DIY QB96 driver advice and options

Medical card + caretaker home grow planning, looking for criticism/advice about my plan:

Looking to run LEDs, I decided on HLG panels without finishing researching other panels, strips, and COBs; picked panels because I need to order parts soon and they seem popular/functional. If you think there is a more efficient option let me know.

I was planning to buy a variety of HLG boards but after looking at the spec sheet wattage rating of the drivers compared to the total cost of a setup lamp I found the QB96's to be have the best driver watts/$ ratio for the HLG panels. I would get a more practically applicable watt number if I had factored in some sort of efficiency calculation with the panel's wattage and the wall watts. With ~20% difference from the next best option based on driver watts I settled on the QB96's without getting more info.


Driver QB96 pairings I'm planning on buying:

I don't think I am over driving any of these setups but would appreciate it if someone with practical knowledge gave these the thumbs up/thumbs down. Cooling is passive (with the included heat sink and TIM).

(1) QB96x3 + HLG-600H-54
(11) QB96 + HBG-200-60
(10) QB96 + HLG-185-54

They all come in at slightly over 1.5 driver-watts/$ for the combined setup.


QB288 setups came in around 1.25 driver-watts/$.

Its easier if you mention the dimensions of your grow space, along with if its going to be sealed and ACed or vented. The qb96 and full power qb288 eats up a fair bit of headroom thru high hanging height.

A few rooms with their own doors in a renovation house, having adjacent 4x4 spaces framed, 9 & 10 foot ceilings. 4 qb96's per 4x4 is what I'm thinking.

AC cooled, mini splits.

I watched MIGRO's youtube comparing QB288 and QB96 and the umole/j is slightly better for the QB288, the QB96 had slightly higher overall PAR. Not a huge difference between them price wise.

(Edit: looks like they should work for vegging)

If you're running co2, you'll want 6 qb96s on 3 hlg-320h-54a drivers for a total of 1000w per 4x4. You can hit 1000w with 4 but you'll want active cooling.

@Fluffy Butt Thanks for the advice.

That's about the number of qb96s I was thinking of for CO2.

I'm comparing the HLG-320H-54A running pairs of QB96's to the singles listed above and I'm getting slightly more wattage out of the singles just looking at driver watts. The cost to set them up is about $10 more for a pair of singles though. Am I on a significantly less efficient path for some reason I'm not understanding?

driver watts:
HLG-320h-54 - 321 /2
HLG-600H-54 - 605 /3
HBG-200-60 - 198
HLG-185H-54 - 186

Am I overpowering the panels, I didn't think I would at these currents even with passive cooling?

I'm a bit concerned with the HBG-200-60 over driving them with passive cooling, don't really know though. I am switching plans up to only get 4 of them and get 17 hlg-185h-54s and 1 hlg-600h-54 to power 24, unless someone talks/educates me into changing things up.

I run 2xQB96 with 320W driver in a 2x4 and they rock.

The more you drive them, the less efficiency you will have, plus a lot more heat. If you're using CO2, then 6 within a 4x4 would be ideal with 2 running off a 320W driver for each pair. No need to overdrive them and you'll have better light spread and no need for active cooling.

My ambient temps are 15-22C daily outside the tent. Inside the tent they're 17-26C with a 4 inch exhaust fan running around 65%. Heatsinks aren't comfortable to keep your hand on but not crazy hot. I'd think if they're driven any harder, it would be hard to control the heat without active cooling.

Dimmers on drivers should let me edge back off the wattage a bit if I need to. I'm hoping all these will work full power with passive cooling though.

I need to look around for practical examples of the pairings I listed above to see what happens with them, I'm pretty short on experience myself. If I get excessive temperatures on the panels I'll add fans directly to the sinks, but I would rather not actively cool them.

I think I can size a mini split for the room to keep up with heat, I'm still a bit concerned about the boards getting too hot though and will use this cheap ir temp sensor I've got to test temps.

Ive seen a lot of people using qb96s with good results and am excited to try them out.

XtraGood said:

A few rooms with their own doors in a renovation house, having adjacent 4x4 spaces framed, 9 & 10 foot ceilings. 4 qb96's per 4x4 is what I'm thinking.

AC cooled, mini splits.

I watched MIGRO's youtube comparing QB288 and QB96 and the umole/j is slightly better for the QB288, the QB96 had slightly higher overall PAR. Not a huge difference between them price wise.

(Edit: looks like they should work for vegging)

Click to expand...

Notice on Mi-Gro hes runninh the 96 at around 138w for his 1.98umol/j.
The sales models are 160w-180w.
I own x2, 96 Elites @ 320w each. Plants love them.
But i would consider staying in the 130w each range to accomplish desired efficiency.
Good luck!

XtraGood said:

@Fluffy Butt Thanks for the advice.

That's about the number of qb96s I was thinking of for CO2.

I'm comparing the HLG-320H-54A running pairs of QB96's to the singles listed above and I'm getting slightly more wattage out of the singles just looking at driver watts. The cost to set them up is about $10 more for a pair of singles though. Am I on a significantly less efficient path for some reason I'm not understanding?

driver watts:
HLG-320h-54 - 321 /2
HLG-600H-54 - 605 /3
HBG-200-60 - 198
HLG-185H-54 - 186

Am I overpowering the panels, I didn't think I would at these currents even with passive cooling?

I'm a bit concerned with the HBG-200-60 over driving them with passive cooling, don't really know though. I am switching plans up to only get 4 of them and get 17 hlg-185h-54s and 1 hlg-600h-54 to power 24, unless someone talks/educates me into changing things up.

Click to expand...

Those QB96's will take up to 6amps each, or around 320 watts per single qb96 board but will need a fan or something on them at anything over 4amps. And I'd keep the drivers out of the tent if you did. So basically no way to overdrive them with your listed options unless you tried to power just one with that 600H. Using a single 185H per board will limit them to half of what they can do but they also won't need actively cooled. Could also do a pair of 96's per 320H for the same idea with a little less wattage, or do 2x per 600H with fans to almost max them out, although you could still dim them at least. 3x 96's per 600H would give you a max of around 3.7-4 amps per board and may be able to work without needing fans when the driver is maxed out.

HLG says the SSTX or similar 125x125 Splayed Pin heatsink will handle up to 200watts or ~3.7 amps per board without needing any fans so the 200-60 driver would likely be fine per 96.

Regardless tho, if you run fans on them with whatever setup you decide, you'll extend the life of the boards.

Heres an Elite 320 over a 600w required plant. So there's another one that lights up the side you see.
BrideZilla #2 last wk.
I like the size on these? Makes them pretty versatile. FuelBomb from last run

@HolyAngel I think I will be within the passive cooling capacity as well, if not hopefully the onboard dimmers get me there. I'll be in a larger space with a few adjacent 4x4 plants. I am thinking about mounting the drivers to the framing with wires and quick-plugs for the lights+heatsinks. I'd be temped to throw some fans on them but if they're cool enough to run fairly efficiently I'd worry the AC would be eating the saving by having to do more cooling? or does it not work out like that?

@hybridway2 I like the size of those plants, they look like what I'm after. Nice canopy depth. I looked up the Driver in the Elite320 (https://www.inventronics-co.com/product/eud-320sxxxdt/) They list the wattage lower for it (320 W) it seems to deliver about the max current and more volts than the HBG-200-60 per board; 6700ma and 68VDC maxes on the Inventronnic's total output.
I like the size of the boards with the heat sinks too the only thing I hear is to have enough head space, I've got a good amount of vertical space so I'm not expecting issues there. Been talking about how to space panels' pattern/fixture out for a 4x4 with friends, there's lots of examples to work from to make that fairly easy.

I'm getting these drivers to test out:
(1) HLG-600H-54
(4) HBG-200-60
(lots) HLG-185H-54

And a lot of QB96's.

I've see some things like UV/Emmerson-effect puck lights but haven't really looked into those enough to know whether I should get some to go with this setup.

I've got a big CO2 tank already from other projects, I'll probably try to use it at some point.

@XtraGood yeah AC would def negate the efficiency. By fans I meant like, 120mm or 140mm computer fans on/over the board heatsinks, don't need any big fan for those. And if you're in a room and not a tent, then yeah mounting to the frame should be no issues ^^

HolyAngel said:

@XtraGood yeah AC would def negate the efficiency. By fans I meant like, 120mm or 140mm computer fans on/over the board heatsinks, don't need any big fan for those. And if you're in a room and not a tent, then yeah mounting to the frame should be no issues ^^

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I'm more speculating about how much cooling is too much; whether at some point the small fans are heating the room enough to cut of the efficiency curve from cooling the panels when passive heading would be enough without fans (by working the ac harder)

I would tend to think that the electrical efficiency gained by cooling the lights would make up for the added effort at the AC almost no matter what but I have no real idea how this plays our for maintaining ~70F in an open room and haven't ever heard anyone mention it so I assume fan cooling the lights even if passive cooling would be sufficient wont hurt anything efficiency wise?

PS: ...am still loving those pics Hybridway2.

You wanna maintain 81-84F for leds, unless the light is very mixed with hid.

I was going to make my own thread but this is perfect! If you don't mind me piggy backing on here I have HLG website open and credit card out ready to pull the trigger. I am having an issue deciding how best to utilize my space. I'm thinking 2 or 3 qb96e v2s. From what I understand to get the most out of my tent I need around 40 watts per square foot (maybe even 50?) And my closet (which i'm going to Mylar off and exhaust out the ceiling to the attic) is 1.75 feet deep (front to back) a smidge over 6 foot wide (left to right) and 7 feet tall (and like 2 or 3 inches) (Does this come out 1.75x6x7 or is it 6x1.75.7? heh never knew the answer to this) I have a shelf in there at 6 feet height I can use or remove.

Having this rectangular area is odd as I have only ever grown in a 4x4 under 1000w Eyehortilux bulb with a phantom II ballast. Big ol SunSystems Magnum XXL hood. This setup is over an hour away from my house and currently impractical for me to go out there as often as I would like, or need to. Thus the home grow in my closet. I do need to run a carbon filter and exhaust that baby into the attic but yea.

My budget currently is around 300ish for the lights and drivers. (I can go up to 400 or even 450 if that's what it takes.) Basically I need help deciding if I get 2 x qb96s or 3x. And what my driver options are for both. It looks like running 2 96s on their own hlg240 might be a good option. Please advise! Thanks in advance.!

(Would love to get anything at all similar to what I have going on with my HPS setup [Northern lights autos. The pics I attached are of that grow, that was my first ever, the HPS setup is at my brother in laws house which is over an hour away and getting out there as regularly as I would like is not feasible so I am letting him take it over now that I have finished my crop and I will take a cut of his production. This is why I need to figure out this closet space at my home.)

In my head though it seems like 3 qb96e would fit every 2 feet apart well also. Im so green to this but allll the research I have done leads me to these 96s and Ill learn how to wire them (Also not sure if I should be running in series or parallel to do what I need to do, I just need a little advice then im buying asap. Thanks again)

KilleN said:

I was going to make my own thread but this is perfect! If you don't mind me piggy backing on here I have HLG website open and credit card out ready to pull the trigger. I am having an issue deciding how best to utilize my space. I'm thinking 2 or 3 qb96e v2s. From what I understand to get the most out of my tent I need around 40 watts per square foot (maybe even 50?) And my closet (which i'm going to Mylar off and exhaust out the ceiling to the attic) is 1.75 feet deep (front to back) a smidge over 6 foot wide (left to right) and 7 feet tall (and like 2 or 3 inches) (Does this come out 1.75x6x7 or is it 6x1.75.7? heh never knew the answer to this) I have a shelf in there at 6 feet height I can use or remove.

Having this rectangular area is odd as I have only ever grown in a 4x4 under 1000w Eyehortilux bulb with a phantom II ballast. Big ol SunSystems Magnum XXL hood. This setup is over an hour away from my house and currently impractical for me to go out there as often as I would like, or need to. Thus the home grow in my closet. I do need to run a carbon filter and exhaust that baby into the attic but yea.

My budget currently is around 300ish for the lights and drivers. (I can go up to 400 or even 450 if that's what it takes.) Basically I need help deciding if I get 2 x qb96s or 3x. And what my driver options are for both. It looks like running 2 96s on their own hlg240 might be a good option. Please advise! Thanks in advance.!

(Would love to get anything at all similar to what I have going on with my HPS setup [Northern lights autos. The pics I attached are of that grow, that was my first ever)

In my head though it seems like 3 qb96e would fit every 2 feet apart well also. Im so green to this but allll the research I have done leads me to these 96s and Ill learn how to wire them (Also not sure if I should be running in series or parallel to do what I need to do, I just need a little advice then im buying asap. Thanks again)

Click to expand...

For LED's you usually want to shoot for around 35w/sqft., 50 would be way overkill and likely won't need it/can't use it.

You do floor space to calc wattage, so 1.75x6 = 10.5 square feet to light. At 35w/sqft you'd need around 360 watts of light, my math says 367.5 to be exact. Can be a little under/over.

I'd go with either 3x qb96 v2's for intensity or 3x qb288 rspec's for a slightly better although less intense spread. You can light them all with one driver if you wanted.

For the qb 96's I'd honestly recommend something like the HLG-600H-54 A or B so you'll have plenty of range in power and it won't drive them past 4amps or so which means you also won't need fans on them as long as you have the good heatsinks.

For the QB288's I'd look at the HLG-480H-54 A or B if you want to be able to max out the boards.

Could do the HLG-320H instead on either setup but you'll never be able to max out the 3 boards since that driver tops out at 6amps and each qb288 RSpec can take 3amps each and the qb96 v2's can each take up to 6amps alone but they both need fans on them if you max out the wattage they can take.

For reference, I have a 3x3 and I use 2x QB288 RSpec's on a single HLG-320H-54A driver that can max out around 375watts at the wall and drives both boards at 3amps each and I have to keep a 120mm fan on top of each heatsink if I do so. If I did 3 boards I'd definitely want a 480H driver to be able to take advantage of them. Better to have too much light and be able to turn it down, then to not have enough at all.

@KilleN So you've got both a tent and a closet? Did I miss how big the tent was in there? Seems like you have some detailed questions you would like to work through, you probably should make a new thread/post for them , it's whatever works easy, I'm new around this forum. The HLG-320H with two QB96 seems to be a popular, easy, functional setup including for tents. Get one or two of those and that should be fairly easy to make fixtures for your space(s), you won't have perfectly even spread in a smaller rectangle but you'll have a lot of light.

@Rocket Soul Should be only LED here, probably QB96s for everything unless they run out of them some time soon. 70F is probably a too low an estimate on my part but 84 sounds dangerously warm (81 less so), what do you think is optimal daytime high temps for LEDs with no CO2? 75-80 or?

(I'm not going to be adding CO2 for a while, maybe not at all, AC and/or exhaust fans initially)

Temps around 81-84F and following VPD somewhat, but you can do higher temps no problem. Its just different from HPS, no infra red in leds. Under 80 you may see problems with deficiencies due to poor transpiration, purple stems etc , especially in veg.

If you cant keep temps up drop a few incandescent bulbs or ceramic infrared heaters

XtraGood said:

@KilleN

@Rocket Soul but 84 sounds dangerously warm (81 less so), what do you think is optimal daytime high temps for LEDs with no CO2? 75-80 or?

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My room runs at 83 lights on and in the mid 70's light out.