Lighting The new DIY Section

[BigSm0]

Perfect! DIY for dummies like myself when it comes to electricity.. on a side note tho, I've been really happy with the light itself so far. It lacks some red spectrum for flowering, but veg is actually pretty decent!

Hopefully I can help. The reason so many are going to cobs is very simple. It’s about the efficiency of the light source and corresponding parts as a package.

If you were to read the print on the lights driver it says 88% efficiency, on a meanwell you are closer to 95%. This 7% difference is a direct relation to the light output. Right from the top there is a 7% loss of light but the biggest thing is the diodes efficiency. Most leds range from 18-22%. Meaning 100 watts in but you only get 18-22 watts of light out. I’m not trying to turn this into a sales pitch but I get dozens of emails and messages a week saying these autocobs are beyond bright. Even an ongoing thing here is when someone plugs one in while staring at the cob and is blinded for hours afterwards. The lower wattage light has a much higher efficiency making more light from the less wattage. The biggest mistake people make is judging a lights power by the wattage. Lights can range from 8% efficiency all the way to 60% efficiency. From the same 100 watts you can get 8 watts of light or 60 watts of light. A large number of companies use these less efficient leds based on the cost. The trade off is less light, higher wattage and more heat.

Another point that I have wanted to make for a long time too is that a higher efficiency doesn’t mean you’ll get bigger plants. Jumping from 50 to 60% efficiency won’t give you 10% bigger plants. What will give you the biggest plants is by giving them the right amount of light. Regardless of wattage or efficiency. The reason people should focus more on better lighting is for a reduction in operating costs and less heat. A watt is equal to 3.41 btu regardless of the source. With better lighting you can run lower wattage to equal the same light output which costs less to run as well as reduced wattage which then equals less heat.
An example would be a 50% efficient lught at 50 watts. This gives you 25 watts of light and 170btu of heat.
Now if you had a 100w light at 25% efficiency you would get the same 25 watts of light but at 340btu of heat.

As far as spectrum these colored leds that claim to be full spectrum are actually the farthest from it. Red and blue are the most needed colors but a full spectrum light has a lot more colors than these 2 alone. The sun is full spectrum and it’s not half red and blue. Also note that a 3500k cob watt for watt will have nearly twice the red and blue then most of these red and blue leds.

 

[pop22]

That my friend, is the best summation of garden lighting I've ever heard! Kudos!

Hopefully I can help. The reason so many are going to cobs is very simple. It’s about the efficiency of the light source and corresponding parts as a package.

If you were to read the print on the lights driver it says 88% efficiency, on a meanwell you are closer to 95%. This 7% difference is a direct relation to the light output. Right from the top there is a 7% loss of light but the biggest thing is the diodes efficiency. Most leds range from 18-22%. Meaning 100 watts in but you only get 18-22 watts of light out. I’m not trying to turn this into a sales pitch but I get dozens of emails and messages a week saying these autocobs are beyond bright. Even an ongoing thing here is when someone plugs one in while staring at the cob and is blinded for hours afterwards. The lower wattage light has a much higher efficiency making more light from the less wattage. The biggest mistake people make is judging a lights power by the wattage. Lights can range from 8% efficiency all the way to 60% efficiency. From the same 100 watts you can get 8 watts of light or 60 watts of light. A large number of companies use these less efficient leds based on the cost. The trade off is less light, higher wattage and more heat.

Another point that I have wanted to make for a long time too is that a higher efficiency doesn’t mean you’ll get bigger plants. Jumping from 50 to 60% efficiency won’t give you 10% bigger plants. What will give you the biggest plants is by giving them the right amount of light. Regardless of wattage or efficiency. The reason people should focus more on better lighting is for a reduction in operating costs and less heat. A watt is equal to 3.41 btu regardless of the source. With better lighting you can run lower wattage to equal the same light output which costs less to run as well as reduced wattage which then equals less heat.
An example would be a 50% efficient lught at 50 watts. This gives you 25 watts of light and 170btu of heat.
Now if you had a 100w light at 25% efficiency you would get the same 25 watts of light but at 340btu of heat.

As far as spectrum these colored leds that claim to be full spectrum are actually the farthest from it. Red and blue are the most needed colors but a full spectrum light has a lot more colors than these 2 alone. The sun is full spectrum and it’s not half red and blue. Also note that a 3500k cob watt for watt will have nearly twice the red and blue then most of these red and blue leds.

 

[pop22]

Hopefully I can help. The reason so many are going to cobs is very simple. It’s about the efficiency of the light source and corresponding parts as a package.

If you were to read the print on the lights driver it says 88% efficiency, on a meanwell you are closer to 95%. This 7% difference is a direct relation to the light output. Right from the top there is a 7% loss of light but the biggest thing is the diodes efficiency. Most leds range from 18-22%. Meaning 100 watts in but you only get 18-22 watts of light out. I’m not trying to turn this into a sales pitch but I get dozens of emails and messages a week saying these autocobs are beyond bright. Even an ongoing thing here is when someone plugs one in while staring at the cob and is blinded for hours afterwards. The lower wattage light has a much higher efficiency making more light from the less wattage. The biggest mistake people make is judging a lights power by the wattage. Lights can range from 8% efficiency all the way to 60% efficiency. From the same 100 watts you can get 8 watts of light or 60 watts of light. A large number of companies use these less efficient leds based on the cost. The trade off is less light, higher wattage and more heat.

Another point that I have wanted to make for a long time too is that a higher efficiency doesn’t mean you’ll get bigger plants. Jumping from 50 to 60% efficiency won’t give you 10% bigger plants. What will give you the biggest plants is by giving them the right amount of light. Regardless of wattage or efficiency. The reason people should focus more on better lighting is for a reduction in operating costs and less heat. A watt is equal to 3.41 btu regardless of the source. With better lighting you can run lower wattage to equal the same light output which costs less to run as well as reduced wattage which then equals less heat.
An example would be a 50% efficient lught at 50 watts. This gives you 25 watts of light and 170btu of heat.
Now if you had a 100w light at 25% efficiency you would get the same 25 watts of light but at 340btu of heat.

As far as spectrum these colored leds that claim to be full spectrum are actually the farthest from it. Red and blue are the most needed colors but a full spectrum light has a lot more colors than these 2 alone. The sun is full spectrum and it’s not half red and blue. Also note that a 3500k cob watt for watt will have nearly twice the red and blue then most of these red and blue leds.

 

[Waira]

-- straight from the pulpit! ...say on Revnd. 'Sm0 --

 

[Quentin3176]

I've only gone and done it
Blurple free zone now grofos

Cheers guys
Q

 

[Boradan]

I've only gone and done it
Blurple free zone now grofos View attachment 1005496 View attachment 1005497
Cheers guys
Q

Excellent work!
I am going to pull my Vipar 600 apart over the weekend to see what it has available.

 

[Quentin3176]

Excellent work!
I am going to pull my Vipar 600 apart over the weekend to see what it has available.

Do it mate. I've loved it and i usually hate this kind of stuff lol. Pretty straight forward too. My 600 will be getting them too in the future but for now I'm eager to see how this gets on....one other thing to add which I thought was cool. As each driver has 1 circuit connected each when you switch veg/bloom on/off you can have either of the 2 pairs working or all 4...suppose it could come in handy for seedlings maybe?

 

[midIN]

Imo only thing that absolutely wrong and just totally not right is that the driver one the autocob isnt updated, @BigSm0 u could easily fix this but u haven't yet and I'm very upset beyond upset that I cant even imagine my frustrations with this issue, now let me tell u about this issue, when I see the cobs I dont see CobShop or CobShop.net anywhere on the driver, which maybe warranty purposes but when I scroll Instagram and etc and I know what the cob is just by looking u can see real from fake which there are some now that are way to close looking, I mean way close, (Patent or utility Patent) maybe it is something after all.

Back to my point, need a logo on the cob cause why because well idk but it would help I'm sure. I see people mixing ur cobs with others like that chef dipshit and he promotes the crappy mars cob but doesnt say shit about the other 4 in the tent that dont need the 3 crappy others in ther with them, but that's me. And i cant stand that fake people.

 

[Chronic_passion]

Story so far guys....think she's about ready to be rebuilt properly now...I've screwed the cobs and heatsinks down temporarily without any paste just to check my hole positions....all looks good although I need to sink the cob screws into the heatsinks as I didn't think about that bit lol.....View attachment 1005240View attachment 1005239 ^simlpy unclipped the connectors and put drivers to aside.View attachment 1005238View attachment 1005237 View attachment 1005236
^taking the lens/reflectors off was just a case of 6-8 screws and a couple of plastic screws on the lens sideView attachment 1005235 View attachment 1005234
^unscrewed the heatsinks from the led side. Then gently prised the heatsinks away from the board.View attachment 1005232^so far this was the most work..clipping the leds off...my snips were knackered so I made do with nail clippers, which worked well haha. Then sanded the solder off in the shed. Took about half hour to do this bit.View attachment 1005231 ^used a wallpaper scraper and a Stanley blade to scrape the paste up and put it in some tin foil for late, used abit of wd40 to clean it up abit.
View attachment 1005230 ^used the old led side for the heatsinks. Just lined them up and re-drilled the holes.
View attachment 1005229 ^same for the cobs. I lined them up and drilled the holes. Although I did this when the heatsinks were off so I need to re-drilled the holes abit to sink the screws into the heatsinks.....

That's it for now. Tomorrow I'll sink the holes in the heatsinks. Take it all apart again, clean it up good then reassemble it with the thermal paste....couple of connectors and I believe it should be good to go.....

I can't stress enough how much I steer clear of electronics and tech but this build has been a doddle. Even for me.....

Cheers guys
Q

Great job well impressed!
Do you have any pics of the cobs in place when all put back together?

 

[Boradan]

Imo only thing that absolutely wrong and just totally not right is that the driver one the autocob isnt updated, @BigSm0 u could easily fix this but u haven't yet and I'm very upset beyond upset that I cant even imagine my frustrations with this issue, now let me tell u about this issue, when I see the cobs I dont see CobShop or CobShop.net anywhere on the driver, which maybe warranty purposes but when I scroll Instagram and etc and I know what the cob is just by looking u can see real from fake which there are some now that are way to close looking, I mean way close, (Patent or utility Patent) maybe it is something after all.

Back to my point, need a logo on the cob cause why because well idk but it would help I'm sure. I see people mixing ur cobs with others like that chef dipshit and he promotes the crappy mars cob but doesnt say shit about the other 4 in the tent that dont need the 3 crappy others in ther with them, but that's me. And i cant stand that fake people.

You know that the Autocobs are made from off-the-shelf components?
Of course people are going to use the same components to self-build their own COBS.
You can/could even buy the individual items as a kit on cobshop.net.
@BigSm0 makes no secret of the components and actively encourages people to build their own. He has even stated in this thread that he makes very little profit from doing the Autocobs, and profit is not why he is doing it - he is doing it to educate people on the major benefits of more efficient lighting for growers and bringing them to the 21st century.
I think you are letting something upset you for no reason. Take a step back for a second and have a look at the bigger picture and I am sure you will feel more at ease with the situation.