High End COBs vs $2 COBs...

ThaSeedMan said:

Posts Like These Crack Me Up . Opinions are like assholes everyone's got one .
Since I Myself am An Asshole Here's my Opinion

Do whatever the hell works for you & whatever works for your Budget .
Shit you can get smaller Cree COBs that I think are 14.8w n run em at 10w for $1.39 USD ! & my boy built a bigass unit with small Crees and its badass

I Plan On Getting All Sorts of COBs Cause I Wanna Experiment & could use the extra lighting for my future exploits & I'm not new to building lights . just haven't had the pleasure and privilege of Building with COBs Yet !!!
Can't Wait to get the Parts In !!!

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Aolelon said:

Theres definitely more than just opinions in this post.

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nfhiggs said:

"I have used value priced drivers and have never had a safety issue. I find the lower price point a good way to expand my growing operation without sinking much needed capital into infrastructure."

That's pretty much what I have been saying.

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nfhiggs said:

LOL - Not really true at all. They ARE a major part of the cost - even at $12-$15 per cob. You're still assuming the use of premium Mean Well drivers at $0.25-$0.30 per watt, and $20-30 dollar passive pin heatsinks. While I'm using $3 CPU heatsinks, and budget power supplies that cost $0.07 per watt. You guys dunno how to "Ghetto DIY" this shit... LOL.

We are easily in the same efficiency ballpark as those Philips 13W bulbs. When you figure in the number of sockets you have to kludge together, those LED bulbs are not as nearly cheap as they first seem on a per watt basis. I can make 300W of COB light using a $25 power supply, six $2 COB's ($12), six CPU heat sinks at $3 each ($1 a $6 wallwart 12V supply to run the fans and $20 worth of wire and doodads. Roughly 80 bucks total. 300W of those 13W LED bulbs are going to run ~$120 just for the 24 bulbs you need - not to mention all the sockets and splitters. As for that "UL listing" and Warranty - that's out the window as soon as you rip the globe off the bulb to get that 120-130 L/W.

Don't get me wrong here- I think the LED bulbs are a good affordable option as well, but they are not really the cheapest...

There's more than one way to skin a cat, and more than one configuration for building COB's.

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ThaSeedMan said:

Well u got so many people saying get these or get those and then get people that use "Crappy $2 COBs" and have no issues so it comes down to Is it At Least a Decent or Good COB & Does it work for You & Your Budget ???

I Personally plan on doing a bunch of experimenting with a bunch of different COBs

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caretak3r said:

from what I've seen, you can run cheap cobs but they only compare well to higher end cobs when you run them @ 10W or less

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CobKits said:

depends. some cheap cobs may never get to the same efficiency level of good cobs. in either case your post explains why these arent the bargain they are cracked up to be when you are buying and mounting 5-10x as many components *in hopes* they will perform as well

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caretak3r said:

having trouble editing above post, I'm specifically referencing running the most current cheap $2 COBs which have many diodes which are rated @ 100W. So, if you take a cheap 100W or 70W cheap cob, and run it at 10W instead, it's decent. if it's not cost efficient to run @ 10W, then more often than not you are better off buying quality COBs

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ThaSeedMan said:

What about running em at Half Power ? 35 or 50w ? Can I do that safely with COBs ?

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Aolelon said:

You can do it safely but like in the post, its not very cost efficient,

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nfhiggs said:

I disagree. 35-50W is where they ARE cost efficient. Three $2 cobs on a $12, foot long 4.850" heatsink profile, running off a $17 Meanwell LRS-150-36 power supply, add three 120mm fans for $10, and you got a 100-150W light for less than $50. It only becomes cost prohibitive when you drop wattage way down to 10W per cob, and then the cost per watt of your cobs becomes comparable with the Citi 1212's and such - at that point you may as well use the better chips.

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