LSD Power Drivers

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ichabod crane

Well-Known Member
BOBBY_G said:
thats because unless youre extremely heat and space limited you can grow almost twice the area at 1400 mA for the same cob cost at 700 mA. space makes yield.....
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And if you are spending all that money to build a 700 ma set up it does not take that much more money to upgrade to 1400 which can them be dimmed to 700 ma if you need to.
 
BOBBY_G

BOBBY_G

Well-Known Member
ichabod crane said:
And if you are spending all that money to build a 700 ma set up it does not take that much more money to upgrade to 1400 which can them be dimmed to 700 ma if you need to.
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except you just paid twice as much for your drivers that youre using half of

this is where constant voltage drivers shine. you can take a 320W driver and put 4 cobs on it. and add 4 more later to increase efficiency and still utilizing all of the 320W of the driver
 
I

ichabod crane

Well-Known Member
BOBBY_G said:
except you just paid twice as much for your drivers that youre using half of

this is where constant voltage drivers shine. you can take a 320W driver and put 4 cobs on it. and add 4 more later to increase efficiency and still utilizing all of the 320W of the driver
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But you still need to buy the frames, heatsink, lenses, mounts and all the cobs. The extra drivers are just a fraction of the cost of all the other items you must buy to build a set up at 700 ma. So like I said not that much more in cost to go 1400 ma and dim them down.
 
BOBBY_G

BOBBY_G

Well-Known Member
cob cost = doubled
driver cost = doubled
yield = +10-15%

cobs and drivers are easily 50+% of any install
 
I

ichabod crane

Well-Known Member
BOBBY_G said:
cob cost = doubled
driver cost = doubled
yield = +10-15%

cobs and drivers are easily 50+% of any install
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Um not even close to 50%. Go to Pacific light concepts page and price it out. I did and for the 3590 cob, chip mount, reflector, reflector mount, heat sink, and thermal pad for 4 sets the cost is $317.16. This does not count the cost of a frame to hold it, screws, wire, power cord ect. The driver for a 4 cobs set up at 1400 ma is $45. So not including all the other stuff like wire screws, frame ect the driver is less than 15% of the build cost.


So later if you wanted to upgrade your grow you need to buy all new drivers or just turn up the driver. Seems to me for the price it is much better to start at the higher amped driver than rebuild your set up later and spend the money on new drivers.

The cob cost does not double when you run them at 1400 ma it is cut in half. The cob cost doubles when you run them at 700 ma instead of 1400 ma.
 
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dionysus4

dionysus4

Well-Known Member
-200w 1.8a 112v... 3 cxb/vero29 at 65w

for 3 cxb3590s in a 2x2

and smth like the ELG 150

to run 3 cxb3070s at 1.4
 
MrTwist1

MrTwist1

Well-Known Member
Horses for courses guys... Yes for some folks with no heat, space, or electricity cost issues - then 1.4A seems an obvious choice, but this is not the reality for everyone. Just because that is the best option for you does not mean that it's the best option for everyone.

I am personally battling limited space, 90C ambient temps and 25c per kWh... hence my preference for lower amperage and higher efficiency. There is no right answer, and it gets boring when forum members preach to others about how they should be doing things based on their own particular circumstances. Cheers
 
I

ichabod crane

Well-Known Member
Sorry if I come off preachy. But I am battling heat issues for 3 to 4 months per year and I am space limited. but I can still see why 1.4 amp drivers are what people want. It does not cost that much to run a few extra drivers to get a higher light out put.

It is just common sense to me that you would go to 1.4 amps over .7 amps. What if you need the extra latter for your grow. Or you wanted to sell the fixture. It is a lot easier to move a higher watt fixture fixture. And lets face it if you are building it now you will likely build another in a couple years when new chips come out. So what happens with your old one then when it still works great?
 
Scotch089

Scotch089

Well-Known Member
Trippyness said:
I personally dont see a need for 350 at all with COB. Unless you can get them dirt cheap. Still prefer 1 COB a sqf at .7
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With how my narrow my footprint is I could have gotten away with 4 cobs in a straight pattern at 1050 but I didn't like the idea of the look or the walls reflecting even less light (added distance to wall)
Just wanted a super efficient panel and uniform light (more sources, dont typically grow 'Xmas tree style') and use the crossovers for my intensity/blending (reds incorporated)

Sure it cost me for it, but i wanted the best of the best at its best... (Apache tech fever much..?)

Girls don't seem to mind it and still leaves me plenty of headroom to throw down intensity equivalent to the sun/higher than my sq200 can measure, if I decided to kill my plants slowly lol.

All application/user specific

I'd vote 1050ma, probably my next venture for my 3x3', dimming won't be an important feature for that area (all white, plenty of head room)
 
Evil-Mobo

Evil-Mobo

Well-Known Member
Scotch089 said:
With how my narrow my footprint is I could have gotten away with 4 cobs in a straight pattern at 1050 but I didn't like the idea of the look or the walls reflecting even less light (added distance to wall)
Just wanted a super efficient panel and uniform light (more sources, dont typically grow 'Xmas tree style') and use the crossovers for my intensity/blending (reds incorporated)

Sure it cost me for it, but i wanted the best of the best at its best... (Apache tech fever much..?)

Girls don't seem to mind it and still leaves me plenty of headroom to throw down intensity equivalent to the sun/higher than my sq200 can measure, if I decided to kill my plants slowly lol.

All application/user specific

I'd vote 1050ma, probably my next venture for my 3x3', dimming won't be an important feature for that area (all white, plenty of head room)
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We have the same line of thinking, I am going to build an 8 COB light for my 2x4 space running off @1050ma driver to test against a 4 COB light running @ 1750ma on the driver..........
 
JorgeGonzales

JorgeGonzales

Well-Known Member
Growmau5 said:
1050ma for 61% with 3590 CD bin. it has taken me a while, but I have come to realize : for a personal garden of any decent size 100sqft ++ going 700ma to gain that extra 3% just isnt worth it for the majority of us paying 15 cents per KWH. Hawaii, Alaska, Guam, sure go 700ma. But I dont think many people are going 700ma anymore, especially with Realstyles & SupraSPL not actively posting and promoting the drive current.

900ma / 1100ma are more interesting to me.

The issue with most of Meanwells 1050ma offerings is the extra voltage that goes un-used in 9 out of 10 configurations.
hlg185 1050: 190v runs 5.5 cxb
hlg240 1050: 238v runs 6.9 cxb (best example, driver may or may not fire the 7th cob @34.5v)
hlg320 1050: 305v runs 8.8 cxb ( but not 9. I tried. )

their entire 1050 cc line has too much voltage for max driver efficiency cxb setups. This is a worthy issue that custom drive current LSD drivers could solve.
-Give me a 1150ma LSD driver that runs 5 cxb @ 34.5v and 99% utilization.
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There's nothing inherently wrong with leaving 5 or 10% on the table. The power supply will run cooler, it's components will last longer. MTBF is generally rated at 80% load. Running at 99% is good for efficiency charts and upfront cost, not driver life IMHO. Heat is the enemy, as always in life.

Also I don't practice what I preach, but I trust Meanwell, and have yet to see inside one of these, apologies for the phrasing, Meanwell clones. Capacitor choice is crucial, good ones cost, and that's the first thing to show up in cheaper Meanwells.

Anyway, food for thought. A little buffer is nice.
 
MrTwist1

MrTwist1

Well-Known Member
So what is the deal with dimming with voltage instead of a potentiometer? Is it as simple as wiring a 1-10v DC power supply to the dimming wires? Cheers
 
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