4 Individual QBs vs 1 Frame with 4 QBs

Hello friends,

First post, planning first setup and over thinking every purchase lol.
I think I've decided on 4x Atreum 288.2s with 4x hlg-120-54a for a scrog in 4x4x5 gorilla tent - tallest I can go : c and 4 plant limit in Canada. I've been looking at Hlg prebuilts and other diy and everyone seems to be placing QBs close together on the same heatsink and using one driver to power them all.
Wouldn't it be better to have 4 seperate boards with their own drivers on their own hangers? I think this would provide better foot print and flexibility for height over individual plants, or even turning one off during veg or I lose a plant D: . Driver cost might be a bit more, but I'm not sure why else anyone would squish 4 QBs together in the middle of a tent e.g hlg550v2 instead of each centered over 2x2?

Thanks for reading, appreciate any input. I've come this far from reading about hps, then blurples, to finding hlg QBs, then alibaba QBs, back to Atreum QBs lol, indecision is hurting the yields.

Yes, you can separate the boards. That's the benefit of a DIY fixture-you can design it to fit your grow space. I would have used a single driver to simplify the setup but what you have is perfectly useable. Be sure to post up on your progress.

Better to have them spread. If you go diy, you can use less drivers to lower them too

Kaytertots said:

Hello friends,

First post, planning first setup and over thinking every purchase lol.
I think I've decided on 4x Atreum 288.2s with 4x hlg-120-54a for a scrog in 4x4x5 gorilla tent - tallest I can go : c and 4 plant limit in Canada. I've been looking at Hlg prebuilts and other diy and everyone seems to be placing QBs close together on the same heatsink and using one driver to power them all.
Wouldn't it be better to have 4 seperate boards with their own drivers on their own hangers? I think this would provide better foot print and flexibility for height over individual plants, or even turning one off during veg or I lose a plant D: . Driver cost might be a bit more, but I'm not sure why else anyone would squish 4 QBs together in the middle of a tent e.g hlg550v2 instead of each centered over 2x2?

Thanks for reading, appreciate any input. I've come this far from reading about hps, then blurples, to finding hlg QBs, then alibaba QBs, back to Atreum QBs lol, indecision is hurting the yields.

Click to expand...

A driver for each board is not efficient in my opinion. You're going to be generating a lot of additional heat and considering some of these drivers are around $100/ea or more, you can potentially add another board or two in your design for the same light out put, so why wouldn't you? Also, many people are now mounting these drivers outside the tent to save on heat inside the tent. This also takes heat away from your board, allowing you to run it a little harder when you need to. And to answer your question about using less drivers and then just turning one off during veg, all of these drivers are dimmable -- and while you might not need the same amount of light in veg, you're going to likely need the same foot print, so it's pretty easy to just dim it down and/or raise it up a bit. But of course that's why they make the DIY kits.

Yes, one of the benefits of QB's is that you have a better foot print, so obviously it makes since to space them out in your tent to provide equal canopy lighting throughout.

In your case with a scrog, one fixture makes sense. If growing perpetual, having seperate boards would be better