Lighting Making some LEDs

[SpiffyFoxx]

New grower, so far I have everything I need (I think) except for my exhaust, seeds (both already ordered) and lights. On the 21st I'll be ordering all that I need for my lights, so questions before I get there.
So I'm going to be making LEDs for my grow tent (2x4x5). I got information from a couple other places, but since I'm only going to be growing autos, I figured it best to make a post here and see what the auto-experts think!
I plan to put 10 of these together:
http://www.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&itemSeq=233055273&uq=636355736015958933
on this power supply:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/361056514849?
run at 6amps.
Should be 300watts/49k lumens total.
Would that be a good amount of light for my tent (doing 2 plants at a time)? Is there anything else I should do to this build besides wire it up and turn it on, any other pieces I might need? I don't really know a thing about this stuff and spent a week scratching my head on this simple light build. Can I make this dimmable, or is it capable already? XD I'm just following instructions, they didn't mention that or not. If I can dim it for veg that'd be great.
I'm really starting to wonder about distance too..I don't want any bleaching, so I'll have to keep my plants pretty small with a 5 foot tent and LEDs. Probably should have gotten something taller for the extra 20 bucks. I'm going to use some lst, maybe scrogging to keep the height down.


Thanks guys, loving this forum so far!

 

[namvet25]

With that many lumens it should grow pretty good.Post a pic when you get it done.

 

[SpiffyFoxx]

With that many lumens it should grow pretty good.Post a pic when you get it done.

I shall! And for a 2x7 foot space, I could just double this right?

 

[SpiffyFoxx]

@namvet25 Hey, you know LED stuff right?
If not I guess if anyone else could help out that's cool.
I'm trying to wire up my LEDS. I have 18 guage led wire, and I'm trying to figure out exactly how I do this. Like.. I'm lost. XD Whoever i've gotten instructions from elsewhere hasn't really been the most helpful. I mean they've helped a bunch but.. they're kind of failing to answer any of my questions, hahaha. I don't think they understand exactly how much I mean it when I say I know NOTHING about this stuff. The only thing I knew how to do was order it online, and how to strip a wire. (and that's only because the wire strippers make it kind of easy to figure out, and I saw my dad use them as a kid, hahaha.)

Basically I need someone or something to walk me through this. I have all the supplies to make it, but I don't have any know how of any of the electrical stuff, and since wiring is so complicated, and everything is different, I can't find anything online that helps with what I'm doing. I'm more of a visual learner so if i'm learning by words i need a lot of details.

Sorry if it's a pain at all!

 

[Dr.Bubbles]

I know LEDs

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[SpiffyFoxx]

I know LEDs

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Just the guy I'm looking for!
I have 10 strips, some 18 gauge wire, and my power supply. I keep asking this person how I do the wiring and they're literally basically just saying "positive to positive and negative to negative" over and over.
Like I mean HOW. I need steps, instructions.
How do I wire this fucker? They said something about daisy chaining but what's what? And how do I do that? I have 3 positive terminals and 3 negative terminals on my power supply. And how do I make the power supply more safe? The whole thing is a metal box and with the screw plate attachments being so exposed, that just seems like a bad accident waiting to happen.

I can't find any tutorials because I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing to even know what to look for.

This is what the strips I have look like, they are Bridgelux LED Module EB Series 4000K strips:

 

[Dr.Bubbles]

What do you have? Part numbers, names and that sorta thing. Hooking all the positives together is called parallel wiring...Serial or Series wiring takes the positive out (Red wire) of the driver into positive terminal on first light/board/strip/diode. You then proceed to wire from Negative terminal on said light/board/strip/diode into positive terminal on 2nd light/board/strip/diode And so on till you're done, which attaches back at the driver black wire which is negative. Your driver is going to have 2 output wires. These are DC. Whereas the input wires of your driver is usually for plugging into the wall. That is AC. So an LED driver is a power supply and transformer all in one....Used to change 110v ac @ 10 amps to X voltage DC @ Y amps. The X and Y values are what makes drivers different. Step one is to figure out exactly what lights you want/already have and determine a proper driver to achieve desired output. Lemme know what u got

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[Dr.Bubbles]

I need the info on the whole strip as a single unit. You can use different wiring techniques in the same circuit. You could have groups of 10 diodes wired in parallel and then wire the groups in series. The more I know about the strip, the more I can help. You look like you are basically making a homemade quantum board. Right?

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[SpiffyFoxx]

I need the info on the whole strip as a single unit. You can use different wiring techniques in the same circuit. You could have groups of 10 diodes wired in parallel and then wire the groups in series. The more I know about the strip, the more I can help. You look like you are basically making a homemade quantum board. Right?

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Well I've got my N, L, and Ground done with the AC cord, that was fine.
This is the part number for the strips BXEB-L1120Z-40E4000-C-A3
This is the power supply i bought: http://www.ebay.com/itm/361056514849?
I'm making this but with 10 strips for a 2x4 area. I have two 4' aluminum angels for the sides, eight 4' flat bars (which I will replace or add support to later, flimsier than i expected them to be), and two 18 inch flat bars. Everything is an inch wide. Think the 18 inch ones might be an inch and a half.

Oh and this is the wire I have

 

[SpiffyFoxx]

The plan is what they said to do

To hold your strips together, just get two short 20" pieces of 3/4" angle aluminum and glue the ends of the heatsinks (you should have an extra inch on each end) to the angles so they make a rectangular 44" x 20" frame. (obviously doing my frame differently)

To wire them up, just run some 18 g speaker wire from the power supply output terminals to the first strip - positive to positive, negative to negative. Then just "jumper" to each strip in turn, positive to positive, negative to negative. (somehow this didn't end up being as simple as i thought it sounded?)

Before turning on the power to them, you'll want to turn the little voltage adjustment on the power supply all the way counterclockwise. Power it up, and then turn it up very slowly till they turn on nice and bright. If you get a cheap multimeter for 15-20 bucks, you can use it to measure the voltage and current and figure out how much power you are using. To measure the current put your positive meter lead in the "10 amp" hole (on the meter), and the negative lead in the common, then disconnect to positive wire from the lights and connect it to the negative meter lead. Set the meter to measure "10 Amp current" and touch the positive meter lead to the positive power supply terminal. Your strips will light up and your see a total current reading. Adjust your voltage till you get a total current of about 6 amps..