5 x 5 tent, led grow light design ????

diggs99

Well-Known Member
Soon gonna have to start vetting posters in this subsection

dangerous game spreading misinfo in here, guys tryin to build and wire lights without blowing their shit up, killing themselves or burning their shit down, we dont need bad info....ever lol


OP, i built 3 fixtures using the cutter strips( 30x 3000k 90 cri and 24 x 3000k 80cri), my only advice is be very gentle when handling those connectors on the strips. I had 11 of 36 strips( havent used the last 18 strips yet) that needed to be soldered because connectors fell off. 2 happened after lights were hung and running.

If i were to do it all over again, id rip all those connectors off the strips entirely and solder everything.
 

ANC

Well-Known Member
I think if you see resistors on the newer stuff, they are load balancing resistors, of high tolerance... All currents in series are equal, so if you start a bunch of parallel strings off with very similar low ohm resistors you set your strings/strips up to run at similar currents.

As for gauge, in short runs, I just continue with whatever gauge the wire from the driver is... normally 20 for the ones I work with. I've had connectors ripped off the board by too unyielding 18AWG solid core wire....

Tinned stranded is lots easier to work with than untinned strands.
 

ANC

Well-Known Member
Soon gonna have to start vetting posters in this subsection

dangerous game spreading misinfo in here, guys tryin to build and wire lights without blowing their shit up, killing themselves or burning their shit down, we dont need bad info....ever lol


OP, i built 3 fixtures using the cutter strips( 30x 3000k 90 cri and 24 x 3000k 80cri), my only advice is be very gentle when handling those connectors on the strips. I had 11 of 36 strips( havent used the last 18 strips yet) that needed to be soldered because connectors fell off. 2 happened after lights were hung and running.

If i were to do it all over again, id rip all those connectors off the strips entirely and solder everything.
I fucking hate lead free solder
 

ChiefRunningPhist

Well-Known Member
I think if you see resistors on the newer stuff, they are load balancing resistors, of high tolerance... All currents in series are equal, so if you start a bunch of parallel strings off with very similar low ohm resistors you set your strings/strips up to run at similar currents.
100% :lol:
I actually went with tinned stranded wire this round, it is a bit more pliable and can take being moved without ripping your poke ins off. Which is why you never see solid core cable in a car where the movement can lead to metal fatigue in the wire.,
If you look at the Hinflux datasheet you will see they actually give prefered thread count and gauge if you decide to go stranded...
:clap: Great minds, actually stole that from @NoBueno over on GC.
 
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1212ham

Well-Known Member
Well the strips he got are 48v max, so the safe way to go about this is to set the driver to about 47v with a multimeter first then should be good to go?
Did you get it going? A "Kill a Watt" meter is an easy way to measure power consumption of lights or anything else around the house.

https://www.amazon.com/P3-International-P4460-Electricity-Monitor/dp/B000RGF29Q?psc=1&SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&tag=duckduckgo-ffab-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B000RGF29Q
 

eatled

Active Member
I'm not claiming to be an expert in cable terminology but I disagree with your interpretation.
You are entitled to your opinion but it's not very nice to claim fraud.

"The AWG table below is for a single, solid, round conductor."
Notice each row in the table is a single gauge.
So what do YOU call a 16 gauge wire with 25 cores?
Why does the amperage decrease as the number of cores increase?

To me multicore means multiple conductors.

It would be nicer if you could disagree without the provocation and incitement. Ad hominem responses do not help your argument.
 

eatled

Active Member
That chart shows 4.1 ohms per 1000' for 16 gauge solid and 4.15 ohms for 16 gauge, 26 strand. 20 gauge is about 10.5 ohms per 1000', or about 2.5 times higher resistance than 16 gauge, so that 20g will handle about 2.5 times less current than 16g.

4.1 ohms per 1000' for 16 gauge = 4.1 mΩ per foot.
20 gauge is about 10.5 ohms per 1000' = 10.5 mΩ per foot
The difference being 6.4 mΩ

At 1 Amp 6.4 mΩ equates to 6.4 mV or 6.4 mWatts.

16 ga. 10.35¢ per foot
20 ga. 4.24¢ per foot
A difference of 6.11¢ per foot.
I use less than 12" of wire per pair of 560 mm strips.

1 kWh costs me less than 10¢
1000 kWh / 0.0064 W = 156,250 hours
156,250 / 24 = 6,510 days
6,510 days / 365 = 17.8 years ROI.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

If you want to calculate the difference in ampacity please use the correct formula.


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eatled

Active Member
Why should I waste my time with someone
I do not know. It appears what you have to contribute is a waste of everyone's time.

You can keep trying to change the topic but you fail to explain why the table refers to multicore 16 ga wire


Notice each row in the table is a single gauge.
So what do YOU call a 16 gauge wire with 25 cores?
Why does the amperage decrease as the number of cores increase?
 

eatled

Active Member
To anyone that's interested, a couple quotes from the text above the original table.

"The AWG table below is for a single, solid, round conductor."
In the unlikely case anyone were interested.
Is it a coincidence that there is no stranded wire on the commercial market less than 24 gauge or greater than 1 ga., and the "mulitcore" amps starts at 24 ga and stops at 1 ga?

Why is it when each row is specific to a single gauge WIRE it contains columns labeled multicore?
In response to your out of context quote "The AWG table below is for a single, solid, round conductor."
It actually said
"The AWG table below is for a single, solid, round conductor. Because of the small gaps between the strands in a stranded wire, a stranded wire with the same current-carrying capacity and electrical resistance as a solid wire, always have a slightly larger overall diameter."​
Where it refers to the diameter or the wire. Why did it mention "stranded wire"?

What does it mean when the single strand solid core column is labeled "single core"?

AGAIN you substituted the word multicore for the word stranded!
What did you not understand about "rather than debate Rather than debate multicore"?
In fairness I substituted wire for cable. Not stranded for multicore.

It appears you are avoiding the obvious.


Eat Lead



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eatled

Active Member
Well that was peculiar. Bottom line, I prefer solid 20 gauge wire because and only because it works very well with the poke in connectors of the Bridgelux strips I use.
Regardless of the superfluous technical BS.
 

diggs99

Well-Known Member
why even come here man?

you been nothing but confrontational with some good members since you showed up, these bros got a following around here because they have put in time and effort helping people.

All you have done is keep saying to ignore chief cause he dont know what hes talking about or questioning 1212, when in reality, it seems you should be the one were ignoring.

I just dont get why some new dude would want to start off on a new forum the way you have....makes zero sense.

You arent the smartest guy in this room, get over it.
 

NugHeuser

Well-Known Member

coreywebster

Well-Known Member
Gen 3 EB strips are new but possibly only available on back order and im not sure how much better they are than gen2.

Cutter have some lovely strips with nichia diodes worth checking out.

Im not that up on them myself tbh. I cant keep up with what's available.
 
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