4x4 Tent Lighting

I’m looking for suggestions for a light for a 4x4x7. It will be for four autos and grown in coco if that makes any difference. I haven’t had the tent up in five years and I’ve been researching newer lighting. I have a Platinum P450 from the last time the tent was going. I realize that it insufficient and I want to step up to really getting thick colas. I can solder and build anything with instructions so diys are acceptable. I would like to keep the price under $600 if that’s possible. Thanks in advance.

That's a good budget for that space if your wanting LED

What part of the world you in fella?

coreywebster said:

That's a good budget for that space if your wanting LED

What part of the world you in fella?

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I’m in the US.

You can light up a 4x4 for as little $300-$350 sticking with US companies.

Horticultural lighting group do their v1 boards with heatsinks for $49 each, 4 of those and two meanwell xlg-240 drivers for around $300 plus some aluminium to frame it and some 18gauge wire and bits n bobs and you have 480-560w of quality whites. (10% discount with code riu10 at checkout)

Or you could look at the v2 or rspec boards for more cash.

Or you could get all exotic and order boards from growlights Australia, there's a thread or two on those kicking about in the LED section.
Or if you want spectral tweaking look at cutter.au 's solstrips, solskin or boarder riders for multi channel high cri strips.

It all depends on how deep down the rabbit hole you want to go really.

If you want to look at other strip builds it would be worth checking out ledgardeners site for some in depth but simple builds.

If your not 100% on matching drivers to LED cobs, strips or boards then defo look for growmau5 on youtube and look for his early 7 part series which explains all the basics of driver matching, heatsink options ect.. though things are a bit more simple these days its still worth knowing the basics.

Biggest problem is too much choice !

coreywebster said:

Biggest problem is too much choice !

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what you think about bridgelux eb slim gen 3 strips?

VRZ711 said:

what you think about bridgelux eb slim gen 3 strips?

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Hear great things and look good on the data sheets, not tried them personally.

They are cost effective and available in 90cri too I think so that's a plus

coreywebster said:

Hear great things and look good on the data sheets, not tried them personally.

They are cost effective and available in 90cri too I think so that's a plus

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thank you for your reply.

700-1700 mA around 20 volts each, got 8 of them 80 cri, 5X 3000K and 3X 5000K, they seems good, and they need no heat sink when driven on 700 mA,

i hooked them up to HLG 240 driver and they seem to be doing good till now.

still thinking to add deep red to them

coreywebster said:

Biggest problem is too much choice !

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That’s the reason I made this post to be honest. I’ve been reading journals and watching spectrum and par testing. It seems like the information is never ending and I can’t make up my mind.

Lawndart420 said:

That’s the reason I made this post to be honest. I’ve been reading journals and watching spectrum and par testing. It seems like the information is never ending and I can’t make up my mind.

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there are some sites like degi key, if you open them you will be even much more confused, took me 1 month browsing that site in order to get what i want, and after i did, i heard that osram has the best lighting solutions in regards of spectrum when it comes to cannabis growing, i have seen some people success with 75 watts of osram led in 2X2 area, but the problem is you have to buy the diodes and do everything by your self, buying their lights will cost you much, but you will save on your bill, also they have a grantee for 8 years on their products.

coreywebster said:

You can light up a 4x4 for as little $300-$350 sticking with US companies.

Horticultural lighting group do their v1 boards with heatsinks for $49 each, 4 of those and two meanwell xlg-240 drivers for around $300 plus some aluminium to frame it and some 18gauge wire and bits n bobs and you have 480-560w of quality whites. (10% discount with code riu10 at checkout)

Or you could look at the v2 or rspec boards for more cash.

Or you could get all exotic and order boards from growlights Australia, there's a thread or two on those kicking about in the LED section.
Or if you want spectral tweaking look at cutter.au 's solstrips, solskin or boarder riders for multi channel high cri strips.

It all depends on how deep down the rabbit hole you want to go really.

If you want to look at other strip builds it would be worth checking out ledgardeners site for some in depth but simple builds.

If your not 100% on matching drivers to LED cobs, strips or boards then defo look for growmau5 on youtube and look for his early 7 part series which explains all the basics of driver matching, heatsink options ect.. though things are a bit more simple these days its still worth knowing the basics.

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I’m sure if I’m allowed to post links so I won’t but is this the same thing as you’re describing but just in a kit?
260W QB V1 LED KITx2

Lawndart420 said:

I’m sure if I’m allowed to post links so I won’t but is this the same thing as you’re describing but just in a kit?
260W QB V1 LED KITx2

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Yeah that's the one , I used to have the same 2x over half my 4x8.

Reason I suggested going with 4x these

Is due to the fact you can spread them further apart than having two boards on twin heatsink , so you can get better spread.

Plus you can pick up the xlg driver fairly cheap so instead of spending $229 per 260 kit your getting 4 boards and sinks for $200 minus $20 with the discount, then its around $50 per driver, of which you need two.

The other bits and bobs, aluminium L profile to tie them all together and wire and wagos and some chain to hang are all very cheap to buy, im not in US so you will have to see what those items cost locally.

And yeah you can post links on here, as long as its not spamming nonsense.

As far as spectrum, lots of options to be more complex but not a huge amount of evidence to show the spectral tweaks make much difference.
We still have lots to learn and lots more to prove! So photons over spectrum seems to win for now until more evidence is presented.

Though im seeing evidence that high cri is a bonus , like those aussie highlight boards , which I also own a few of.

Nothing to say you can't get a base light like suggested and add tweaks later to spectrum, dpends what you want to do, some people just want to grow and smoke where others find building LEDs and tweaking or pimping them out becomes as much a hobby as the growing itself.

VRZ711 said:

thank you for your reply.

700-1700 mA around 20 volts each, got 8 of them 80 cri, 5X 3000K and 3X 5000K, they seems good, and they need no heat sink when driven on 700 mA,

i hooked them up to HLG 240 driver and they seem to be doing good till now.

still thinking to add deep red to them

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Cobshops tests indicate they might run a bit hot at 700mA, better to keep them under 700 or just use basic alusheet/angle.

I bought a bunch of blux gen3 2700k 90cri and had them tested; they came in between 2.2 and 2.8 depending on current, and with heatsinking. Id rec them for 500-700mA less heat and better performance.

have to say i never tested the slim with 700mA, mostly therefore i am carefull to state they take it, they probably do, with very ok temps.
but why not stay below 700mA theyre not very expensive.
2.8 is very good for a 90cri rocket ! keep us updated.

Looks like they removed all the v1 288 boards/kits

Rocket Soul said:

I bought a bunch of blux gen3 2700k 90cri and had them tested; they came in between 2.2 and 2.8 depending on current, and with heatsinking. Id rec them for 500-700mA less heat and better performance.

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how is the results ? when i drive them at 700 they are about 25 C in the grow room.
also you have any details on the 3000K 80 cri ? is it good for flowering alone or i shall add some far and deep reds ?

Waiting for a full report. No dets on 80cri, id guess about 5% better.

Cobshopgrow has some thermals on ebgen3, they looked like a bit hotter than the gen2, less pcb.

Rocket Soul said:

Waiting for a full report. No dets on 80cri, id guess about 5% better.

Cobshopgrow has some thermals on ebgen3, they looked like a bit hotter than the gen2, less pcb.

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Thx for your reply.
im having them on 80mmX40mm aluminum tubes. as a heat sink, 3 strips per pipe. and all is good, if i run them on 1400 they wont be even that hot. maybe 30, and this is what im planning when i go flowering.

The ebs are a cheap and cheerful alternative but the pcb isnt really made for driving it hard, expect 2.255-2.3 ppf/j which is not great. They are cheap enough to drive tthem soft imho

if i remeber right the eb2 thermals where taken in a lower ambient then i did with the eb2 slim.

beside that my temp gun always showed lower readings then my thermal cam, about 5c.
hard to guess the die temp with such a gun.
just worth to note it,to get a better picture.

oh and have to note i run my eb3 slim in real world with about max 300mA and they stay very cool at this power draw. low 30s die temp.
while i cant imagine they get at 50c die temp @ 700mA, bare, with a lower ambient then 30c.