Lighting Troy's First DIY COB

[Troy01]

I've been wanting a COB for a couple months but was intimidated by doing it myself. I've been reading all I can on the project and watched lots of YouTube videos. I finally bit the bullet and ordered up all the items I needed and built my first 5 COB 2' x4' light.

In an effort to demystify the DIY Build I am posting a Tutorial -

Arrival of my COB parts - Received less than 24 hours after ordering.

Didn't take more than 5 minutes to open up my new towy

Assembly of my first COB 2X4 light

5X - CREE CXB3590 COB LED 3500
5X - IDEAL 50-2303CR COB HOLDER
5X – 140mm PIN HEATSINK
1X - MEANWELL HLG-480H – C2100B DRIVER (UP TO 75W)
1X - 41” CANOPY RAIL
1X - DRIVER BRACKET
5X – HEATSINK BRAKCKETS
1X – HANGING KIT
5X - ANGELINA EXTRA WIDE REFLECTOR WITH HOLDER
5X - SURsEAL THERMAL PADS
1X -- CASED POTENTIOMETER WITH KNOB
1X - POWER CORD
7X - WAGO 221-412 LEVER NUTS
15 FEET OF RED AND BLACK 18 AWG SOLID CORE BULK WIRE

Price $529

Extra’s for later use
1X - 3 x 3 CANOPY SUBSTRATE
2X - 34” CANOPY RAILS
1X - DRIVER BRACKET
1X - HANGING KIT
PRICE $150

 

[Troy01]

I couldn't resist and spent a couple hours assembly my COB Array. I probably spent another 2 hours on line making sure I had everything wired up correctly. I sure didn't want to fry my COBS when I ran the "Smoke Test".

I am fairly comfortable working with Electricity but by no means an electrician.

Step 1 - Assembly of Heat Sinks

The heat sinks are already drilled and tapped for ease of installation. Initially I unwrapped the heat sinks and the heat sink brackets. Easy as aligning the Bracket and screwing in 2 screws to each bracket.

Step 2 - Insert the heat sinks into the rails of the frame

Next I slid each of the heat sinks into the grove of the canopy rails and installed the end caps

Step 3 - Assembly of the COB's onto the heat sinks

Next I opened up the 5 COB's and into the Ideal Cob Holder. This is really easy. First you align the (+) on the COB to the (+) on the holder . There is a little spring that when pushed in allows the COBS to just click into place.

On the back of each COB you install a SurSeal Thermal Pad on each COB. The pads are double adhesive coated. At this point I only removed one protective side and attached to each COB.

Next I installed two screws on each heat sink to align with the COB Holder. I removed the other protective coating of the SureSeal Thermal Pad and placed over screws and locked in place, then tightened down the screws. Next the Reflector Holders were screwed down on top of the COB Holder into the heat sink. Actually in the picture below I removed the reflector holders and started wiring up.

Step 4 - Wiring the COB'S together

COB'S are wired together in series. This means that you take a wire and connect from the (+) port (you just stick a wire in a hole and it holds) to the (-) on the next COB. So the wires go (+) (-) (+) (-) until the end of the string

I will finalize the construction of wiring up the Driver in a separate post.

 

[Troy01]

Wiring up the Driver to COB assembly

This portion was the most intimidating to me but after reading numerous tutorials I finally felt confident enough to proceed.

Step 1 - Input Wiring

This seemed easy enough but the colors were different than what I expected and some of the label is in Chinese that also caused confusion. Basically all we are doing in this step is connecting a standard power cord. The driver is built as a universal driver and will handle either 110 or 220 V.

First we take a look at the label

Next we wire it up using Wago Connectors

Green (power Cord) to Green Yellow (Driver)
Black (power cord) to Brown (Driver)
White (power cord) to Blue (Driver)

That was easy enough wasn't it.

Step 2 - Wire Potentiometer - this one was pretty straight forward. The potentiometer is like a dimmer switch.

Black Wire (potent) to Blue (driver)
Red (potentiometer) to Gray (driver)

Step 3 - Wire COBS to Driver (scary)

You run one wire (red) from the Positive on the first COB in the string and a Black wire from the (-) negative terminal of the last COB on the string to the driver.

Red (COB) to Brown (driver)
White (COB) to Blue (driver)

That is it - if followed when you plug in the fixture all the COBS will light up and will be dimmable using the potentiometer.


I plan on mounting my driver outside the tent. It is way to big for my Canopy Frame - I will post details of this later.

This is what she looks like with the reflectors in place.

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[MickJ]

Made it look so simple, thanks for the info.

Sent from my comfy chair. Link to my grows.
[emoji16][emoji41] [emoji43][emoji848]
"https://www.autoflower.org/index.php?threads/63634/"

 

[Autobeast]

top quality. enjoy ur selfmade light. happy growing

 

[AutoWonders]

Congrats on beating intimidation. That is always a win.

 

[Troy01]

Thanks for the compliments. Once I figured out everything I waited and continued the research for a good hour before I flipped it on for the first time
Reminded my of a class in electricity I had in elementary school where we plugged in our project for the "Smoke Test".

I had a big smile on my face when it lit up and the dimmer worked to perfection.

 

[KrazyDave]

Any chance of a pic of the light in action?

 

[thetreeman]

Link to dimmer/pot or part number? If you are in an enclosed area Id go without the reflectors, youll get better light coverage like that.

 

[Dichoti]

Cool stuff man. You showed how easy it is to complete a DIY.