I didn’t go that big because I would’ve needed to buy larger heat sinks and if I had would’ve gone water cooled myself if the lights didn’t work out the water cooling radiator and plumbing would work good as res chiller
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Yep, understand completely. Personally, I’d really just like to have an idea on how the better cobs stand up watt for watt against the lec. In my opinion, the other hid options are inferior in performance on a power basis. But there’s a lot to be said for initial cost or already having the mh/hps setup. Scrolling search engines only get you so far. There are a lot of growers out there giving biased opinions, on both sides. I feel you would give an impartial and thorough description on how you feel they stack up.
As far as this project, I would assume parallel wiring would be more desirable. Since each cob essentially has its own power supply, you would treat it just like wiring outlets or lighting in your home. In fact, I would probably go as far to say that they are required to be wired in parallel for that reason. Each probably requires whatever source voltage they are spec’d at. Im not sure if you guys are 120 there like in US, but here 2 in series would give 60 volts per cob. 3 would be volts, and so on. And I don’t believe they will work that way, at least not properly.
At least that is my understanding of the driverless cobs. If you see something that suggests otherwise, I’d be happy to take a look at it.
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I have seen bulb ballast and shade CMH for as little as $250 which though not digital and likely warmer is pretty good deal compared to what I paid for each of mine lmao lumen to watt they are pretty close my 3100k Lec is about 37,000 lumen
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From what I’ve seen that seems like a pretty good deal. It’s been a while since I looked, but a solid 315 seemed to start at about $400 if I remember. I just meant that they are a little more than an hps setup, but still less than typical cob fixture of similar footprint.
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Paid close to that for my LEC’s but the footprint was the factor and since I am now running 2 light movers also can actually increase footprint some with either lights. This does require that I change my veg routine if I chose to grow bigger or more plants
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Well extractor came in did 2 learning runs with mildly packed shake roughly 1.5 oz ended up with about 4 grams of butter degassed she was shatter but not dewaxed so butter 
Not a bad return for sugar leaves and trim clean simple and almost idiot proof wish I weren’t so high note to self when cleaning pan wear gloves 
I didn’t even grind just a quick few chops and filled it up off to the races recovered too much first try so simply packed another run and and made adjustments so I could still pour rather than have to scrape splatter pan.
I am quite pleased with it thus far but was more than a little annoyed with the $130 COD duties brokerage and tax fee that came to my door with it but will pay for itself fast the upgrade kit is another 300 and already discovered this is a pretty small run and at 30-45min start to finish would take me several days to get all my trim done
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After a little rest and some thought in a less buzzed state have determined that could easily double run each tube for increased returns working today but will organize shed again when I get home to accommodate this new stage in my harvesting process. Bringing samples to work for the crew I suspect won’t hurt productivity much being winter we all have the why am I here today feeling anyway.
Will try to remember update pictures after work today still waiting on my WW cuttings to root before firing up second hydro unit but have 1 running atm which is doing great and about due for res change 
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They aren’t the brightest in the world. With my cheap sunlight tester that’s supposed to measure PAR, I get partial sun at 18" on these driverless full spectrum COBs. Whatever that means. Same thing I get on my 600w LED lights at 24".
Hope that helps.
@dbrn32
@AmnesiaHaze
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The big question then would be how many and watts per chip? Lol I am not super concerned I am configuring mine in such a fashion they could be cfl’s and still grow plants
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I miss something… What is that and what do you mean by “few days”
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Im with @BIGE @Donaldj lets get to processing lol
When tou processs the MJ that way do tou get a chemical taste it end product???
Interesting and curious brother
May I suggest you start a new thread on the process?? Just a thought
Im still researching the lights and leaning towards them
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I gave it away to my testers at work since the boss and coworker vape constantly and buy from a dispensary I figure will get best feed back but like I said got about 4 grams of clear caramel off 1.5 oz of shake. @Countryboyjvd1971 I am able to purge butane in simple vac pot sitting in a bucket of hot water no need for oven I suspect if I wanted to eliminate the final 4-5% if that which may remain would simply use hot plate to keep water at 110f and run vac for several hours Also if I ran rosin press first I would still get decent return off finished product being a ac tech use understand refrigerant recover same concept I recover around 90% of butane than purge remainder leaving only enough to aid removing oil from system since scraping out of tiny little pot sucks
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Thanks buddy and yes i do understand the concept
I press my bud wih a pneumatic press and vape as well and yeah best feed back will be frim end users
Been looking into other options as well
Im a bit sketchy on the bho and why im asking questions 
@Donaldj
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lol the grade of the butane used determines if it has an after taste I can’t even smell the butane I am using if I open vent it it’s 99.98% pure with no scents added and the quality is way nicer than the stuff I made in past with an open column and boiling it off mind you yet to run any buds just shake so farand I have lots of shake since any lower grade buds also made shake list since last year I have saved shake from every harvest I am likely to get oz or so just off my shake
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Well my thermal conducting gel came in today so will be building my light tonight or tomorrow before processing more shake into shatter finished latest roof today may have another couple jobs coming down the pipes. Weather and my boss conspiring to ruin my usual rest season however is nice to make a few extra $$
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I was going to reply to comment about your led fixture being able to grow if the were cfls… then I got a peek at the new unit and thought, that’s sexy! Then I seen plants pics, and those are sexy too lol.
Alas, final comment was back to boring old lights. You know, it’s not really a simple answer anymore. Most of the cree, bridgelux, citizen, and luminous flagship cobs are in the neighborhood of 200 lumens per watt in cold white at around 50 Watts. Efficacy is lower in warmer white, efficacy is even lower from 70 to 80 to 90 cri. In my opinion, the Cree and citizen 3000k 90 cri have about the best horticulture spectrum. Those are around 130 lumens per watt at 50 Watts. The lumen count not as important, but that’s how they stack up in performance.
Watching a few side by side grows of the 3000k 80 cri vs 3000k 90 cri, yields were about the same. 90 cri had a few more inches of stretch over the entire grow, but finished usually between 6 and 10 days earlier. You know as well as I do, individual results will vary. I can tell you that there’s no need to build to 50 Watts per square foot unless you’re doing something to push the led efficiency low. Someone like yourself is probably capable of pushing plants with light, so maybe 50 Watts per foot is something you would personally be interested in. But I would surely go with dimming driver if that was the case. I can’t speak for them all, but the meanwells adjust the output current rather than load a resistor. So dimming will increase system efficiency pretty much at linear rate. 500 wall watts dimmed to 50% will draw about 250 watts. And you’ll also then see a boost in led efficiency as well.
All said and done, a 50 watt Cree cob with passive sink and meanwell driver is around $85 give or take to build. Citizen about 20 cheaper. The bridgelux cobs don’t have the efficiency loss at higher current, so they’re a little more popular to run in 70-75 watt range for about a US dollar per watt.
As we were discussing in the other thread, the smaller cobs are a good option in some applications and obviously cheaper per cob. But not necessarily always cheaper per watt.
The quantum boards or other mid power pcb boards are also an option. They’re good, not always the best. But they’re super easy to put together, and a lot of people like that. Especially with the high led efficiency.
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