COBs - DIY or buy?

[Lonestar11]

Hello y'all! I currently have two cheap 300w blurple fixtures, but I have been seeing some very promising results on here with members who use COBs, and it is definitely something I want to invest in eventually. For those of you that have done DIY COB lights, how was it? Time consuming, issues finding proper materials, difficult to assemble, worth the savings? I would really like to keep my total cost under $600; I have a 4x4 space currently, and 6x6 would probably be the biggest I'd ever go. Any and all suggestions, preferably with an explanation or pictures of results, are greatly appreciated. Just trying to plan ahead!

PS I'm tired of my pink pictures!

 

[High420Tech]

I have the same blurples. I added an LED shop light for photo video times. I plan to convert the blurps to DIY Cob. The brand I have not set on but should be able to add 2 x 3000k cob and 1 4000k and 1 5000k to the existing hardware/drivers. New sheet metal plates of course. This change should increase lumens by more than double maybe more than triple. Woohoo!

 

[High420Tech]

Vero 29 Cobs about $425 for the 16 Cobs for the 4 existing blurples

 

[SuperLuweedgi]

DIY is cheaper, fun to put together.... but if your not into that then there are good, ready to use out of the box, options.

I got a DIY... took some time as I was a first timer, no electrical experience to speak of, but I enjoyed it and learned a bunch.

 

[Lonestar11]

DIY is cheaper, fun to put together.... but if your not into that then there are good, ready to use out of the box, options like Timber, PLC, etc.

I got a DIY... took some time as I was a first timer, no electrical experience to speak of, but I enjoyed it and learned a bunch.

I'm really digging your setup, did you follow a particular guide when building/buying your materials?? Want to try and squeeze every penny I can from my budget

 

[nivek]

Tagged. Interested

 

[High420Tech]

Growmau5 YouTube is the leading DIY LED dude. Lots of good info. The cost of the above DIY I would guess at least $1000.

 

[MustgVagabond]

Tagged as well, I need better lighting on the cheap

 

[High420Tech]

The cheapest I have seen is slightly older but great lighting is the Citizen 1212 1818 Cobs

 

[Lonestar11]

The cheapest I have seen is slightly older but great lighting is the Citizen 1212 1818 Cobs

Are those the ones Dan has on Timber? I'm not looking for anything over 600w, only have a 4x4 tent. Maybe 4-6 COB's

 

[SuperLuweedgi]

I'm really digging your setup, did you follow a particular guide when building/buying your materials?? Want to try and squeeze every penny I can from my budget

I went with LEDs from Rapid. The frame is from them as well. All the parts were up to me to put together, with some directions they provide. You have to figure a few things out but nothing overly hard to do. This is an 12x Cree cxb3590 3500k setup and 2 Meanwell dimmable drivers. Works like a dream so far. There are cheaper options available besides the CREE CXB 3590's I use.... i.e. - Vero29's.

 

[gbauto]

I went with LEDs from Rapid. The frame is from them as well. All the parts were up to me to put together, with some directions they provide. You have to figure a few things out but nothing overly hard to do. This is an 12x Cree cxb3590 3500k setup and 2 Meanwell dimmable drivers. Works like a dream so far. There are cheaper options available besides the CREE CXB 3590's I use.... i.e. - Vero29's.

I agree-try to figure how much light you'll need for the area. Seems like the MH/HPS crowd likes a 1kW lamp/4x4 area on commercial grows so using current tech cob's I think that equates to approx. 600w of energy used. Now it gets a bit tricky- more cobs allow you to increase efficacy but it also raises cost. I tried to balance between output and initial cost and used the b version of the Meanwell HLG to be able to reduce power when not needed-this increases efficacy.
The framework that Rapid has developed is a great way to build what you need. One of the real advantages of DIY is that you can build to suit YOUR setup so keep that in mind. If you have basic tools and are somewhat skilled using them then it's cheaper to construct your own frame but I am impressed with the Rapid frame. I run 8 Vero 29SE and 2 HLG 320's @2100mA and it grows some mighty fine meds.

 

[Lonestar11]

Thanks for yalls responses. I will definitely take your setups into consideration whenever I build/buy mine. I want to be able to shoot for most efficiency, by using more COB's like you mentioned, but preferably a cheaper brand such as citizen/vero? I still have to do a ton of research on my behalf, but it helps a ton when kind people like y'all step up and explain your setups. I have a majority of the tools in sure I'd need to build a frame, it's the electrical configuration that usually gets me.

 

[gbauto]

The electrical stuff is pretty straightforward. The only real difference I see is using a series or parallel circuit on the output of the driver. Series is just a simple daisy chain of arrays end to end. Works well but it can run some serious voltage so safety is paramount. Parallel circuits have a common wire for all of the + sides and a common for all of the - sides. Only drawback to using this can be when a array gets hotter it pulls more current and that could theoretically create a thermal 'runaway' for that array.
It really is pretty simple and the biggest challenge for me was designing and constructing the framework to hang it. Good luck

 

[Lonestar11]

Just ran across some lights, optic 4 cob led. Puts out 415w. Seems like a pretty good bang for your buck. Has four 50w cree cob chips, 64 supplemental diodes(Epistar and Bridgelux), green light, far red, built in timer. Seems nice. Anyone know anything about them?

 

[TorturedSoul]

I agree-try to figure how much light you'll need for the area. Seems like the MH/HPS crowd likes a 1kW lamp/4x4 area on commercial grows so using current tech cob's I think that equates to approx. 600w of energy used.

From what I've read (not a staggering amount, where DiY COB LED setups are concerned, admittedly), it seems like one 50-watt COB per square foot is the sweet spot. That'd be 800 watts for a 4'x4' tent.

 

[Lonestar11]

Yea that's what I was thinking too TS, but I only use about 2/3 of it at most. Would really like to see some results from that optic led cob light.

 

[Lonestar11]

I can't figure out why the 3 cob array cost more than the four Cree COBs with the LEDs?

 

[greensunshine]

Lots of LED lights out there come with different efficiencies so it's confusing. If you see a DIY kit that is more expensive than a light put all together, the DIY kit probably has higher quality/higher efficiency LEDs than the kit your'e looking at. This LED stuff can be really confusing with all the options out there . What I like to tell people is take the cost of the light an divide by the watts. If you have $1/watt generally the light is not the best quality, around $2/watt and above is where high quality components and LEDs are possible.

 

[Lonestar11]

I think I have made my mind up and will go with this one in the next week or so