How LEDs Work on Constant Voltage and CC+CV Drivers

4 Comments

  1. noel leonard

    After getting all the specs and the info on these drivers that you go over a parallel build does not sound too bad. The price is a lot cheaper on the lower voltage drivers too, and with having more adjustability looks like these drivers will power a wider range of different cob combinations. But even with the meanwells with all the automatic stuff you would still probably cook chips if you had one burn out with most configurations. But the likelyhood of that would be low I would think, especially with only ever driving them at half of their total capacity. It’s not looking like hid lighting is even going to have a place soon, I got a killawatt the other day and figured out that my light dialed down to about 105 watts from the wall, is covering 10 square feet of greens for about 1.70$ a month in electricity. A huge difference from the 200+ watts of cfl that would heat the whole room up last winter.

    • ledgardener

      Awesome! At $2 a month plus the cost of seeds, nutrients, and whatever else, you can have nice, fresh produce. if these low voltage drivers can run COBs for full light cycles without any issues, they’d be a solid alternative to constant current versions; especially if they’re cheaper.

      I’m not sure if there will be issues with thermal runaway or not… this is my main concern. My next test will be to run my Veros at a few different voltages for several hours each and monitor how much current they end up drawing over time. If they can consistently go 12+ hours without going thermal, that’d be cool. I’m going to order some 2 watt 1 ohm resistors as well to see how well they limit current.

  2. noel leonard

    We have had quite a bit of lettuce and kale, I don’t harvest the whole plant, just cut it back and leave the center growth and it grows back in a week or so. After the plants get older sometimes start getting browning on the tips of the leaves thats usually when I start thinning them out. I have to start making room and figuring out what I’m going to start for the outdoor garden this year anyways. Thinking about geting a HLG-240H-42A found a used one on ebay for cheap, looks like it would be in the voltage range for another 36 volt cob light. Would like to have a good sized indoor grow going already next fall and have enough light to grow some fruiting plants and get a good amount of production out of it next year. I just have to get better at getting an earlier start at everthing so I can get the most out of it.

    • LEDGardener

      Cool. I’ve been chopping my lettuce bit by bit as well. Most of it is still going strong. I’m hoping my peppers get a really good jump on the growing season this year! Last summer’s harvest was just about down to the wire, so maybe I’ll have a little more time this season.

      You could run 5 of those Citi 1212 chips off of that 240H-42A at ~1100mA each. That’d be a good amount of light for fruiting for sure.

Leave a Reply. For help with your own build, please make a thread in the Forum

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

© 2024 LED Gardener

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑