Any COB builders around? Best guides?

1. Should an amateur with no wiring experience be building an LED grow light?

(former cell phone/laptop/PC tech, so not a dummy, just not experienced with this)

2. Are there people here willing to buy, build, and sell to me? (legal grow)

3. Are there pre-made systems right now that are dependable and high-quality, for decent $$$?

1. Yes. Not that difficult.

2. Yes, depending where you're at

3. I prefer to save money. What is your time worth?

Yes, yes, and yes

really all you need to do is glue or screw the cob led chips to a correct size heat sink

then glue, solder, use a bracket or what ever to wire up the drivers

then if its an aircooled unit you`ll have to sort out a fan

for $120 to $200usd they even sell a 1000w led chip, you use 4 drivers, its got screw terminals all you need is drivers and a large heatsink

they said running them @ 800 to 850w is fine I think the guy said 45v @ 5A

but I just made a 600/700w unit that uses 3 cobs to side light a bloom room with when it gets a bit cooler as I`ve already got 1400/1600w of led on in that one

still been tempted to make a 1000w 3000k or red led unit with one chip just to see how well it does

http://timbergrowlights.com/products/grow-light-kits/
They are wired together all you need is a frame to hold it and plug it in.

If you have that tech background then you can easily build your own. Just research, watch some videos and enter the project with confidence. Exit the project with pride.

300w kit is 500** (edit), I think the most I would be willing to spend NOW would be 300 or so

May double it up in the future/supplement

BTW limit of power usage is about 400watts guys

GreenLeafKief said:

BTW limit of power usage is about 400watts guys

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Cobkits.com has light engines that are pre assembled and all you would need to do is buy a driver. Sure he would even help you with some good advice. Northern grow lights has assembled units but looks to be mostly sold out but you can still go look and see when they will have more in stock. Both places sell the Cob led lighting. Just a couple examples you might check out.

It's a piece of cake and you can get kits that are priced pretty much the same or less as you would pay buying all the pieces. Just make sure you go step by step and read everything you can about how to do it properly and you should be fine.

VenomGrower6990 said:

Cobkits.com has light engines that are pre assembled and all you would need to do is buy a driver. Sure he would even help you with some good advice. Northern grow lights has assembled units but looks to be mostly sold out but you can still go look and see when they will have more in stock. Both places sell the Cob led lighting. Just a couple examples you might check out.

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hey I appreciate the concrete tips

Given responses here and in my other more-open question thread, I think the only competition for the 300-watt COB setup in a 3x3 tent would be a 315-watt CMH @33000 lumens......thoughts?

GreenLeafKief said:

Given responses here and in my other more-open question thread, I think the only competition for the 300-watt COB setup in a 3x3 tent would be a 315-watt CMH @33000 lumens......thoughts?

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I don't think that's even close.

300 watts of cobs is a lot of cobs....

Checkout Growmau5 here and on YouTube. Great teacher and grower.

those timber grow light kits are pretty cheap all prewired just get some L bracket frowm home depot http://timbergrowlights.com/products im waiting to get a smaller system because my tent is 2x2

ill build you one but itll be from scratch using whatever chips you want and decide the spacing you need. ill choose the heatsinks, fans, and ballast. im an electrical engineer, this cake,

I'm thinking of building one as well but I did come across this for $260 and wondering if it would be good to play with I've been reading a bit but to truly understand the power limits and colors I need to do a bit more reading, about a years worth it seems lol

Budley Doright said:

I'm thinking of building one as well but I did come across this for $260 and wondering if it would be good to play with View attachment 3783324View attachment 3783325I've been reading a bit but to truly understand the power limits and colors I need to do a bit more reading, about a years worth it seems lol

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nice whats the actual power draw?

nvm i looked. its not posted

iHearAll said:

nice whats the actual power draw?

nvm i looked. its not posted

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If I had to bet I`d say 70w to 100w per cob

probably just has 5 x 100w drivers or one 600w driver if your lucky 1000w china made lights are normally like 300 to 500w draw max

fitting the cobs to the heatsink is a lot like fitting a cpu to a heatsink

then its just wires to the driver and driver to mains

some need cooling if you can`t afford passive heatsinks sometimes using an old hid aircooled hood is cool, fit up your leds in that and use a turbo fan or your extract line to cool the cobs and drivers

these are built onto recycled wood and flooring. (and a magnum 357 panel) they're each ballasted with bubblegum and shoelaces. theyre each ballasted where a single AC capacitor is being used as a power resistor that emit no waste into heat. then rectified the AC into DC so the LEDs can be run on 90-100v DC in series. the big light is 6 red in series and 3 blue + 1 white in series. i got the LEDs a few years ago and got around to building it recently. so its balasted on 5$ worth of parts and works like a charm.