Lighting Advice for converting Mars Reflector 48x3

[Tanglefoot]

Hello peeps. There are 2 drivers inside this model each driving 24 3w LED's each, they are rated at 55-100v @ 0.55 - 0.6A. Is it worth using these to convert to cob or do you think I should look in to getting a better driver with more oomph ? Very new to this but am willing and able & need some cob in my life

 

[BigSm0]

Tanglefoot, exploring into the cob world is very addictive so first be warned. .6a is just about half of the amperage most DIY lights are set up at. It's still a very good upgrade to the light and worth it in my eyes. Many people here have converted the Mars panels while using as much as the original equipment as possible and in the end very impressed. One of the least expensive options is going with the Cree cxa2530 cobs which can be purchased for under $10 each. 2-4 cobs in that panel would probably double the light output you have now.

 

[Tanglefoot]

Cheers Bigs, a good place to start then perhaps. So 2 cxa2530 connected in series on each of these drivers would work ok right? Am in the UK so prices & availability look to be limited, can any one in the UK suggest where to source parts ?

 

[BigSm0]

Always willing to help TF.

Can you check eBay? Not sure how things work in the uk but that's where I bought a lot of my 2530's cutter electronics, Digikey, fasttech are some off the top of my head. If your doing a build I would definitely recommend buying the ideal chip lock holders as well. Makes a very solid connection for the wire and also holds the cobs evenly on the surface. You may also need to buy some 18g solid core wire and possibly some thermal paste too. Fairly inexpensive on Amazon.

Be sure to check out the safety first thread stickied above. We would love to see the conversion too. If you have time to post progress you may be able to help out plenty of others who have the same goals of converting as well as possibly picking up some tips from recent converters. Feel free to ask as many questions as you like. Afn is filled with intelligence.

 

[nudd]

Tangle foot those are the same size drivers that were in my mars 180 ufo
I'm using them to drive 6 vero 18s at around 15 watts each
90watts total at 150 lumens per watt
I got the chips from digikey.co.uk
hope this helps
nudd

 

[orrganic]

try Ali express or just Ali.com and it may re route you to uk servers or whatever but its worth a look!
most of the stuff you'll need dirt cheap

 

[Tanglefoot]

Cheers guys much appreciated. Ebay UK has the chips but they are waaaaaaaayyy over priced. If you get them from China or whatever then I'm pretty sure you get stung with huge UK import taxes thanks to our racketeering UK government!

@nudd thanks, Digikey looks good - I take it you can order from this place as just standard Jo public, i.e. you don't have to be a company ? Also I take it the main difference between the lesser priced Bridgelux Vero's & Cree is efficiency, Cree will give more lumens per watt right ?

 

[BigSm0]

Cheers guys much appreciated. Ebay UK has the chips but they are waaaaaaaayyy over priced. If you get them from China or whatever then I'm pretty sure you get stung with huge UK import taxes thanks to our racketeering UK government!

@nudd thanks, Digikey looks good - I take it you can order from this place as just standard Jo public, i.e. you don't have to be a company ? Also I take it the main difference between the lesser priced Bridgelux Vero's & Cree is efficiency, Cree will give more lumens per watt right ?

Yes all these companies sell to the regular public. Once you find a place to buy them then you really need to decide on your budget. Cree and citizen are better than vero. Most budget conscious builds use Cree 2530's. More expensive and better cobs are the Cree 3590's or citizen clu

 

[HotBunz]

Hello peeps. There are 2 drivers inside this model each driving 24 3w LED's each, they are rated at 55-100v @ 0.55 - 0.6A. Is it worth using these to convert to cob or do you think I should look in to getting a better driver with more oomph ? Very new to this but am willing and able & need some cob in my life

Here's my 2cents worth.

My Mars 300w old model(good 170w at the wall version) used the same drivers as you seem to have in your reflector model. When I did my conversion I used 2 Cree cxb3590 36v COBs. It only was drawing 48w at the wall due to the low output of the stock drivers. Now keep in mind your stock Mars Reflector is 102w at the wall. And I think I have seen reports of it's output is in the area of 4,500 lumen for your fixture. A top BIN U2 3500K cxa2530 COB is between 3680-4150 lumen when driven at 800ma. So at 600ma of the stock Mars driver you would be down 25% give or take from those numbers.

I myself have switched to a Meanwell HLG-185H-1400B driver and at wide open(1.4a) my fixture is pulling an honest 100w at the wall per my Kill O Watt meter with my 2 cxb3590's. There is "room" on my Meanwell driver for 2 more cxb's and I plan to add them before my next grow for an honest 200w LED fixture.

 

[BigSm0]

Here's my 2cents worth.

My Mars 300w old model(good 170w at the wall version) used the same drivers as you seem to have in your reflector model. When I did my conversion I used 2 Cree cxb3590 36v COBs. It only was drawing 48w at the wall due to the low output of the stock drivers. Now keep in mind your stock Mars Reflector is 102w at the wall. And I think I have seen reports of it's output is in the area of 4,500 lumen for your fixture. A top BIN U2 3500K cxa2530 COB is between 3680-4150 lumen when driven at 800ma. So at 600ma of the stock Mars driver you would be down 25% give or take from those numbers.

I myself have switched to a Meanwell HLG-185H-1400B driver and at wide open(1.4a) my fixture is pulling an honest 100w at the wall per my Kill O Watt meter with my 2 cxb3590's. There is "room" on my Meanwell driver for 2 more cxb's and I plan to add them before my next grow for an honest 200w LED fixture.

That's some great info on the conversion and now the hlg is as low as $40. Taken into consideration the par watts from the Cree vs the Mars is much higher. Lower wattage but probably in the mid 60% efficiency range on the Cree. The only facts I could come up with on efficiency was on a kind which uses epistar LEDs at 22.5% efficient so there is a lot more usable photons with the Cree vs of Mars LEDs.