I’m sure would be fine either way, I would personally buy whichever is cheaper if there was a price difference or something. I’m sure thet are at least close and only buying a few strips you may as well just go with what you know.
Did you decide on what you’re mounting them to? I can get you part numbers for strips and driver, what else do you need? Wire, cord, connectors, and thermal tape?
Shopping List:
4x Samsung 560mm | Q-Series | SI-B8T101560US | digikey
1x Meanwell Driver | PLM-40-350 | trcelectrocnics
1x Aluminum Plate | 0.125" x 12" x 24" | ???
1x Double Sided Thermal Transfer Tape | 20mm | amazon
1x 22 awg Solid Core Hookup Wire 300 Volt Rating | amazon
4x Wago Connectors | 221-412 | amazon
1x 16 awg Extention Cord | amazon
…
@dbrn32, so far, from the list, the only item I need to find still is the aluminum plate. A few questions for you.
1- Do you just drill four holes in each corner of the aluminum plate and use hanging ratchets?
2- Will this be wired in series? Any chance you can help me with a wiring diagram?
3- The parts list you wrote that you linked to above says 18 awg solid core wire, but, I’m only able to find 22 awg, will that be ok?
3- Anything missing from the shopping list?
You don’t necessarily need to drill 4 holes in the corners, but you will have to account for some to hang or mount the fixture right?
Yes, wire in series. I can get you a wiring diagram.
Try this for wire
https://www.amazon.com/NTE-Electronics-WHS18-08-25-Solid-Length/dp/B008UFZ098/?tag=greenrel-20
I think everything else looks pretty good.
Excellent, I’ll grab that wire. I just ordered the Samsung strips and have a quick question…
How will I connect the extension cord to the Meanwell driver? It looks like the Meanwell only has two connectors on each side, extension cords have a ground as well… so I’m a bit confused on this.
Any clarity is appreciated !
The plm driver is double insulated, so there is no ground reference to the driver case, thus no ground wire. You can use a 2 wire cord or just attach the ground wire to the plate/frame of your light. You can grab a terminal ring from hardware store or home improvement store if you don’t have one.
Perfecto! Got it sir. I’ve ordered everything on the shopping list. I’m pretty sure that at this point, all I’ll need help with is the wiring 
In thinking about it, you probably won’t need the wago connectors. I would grab a 5 pack just in case though, could be handy if you need call an audible or something.
Already ordered them, useful little things regardless 
Absolutely, I’ll get you wiring diagram soon too.
Do you have any rubber grommets?
That would be awesome! Really appreciate your help on this. I don’t have grommets, what size do you recommend I get?
Also, I assume they are to fill holes I drill in the aluminum plate to let the wires through and ensure they don’t get damaged?
You don’t necessarily need them. I guess depends on how you visualize assembly of your fixture. If it were me, I would drill a small hole to fish driver output wiring to boards, and use a grommet there. So it would only need to be big enough to fit 2 of the 18awg wires. But you can just wire around the edge of plate too
I prefer the approach of drilling a hole and using a grommet. I’ll figure out those little details once I get all the parts and start assembling.
Thanks for all your help so far @dbrn32! Really appreciate it.
@dbrn32, 90% of the parts have arrived and I’ll be ready to put this thing together pretty soon. Any luck on that wiring diagram?
Sorry. I have this one in my phone, it only has 3 strips. Does it make enough sense that you could add 4th strip in the middle?
Absolutely! I can handle it from here. I think the only other question that goes to mind is how would you space the strips on the 12" x 24" plate?
As a reminder, my clone tent is: 30” x 18” x 36”
Keep outer strips about an inch from edge to help protect wiring, then you can space them evenly from there.
I want to thank you for your help and guidance in building this light. In the end, I wanted a cleaner look and returned the aluminum sheet and purchased a proper heat sync for a tiny bit more money.
Here are some pictures of the completed product:
I used a PAR meter to measure PPDF from 20" at each of the 3 dim settings on the driver and here are the results:
100% | 34.5 W | 131 PPFD
40% | 12.8 W | 50 PPFD
10% | 3.2 W | 10 PPFD
Considering the measurements were taken from 20" I have room to move the light higher up or lower down so this turned out to be perfect for the space.
I appreciate your help with the design very much!
Looks good!
I am confident the light will perform well for you. I usually don’t post the mathematical end of figuring how I determine what to put into a specific area, but since you are measuring I will let you know.
Led gardener ran the tests on similar strips to get radiometric output. Most of them run about 2.5 umol/joule at test current. You can use that number as multiplier by your board power level to get rough estimate on the total radiometric flux on your light. We’ll give the strips pull about 30 watts and remainder of power loss is driver. That should put your your total radiometric flux at about 75 umols/s. Your space is 3.75 ft², converted to m² that’s .35m². So your ppfd average should run about 215 umols/s.
That’s probably a smidge more than clones need to root, but you have a lot of control in what they actually see for light intensity. The equivalent to what you have there is about a 100 watt 4 bulb 24" t5 fixture, that draws about a third of the power.
