Help on my first diy strip build

diggs99 said:

They were on back order by time I hit the button lol sigh.

Back to square one.

I can still go with the f series but it goes against my being to spend that kind of money knowing there's already tech that's better lol

Yesterday I came across 1k gavitas for very good price, they looking like a much easier solution lol . Eat the electric costs for the next year or two and then see where the leds are at then.

Was looking at building a veg light tho. 400-600 watts, you mentioned earlier the bridgelux strips , they were cheaper and good enough for veg?

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Most of the latest gen leds are similar in performance if you factor in price, as far as last time i looked. You can buy cheaper eb gen2 but buy twice or even 3 times as many and run them softer and get back whatever efficiency the h-influx have on them. And pay similar.
My preference is to leverage diode count for efficiency rather than go for absolute top performance at steeper price. Why? With less strips driven harder you have to hang the fixture higher to get your desired light level. Also if you have more point of lights the light will hit the plant from more directions and cause less shadows.
But wiring up 3 times as many strips is a pita. So in the end its generally down to preference and calculating w/$ at your desired efficiency.

diggs99 said:

They were on back order by time I hit the button lol sigh.

Was looking at building a veg light tho. 400-600 watts, you mentioned earlier the bridgelux strips , they were cheaper and good enough for veg?

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Yeah, sourcing parts should always be step one. How else does one find the best pricing?

The Bridgelux are as good as any. It's just that higher power strips means fewer strips and less wiring on the larger lights. I think that's were the high power, double row strips have a practicality advantage.

whytewidow said:

He can use the 48v if he groups them in series of twos then back to the driver in parallel. But that creates alot more wiring series parallel is the best circuit design ever. But hard to understand. I agree with you on going with a small voltage driver.

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With short strips in the 20-24v range, I like pairs of two in series. Compared to all parallel, it was just over half the wiring on my light.

1212ham said:

With short strips in the 20-24v range, I like pairs of two in series. Compared to all parallel, it was just over half the wiring on my light.

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It also allows you to use 48V drivers which seem a lot more reusable to me.

Another way is getting 3 eb gen2 4 footers on some alu strip, connect them in series (very little actual work) and then connect to a +120V cc driver in parallel. At nominal that gives you about 100w each package, at great lum/w and diodes run cooler than a samsung double strip.
Cost: lm561c: about the same as a double f-strip. Lm301b: a fair bit less
To me its, if price and performance ends up similar, ill allways go for more diodes softer over less of high performance diodes at higher price and harder run. Having the light spread out is superior imho.

Edit: especially when supply is a factor, lm301b seema to be less available than bridgelux eb.

Also remember: rumor is that bridgelux eb gen 3 is around the corner, no wonder arrow isbhaving a sale to get rid of stock before next gen drops.

A or B type dimming on that driver? I think you helped germinate an idea or two, can you give a full driver part #?

Regarding the light spread, everyone says to remove the diffusers from screw in LED, but one experienced user claimed better results leaving the diffusers on. Hmmm.

EB Gen-3.
Strips are certainly evolving, they'll become standard in commercial/residential for a long, long time. I've seen "T8" LED up to 135lm/w. That's going to be huge market for years, until the florescent fixtures fade away.

Not sure if thats for me? I used both hlg185 and 240-48A on bridgelux Vesta strips which are 25v at nominal. 12 strips, 6 parallel conections of 2 strips in series. But since vestas are 2 channel the wiring looks awfull and if i redid it id go for longer chains in series using a cc driver. With 12 separate inputs, 12 outs, 4-way wagos galore in order to organize them into groups, bah, the amount of blowback if posted pics would huge.

Hlg185-48A is ideal: it goes up to 53V so it gives plenty of headroom, and also able to do some 50V cobs. Also matches up nicely with Qb V2 which has fV around 50 (if i remembrr right)
For parallel A type drivers are great, you can get a max voltage which avoids the possibility of thermal runaway or if one channel fails.