Lighting Building out my COB LED for the closet

[Dazed]

Very nice work there my friend, I just completed a build, and also a wardrobe conversion. Good luck with your grows brother.

 

[Dr Fluff]

I'm just loving all the DIY COBs I'm seeing viva la revolution.
Great to hear your getting a dimmable driver sent to you, I wouldn't be with out a dimmable driver a 100K poteniometer works well for the dimming which can be coupled with a 10K resistor.
Run @ 700mA the CREE CXB3590's are around 60% effient and run @ 1400mA they are 50% efficient. 4 COBs rum @ 1400mA will use 200W from the wall and give 100W of heat and 100W of light.
@Dazed was the person to first introduce me to COB building and I am planning more builds already.
Currently i am running one CXB3590 in a PC tower Cab which is dimmable which can help with any heat issues come mid summer in my tiny cab.
The COB is turned down to minimum here so it doesn't wash out the pic

The COB is turned down as low as it will go in this pic so as not to wash out the pic

I'm really looking forward to seeing your COBs in action with your girls under them.
These cob are truly amazing and I wouldn't be surprised if we don't start seeing a lot more of them in the near future.
LED grow light manufacturers must be bricking it with their 3W & 5W LED grow lights, if it is this simple to build you own more efficient DIY grow lights.
If you could @arty zan me when you start your grow ,I'll be sure to sub up and that goes to all DIY COB builders.
Wouldn't it be great if we could have our own sub forum "DIY COB Builders" where we could pull all our resources and grow journals together.
Keep up the great work Ozone
You gonna get slapped for this

Peace

Arty

 

[pop22]

With those cobs, a T5 is a waste of electricity! A fresh coat of flat white paint would do more........

Sooooooo....is there any real point in using my side lighting T5's when they make no visible difference on or off anymore with this baby in there. Feels like pouring a cup of water into the swimming pool to top it off.

 

[Ozone69]

With those cobs, a T5 is a waste of electricity! A fresh coat of flat white paint would do more........

I toyed around with putting a couple UV bulbs in them, but the cheapest 3ft T5 uv's I've found so far run about $25 each, so I'm holding off on that. For now they're "emergency lighting" if I need to turn off the overheads to work on something. LOL

 

[Ozone69]

Thanks for all the looks, likes, and slaps. Have the first seedling going now under them and a couple more seeds planted behind that one. Really hoping the dimmable driver shows up soon, though. Need to be able to turn them down way lower with so little going on in the closet (just the one seedling under 220W hehe). Would like to be able to run them 90% on the high end to cut down on the heat a little. Now that I've run them for the full 18 hours on for several days and tracked the heat, they are just brushing up against the too warm end of the heat spectrum. The driver is stable, but radiates at about 125-130F so really could go for being turned down a hair. Thinking once the dimmable is in, I'm going to go with the 100K pot and also put a 10K resistor in line like I read several folks recommend doing on Meanwell drivers around the different forums. This isn't a Meanwell, but I think it would be a good idea for it just the same.

 

[Dr Fluff]

If the driver heat is getting to much you can also have like a remote ballast out side of your cab.
I was going to put my driver in my micro cab but I'm glad I didn't it would have been too hot for sure.
I have a MeanWell and they are great drivers but the process is the same with other brands of CC Drivers when it come to putting on the potentiometer.

 

[Dudeski]

Thanks Ozone69! I think you have me on the road to a diy light.

 

[Groff]

+ REP SLAP !!

DIY'ers are the driving force of innovation. Very nice dude!

 

[Dudeski]

Regarding the driver outside the tent or box, does it matter how much wire(lenght) is between the driver and the cobs? Would 7 or 8 ft be ok to get it outside the tent?

 

[Ozone69]

I would think it would be OK with that distance, but I don't know enough electrical to say for sure. There's probably euqations around to fiugre the power drop over distance and/or the resistance of different gauge wire over distance that could be used to figure max lengths for a wire. Might be worth posting up as it's own thread in the lighting and/or LED section to see if it catches the eye of an electrical guru type who might be able to help answer. Sorry I'm not more help with that.