DiY LEDs - How to Power Them

Rocket Soul

Rocket Soul

Well-Known Member
10WeekFlushBro said:
Nice to see youre still at it. Yeah I hear ya. My issue with some/most/all lights is that they still cut corners. Inferior drivers, relatively low led count running at high power. Will probably break sooner. Also if they have a 4ft light the bars are only a little over 3ft. We all know the plants under diodes perform better & PPFD drops off fast outside the fixture.. Kinda maddening they got so much right except the actual fixture size.

Whats funny is, in 2018 it seemed like things were progressing so quickly. Never thought it would be this stagnant until 2024. Diminishing returns, I guess. EB gen 2s running for 6 years like a champ. Tough choice IMO. Longevity and spread from DIY vs. higher efficacy, ease and better spectrum* from retail. Granted my EBs are old, but I see lights getting similar or even better PPFD dimmed to 260 watts compared to 320 on my own build.

cheers

*better spectrum than bare 3000K strips, i.e.
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Fixture size and strip length is a very important part of light intensity: if youre getting lower from your 4ft diys its very possible down to the other light being slightly smaller, thus concentrating rhe light. Fwiw i always spec my lights a little smaller than my cannopy: in openspace this helps so you dont lose too much intensity by spreading everything out too much.

Thing with diy is that you can control this even after its built; just make some more room add som strips and bigger driver.
I still got eb3s performing very well, but in 2700k 90cri, which i would honestly prefer before the typical 4k +660 offerings.

Being able to self repair is also a big boost for me. But saving money on lighting by diying is almost impossible by now. Too many decent low cost alternatives
 
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rageous

Member
Hey I bought a inventronics 320S310DT. 320 watts 2100-3100ma. Plan on adding two Vero 29 gen 7s to the 2 I already have and eliminate 2 drivers. My question** will I be able to run 4 if these? The output is 52-148vdv and the datasheet from Vero says they tropically run 37.6 putting me at 150.4. , Just wondering if anyone knows if it'll work or not. Going to run them at 2100 ma but I'm just barely at the cutoff.
 
shimbob

shimbob

Well-Known Member
rageous said:
Hey I bought a inventronics 320S310DT. 320 watts 2100-3100ma. Plan on adding two Vero 29 gen 7s to the 2 I already have and eliminate 2 drivers. My question** will I be able to run 4 if these? The output is 52-148vdv and the datasheet from Vero says they tropically run 37.6 putting me at 150.4. , Just wondering if anyone knows if it'll work or not. Going to run them at 2100 ma but I'm just barely at the cutoff.
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Should work, although I'm not intimately familiar with inventronics drivers
What will likely happen is that, unable to provide the voltage that your LEDs want to run at 2.1A, the driver will provide them with what it can: 148V. So each cob will get 37.0V. In response to not getting the voltage they want to run at 2.1A, the cobs will settle at a lower amperage. Consult the cob data sheet to see what current the cobs want at 37.0V. It should light up, just slightly below the full power.
 
Rocket Soul

Rocket Soul

Well-Known Member
rageous said:
Hey I bought a inventronics 320S310DT. 320 watts 2100-3100ma. Plan on adding two Vero 29 gen 7s to the 2 I already have and eliminate 2 drivers. My question** will I be able to run 4 if these? The output is 52-148vdv and the datasheet from Vero says they tropically run 37.6 putting me at 150.4. , Just wondering if anyone knows if it'll work or not. Going to run them at 2100 ma but I'm just barely at the cutoff.
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This is a constant power driver. Ive not worked with inventronics CP drivers but i have with meanwell. Basicly meanwells meant you have a dimmer pot, you turn power up as far as it get, and then it starts to flicker and go out. Dial back a little again and thats your max current, although if you go back half an hour later when the cob is hot you maybe able to squeeze thru a bit more current but then likely to not have the cob start up next time the timer switch it on again from cold.
If we follow the two datasheets strictly then you should be able to get to 37V per cob, which would correspond approximately to 1750mA. But usually both cobs and drivers work with a slight bit of margin so you nay be able to get a bit more out, just be aware that any extra power you can squeeze out may mean it wont start again from cold, when voltage is a bir higher than while hot.Screenshot_2024-11-12-20-47-50-098_com.google.android.apps.docs.jpg
 
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rageous

Member
See I've got to run this at 2170 ma minimum and I have zero experience dialing down the driver. It says it's dimmable so I have a dimmer on the way. After looking at the datasheet its 37.6x4= 150.4 so...I guess when I wire em up I'll figure it out. Lol. Thanks guys. I have only worked with mean well and they give ya a volt or more when it's that close. Had to buy the driver. It was 20 bucks. Have a few of the Vero 29s from ages ago and figured why not. Haven't grown in years and with this extra 3-4 cobs added to what I have now I'll have way more than necessary in my closet. I might head back now and get it wired up. I'll let ya guys know. Gonna hit it with the multimeter and see what it's about.
 
Rocket Soul

Rocket Soul

Well-Known Member
rageous said:
See I've got to run this at 2170 ma minimum and I have zero experience dialing down the driver. It says it's dimmable so I have a dimmer on the way. After looking at the datasheet its 37.6x4= 150.4 so...I guess when I wire em up I'll figure it out. Lol. Thanks guys. I have only worked with mean well and they give ya a volt or more when it's that close. Had to buy the driver. It was 20 bucks. Have a few of the Vero 29s from ages ago and figured why not. Haven't grown in years and with this extra 3-4 cobs added to what I have now I'll have way more than necessary in my closet. I might head back now and get it wired up. I'll let ya guys know. Gonna hit it with the multimeter and see what it's about.
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I dont read the data sheet like that, seems to be 2170mA minimum to be in the good performance window, under that you wont be able to give constant power and full output.

The problem however is that it is a high voltage input driver: it takes AC input from 249V to 480V. Im not sure what application its meant for but likely some type of 3 phase powering. Speak to a sparky cause i dont really know if this is going to work on a standard plug.
 
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rageous

Member
Yeah I haven't hooked anything up yet Lol. I just blew a cxb 3590 because of a dumb mistake upon taking out and reconnecting some of my lights. Ive never paid attention to the input as I've never really had to I guess. Just opened box of driver's and yeah all mine are 100-240v. Hmmm...you might be right. Do I have that kind of power? Lol. Im in the states so if that helps. I'm going to look into this because literally every single driver probably 10 are 100-240v. Thanks for the heads up on that and looking at the numbers. Glad you dudes are here to offer some advice.
 
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Rorro

Member
Hey just passing by to say thank you Supra! Your tutorial was the best to make my first step into the led technology!
Back in the day I was looking for an upgrade of the HPS and I found about the cree led technology thanks to your diy.

It took me a while to understand all the procedure (the cob + driver combination) but It worked wonderful!
I created a Cree CXB3070 + Meanwell HLG-60H-36A
Now I stored it and I am using Quantum boards.

Here are some old pictures when I used it.

The first 3 pictures are from a Jack Herer. (back in 2016)

The other ones was a test I did about using just 1 cob at 60w for 2 plants, to the left is a Snow Fruit from Sweet Seeds and to the right an Og Kush from Dinafem. (these pictures are 4 years old).

Cheers and have a good weekend!
 

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