Fanleaf's Huge 42 COB Array Build Plus Other Builds

[growmau5]

Hey FanLeaf, I just wanted to drop in and tell you how much I enjoyed reading this thread, and checking out your videos on Youtube. Its fantastic that you are taking your knowledge and talent in wiring and building lights, then sharing it & helping others.

Cheers brother & keep on innovating!
gm5

 

[fanleaf]

Hey hey there growmau5. Thank you so much brother. I'm just like so many others man, inspired by you! If I can do that for a few as well then that's the best part. Very cool of you to stop in. Im always watching to see what you come up with next. Don't hesitate to chime in anytime.


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[Lost In Nugs]

Hey FanLeaf, I just wanted to drop in and tell you how much I enjoyed reading this thread, and checking out your videos on Youtube. Its fantastic that you are taking your knowledge and talent in wiring and building lights, then sharing it & helping others.

Cheers brother & keep on innovating!
gm5

Hey growmau5, i wanted to say hi and thanks too. You inspired me switching to COBs when i saw your mars hack. You and good old fanleaf here were my masters from the beginning. Keep up the good work, we need more guys like the both of you in the growgame . .

Current Grow SeymoreNuggets Flowering Journal - Nebula & Atomical Haze - Soil - 2x3 - 420W DIY COB

My journey seeking the light. Found some
SeymoreNuggets DIY For Noobs - Build Lights - CO2 Supplements - Auto-Watering - More

 

[TWINTURBODOGO]

You Fanleaf and Growmau5 are my jedi teachers! Thank you guys for passing on the teachings of the light!
I can't wait to start my next project and see what you guys do next!

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[TWINTURBODOGO]

Oh and fanleaf, you ever wanna let go of the advanced fixture. I'll take it! Lol

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[fanleaf]

Oh and fanleaf, you ever wanna let go of the advanced fixture. I'll take it! Lol

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That little thing turned out to be a beast didn't it? lol. I'm going to work on putting the project up here right now.

 

[fanleaf]

OK, heres the latest project.
I have this Advanced LED 150W unit. It pulls 100W from the wall exactly. The plan was to do something a bit different for this thing. For this one I'm using Citizen generation 6 1212 chips, 2 in 2700k and 1 in 5700k. All 3 are 90CRI. I have a tent that has 2 rooms. A 4x4 room for flower and then it also has a 18"X 48" veg/seedling room built in. I wanted to make this light for the small side room of the tent.
So we start with this...

 

[JimmyJames905]

Hey FanLeaf, I just wanted to drop in and tell you how much I enjoyed reading this thread, and checking out your videos on Youtube. Its fantastic that you are taking your knowledge and talent in wiring and building lights, then sharing it & helping others.

Cheers brother & keep on innovating!
gm5

You inspired me too bro. Now fanleaf has taken me under his wing and is helping me to perfect the art of cobbery!
PS Fanleaf...those 3 BXRC with 4 1212's is literally like the sun. Noticeable bud growth in 24 hrs.


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[JimmyJames905]

OK, heres the latest project.
I have this Advanced LED 150W unit. It pulls 100W from the wall exactly. The plan was to do something a bit different for this thing. For this one I'm using Citizen generation 6 1212 chips, 2 in 2700k and 1 in 5700k. All 3 are 90CRI. I have a tent that has 2 rooms. A 4x4 room for flower and then it also has a 18"X 48" veg/seedling room built in. I wanted to make this light for the small side room of the tent.
So we start with this...

Sweet. I may be sending you a gift for your next project after this one. I'll give you a hint...
Meatchip!


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[fanleaf]

Sweet. I may be sending you a gift for your next project after this one. I'll give you a hint...
Meatchip!


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LMAO...That's sweet man. Every time I read "Meatchip" I start laughing almost uncontrollably..

 

[fanleaf]

Now, Time to tear into this thing and see what we are working with.. FILTHY FILTHY!!

So, the first thing I notice is that all of the 3w LED chips are actually on their own PCB board thats screwed down to an aluminum plate heatsink. SWEET! That plate makes for a nice mounting spot for the cobs. Better yet, on the back of the aluminum plate heatsink there are 3 smaller additional heatsinks that mount to it each directly under their own fan!

 

[fanleaf]

I was able to keep some great salvage from this light as well. I added 2 more LED drivers to my stash. Both are 50-75V @ 600mA. Those won't be needed in this project.
There is a small 12v fan driver there that will stay for sure!

 

[fanleaf]

I know when these lights are built they use el' cheapo thermal paste on everything. So I was sure to separate the heatsinks, clean really well with alcohol and apply new thermal paste. For this I used Arctic MX4 paste.

 

[cnile]

Well I got the frame section #1 ready for COB mounting. I first added 2-86" sections of 1/2" C-channel.

Next I added 2 cross members at 19". Each are 3/4"X 1/8" aluminum angle. This really made the frame strong. So strong in fact that I'm sure the frame is now plenty strong to handle the load all on it's own.

Then I placed some heat sinks where they will be once I permanently get them mounted just to get an idea of what she will look like.
Here is about half of the sinks that will be on it. The COBs will be on 13" centers with the outer COBs 6 inches from the tent wall so the par levels stay up around the outside edges.

If I have time tomorrow I will start putting the first 14 Cree chips on the heat sinks to get this panel closer to done.
I will be sure to take many detailed pictures on the chip/heat sink/holder and reflector assembly.

Oh yeah and 1 more thing. This whole assembled frame is roughly 10 pounds

That's exactly what I was thinking man. Big nice fixture. Not 30 small ones.

I can't wait to start mine will be very similar. Are u doing light mover?

I'll be checking this out man. Thanks for posting.


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[fanleaf]

I also didn't like that the smaller sinks were only held to the large plate by 1 tiny screw in each corner so I actually added some aluminum rivets to the mix. The rivets worked really really well to suck the heatsinks together tightly.

 

[cnile]

What hps will ur fixture be equivalent to?


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[fanleaf]

That's exactly what I was thinking man. Big nice fixture. Not 30 small ones.

I can't wait to start mine will be very similar. Are u doing light mover?

I'll be checking this out man. Thanks for posting.


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That's just one of the 3 panels. I have no need for a light mover because I have full panel coverage for the whole 8x8 tent. Thanks man!

 

[fanleaf]

What hps will ur fixture be equivalent to?


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Which fixture? The Advanced to Citizen swap? Or my huge 42 chip array?

 

[fanleaf]

I removed the 2 LED drivers that were in there and added this small one to power my 8X 3w chips.

 

[fanleaf]

I'm using huge text on this message because at this point I was going over the wiring nest in this thing and was horrified to find out that the switches in this light were switching the neutral wire!!!! The hot was always connected and the switch was switching the neutral!! That's NEVER a good idea and I cannot believe they did that! In this instance one of the reasons that is not good is because you would think that if the light was plugged in and the switches are turned off you would be safe to touch your drivers and such....NOPE. Not with the hot always running to them. That's electrocution waiting to happen.

Imagine if this was done in your house....Change a lightbulb from a socket that the neutral is the switched wire and the hot is always on.....Yep, bad idea.