5x5 eb gen 2 build advice?

[magictoast]

I'm looking to setup a basement grow with a 5x5 tent, so long as we can find a place to put it and looking at how I should light it w/ eb gen2 strips on 4 large baking sheets.. I want to do it right but I don't have a bucket of money to throw at it either and don't want to overdue it..

960w = 38.4w/sqft (5x5) - 12 strips per pan = 1152 leds / pan = 4,608 total (4x 240-c1050b)

740w = 29.6w/sqft (5x5) - 9 strips per pan = 864 leds / pan = 3,456 total (4x 185-c1050b)

720w = 28.8w/sqft (5x5) - 9 strips pe rpan = 864 leds / pan = 3,456 total (480-42b + 240-42b) (ledgardener 5x5 build but w/ 2' strips instead of 4')

640w = 25.6w/sqft (5x5) - 8 strips per pan = 768 leds / pan = 3,072 total (2x 320-c1050b)

Anyone have any thoughts? Thanks in advance!

 

[ChiefRunningPhist]

I'd shoot for the 720W selection.

720W/3,456chips = 0.20W/chip at max = cool and efficient.

28.8W/ft2 × 10.76ft2/m2 × 2.9 μmol/J = ~900PPFD

EDIT:
Idk what efficiency Blux chips are, but maybe the 740W is a safer bet. If they're closer to 2.41μmol/J (175lm/WEBgen2 ÷ 220lm/WLM301H × 3.03μmol/JLM301H = 2.41μmol/JEBgen2) then your PPFD drops to ~767 despite the additional 20W to the total. If you figure your chips' μmol/J, and you know what your target PPFD is, you can calculate your exact setup, but idk what PPFD you're trying to hit or what the μmol/J is for the chip and electrical characteristics.

 

[f series]

Post pictures on build

 

[Chip Green]

Anywhere around 30(ish) W per sqft will be satisfactory. I'm still running Gen1 EBs at and around 1000ma(ish) that I built nearly 3 years ago, a few sections without any heatsink whatsoever.

Im not the type to be concerned with the on paper numbers. They have, and will continue to produce a bountiful harvest, time and time again.

It's a balancing act between strip spacing and hanging height to get adequate photon saturation.

 

[magictoast]

Just ordered 36 3500k strips and 4 185-1050b drivers. Will post pictures once I get building!

 

[magictoast]

Got my strips and drivers and drew up a wiring design I think should work! 6 18x26" baking sheets should arrive tomorrow, wagos, pots and hangers come later this week. Getting excited!

I'm thinking about wiring and mounting 3 pans together as one unit; splicing the power together and using 50k pots with each pair of drivers. If there's any reason I should separate those out, I am all ears.

 

[piratebug]

I don't like pan build, or using large sheets cause they greatly reduce airflow in the growing area which greatly restricts plant development. because any transpiring heat put out by the plant can only escape around the edges of the grow area!

 

[magictoast]

I don't like pan build, or using large sheets cause they greatly reduce airflow in the growing area which greatly restricts plant development. because any transpiring heat put out by the plant can only escape around the edges of the grow area!

I hear you, unfortunately up here in Canada aluminum isn't cheap to make a full frame. 6 pans with taxes and shipping was under $80. I'll be sure to have a couple fans in there.

 

[f series]

Only 30 modules I'd just buy heat sinks lol

 

[magictoast]

Only 30 modules I'd just buy heat sinks lol

36 2' strips. That's a lot of heatsink, couldn't find any cost effective options around here

 

[Chip Green]

Typical, ambient, grow area air circulation, will more than suffice for temperature control on those baking sheets.

 

[ChiefRunningPhist]

@magictoast
Kewl! Make it pretty! Have a blast!

EDIT:
18" × 26" = 468in2
(468in2) × 6pans = 2,808in2
4 × 185W = 740W
(740W) ÷ (2,808in2) = 0.263W/in2

An HLG QB132 is listed at 104.625in2 and rated to operate up to 75W without a heatsink. This equates to 0.7168W/in2.

I think your pans will provide integrity to your fixture, as well as provide any heat mgmt but at 0.26W/in2 I think you'll be operating pretty cool (pun intended).

 

[f series]

36 2' strips. That's a lot of heatsink, couldn't find any cost effective options around here

Yeah if you're strapped for cash for sure, otherwise heatsinksUSA sells what you would need for like $5 a light. Buying aluminum channels doesn't even save enough for me to get them. Plus real heat sinks look nice and what not

 

[ChiefRunningPhist]

Yeah if you're strapped for cash for sure, otherwise heatsinksUSA sells what you would need for like $5 a light. Buying aluminum channels doesn't even save enough for me to get them. Plus real heat sinks look nice and what not

2.000" Wide SERRATED FIN Extruded Aluminum Heatsink

We provide businesses and individuals with high-quality aluminum heatsinks extruded and shipped in the USA. Visit HeatsinkUSA and shop our heatsinks today.

www.heatsinkusa.com

× 36 = $1,080+!!
Heatsinks can look nice, but they are $$$. Trying to ship from China is also $$$ because they are heavy. You'd also still need to frame the strips/sinks up.

 

[f series]

Are EB's bigger than 1 inch? I thought they were similar to Sammy strips (1row)

 

[magictoast]

@f-series: Heatsinks would be nice but like Chief said, are just too cost prohibitive to import into Canada where I live.

Life has been busy, but I got my tent and lights built. I've been meaning to post for a while, didn't want to disappear after getting a bunch of great insight here. I'll try posting from a PC shortly.

 

[magictoast]

Okay... So as mentioned, I built my lights and am quite happy with how they turned out.

First, the 18x26" baking sheets arrived and all the extra bits I ordered such as pots & wago connectors (seriously cool, wish I had these when I did a lot of low voltage work in my job!). Now that everything had arrived, I took it out to the garage and got prepped.




After trying a couple ideas including drilling out a hole in the corner of each pan, I decided eyebolts were best. I made a corner jig on my drill press and drilled a hole in the corner of each sheet for eyebolts. I used 2 nuts, and 2 washers per eyebolt. Once a couple pans were wired up, I hung them in the tent to start getting an idea of how things were going to fit.



I was pretty happy with the way this was going to spread things out but could see what another poster had said about it making quite a ceiling inside the tent. Regardless, I'm sure some fans will move air and decided to start building the first array and see if my wiring design was going to work or not!

First, I cleaned all the pans and strips with 99% ISO and applied sticky insulated thermal tape to each strip. I wore gloves as well to avoid oils and too many smudges once they were cleaned.




I came up with a couple crude jigs to evenly space out the strips. I made sure the first strip was placed properly and then worked from it to place the other 5 per sheet. I found 1 strip width was a great starting point from the edge of the pan and used an old box lid and a relay as spacing jigs to keep everything nice and lined up.







I was anxious to see them work, so I mounted the drivers to a scrap board, slapped some wire together a bit crudely and fired up the first array set. I was pretty happy when it fired up first try!



So I wired up the other half!





400w! Looking good!

At this point I wanted to wire up the rest, but I wasn't happy with the sloppiness of the wiring. I drilled a hole in the middle of every pan and installed a rubber grommet.


I liked this, but needed more wire..

 

[magictoast]

I got more wire and got to rewiring the first set and wiring up the second set.




Originally I thought I'd want the drivers in the tent for extra heat since I live in Canada and this is in a basement, but after a bit of a stress test, I found it got too hot and had to take them out... I don't seem to have a picture of the driverboard elsewhere though so I thought I'd include it here.


I also built a little box to house a dimmer. Since I'm dimming 4 drivers with 2 dimmers, I needed 2x 50ohm POTs and added a 4.7k resistor on the negative leg of each one. I can dim each set of 3 pans down to ~50w or turn it up to ~396w.


I decided to see how much the main 6" exhaust fan and all the lights at 100% pulled. I'm pretty pleased!


And here's how it looks now, with the lights lowered down a fair bit, ready to start producing!


And a look in


Here's a bonus trichome shot. Hoping I can produce something like this after I get a few grows down!


Cheers and thanks again for all the insight. If anyone had any questions, please feel free, I'm more than happy to try and help others!