstar 240's pull ~133W with ~120 going to LEDs.

They should have a sticker or something with either a part number (for a specific match) or the output for a generic match. Each driver should run half the panel so 75W but its possible that 150W was twice your actual power draw. For example, the Blackstar 240 says 630mA, and pulls about...

Use Google to find the best price, but crack that thing open to see what kind of driver it has now to find which to search for. You can find drivers for 20-50 bucks.

LEDs are definitely worth the money because they pay for themselves in power savings alone, but the science behind the lights is specific for our plants so you will get great results if you get a good panel and use it well! Check out dunit purple kush under 360W LED (just finished).

Mods aren't done yet, fans and paste in the mail, but the fans will be done a few days later than the heat sinks, and should make the least difference overall. I can't comment on yield as it was paired with 400W HPS, then 400W induction. See "Kush Groove.. the Blackstar" thread for a pure...

The Blackstar 240 Flat heat sink Fans and drivers Peeling Foil Foil peeled PCB screws removed PCB separated from heatsink with white thermal paste Now we wait for the fans and paste to arrive. Led dim: Diagram:

I've had this Blackstar 240 model long enough... time to void the warranty! Power draw: 133W Cooling fans: 3X 80mm 3-watt cheap, loud, decent airflow Heatsink: 1/8 inch thick, flat aluminum plate Drivers: 2X each putting out 96V@630mA (total ~120W going through LED array, 1.5W per LED @2.4V...