Why are COBs better, and whats so great about the 3590?

[bri77]

On the other hand, for DIY, the COBs are easier to use and probably cheaper too in the end.

Imagine soldering hundreds of 3W or 5W leds or only wire up five 100W COBs (all run at half or even less of max power)

Commercial horticulture fixtures from the bigger corporate sellers go for 3 to 5 times the cost of the parts. If not more. You see China burples rebadged and sold for thousands (dollars or euro's) when they can be bought direct from China for hundreds.

Either way we can use high quality parts and still come out cheaper. Commercial fixtures would prices themselves completely out of the market if they used quality parts.

Your point only stands if you put zero cost on your own time and labor. And dont say it only take x hours to assemble a light. if someone is choosing between a commercial fixture and a diy cob build, the cob route requires hours and hours of research. Those hours must be added to the cost of the cob.

Most people from a purely economic efficiency should be paying an expert 200 dollar for 2 or 3 hours work rather than spend 100 hours of their own fumbling about. For some the idea of build a light is as attractive as building an electric kettle.

If you're a nerd who likes building things then go ahead, if its not the light it'll be some other nerdy project anyway.

View attachment 3777317

And what he quouted was close to gibberish,

 

[wietefras]

Your point only stands if you put zero cost on your own time and labor.

You get a reasonably good (1.8 to 2.1umol/s/W) commercial led fixture for around $3 per to $4 watt. You can build a great one (2.4umol/s/W and up) yourself for half the price (or less). So you put quite a lot of cost on your own time and labor and still come out ahead.

Of course there are a few hobby sellers around here with much lower margins and indeed that would be a very good alternative if you're not so keen on spending a few hours of hobbying yourself.

It does not take hours and hours to research. You can just copy what's out there. You can even buy a kit with all the stuff included and a description on how to put it together. Besides, people spent just as much time researching which led fixture to buy and then end up buying a Mars because it's cheap and it promises insane yields for only half the electricity.

 

[CobKits]

If you're a nerd who likes building things then go ahead, if its not the light it'll be some other nerdy project anyway.

signed!

 

[MeGaKiLlErMaN]

Your point only stands if you put zero cost on your own time and labor. And dont say it only take x hours to assemble a light. if someone is choosing between a commercial fixture and a diy cob build, the cob route requires hours and hours of research. Those hours must be added to the cost of the cob.

Most people from a purely economic efficiency should be paying an expert 200 dollar for 2 or 3 hours work rather than spend 100 hours of their own fumbling about. For some the idea of build a light is as attractive as building an electric kettle.

If you're a nerd who likes building things then go ahead, if its not the light it'll be some other nerdy project anyway.





And what he quouted was close to gibberish,

Well thats true, however I decided on my components when I used the LED calculator... Just put in your COB choice, enter the amount of cobs, area, and driver... BOOM you have an answer thats perfect for your situation in 30mins of tinkering. Only took me 15mins.

 

[CobKits]

i think is his point is it takes 10 hours to even understand what a cob is, how a driver works,why a heatsink is requird, deciphering all the lingo, etc.

i mean tell your bros to put some DB3590s on some 4.8 HSUSA with a 1400 meanwell, and remind them not to forget the chiploks and the ledils (make sure you have the right ones of those last two, cause theres like 5 million different kinds)

film the puzzled look for us.

 

[Smoke-A-Cola]

Wow. Thanks everyone for your feedback. Not sure how to process it all.

What would be considered the best COB on the market right now, if price isnt a factor.

What is more important, efficiency or spectrum?

 

[nevergoodenuf]

^ That all depends on what wattage you would like each COB to run at.

 

[nevergoodenuf]

A CXB @ 10 watts might be king at low wattage, while the CLU058 @ 250 watts is king at the high end.

 

[MeGaKiLlErMaN]

^ That all depends on what wattage you would like each COB to run at.

Kinda, bit a CXB still looses. New times we are living in Check my signature. Citi is rocking with that 58.

 

[jeepster1993]

i think is his point is it takes 10 hours to even understand what a cob is, how a driver works,why a heatsink is requird, deciphering all the lingo, etc.

i mean tell your bros to put some DB3590s on some 4.8 HSUSA with a 1400 meanwell, and remind them not to forget the chiploks and the ledils (make sure you have the right ones of those last two, cause theres like 5 million different kinds)

film the puzzled look for us.

OMG...
I understand what you're saying.

Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing???

 

[PSUAGRO.]

Kinda, bit a CXB still looses. New times we are living in Check my signature. Citi is rocking with that 58.

I like my cobs binned.......... maybe it's just me though

 

[MeGaKiLlErMaN]

I like my cobs binned.......... maybe it's just me though

And thats totally fine, but even the Crees top bins dont measure up to the unbinned citi and a few others.

 

[nevergoodenuf]

I wonder what an Apollo 2400 @ 250 watts would be?

 

[safety meeting]

its a lot of data to digest.

the ones on top are more efficient for example go back to the first 2 graphs for bare chips and lets look at the uber efficient side of the curve

the most cost effective in $/light produced is the $12 1212:
it has a respectable ~13.5W of output at 65% and about 25W @ 60%

View attachment 3777243

where the least cost effective is the $40 cxb which has about 15W @ 65% and 34W@ 60%

View attachment 3777247


so lets peg 60% as our target, we want 1000 watts.
1000W of 1212s at 60% = 40 chips@ 25W x $12 =$480 = $0.48/W
1000W of CXB @ 60% = 30 chips @ 34W x $40 = $1200 = $1.20/W

you gotta take low level readings with a grain of salt as there is maybe 5 umol of ambient lighting not adjusted for, as well as low current measurements are less accurate. Data above 10W/100 umol should be fairly accurate tho

Do you have any more of these neat little graphs for the 1812 1818 1835 possibly? much easier to parse data this way

 

[CobKits]

i dont have any data on 1812s as i dont stock them. every test ive done on 1818 or 1825 ive posted already here or under my old acct BOBBY_G

 

[CobKits]

Kinda, bit a CXB still looses. New times we are living in Check my signature. Citi is rocking with that 58.

im not sure your sig is accurate in saying blurple sucks because you take issue with one manufacturer, just sayin.

 

[MeGaKiLlErMaN]

im not sure your sig is accurate in saying blurple sucks because you take issue with one manufacturer, just sayin.

Yes and no. I would love to see the efficiency of a bunch of the brands, but I have not seen anything more than KIND. But the grows I have seen have all been around .5g/W ratio. Do you have any grows with them? That way I can take it down and look into them!

 

[CobKits]

im using CLW right now and always top 1gpw with not great yielders

 

[safety meeting]

i dont have any data on 1812s as i dont stock them. every test ive done on 1818 or 1825 ive posted already here or under my old acct BOBBY_G

Ok how about the LER for the Citizien 3k 80 CRI and 90 CRI.....35x? Thanks

 

[CobKits]

@JorgeGonzales