Let's talk DIY lights

Hey dude. Here’s a mock-up of one rail of the ChiLed 300watt (actually 285 @120v)


I’m not sure what rails yet. Probably 41". It looks like the sweet spot is 200w to me. Oh sorry…that’s 200 WATTS. Hahaha. I’m running junction temps after I get up. The remaining puppies are not far away and I don’t think they would stay asleep if I left this thing on longer than a couple of minutes. I like the QBs, but to me these are just way more versatile. @TDubWilly

Moving on up. I still think the DIY light is just as nice at 180 watts Rob

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Super bright, are they really only 280 watt? What are they? 96 watts apiece?

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Ya, take your time and ask all the questions you want. I’ll do my best to get you whatever info you’re looking for.

12v at .5a is 6 watts, plus you’ll have whatever power loss on 12v supply is. Doesn’t really matter that it would use its own supply either. It’s still power that would be consumed to put out light right?

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Yeah I get 46v @ 2.1 amps with a multimeter and 282 showing on the kill A watt meter. That’s pretty close to each other on the readings. I’m running temp testing now. They sent me 2 of the thermal pads for each cob. I used both.

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Two is kind of weird, may actually be a little counter productive too. I would probably send them email and check. I only say that because the pads themselves have some thermal resistance and two pads could be worse than one. I’m sure they tested though, so double check if you haven’t already.

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I figured they wanted me to use 2 because they sent me 18 of them. They sent 9 heatsinks, 9 pucks, and 18 pads. I’ll call them later about it. I didn’t buy the canopy substrate yet anyway so I have to get in touch with them anyway. 5x5 is really a little big for my setup, so I’m buying the 4x4 and modifying it.

Definitely do that. Check what pricing will be if you’re going to have to modify anyway. You may be a lot cheaper grabbing some angle from a place like grainger or similar.

I was going to build my own, but for $120 the price is reasonable for the amount of drilling and fabrication for drivers and the like. I want to go back to the DIY light for veg ASAP, so I just want to get the flower light up. My veg setup is a cobbled together set of 5 T5s at 6500k. Works pretty good but I want better.

Gotcha. It just looked like price on that frame could get expensive with all the brackets and such. But $120 doesn’t sound bad.

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It’s pretty good actually. I can’t even buy the pieces and put it together myself much cheaper. I think it would be $17 less. Anyway, can you be thinking of what you would do if it were you to turn 2 of my flower lights into great veg lights.


I know I’ll be buying different color COBs. I’m thinking of filling the space between the COBs with QBs like the light you built a while back.

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I have enough hardware to build 2 more of these lights. Don’t know what I’m going to do with all of it.

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You have 3500k 90 cri citi 1216’s right? Id probably just dim them and run like that. If you absolutely wanted to do something like that, maybe drop a couple of 4000-5000k strips in center.

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All but 2 are 3000k. I didn’t mark them when I split the original light, so I don’t know where they are. I’ll probably just buy all 3500k or cooler. We both have the same idea. I want to run the COBs much dimmer if I can. It would be nice if I could build something that can be up high and still be enough light to keep the plants happy. Having to get down low to deal with these plants is agonizing at times.

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Cobs with reflectors sound like a good option there. I’ve been really busy so pardon my popping in and out. I’ve just been a little confused as to whether you’re wanting to recycle your cobs into this or build a new light?

I guess I’ll just stick with COBs then. You’ve sure got a lot of people hooked on QBs. I’m not going to reinvent the wheel. I’m not around much except late nights myself. I may not have a paying job but it’s sure been a lot of work surviving. I haven’t had the time to look at what colors actually do anything. Lots of hype and BS.

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Well on paper a cold white does veg a little better than a warm white. But not enough to justify building another light in my opinion. Technically speaking, I prefer cobs anyway. It’s just that qb’s are less intimidating to assemble for most.

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I could build a new light, but I finally have the money to finish the solar system that will run the lights part of the grow. I’d rather get that done first. If it’s just a veg light, I guess I can buy 4 more cooler COBs and mix with the 3000k

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What do you think about the cree 3590 at 6500k? It will be a dedicated veg light and that would free up the 8 3000k COBs I already purchased for other things.

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Personally, I’d try with what you have. If you buy cobs I wouldn’t really go to 6500k on all of them, and the cxb probably not the most cost friendly.

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I’m still going to have to build one more 200 watt setup. I’ll leave the first 2 as is. Cobby only has 4000k 1212s. He’s out of everything else. These things are getting hard to find. I don’t really know where to look.