converting CXA3070 active heatsinks to CXB3590 passive

CaliWorthington

Well-Known Member
You can power all 3 drivers via one powercord. 600w divided by 230vac means all three driver only draw 2,6A from the wall. Use 115vac and it would be 5,2A. I would just use a 3x AWG18(1,5mm²) powercord and three 3 or 5 port Wago clamps, one for blue(N), one for brown(L) and the 3rd one for the ground wire. Connect the according driver wires to these 3 Wago connectors and they will all be powerred via one powercord. They are still dimmable separately!

To switch them on and off you could use a Sonoff Basic for each driver. Sonoffs are digital timers but instead to plug them in the wall plug they are directly connected to the input lines(N&L). They are controlled via Ewelink app, cost only 5 bucks each and the new version BasicR3 can also work without internet connection. You can also add them to your home automating system if you want.
There a 1, 2 and 4 channel controllers available. If you plan to add a small far-red flower initiator I would recommend to use the 4 channel Sonoff. You would have 4 devices in the app and can set up to 8 timings per channel per day(4 times on, 4 times off). Minimum 1 minute! They are available with 10 or 16amp relay, with 230vac they can switch 2200 or 3600w, with 115vac it's 1100-1800w
There is also a Sonoff TH(temp humidity) which has a thermometer probe and is able to switch based on the sensor readings(14 bucks incl. probe, can switch only one device based on temps or humidity). These also store the data in a curve so you can monitor groom conditions easily.
A Sonoff POW can monitor power draw and is also useful. I also like the Basic RF which has a small 433MHz remote switch. This can be use as emergency off just in case you get unwanted visitors. Its just laying next to my main door and I just need to press off to stop my whole grow equipment.

I always buy them directly from the manufacturers website and they have many more versions like I have mentioned above. They work pretty good and because the timings are stored inside a small chip they only need internet connection when you use the app. I've just added a small 5$ wifi repeater to my groom and only switch it on when needed.

That's the BasicR3
https://www.itead.cc/smart-home/sonoff-basicr3-wifi-diy-smart-switch.html
Yeah I'll probably put 3 heatsinks one on power cord and 2 on another, with Wagos. Thanks for the detailed explanation. That Sonoff stuff sounds cool, I'll look it up. I ordered a 33 k ohm pot to dim all 3 drivers at once.

Yeah, that right!
There is an HLG-150H-48 for 150w but usually all Meanwell drivers have more current like shown in the datasheet. Sometime more like the 8% they mention in the datasheet. An HLG-120H-48 should have 2,5amps but in reality you can get up to 2,8A or more. With 3 H-influx L09 strips I expect ~125-130w net and up to 140w at the wall.
I've seen HLG-240 in CV/CC going above 300w, lol!
So with 2 such lamps in parallel you should get at least ~265w.
Sounds good. My main reason for doing this is to lower the electrical bills. These 5 heatsinks should draw a little less than the (3) 260-watt quantum boards I was gonna buy.
 

CaliWorthington

Well-Known Member
I finally got 5 of these finished a few weeks ago. When I was going to build them last year, I got sidetracked complying with the county's new property weed abatement demands. Then a finger got tore up pretty badly trying to break up a dog fight. Then I had to wait for a run under (2) 600watt DE HPS to finish.

I measured these on a kill-a-watt type meter. The single one on the Meanwell HLG-120H-48B driver is drawing 129 watts, and the ones that are doubled up on HLG-240H-48B's are drawing around 256 watts. So all 5 are drawing about 640 watts. That's barely over half what the original system with CXA3070's drew. It's 140 watts less than the (3) HLG 260 R-Specs I was gonna buy. I have 5 more heatsinks with CXA's that I'm gonna convert to these and put in a 5'x9' tent. This is allowing me to double my grow space.

I love how silent this passive system is. As long as there's a circulation fan in the room, the heatsinks stay pretty cool. I'd like to thank @Randomblame @f series and @Airwalker16 for your help! I'm waiting on some clones to root, so I don't have any great pics yet. Here's a shot of a pair running though. No that wasn't a sea-of-green grow, I was just cleaning up.
20200205_105219.jpg
 

Airwalker16

Well-Known Member
I finally got 5 of these finished a few weeks ago. When I was going to build them last year, I got sidetracked complying with the county's new property weed abatement demands. Then a finger got tore up pretty badly trying to break up a dog fight. Then I had to wait for a run under (2) 600watt DE HPS to finish.

I measured these on a kill-a-watt type meter. The single one on the Meanwell HLG-120H-48B driver is drawing 129 watts, and the ones that are doubled up on HLG-240H-48B's are drawing around 256 watts. So all 5 are drawing about 640 watts. That's barely over half what the original system with CXA3070's drew. It's 140 watts less than the (3) HLG 260 R-Specs I was gonna buy. I have 5 more heatsinks with CXA's that I'm gonna convert to these and put in a 5'x9' tent. This is allowing me to double my grow space.

I love how silent this passive system is. As long as there's a circulation fan in the room, the heatsinks stay pretty cool. I'd like to thank @Randomblame @f series and @Airwalker16 for your help! I'm waiting on some clones to root, so I don't have any great pics yet. Here's a shot of a pair running though. No that wasn't a sea-of-green grow, I was just cleaning up.
View attachment 4481744
I also have some nice huge 36" X 5.85" profile heatsinkusa sinks that easily cooled 240w of cxb3590 even has 2 140mm fans on each one
 
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