Lighting Starting my first build.

[FadedMalone]

New to this. I've done a few repairs on a few lights and built a few diy hoods with lights, but not in the way of leds and drivers and such. I got to looking around in my odds and ends and found this driver from a spare parts ufo light I had sitting around. I think I have four of these.

Am I going in the right direction? I also found online citizen 1212 36v chips.

 

[BigSm0]

Sweet!!!

You can put 2 1212's on each driver. Each cob will be around 20watts each. Cobkits.com sells the 1212's for 13.25 each and also has the bjb holders which I highly recommend. 160 watts @ 60% efficiency that's not a bad light for $100 minus the frame.

 

[FadedMalone]

Sweet!!!

You can put 2 1212's on each driver. Each cob will be around 20watts each. Cobkits.com sells the 1212's for 13.25 each and also has the bjb holders which I highly recommend. 160 watts @ 60% efficiency that's not a bad light for $100 minus the frame.

Awesome! Now we're getting some where.. From how it's looking I don't think it's going to be all to complicated. I have been researching making my own leds but with all the 3 and 5 watt chips. The cob style looks like a lot less work and less expensive as well. I'm only growing in a 2x2x48 tent. I like everything about the COB seen. Looks like I'll be able to customize Kelvin temps(2700,3000,3500) for example.

 

[BigSm0]

You can also get the 2 pole wagos from cobkits. I'd grab some 18g solid wire from amazon and some thermal paste too. The rest is pretty simple. All the drivers can be connected with a small junction box with a Ac power cord. The cobs themselves should be wired in series. I can explain more of you need. If you have the old UFO lights you could install the cobs in them or maybe just repurpose the heatsink.

I have 20w cobs which are much less efficient than those on 1/8x3" aluminum spaced 16" apart. The only cooling is the regular fans in my room blowing air around. Temps have never been over 100 degrees directly behind the cob itself.

 

[FadedMalone]

@BigSm0 I'm starting to get the idea. You said wire them in series.my drivers will supply power to two cobs in series, loop from one to the other. My idea at this point is to have 4 cobs in my tent. I'd like to use toggle switches to control what cobs are on a different phases of growth, seedling stage and so on. By the time the grow gets hoppin all 4 cobs will be burning. Mined you I'm still in the planning stage. I was thinking of using one long heat sink and that would be my fixture and housing so to speak.

 

[BigSm0]

Sorry for the late reply. I don't seem to get notifications anymore. Series wiring is tough to explain. It is really the only option with the lower amperage drivers though.

For everyone in the world to see and hopefully understand.

Series wiring divides the voltage of the driver but has no affect on the output amperage. So if you have 50v cobs and a 200v driver at 1400ma. You could run 4 cobs at 1400ma each.

200v /4 = 50v per cob in series and has no affect on amperage which would remain at 1400

Parallel wiring divides the amperage of the driver but had no affect on the output voltage. So if you have 50v cobs and a 200v driver at 1400ma. You would only draw 50v still but each cob would receive 350ma and not 1400ma.

1400/4 =350ma paralell divides the amperage not the voltage.

I'll edit this at some point to make it easier to understand