Lighting Comparing Autocobs to Quantum Boards

[rydin4life]

I love the autocob lights I got from cobshop.net, so much so that I ordered four, then two more, and I'll be ordering three more in the next few weeks! When I asked for light suggestions on another forum, I received a lot of input for Quantum Boards. I looked into them, but decided that the autocobs were better for me. I like them for a lot of reasons, but I'm not sure I really understand the differences between the two. Are the qb lights similar, just more spaced out? They're both cob lights, correct? ...so can anyone explain the big difference and why you might want one over the other?

Side note....this will in no way influence my decision to buy more autocobs, just general curiosity.

 

[Mizzo81]

I’m buckled in for the answers. Both lights perform and the qb’s from folux solutions are priced well. Autocobs also priced well I have 6 myself.

 

[Arthur]

L

I love the autocob lights I got from cobshop.net, so much so that I ordered four, then two more, and I'll be ordering three more in the next few weeks! When I asked for light suggestions on another forum, I received a lot of input for Quantum Boards. I looked into them, but decided that the autocobs were better for me. I like them for a lot of reasons, but I'm not sure I really understand the differences between the two. Are the qb lights similar, just more spaced out? They're both cob lights, correct? ...so can anyone explain the big difference and why you might want one over the other?

Side note....this will in no way influence my decision to buy more autocobs, just general curiosity.

Light dispersion/coverage same power spread over a larger area.
Maybe some efficiency gains as well

Love my cobs...

 

[rydin4life]

L

Light dispersion/coverage same power spread over a larger area.
Maybe some efficiency gains as well

Love my cobs...

When you say covers a larger area and efficiency, are you referring to autocobs or qb lights?

 

[Arthur]

When you say covers a larger area and efficiency, are you referring to autocobs or qb lights?

Think of it this way we both have flashlights... yours throws a very intense beam, mine throws the exact same wattage power spectrum etc... but instead of a spotlight mine is defused over a wider area. Cobs are focused. Like same # of diodes, cob all stacked up... QB all spread out.

They would cover roughly the same space, one closer and probably a little more frugally.

 

[rydin4life]

Makes sense..I prefer the autocobs for the individual adjustability, very modular and easy to customize, come just plug and play, and teriffic customer service...just wondering for my own curiosity. Thanks for the explanation!

 

[Simplicio]

As others have said, QBs are just COBs with the LEDs more spread out, similar to the difference between floodlights and spotlights.
But putting that many LEDs so close together in such a small space makes LED temperature a major issue with COBs.

I prefer the quantum boards for several reasons:
1. They can be run without ugly, obtrusive heat sinks if the power isn't too great. This allows QBs to be moved closer to the tent ceiling if height is an issue.
2. They put out rays of light that are more nearly parallel, like the sun, so that the intensity doesn't vary as quickly with changing distance.
3. If the distance between light and plants is small, then the light intensity will be large near the center, but dim in the outer reaches for COBs.
4. The cooler operating temp of the QBs almost certainly leads to a longer LED lifetime.

 

[Soil2Coco]

I run all qbs in my flower rooms and about to upgrade my veg with them too.

Here’s 12-qb120’s running 700 watts in my 4x4. These are low wattage boards (up to 65 watts each) so no heat sinks required. Also I have complete and total spread at about 850-900 ppfd at canopy height

Here’s 2- qb96elite v2 engines over my 2x4 space for 320 watts. These are flowering machines. Can be ran up to 6000mA with active cooling. That’s 320 watts each. I like to drive them about halfway and the spread is even at 16” above canopy and 10” in from each side