Need to make a Veg LED light with left over drivers

Hi all,

I might have a little project after dismantling an old Blurple LED fixture.

I could do with a Veg light really to get a head start on seeds so could I use these salvaged drivers and simply add a heatsink and LED module like a QB96 V2 or suchlike.



Right I have 4 drivers the same which are these which powered the LED lights



and there is 1 smaller driver which powered the Blurple LED 2 fans which looks like this



I need something small and compact as it's only for my seedling tent.

It would be great if I could just buy a decent LED module/engine, heatsink and components to DIY a shit hot veg light. Something which put out under 100watts,is that possible with these drivers?

Can anyone help?

Can anyone help on this please?

LED lighting seems to be a hot topic and thought I would be overwhelmed by suggestions from LED experts.

Is it me others don't like hence no replies?

Just need to know where I stand here and if I get no suggestions ill have to look elsewhere but was looking for suggestions here because I know the LED heads here are a wealth of knowledge.

Anyway, I'm just looking for help and sorry for waffling.

KK26 said:

Hi all,

I might have a little project after dismantling an old Blurple LED fixture.

I could do with a Veg light really to get a head start on seeds so could I use these salvaged drivers and simply add a heatsink and LED module like a QB96 V2 or suchlike.

View attachment 4661972

Right I have 4 drivers the same which are these which powered the LED lights

View attachment 4661959View attachment 4661960

and there is 1 smaller driver which powered the Blurple LED 2 fans which looks like this

View attachment 4661961

I need something small and compact as it's only for my seedling tent.

It would be great if I could just buy a decent LED module/engine, heatsink and components to DIY a shit hot veg light. Something which put out under 100watts,is that possible with these drivers?

Can anyone help?

Click to expand...

Take a look at the electrical characteristics of the QB96.



At 1400mA the QB96 needs 51.5 volts, so at 700mA the voltage will be even less than that.

With a listed voltage range of 55-75 volts (unless in reality the range goes lower) I don't think your drivers DC voltage is low enough to drive a QB96 at 700 mA.

Barristan Whitebeard said:

Take a look at the electrical characteristics of the QB96.

View attachment 4662078

At 1400mA the QB96 needs 51.5 volts, so at 700mA the voltage will be even less than that.

With a listed voltage range of 55-75 volts (unless in reality the range goes lower) I don't think your drivers DC voltage is low enough to drive a QB96 at 700 mA.

Click to expand...

Thanks so much for the info and once I absorb it I need a plan b or c even d!

Would I not be able to drive anything with them, not only QBs. Strips, COB, single diodes, cluster diodes.... anything that what make a fair veg light running at under 1000watts?

If I recall correctly these 4 drivers when combined put out about 160ish real watts from the wall.

If not they can be binned

OR

Is this any good, I have 2 of them.

KK26 said:

Can anyone help on this please?

LED lighting seems to be a hot topic and thought I would be overwhelmed by suggestions from LED experts.

Is it me others don't like hence no replies?

Just need to know where I stand here and if I get no suggestions ill have to look elsewhere but was looking for suggestions here because I know the LED heads here are a wealth of knowledge.

Anyway, I'm just looking for help and sorry for waffling.

Click to expand...

I finally got around to trying out the drivers recently. Mine are a bit different than yours, but still the same concepts pretty much. The drivers I'm messing around with have a bit lower voltage range, so my options for them is a different but same concepts.

Some pictures and things I tried in this thread if you wanna check it out. https://www.rollitup.org/t/cheap-blurple-drivers.1010091/

I'm inexperienced in all this too, but it seems like your best bet is to find some boards/strips that you could wire in series to each driver. Just on a quick thought, maybe getting a four pack of the qb 132's is an option. With them being 36v boards, two of them wired in series per driver should fit no problem and I believe you would be able to run them without heatsinks as well. I don't have experience with them myself though, so hopefully others could chime in on that option if you liked it.

loco41 said:

I finally got around to trying out the drivers recently. Mine are a bit different than yours, but still the same concepts pretty much. The drivers I'm messing around with have a bit lower voltage range, so my options for them is a different but same concepts.

Some pictures and things I tried in this thread if you wanna check it out. https://www.rollitup.org/t/cheap-blurple-drivers.1010091/

I'm inexperienced in all this too, but it seems like your best bet is to find some boards/strips that you could wire in series to each driver. Just on a quick thought, maybe getting a four pack of the qb 132's is an option. With them being 36v boards, two of them wired in series per driver should fit no problem and I believe you would be able to run them without heatsinks as well. I don't have experience with them myself though, so hopefully others could chime in on that option if you liked it.

Click to expand...

Oh wow @loco41 that info is so valuable and I have not even opened your thread yet!

You've been there and done it I'm thinking and the suggestion you made regarding the QB132's and especially NO HEAT SINKS excites me a lot.

Lets get things straight though here, what I am wanting to drive is fairly decent veg light which would pull nicely and efficiently around 100watts from the wall. If its 120watts or 80watts to achieve maximum efficiency then so be it, I just need easy suggestions such like you will need this, this and this to get this fairly decent veg.

I get confused with the volts and amps and try to figure it out then see something else relating to it then get really distracted and well.....we have all been there.

Anyway, thanks again

Very interesting thread there @loco41 and I have 2x the exact same drivers as you so there is hope there.





Ideally I would like to use these other 4 drivers I have but lets see.





The thing that confuses me with these 4 drivers in particular is that the is no wattage on them at all but I am sure they pulled around 160ish watts combined.

KK26 said:

Very interesting thread there @loco41 and I have 2x the exact same drivers as you so there is hope there.

View attachment 4662444



Ideally I would like to use these other 4 drivers I have but lets see.

View attachment 4662446



The thing that confuses me with these 4 drivers in particular is that the is no wattage on them at all but I am sure they pulled around 160ish watts combined.

Click to expand...

With a constant current of 700mA and a output voltage range of 55-75 Volts DC the output wattage of each driver should be 38.5 to 52.5 watts.

Would this bargain work with any of my drivers.

If it is genuine the price is very good.

That would work on the LZBK drivers, but not the black ones. That is a 48 volt board and those black drivers have a minimum voltage of 55. That's why I suggested the qb132s as an option earlier, at roughly 36 volts each, two of those wired in series would give you around 72 volts total and be within the drivers range. That's going to be the "tricky" part to find a match that will fit inside that voltage range. 700ma seems to be a pretty good fit for some bridgelux strips (around 20 volts each strip).

To be honest though, for me taking the blurple apart and now just playing with some random parts I have around here has been the real benefit. That allowed me to get more comfortable with understanding things a bit better for now. The xlg series drivers are pretty cheap and are better in every possible aspect compared to these drivers, so I'm sure you could just start from scratch and build a real nice and cheap 100 watt light that's more efficient and better quality overall.

I'm all for repurposing these parts as well, just seems like the little bit of extra $ on the drivers will go a long way. I also got this light for free on a mistake by Amazon, so my situation is a bit different I suppose.

edit: here's a link for you to see what I was referencing as an option.

https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/bridgelux/BXEB-L0560Z-35E2000-C-B3/976-1734-ND/7907663 --- 3 of these would seem to fit the driver ok. 19.5 volts x 3 strips = 58.5 volts for the series @ 700ma. That would give you around 14 watts per strip (19.5 volts x .7 amps) and roughly 52 watts total. Setting up two little fixtures like this would give you your desired wattage of 100 watts total.

How big is the area you were hoping to cover?

loco41 said:

That would work on the LZBK drivers, but not the black ones. That is a 48 volt board and those black drivers have a minimum voltage of 55. That's why I suggested the qb132s as an option earlier, at roughly 36 volts each, two of those wired in series would give you around 72 volts total and be within the drivers range. That's going to be the "tricky" part to find a match that will fit inside that voltage range. 700ma seems to be a pretty good fit for some bridgelux strips (around 20 volts each strip).

To be honest though, for me taking the blurple apart and now just playing with some random parts I have around here has been the real benefit. That allowed me to get more comfortable with understanding things a bit better for now. The xlg series drivers are pretty cheap and are better in every possible aspect compared to these drivers, so I'm sure you could just start from scratch and build a real nice and cheap 100 watt light that's more efficient and better quality overall.

I'm all for repurposing these parts as well, just seems like the little bit of extra $ on the drivers will go a long way. I also got this light for free on a mistake by Amazon, so my situation is a bit different I suppose.

edit: here's a link for you to see what I was referencing as an option.

https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/bridgelux/BXEB-L0560Z-35E2000-C-B3/976-1734-ND/7907663 --- 3 of these would seem to fit the driver ok. 19.5 volts x 3 strips = 58.5 volts for the series @ 700ma. That would give you around 14 watts per strip (19.5 volts x .7 amps) and roughly 52 watts total. Setting up two little fixtures like this would give you your desired wattage of 100 watts total.

How big is the area you were hoping to cover?

Click to expand...

Invaluable info and I'll look into those strips.

The area is small, just my seedling tent which is just 50cm x 50cm

loco41 said:

That would work on the LZBK drivers, but not the black ones. That is a 48 volt board and those black drivers have a minimum voltage of 55. That's why I suggested the qb132s as an option earlier, at roughly 36 volts each, two of those wired in series would give you around 72 volts total and be within the drivers range. That's going to be the "tricky" part to find a match that will fit inside that voltage range. 700ma seems to be a pretty good fit for some bridgelux strips (around 20 volts each strip).

To be honest though, for me taking the blurple apart and now just playing with some random parts I have around here has been the real benefit. That allowed me to get more comfortable with understanding things a bit better for now. The xlg series drivers are pretty cheap and are better in every possible aspect compared to these drivers, so I'm sure you could just start from scratch and build a real nice and cheap 100 watt light that's more efficient and better quality overall.

I'm all for repurposing these parts as well, just seems like the little bit of extra $ on the drivers will go a long way. I also got this light for free on a mistake by Amazon, so my situation is a bit different I suppose.

edit: here's a link for you to see what I was referencing as an option.

https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/bridgelux/BXEB-L0560Z-35E2000-C-B3/976-1734-ND/7907663 --- 3 of these would seem to fit the driver ok. 19.5 volts x 3 strips = 58.5 volts for the series @ 700ma. That would give you around 14 watts per strip (19.5 volts x .7 amps) and roughly 52 watts total. Setting up two little fixtures like this would give you your desired wattage of 100 watts total.

How big is the area you were hoping to cover?

Click to expand...

Those strips come in a size that is slightly bigger than the 50cm max I have. The strips are

Nevermind, maybe another option for strips, going to look a smaller widths if there is any.

Bridgelux do have smaller strips that are 280mm, they seem to be very similar or the same as the longer ones.

Of the 280mm strips there is a choice of 5 which HERE with comparison to each other.

There is a few options, 3000k, 3500k etc and I was thinking maybe 4 or 5 of these smaller strips in different colours such as 1 of each even, 3000k, 3500k, 4000k, 5000k and 5700k all run from any of the drivers which I have.

Would that be possible and worthwhile for my tiny 50cm x 50cm seedling tent?

If it is possible how many watts would it efficiently achieve?

How many of which drivers should I use?

There is also the option of looking at small Samsumg strips and combining the say the Bridgelux above.

I really do not know which is better or even if I am heading in the right direction even but I know I need to be fast because my seedlings have already sprouted!


I might even have a go with that QB288 V2 which is cheap enough at under £30 with free shipping out of plain curiosity.

2 x 36v cobs will fit on the black drivers.
I've Citizen 1212s and Cree CXBs running on similar drivers. Some of my drivers are 55V - 110V range so I can fit 3 x cobs on them.
I've also got 2 X F Strips running on the 55V - 110V drivers too as 48V x 2 = 96V so the fit into the drivers voltage range.

Here is citizen 1212 chart below. Look down the first column, Current(mA) to 700 then go across that 700 row, at 700mA the cob will be 33.9V.
At 700mA its 33.9V. 2 x 33.9V = 67.8V.
Your black drivers have a voltage range of 55- 75V so 67.8V fits inside that range.
I get around 46 wall Watts when measuring with a kilowatt meter on my citizen 1212s and CXBs.

Citizen 1212s are fairly cheap compared to the Crees too. Maybe around $12 each, I haven't checked recently.
You can just attach them to your burple heatsink.
I've even got Quantum boards and 10 watt epiled 660nm, 420nm and UV chips running on those types of drivers.
Hope that helps.
I just noticed your £ sign lol eBay UK usually sells citizens at ~ 50 quid for 5 but that was a good while ago now.

I think I have made a decision based on very cheap Bridgelux strips. They are the 280mm version of the 560mm strip you posted the link for @loco41

The link is HERE

They are listed as discontinued at £2.03 and free shipping from the USA to the UK!

Arrow is the company and I have heard you LED peeps mention the company name before.

I was planning on say 10 of them and would the black drivers I have be able to work some magic with them since they are the shorter version of the ones that @loco41 suggested?

Because of the seedling tent only being 50cm x 50cm these 28cm strips would fit well so I really hope I can use them as I would be ordering them as soon as I know it is possible with the drivers I have.

Can anyone give me the nod?

KK26 said:

I think I have made a decision based on very cheap Bridgelux strips. They are the 280mm version of the 560mm strip you posted the link for @loco41

The link is HERE

They are listed as discontinued at £2.03 and free shipping from the USA to the UK!

Arrow is the company and I have heard you LED peeps mention the company name before.

I was planning on say 10 of them and would the black drivers I have be able to work some magic with them since they are the shorter version of the ones that @loco41 suggested?

Because of the seedling tent only being 50cm x 50cm these 28cm strips would fit well so I really hope I can use them as I would be ordering them as soon as I know it is possible with the drivers I have.

Can anyone give me the nod?

Click to expand...

I feel like I am out of my league trying to help you much further man and I would hate to give some bad advice when I feel like I have only just started down this road myself, but this is my take on it. I think it'll come down to how comfortable you are wiring things up though. It took me a while and a couple as basic as you can do builds with some boards before I felt like I had a grasp on trying to use these drivers, but if you have some experience with wiring you are already ahead of where I am at. It looks like with those bridgelux strips you will have to do some series/parallel stuff to make them work. Just wired in a straight series would be running them at their max current.

I would suggest maybe looking at using something like 6 of these strips instead though, https://www.arrow.com/en/products/bxeb-l0280z-40e1000-c-b3/bridgelux if you are fine with with wiring them like that. Wiring 6 of these strips 3 in series together and then 2 parallel back to the driver, you would end up with like 40 watts of light based off the datasheet in that link I posted. They are 19.5 volts when ran @350ma (19.5 volts x .350 amps = 6.825 watts per strip x 6 strips = 40.95 watts) based on the datasheet. It takes 3 of them wired in series to get you within the correct voltage range of the driver (19.5 volts x 3 strips = 58.5 volts). When wired this way your current will be split so that each strip is using 350ma, which just so happens to be the nominal drive for these strips.

I want to reiterate again how little my amount of experience with all this stuff is. This is about as far as I can work things out. I have never wired anything in series/parallel like that before, so this is all just my thought process on making it work from what I've read and gathered so far. Maybe @Rocket Soul or @cobshopgrow could point you in the right direction a bit better though.

Thanks @loco41

I really appreciate your help and I'll take a look at those strips you suggested.

Hopefully the LED guys you tagged will make it all so simple.

so the 2$ strips are EB1 the 4$ ones are EB2 right?

basically it sounds like a plan, nominal current is even 700mA so you wont need to put a set in parallel to get the amp to 350mA... but its a good idea.
at 350mA you wont need a heatsink for sure.
thats allright, connect as many in series as you need to get in range of your driver, if you dont max the voltage out you dont max the wattage out.

cobshopgrow said:

so the 2$ strips are EB1 the 4$ ones are EB2 right?

basically it sounds like a plan, nominal current is even 700mA so you wont need to put a set in parallel to get the amp to 350mA... but its a good idea.
at 350mA you wont need a heatsink for sure.
thats allright, connect as many in series as you need to get in range of your driver, if you dont max the voltage out you dont max the wattage out.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info but I think I'll put the job on hold as I have sorted an alternative for my seeds as I could not hold it off any longer.

Thanks again and I will get round to it soon.