DiY LED - Cree CXA3070

I usually just mount mine on the board bare and use a few dabs of silicon to cover the outermost exposed AC connections. Another option you can heatshrink the driver or just the AC side. (These are the 900mA (30W) drivers)



If you use the eBay drivers, each Vero 18 would run at 31.5%, dissipate 42W and cost $1.51/PAR W.

Or you could use those drivers on a Vero 29, each Vero29 would run at 35.75%, dissipate 51W and cost $2.20/PAR W.

Another advantage, the eBay drivers are power factor corrected, so your AC wiring will stay cooler and lower carbon emissions to the environment.

All that said, I am not sure the Vero 3000K looks great on paper to flower on its own due to the low amount of blue (8% Mr Flux estimate). SDS (and anyone else with an opinion on this) if you had to choose only one color temp from the Vero line for a flowering lamp what would it be?

Thanks to Mr Flux for this graph!

mmm food for thought supra. Thanks a TON. I would rep you but... alas... cannot..

I like blue in the mix The other option was a mix between primarily 2700k and some 4k.

What got me thinking is running vero 29s at 51w ... I could run just 10 and be at 500w of led. In my estimation that would be more than a suitable replacement for 600w hps.

I like the ebay drivers better for the reasons you mentioned. worth a few extra bucks IMO.

Yes sir I can assure you 500W of Vero 29 @ 36% efficient will outgun a 600 HPS. In my experience it can replace a 1000 HPS but those results need to be repeated by more growers to be confirmed.

SupraSPL said:

Yes sir I can assure you 500W of Vero 29 @ 36% efficient will outgun a 600 HPS. In my experiene, it would replace a 1000 HPS but those results need to be repeated by more rowers to be confirmed.

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Thats my plan! if it works in my tent I will retrofit the cabinet with all led COBS. I want to cut my power bill just a little AND produce more than I currently am.

SupraSPL said:

I usually just mount mine on the board bare and use a few dabs of silicon to cover the outermost exposed AC connections. Another option you can heatshrink the driver or just the AC side. (These are the 900mA (30W) drivers)
View attachment 3177200


If you use the eBay drivers, each Vero 18 would run at 31.5%, dissipate 42W and cost $1.51/PAR W.

Or you could use those drivers on a Vero 29, each Vero29 would run at 35.75%, dissipate 51W and cost $2.20/PAR W.

Another advantage, the eBay drivers are power factor corrected, so your AC wiring will stay cooler and lower carbon emissions to the environment.

All that said, I am not sure the Vero 3000K looks great on paper to flower on its own due to the low amount of blue (8% Mr Flux estimate). SDS (and anyone else with an opinion on this) if you had to choose only one color temp from the Vero line for a flowering lamp what would it be?

Thanks to Mr Flux for this graph!
View attachment 3177248

Click to expand...

Once we used to grow with less than 8% blue ...(HPS ) ...
My opinion is either 3000K 80 CRI or even
(if you want more of the ..."sugar peppering " effect ..And the smell / taste ...)
4000K CRI ....

There isn't something like 3500K 80 CRI ,available on those ..?
Something in between ,brother,maybe ? ..

Cheers...

stardustsailor said:

Once we used to grow with less than 8% blue ...(HPS ) ...
My opinion is either 3000K 80 CRI or even
(if you want more of the ..."sugar peppering " effect ..And the smell / taste ...)
4000K CRI ....

There isn't something like 3500K 80 CRI ,available on those ..?
Something in between ,brother,maybe ? ..

Cheers...

Click to expand...

I had great results with my Area 51 XGS which uses all 3750k cree whites.

Well ,the Cree CXA3070 3000K ,80CRI - bin : AB- ,at 1400mA ,
has some really amazing 'capabilities' ,regarding growing plants..
Difficult to beat ....
A true "champ" ,indeed ...



Cheers.

That chart really is great. Thanks a lot to MrFlux for the calculus again. From that, you can tell that the 3000k 80CRI ones have about 50% more power in the 660nm area than 5000k, which is pretty substantial. As for 4000k vs 3000k, it's giving up the red difference sliver for the green difference sliver + some extra blue. I'm not sure if that's really worth it.

There's always the option supplementing 3000k's with blue or violet leds, or supplementing 5000k with 660nm. Which of them puts out the most total power?

SupraSPL said:

View attachment 3177248

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SomeGuy said:

What about casing those fast tech drivers? or using the ones you just linked to on ebay. I like having an enclosure for them.

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I carefully drilled and taped the aluminum plate on the back of the fasttech drivers, attached them to a length of angle aluminum with screws and mounted them vertically in a old PC power supply case. I even reused the psu's switch, emi filter and fan.

epicfail said:

I carefully drilled and taped the aluminum plate on the back of the fasttech drivers, attached them to a length of angle aluminum with screws and mounted them vertically in a old PC power supply case. I even reused the psu's switch, emi filter and fan.

View attachment 3177360 View attachment 3177362 View attachment 3177363​

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Nice use of materials, looks nice.

So what is the consensus on the ideal cob holders about the little divits on each side that screws down? I remember reading someone ground theirs off and then someone said they emailed ideal asking about the divits if they should match up with a divit in the heat sink or what. I dont see how they could be left on and the holder function properly with a heatsink that has no divit for them to sit into. The COB is hovering over the surface when those indents touch the surface.

^^^^^^^^ Do not grind them

https://www.rollitup.org/t/cob-holders-the-basics.805034/

Thank You Supra, I am glad we agree that 60W/sq is not necessary and on my part I think it is a waste with no CO2 running.
The driver you have from ebay are not dimmable isn't it ?
11$ shit that get the price of led under small hps (with electronic ballast)

epicfail said:

^^^^^^^^ Do not grind them

https://www.rollitup.org/t/cob-holders-the-basics.805034/

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Thanks man I knew it had to be somewhere Ive just been reading so much over the last couple months that I dont seem to be able to remember it all.

It looks like it wont work right but when tightened down it is designed to flex in a specific way. I just set a COB holder on the counter and pushed down on the screw points and it does flex down in the center.

Almost to 8 weeks. There are 3 HSO EMDOG (Chem4 X Dr Greenthumbs OG) ladies in this batch and this one has big beautiful nugs, grown under the CXA 3000K (Z2s and Z4s)

Reserva Privada Silver Kush fem (Silver Bubble X OG18 ) also under the 3000Ks. Great nugs, decent smell although there were a few herm balls early on, plucked them and all is well. Does not smell OG, more of a Haze/Skunk smell.

Very nice supra!

I love these cxas and I haven't even used them yet..lol. How can you not love a incredibly bright light source with manageable heat

Upgraded the tent so I wont have issues with height anymore unless I do something really stupid like run a sativa untopped or veg way too long. Also a little larger footprint which is always welcome.

The wiring is ran pretty haggard but didnt want to bother trying to run it clean when Im going to be switching the lighting up.

Day 41 12/12, coming along pretty nicely for only ~100W of COB

Wow they are packing it on! Are those the Blackberry Kush X Chemmy Jones? How do the trichs smell so far?

SupraSPL said:

Wow they are packing it on! Are those the Blackberry Kush X Chemmy Jones? How do the trichs smell so far?

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Yes the 3 of the 4 that look good are the Blackberry Jones. The one that is a little crispy and yellowed is a Pineapple Express x Cheese n Chaze the first 3 seeds Ive popped of that cross and this is the only female from the 3 but has a tropical fruity cheese smell just looks like hell. I could have done her more justice, I think I toasted her a bit with some sample nutes I was trying this round. The tips on the Blackberry Jones' are showing signs of slight burn but they handled it much better. The Blackberry Kush genetics were apparent in all 3 of these phenos even in veg I could tell by the strutcure and leaf size, shape, appearance they looked a lot like the mother.

The one in the back left is definitely a Blackberry Kush leaner though really so far of all my crosses the Blackberry Kush seemed to breed in pretty well where the Chemmy Jones male was more dominant in some of the other crosses I did. The Chemmy Jones is definitely in there but it doesnt totally dominate. The one in the back left that smells most like the Blackberry mother has some purpling going on on the top leaves like the mom would start to do around this point of flowering. The frost coverage is good. Pretty stanky and good smells all three are different. Next time Im in there I will do a trich rub and see if I cant decipher the different scent profiles a little bit.