Lighting help me … Pimp my light ! (EU)

[Groff]

I believe I've got 9 of each, one for each cob. This was pulling 430- 445w from the wall when it arrived if I remember correctly.

85 vdc x 520mA = 44,2 watts per cob… plus 2 x 12w for fans… = 421,8w
The only weird thing is that the fan driver cable split into 4 cables (as shown in the pictures) … either the other has five, or only 8 of 9 fans were puffing air.

 

[BigSm0]

You will be close to the same output as far as light goes but a much lower wall wattage. Assuming 20% efficient vs 60% efficient. If heat and power bill is an issue then it's worth it. Start to finish you should be around 200$ The clu048 are 28.1mm so they should fit but you will need to drill me tap most likely.

 

[Groff]

You will be close to the same output as far as light goes but a much lower wall wattage. Assuming 20% efficient vs 60% efficient. If heat and power bill is an issue then it's worth it. Start to finish you should be around 200$ The clu048 are 28.1mm so they should fit but you will need to drill me tap most likely.

Lost me there a bit I'm afraid. Heat is not an issue, power bill are, but so is yield. I don't mind paying a little extra on electrics (while saving on heating).
So what are you suggesting, just using lower powered cobs? Wont the driver fry it?
I don't mind drilling, I just don't know how to do it threaded so you can screw stuff into it. I guess I could ask for help from a tech I now. I'd just need to show up with all the parts and clear directions.

 

[BigSm0]

Sorry man. Due to the driver output you won't get much wattage from the cobs. The benefit in a lower amperage driver is higher efficiency though.

Using your old wattage 440 and multiplying that by my guess of 20% chip efficiency would only give you around 88 par watts.

The new cobs would only draw around 150 watts in total but at the higher 60% efficiency would give you around the same 90par watts.

A watt of energy converted into light gives off 2 things. Photons and heat. The higher the efficiency the more light and less heat it emits. Photons to heat ratio basically. Before you had shit efficiency and now you will have great efficiency. The end result with less wattage but higher efficiency will be close to the same light output but you will go from 350 watts of heat down to 60 watts of heat and draw around 290 watts less at the wall.

If you were to build a light from scratch it would be less work in the end and a few more dollars but you could have allot more options. That's your decision to make.

 

[Groff]

I see… So basically my drivers suck. Guessing not even the heatsinks are worth the trouble? So my best shot would be to build one from scratch, hum? I'm game for that.

I really dont mind the extra heat as I could repurpose these lights for winter season or something. I've got two of these, so I guess I'll try to do something with them and use them as side lights. Maybe buy some of these dirty cheap chinese things? 4€ each from fleabay

 

[BigSm0]

The drivers aren't really junk just not to powerful. As for cobs the cheaper ones like listed above they aren't really worth the money. Even if they were free to be honest. Citizen, Cree, vero are all very good at converting energy into light while the cheaper Chinese ones aren't. In a grow or 2 they will absolutely pay themselves back. Since the heatsinks are rated for cheap cobs they will most likely be a suitable for the newer cobs since they are much more efficient. You could go with the citizen 1212's which area just about 16$ each with holders. Total cost would be very fair for a 150 watt light

 

[2Stoned2Care]

@BigSm0 is right bro it would make more sense to make your own light from scratch.with his knowledge i have made a 200w bar light for about £150 that will absolutely smash my 400w(180w actuall draw) mars 2 light which cost me £169

 

[BigSm0]

Either way. I won't spend anyone else's money lol. I think for a 200w new light it would be around 250 start to finish. Including the frame, wire, paste ext.. I'm planning on doing a 2 lights for our grow shop owner. But he has his head shoved so far up California's rear he can't get around (LEDS) doing well. He still sells mine for a profit but that's about it.

 

[Rapha El]

Have a look at these cobs: BXRC-40E4000-D-73 (28.2vf) on an 86v driver you can run 3 in series and with the low amperage you can get a pretty nice lumens per watt ratio.
Before building myself a new light or a supplementation to my mars I'm gonna build a cob module for my mars 2 that I can just switch out and run a test grow with.
Theoretically I should be able to run 9 of these at 700ma which would result in 30k lm (172lm/w)

I did also look at the 68v cobs but they are 25 bucks a pop and you waste a lot of potential by leaving headroom.

If you want to get the most amount of light out of your drivers check heir maximum forward current 85v and divide it by different numbers of cobs you want to use. {1,2,3}
So get 28,3v max per cob. Now you just have to find yourself the cheapest cob with the best lm/w and lm/€ ratio and you found what you need.

Were I to use the common way of 2 34-36v cobs per driver to upgrade the mars 2 I could only run each cob at 24watts which would give me 23k lm.

Hope I did make some sense with my ramblings :smoking:

 

[BigSm0]

I agree Druid, I would have to say if it was a meanwell driver I would feel more confident maxing its Fv. When I added in 72v to a 88-92v mars driver I tell you I was extremely surprised. Yesterday one driver burned out.