building my own LED, need a few pointers!

[Mr.Moniker]

Ok so basically I was looking at buying the smaller of the Diamond Series XML LED lights.

Upon checking specs I see it's running 4 10w Cree chips and 64 3w bridgelux chips. I've been around this site and many others to know that most of the DIY LEDs I've seen built use those exact same COBs.

So now I'm thinking "well how hard could it be to build an LED myself using almost the same specs as the Diamond Series". knowing that I could save some money I took off to the internet to learn all I could.

Long story short, I've become a lot more fluent in the idea behind building LEDs, now I just need help with some fines points.

Most of my confusion comes when trying to pair a driver to my COBs. I want to run my 4 10w chips on one driver, and then run 60 3w chips between 5 drivers.

So basically I'll be running 12 3w chips in series per driver, and 4 10w chips in series on one driver.

I know the mA of my LEDs should equal the output of my driver, and that I need my drivers voltage to be equal to or higher than my LED strings.

If the voltage of my driver is higher than my voltage of my LED string, the LED will burn out without a resistor right? I'm scare I'm going to buy all my COBs and drivers, hook em all up, only to have miscalculated and blow up a few hundred dollars worth of electronics. Can ANYONE with any kind of helpful advice for running LEDs in series with a mean well driver, if I'd need resistors or anything else, or even just advice on what to buy, I'd greatly appreciate it!!

 

[Positivity]

Ok so basically I was looking at buying the smaller of the Diamond Series XML LED lights.

Upon checking specs I see it's running 4 10w Cree chips and 64 3w bridgelux chips. I've been around this site and many others to know that most of the DIY LEDs I've seen built use those exact same COBs.

So now I'm thinking "well how hard could it be to build an LED myself using almost the same specs as the Diamond Series". knowing that I could save some money I took off to the internet to learn all I could.

Long story short, I've become a lot more fluent in the idea behind building LEDs, now I just need help with some fines points.

Most of my confusion comes when trying to pair a driver to my COBs. I want to run my 4 10w chips on one driver, and then run 60 3w chips between 5 drivers.

So basically I'll be running 12 3w chips in series per driver, and 4 10w chips in series on one driver.

I know the mA of my LEDs should equal the output of my driver, and that I need my drivers voltage to be equal to or higher than my LED strings.

If the voltage of my driver is higher than my voltage of my LED string, the LED will burn out without a resistor right? I'm scare I'm going to buy all my COBs and drivers, hook em all up, only to have miscalculated and blow up a few hundred dollars worth of electronics. Can ANYONE with any kind of helpful advice for running LEDs in series with a mean well driver, if I'd need resistors or anything else, or even just advice on what to buy, I'd greatly appreciate it!!

No resistors needed for series. All you need to do is stay within the drivers operating range listed on the driver datasheet. If you go lower on the voltage than the minimum the string simply won't light. If you go too high the driver will either not light, go into hiccup mode (flashing lights..letting you know somethings not right), or it will decrease current to a acceptable level. Just add up the the voltages per led correctly and find a driver that fits. The closer you get to max voltage the more efficient the driver will run.

Next tip is ditch the extra stars and just run cobs. There may be a perfect spectrum out there utilizing stars but it hasnt been shown yet. You'll be very happy with the performance of just cobs.

Last tip...the advanced xml uses single die xmls as their big chip. Its not a cob...and its nowhere near the performance.

Just build a simple light based off of cree or bridgelux cobs. Check supras threads in the stickys for the details.

 

[Mr.Moniker]

No resistors needed for series. All you need to do is stay within the drivers operating range listed on the driver. If you go lower on the voltage than the minimum the string simply won't light. If you go too high the driver will either not light, go into hiccup mode (flashing lights..letting you know somethings not right), or it will decrease current to a acceptable level. Just add up the the voltages per led correctly and find a driver that fits. The closer you get to max voltage the more efficient the driver will run.

Next tip is ditch the extra stars and just run cobs. There may be a perfect spectrum out there utilizing stars but it hasnt been shown yet. You'll be very happy with the performance of just cobs.

Last tip...the advanced xml uses single die xmls as their big chip. Its not a cob...and its nowhere near the performance.

Just build a simple light based off of cree or bridgelux cobs. Check supras threads in the stickys for the details.

I read ALL the stickies AND every online article I could find, trust me haha.

But you just answered most of my questions INCLUDING the ones I was GOING to ask.

The only reason the voltages have messed me up is because the meanwells usually run at a range of voltages (example: 97v -163v) which is why I was worried about needing a resistor if I was only running say 150v on that driver. But your saying the driver will automatically buck or boost to any voltage in that range? That basically answers it all for me.

And if I run straight 10w COBs, I feel like I'm getting less light coverage and less spectrum. That's why I was going to use 10w cree COBs for flower power (red spectrum), then use the 3w full spectrum bridgelux COBs to help add to my spectrum as well as enhance light footprint.

Your suggesting just running straight 10w COBs? What would you suggest for spectrum colors? Like 3to1 red to blue spectrum COBs?

 

[Positivity]

First...whats the area your trying to cover. That will dictate how much power you want from each cob. 10w is generally a very softly driven cob meant for small spaces.

Think you need to read up on cobs a bit more...sounds like your confused with single die leds, multichips, and cobs

I suggest 3000k crees or 4000k veros. Thats it..you can mix colors if you like but they will all perform similarly in the end. Mixing will just make things harder for little gain. Save that for a future build.

3-3000k cree cxa 3070 and 2-4000k cree cxa 3070. Max power 160w...dimmed to 50w for a micro application. 10w per cob


10 3000k cxa 3070. 400w of led dissipation. 40w per cob

 

[SupraSPL]

POS delivers advice that is as good as gold I think you will be amazed what the lamp can do.

 

[Mr.Moniker]

I'm in the process of building a closed system cab. The size is roughly 4x3x6. But to run a successful closed system, I want to have the top of the line LED to give me great results with little heat signature.

And after reading non-stop DIY LED projects, I'm sure I am confusing things! I mean, I understand how to run single COBs off single drivers, but putting them in a series is when things get a little wonky for me.

But either way, your right @Positivity I need to go back and read more obviously! I'll re-read all the stickies in the LED forum, but if you and @SupraLPC have any good links or reading material I'd really appreciate it guys!

And here's a shot of my current run... Just because!!

 

[SupraSPL]

Welcome aboard, any questions you have post em up and there are lots of good diyer here that will answer.

Sounds like you have 12 ft² to cover. If you run with 35W/ft² that is 420W, or 8 CXA3070s @ 1.4A. That would give you about 42% efficiency minimum. If you really need to crank the efficiency, you could run 16 of them at 700mA and get 49% minimum. That may not sound like much but it is an increase of 16.6% light and a decrease of 12% heat.

Another consideration, if you were to run at 700mA you would get better spread and efficiency, so you could run at 30W/ft² instead of 35. That would result in another 15% decrease in heat on top of the 12% from running softer.

 

[DonPetro]

First...whats the area your trying to cover. That will dictate how much power you want from each cob. 10w is generally a very softly driven cob meant for small spaces.

Think you need to read up on cobs a bit more...sounds like your confused with single die leds, multichips, and cobs

I suggest 3000k crees or 4000k veros. Thats it..you can mix colors if you like but they will all perform similarly in the end. Mixing will just make things harder for little gain. Save that for a future build.

3-3000k cree cxa 3070 and 2-4000k cree cxa 3070. Max power 160w...dimmed to 50w for a micro application. 10w per cob
View attachment 3318412 View attachment 3318413

10 3000k cxa 3070. 400w of led dissipation. 40w per cob
View attachment 3318414 View attachment 3318415

Seeing what 50w can do in the micro-cab gives great hope to stealth growers everywhere. That is simply amazing. Pos, what are the dimensions of that cab anyway?

 

[Positivity]

Seeing what 50w can do in the micro-cab gives great hope to stealth growers everywhere. That is simply amazing. Pos, what are the dimensions of that cab anyway?

2' x 22" x 16".....2.4 sq/ft

Not spaced as well as possible but otherwise works great. Just extra parts i accumulated put to use.
The almost no heat at 10w each cob is sweeet...expensive but sweet

Makes good use of my original low bin z2. At 350ma, 11.5w, they put out 166 l/w.

Edit....the 4000k z4 bin puts out 166 l/w at 350ma. The z2 3000k 141 l/w

 

[DonPetro]

2' x 22" x 16".....2.4 sq/ft

Not spaced as well as possible but otherwise works great. Just extra parts i accumulated put to use.
The almost no heat at 10w each cob is sweeet...expensive but sweet

Makes good use of my original low bin z2. At 350ma, 11.5w, they put out 166 l/w.

That is pretty sweet. Actually just over 3.6sq.ft at 2'×22" so only 13.8w/sq.ft. Pretty impressive. I was thinking of doing five vero10 at 300-350mA over a 3 sq.ft area which would be 13.3w/sq.ft.

 

[Positivity]

That is pretty sweet. Actually just over 3.6sq.ft at 2'×22" so only 13.8w/sq.ft. Pretty impressive. I was thinking of doing five vero10 at 300-350mA over a 3 sq.ft area which would be 13.3w/sq.ft.

I shoulda put what dimensions were what..lol. Its 2'h x 22"L x 16"w.
Single dies might work well with this low a ceiling. I'd still choose a cob though....vero 10 would be great. Flux has a perfectly setup microcab using veros

 

[DonPetro]

I shoulda put what dimensions were what..lol. Its 2'h x 22"L x 16"w.
Single dies might work well with this low a ceiling. I'd still choose a cob though....vero 10 would be great. Flux has a perfectly setup microcab using veros

Yea i was thinking you likely had the dimensions in a different order. So thats just over 25w sq.ft. then. Maybe i need to up it to at least 8 maybe even 10 vero10s. But i was kind of thinking watts per plant rather than per sq.ft since it would likely only ever be one plant at a time.