COBs - Vero, Cree DIY LED

(Hopefully not against forum rules to post an answer?)

Looking to DIY a COB build but not having much joy sourcing components locally. Spread the love with the info for a local supplier? Failing that, anyone have experience with importing from Mouser for e.g.

Local was rough with LED tech when I built mine @narnia. Try RS components and communica.

There's a guy in capetown that sells the complete setups so maybe check that out. www.makelight.co.za

But if you import, I'm sure it'll be cheaper.

Sorry for the double post, has anyone used https://www.importitall.co.za ? I saw a vero 29 v7 for R900 @narnia

Thanks for the info @CerealKilla !

Admiring your clean build https://www.420sa.co.za/index.php/topic,969.msg8708.html#msg8708  assuming you've had a run or three. Happy with the results? Any other deets you'd like to share? Where you purchased primarily   CRI, bin, etc?

Thanks man! I'm running 2 cxb3590's. 3500K CD bin, 80 CRI. I bought the parts from a guy in ct, and now he's building these lights I shoulda ordered overseas and started a grow led business.

I've had one grow with them. I was very impressed with the yield and penetration.

Top bin baby:-moonwalk , very nice.

Looks like the Kingbrite reflectors? And may I ask why you opted for two drivers? 

Stumbled over this site in the wee hours this morning, still need to contact directly regarding lead times, but it appears to be stock held locally, still need to confirm.

Have you heard of / used ém?  TRX Electronics  (can I post external links?)

Have you heard of / used ém?  TRX Electronics  (can I post external links?)

Can post links. As long as it's not blatant promoting

Top bin baby:-moonwalk , very nice.

Looks like the Kingbrite reflectors? And may I ask why you opted for two drivers?

 

Stumbled over this site in the wee hours this morning, still need to contact directly regarding lead times, but it appears to be stock held locally, still need to confirm.

 

Have you heard of / used ém?  TRX Electronics  (can I post external links?)

They're generic 90 degree reflectors. I have 2 drivers coz it worked out cheaper that getting one. They're driven at 50w each, so the temps are cooler, meaning more light. Also, the driver i wanted initially was outta stock

Never heard of TRX...

What are you building or is it a secret?

No secret, still sussing it out. 

Availability, primarily, of the COBs themselves (hopefully not drivers) and pricing, rather than choice, will most likely dictate whether I go with Vero29 Gen 7s at higher drive current (2.1A if I recall correctly), or 3590s driven at 1400mA.

Lots of data poured over and many many hours of videos watched and rewatched. Starting to get my head wrapped around it rather than merely following a spec build from Greengenes or Growmau5 (though I'll probably end up doing that in a roundabout way in any case). I like the modular nature of your setup both for light placement and tweaking as well as upgrade-ability if moving to a larger grow space. I've been fixated on a single fixture with a few COBs

Too long; didn't read: 

3 or 4 COB build

depends on availability vs price

LED's have so much reading. I eventually just gave growmau5 my cab dimensions and he told me which drivers to get

I think modular is good, more flexible. I was gonna put both cobs on one heat sink, then i figured i won't be able to spread the light nicely. Now instead of turning my plant, i just unclip my lights and move them to the next ring.

I am building my own COBs too. Here is my specs:

Heatsink Enclosure:

Black anodized 50x15cm active heatsink with hanging kit

Driver:

1x HLG-240H-C2100B

Cobs:

3x VERO 29 SE 3500K

With a 10v PWM controller (RPiZero)

Might be a little overkill for my 110cm tall cabinet lol, but it is already ordered.

@CerealKilla  Ha, nice guy Mau5!

@Trickerst Sweet! Waiting on the components to arrive? I'll be keen to follow your build, if you post. I did come across an envious spec sheet for your build on one of your other threads. 1.1m holy shit. Unable to create more headroom? 

May I ask where you purchased your components from? Also, on an unrelated note, how are the magnetic Corsair fans? I've returned a bunch of Corsair fans and ripped them from my PC to use in grow, due to vibration, none were the ML series though.

@CerealKilla  Ha, nice guy Mau5!

 

@Trickerst Sweet! Waiting on the components to arrive? I'll be keen to follow your build, if you post. I did come across an envious spec sheet for your build on one of your other threads. 1.1m holy shit. Unable to create more headroom?

 

May I ask where you purchased your components from? Also, on an unrelated note, how are the magnetic Corsair fans? I've returned a bunch of Corsair fans and ripped them from my PC to use in grow, due to vibration, none were the ML series though.

@narnia

Haha yeah I know 1100 isn't a lot of vertical, but I can always build another cabinet it is easy enough, and just transplant all the components.

The spec sheet isn't that crazy actually, its not all that expensive either - you just have to know a little about programming arduino and some linux. I actually just finished doing the databases this weekend and the sensors and stuff are all working.

I got it all through a friend in the UK. The local prices are just retarded.

What is your lighting budget?

@Trickerst  Ya man, local prices are so inflated. I've been doing some research into duties on chips, as far as I can tell there are none. Not sure on drivers. What happens with the actual customs officer, who knows, but perhaps one can cite the tariff guide (pasted below) if problems. May go this route....

Not fixed to a budget, not too rushed either. Currently running shitty chinese LED. As you've seen, price point for the same tech can vary hugely depending on where one purchases from.

Are you planning on using any optics (lenses / reflector) for your build? Options seem quite restricted with the SE-s  as the holders/adapters don't fit them, as far as I can tell. Sweet, well with room to grow (pun game strong bro) above the 1.1m restriction, you can always turn the cab into a veg box if you hit the height cap. Keen to see how this turns out, when are you expecting to get started?

(copy pasta from SARS doc. for anyone interested, can search the HS code 8541.40)

8541.40 - Photosensitive semiconductor devices, including photo-voltaic cells whether or not assembled in modules or made up into panels; light-emitting diodes (LED): 8541.40.10 5 - - Photo-voltaic cells whether or not assembled in modules or made up into panels u free free free free free 8541.40.20 2 - - Light emitting diodes u free free free free free 8541.40.90 3 - - Other u free free free free free 8541.50 2 - Other semiconductor devices u free free free free free 8541.60 7 - Mounted piezo-electric crystals u free free free free free 8541.90 0 - Parts kg free free free free free

Hey dude, sorry I have been away.

Yeah I was thinking of adding another, larger box depending on how my first grow goes.

I have some optics to cover the actual cob, but it is the ones for the Veros just so that I wont have to worry about something touching it and blowing it.

Planning to start in August - I need to get my hands on some seeds still. I need to drill the ventilation into my cab too.

No worries m8, happy building and growing once you do get going.

So the silicon lenses? Or are there reflectors/holders made for the SEs?

No worries m8, happy building and growing once you do get going.

 

So the silicon lenses? Or are there reflectors/holders made for the SEs?

They are basically lenses that are just covers for the Vero 29s

I'll post pics once I have them. I am just worried that 3x Vero 29's in my cab is overkill lol

For the SEs I've only seen those silicon lenses... sweet, thanks man. 

There are some threads with PPF(D) data with different optics from Robin on rollitup (I think). Having read so many I'm not 100s there were data on the Veros, but fairly confident, you could figure out some rough numbers... I think it'll rock provided have the height above canopy. Perhaps run no optics to get better spread and less focus? 

I am  looking to get some cheap cobs from overseas Chinese stores like dx or wish i know its not the best but it's a way to get started with some cobs

Whatsup my Gnomie.

Nice. What are you looking to go with? 

hey @narnia, Im looking for information on how to calculate optimal light based on umol reading from LED spec sheet. Essentially the footprint and how much light is required given the space?

Hey @Toby ,

Disclaimer: I'm not that well versed in this, recommend your own further research. Growmau5 and Greengenes are where I've gleaned most... recommend watching some of their videos and referring to some of the referenced threads on rollitup in their vids.

Since you have the umol/s data it's quite straight forward to calculate the PPFD, simply divide PPF (umol/s) by square meter area to get PPFD (umol/s/m2 - I think). As to spread, this will vary based on optics or lack thereof. As for spread.... regarding COBs: There's a thread from Robin on rollitup analyzing different optics and therefore spread on the CXB3590s I think there may have been similar for gen 7 Vero29s, which you could perhaps try and correlate to your setup and try figure out the spread. Not sure how you could fudge spread, without a PAR meter, if you're not running COBs.

That help?

Hey @Toby , Disclaimer: I'm not that well versed in this, recommend your own further research. Growmau5 and Greengenes are where I've gleaned most... recommend watching some of their videos and referring to some of the referenced threads on rollitup in their vids. Since you have the umol/s data it's quite straight forward to calculate the PPFD, simply divide PPF (umol/s) by square meter area to get PPFD (umol/s/m2 - I think). As to spread, this will vary based on optics or lack thereof. As for spread.... regarding COBs: There's a thread from Robin on rollitup analyzing different optics and therefore spread on the CXB3590s I think there may have been similar for gen 7 Vero29s, which you could perhaps try and correlate to your setup and try figure out the spread. Not sure how you could fudge spread, without a PAR meter, if you're not running COBs. That help?

Thanks bud, ill do some more research. Very interesting stuff, Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density (PPFD) & Daily Light Integral (DLI)

I found this information. Very good IMO, its a nice reference guide. 

See attached.

Fluence-Bioengineering_High-PPFD-Cultivation-Guide_v1.2.pdf

That's a pretty sweet PDF from a brief flick-through. Fair amount of broad information, even with a bit of ye ole VPD and EC > PPM conversions thrown in for good measure. Saved for reference.

Interesting on the CO2 supplementation. My assumption has been greater PPFD values are needed before seriously considering CO2, mostly based on the simple graph on diminishing returns, attached below. The PDF intimates 500umol/s/m2 being a crossover point.

This vid is a mess, but there's some good info through the stoner dialogue. Not too sure on your knowledge base and whether it's too simple or tech, but may help:

This is the thread with some data on optics:

cxb3590

http://www.rollitup.org/t/lens-and-reflector-optics-for-cob.893660/

vero29 (not sure if gen 7)

http://www.rollitup.org/t/how-to-plot-ppf-chart-with-quantum-sensors-for-led-light-comparison.881113

[edited to add vero thread and tag @Toby - since you're a mod, may I ask if it's necessary to tag peeps on reply?]