seeking assistance on diy cob... citizen is the brand that has my eye... 3x5 flower room...

[purplestuff]

I have a space of 3x5, I am very noobish to leds... basically I'm trying to find the best config, cheap, and less watts... if I could run 600 or less watts, that would be clutch... I don't know how far the spacing should be, or even how many cobs do I need.... I would love for this to be a low budget build, currently I am running cheap 600 watt hps with air cooled hood... cheap ballast, cheap bulb.... this is setup in a bulky 4x4... wanting to change my room location to more discrete... citizen 1212's look like my cheapest bet.... kinda wanna do two separate panels.... any help as far as number of cobs, or suggestions on drivers, heatsink, or build layout, are thanked for in advance... where is the best place to purchase citizen cobs, when in the states??? thanx thanx thanx!!!

 

[dankstyle J]

I have been thinking about cobs to but am so low budget thinking is about all I can do ,saw some 99$ dollar ones on the net but I suspect there far from quality,don't have alot of skills with tools or even have tools so building one probably won't work ,but I will be saving for some kinda led I like the spectrum they add to my other lights.

 

[purplestuff]

I have been thinking about cobs to but am so low budget thinking is about all I can do ,saw some 99$ dollar ones on the net but I suspect there far from quality,don't have alot of skills with tools or even have tools so building one probably won't work ,but I will be saving for some kinda led I like the spectrum they add to my other lights.

budgets suck budgets suck budgets suck.... hopefully we can learn a couple build designs, for the lower income!!!! I'm super excited with my anticipation on my first cob build...

 

[purplestuff]

lol,,, wrong tag...

 

[purplestuff]

@BigSm0 any suggestions???? i've been reading for forty days, and forty nights... please save me from this flood!!! I need a rainbow...

 

[Dr.Bubbles]

Don't choose cobs based on this one is $4 less than that one mentality. Choose cobs based on room size, intensity, spacing and voltage. The 1212s are 36v Cobs, and there is a reason for that, which is diversity. Lower V cobs require higher drive current to achieve the same wattage output. As far as DIY builds, you're gonna have to do a little research to figure out what will work best for your situation. The 1812s and 1818s are 50v cobs and they are amazing lights. I didn't know anything about cobs besides of their existence till a month ago. Since then I have built 3 lights. As far as framework goes, look around at what other people are doing to get an idea of what appeals to you or will work for your space. Many many options here....And only a minimum of tools required. You are gonna need tools to build cobs from scratch DIY. Harbor Freight? Gets the job done cheap. Gonna need wire strippers, a drill, screwdrivers etc. My advice is to take one whole day to put together a parts list, and wrap your head around the whole thing. I will tell you with absolute confidence that you are gonna want to get the best cobs you can. Stick with Citi or Cree, and use Mean Well drivers. Hit up Bigsm0 for his 1812 Almost Complete Autocobs for a solid package combo of a real nice heatsink with an 1812 thermally interfaced for you, already attached. Arctic Silver paste sucks to use, and its nice to have someone do that for you that has done it a lot. Here is a cob/driver selection tool. There is two....One for Constant Current and one for Constant Voltage. Voltage x Current in amps = watts. Here is the link

http://ledgardener.com/cob-led-driver-selection-tool/

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[purplestuff]

okay!!! I was thinking 10-12 cobs, just not sure about amperage, or drivers.... basically I want around 560 or better grams out of a 3x5,,, and I wanna run the cobs at less than 50 watts a piece... I guess I'm trying to figure out the efficient way of doing this... especially on my startup cost...

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

Sorry If you don't have skills and tools then DIY is not for you

You can build a pretty good DIY 9 COB 450W light for ~$350

10 x CLU048-1212C4-353H6K2 COBS ~ $80 use 9 of them.

9 x Ideal 50-2204ct cob holder $18

MeanWell HLG-480-C1400B driver. $150 plus shipping. Dimmable

9 x ARCTIC Alpine 64 GT Rev. 2 CPU Cooler $80

Misc frame and wire etc. $25

12 volt AC/DC transformer to drive the cooling fans $3 you probably have one around the house already.

3500K spectrum:

Subtract the edges of your 4x4 tent and calculate light square footage at 12.5 SF:

I am using 14 of these cobs in my 4 x 6 grow room now.

 

[purplestuff]

Don't choose cobs based on this one is $4 less than that one mentality. Choose cobs based on room size, intensity, spacing and voltage. The 1212s are 36v Cobs, and there is a reason for that, which is diversity. Lower V cobs require higher drive current to achieve the same wattage output. As far as DIY builds, you're gonna have to do a little research to figure out what will work best for your situation. The 1812s and 1818s are 50v cobs and they are amazing lights. I didn't know anything about cobs besides of their existence till a month ago. Since then I have built 3 lights. As far as framework goes, look around at what other people are doing to get an idea of what appeals to you or will work for your space. Many many options here....And only a minimum of tools required. You are gonna need tools to build cobs from scratch DIY. Harbor Freight? Gets the job done cheap. Gonna need wire strippers, a drill, screwdrivers etc. My advice is to take one whole day to put together a parts list, and wrap your head around the whole thing. I will tell you with absolute confidence that you are gonna want to get the best cobs you can. Stick with Citi or Cree, and use Mean Well drivers. Hit up Bigsm0 for his 1812 Almost Complete Autocobs for a solid package combo of a real nice heatsink with an 1812 thermally interfaced for you, already attached. Arctic Silver paste sucks to use, and its nice to have someone do that for you that has done it a lot. Here is a cob/driver selection tool. There is two....One for Constant Current and one for Constant Voltage. Voltage x Current in amps = watts. Here is the link

http://ledgardener.com/cob-led-driver-selection-tool/

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

thanx... I have that link saved.... ive been checking it out this past week or so... i was under the impression citizen were nice cobs... spacing, intensity, and coverage were one of my reasons for this thread.... i've been stomped at trying to configure this thing, was hoping someone maybe was operating citizens in a 3x5 or knew good configs... I'm not worried about the diy, just wanna get my configuring together... number of cobs, and a nice amperage to run em... just for about 560 g's.... i keep hearing 1-1.5 gpw.... 560 watts is less than the 750 i would've needed for hps, with a better coverage layout... 12 cobs would be 600 watts but if i can run them lower than that, then i would like to.... if i cant, 600 is cool.... 1.5 gpw 373 watts, 1.25 gpw 448 watts, 1 gpw 560, n iim cool with that... just wanting advice...

 

[purplestuff]

Sorry If you don't have skills and tools then DIY is not for you

You can build a pretty good DIY 9 COB 450W light for ~$350

10 x CLU048-1212C4-353H6K2 COBS ~ $80 use 9 of them.

9 x Ideal 50-2204ct cob holder $18

MeanWell HLG-480-C1400B driver. $150 plus shipping. Dimmable

9 x ARCTIC Alpine 64 GT Rev. 2 CPU Cooler $80

Misc frame and wire etc. $25

12 volt AC/DC transformer to drive the cooling fans $3 you probably have one around the house already.

3500K spectrum:
View attachment 782954

Subtract the edges of your 4x4 tent and calculate light square footage at 12.5 SF:

View attachment 782956

I am using 14 of these cobs in my 4 x 6 grow room now.

so 9 of them??? i should've mentioned i also wanted to go passive cooling on this.... so the 60 inch run should have 1 cob spaced 10'' apart,,, with a total of 3 cobs a run, and 3 runs??? sorta like _ _ _
_ _ _
_ _ _ lollollol, forgive me for my thc induced lazy example