Making the best of a dumb situation...

[JayKell]

So I left a book here originally, apologies.
Long story short :
Have (5) MeanWell HLG-150H-48AB drivers.
Will be ordering cutter 90cri strips probably tomorrow, (12) 2700K and (8) 4000K to sit on heatsinkusa .601" sinks.

So it only 2 things are left
1) Stop me from making a bad decision. Seems like these strips are my best options for entry level price/performance? Wanted to check out 90cri, been to 80cri Qb288 grows but coming straight from screw in led bulbs myself.
2) Supplementary lighting. I saw tekniks' post suggesting uv leds from cutter and if it's not too expensive vs. a reptile light I'll build some uv and some far red, but does anyone else have any suggestions as to what else to add based on the 2.7/4k 90cri strips? Looks like plenty of 660 and in a good ratio to the 720 for 2.7? Or just a cost effective way to get started dabbling even? Love building circuits and soldering, suggestions welcome.

I'll leave this part from the first attempt:
And really, thanks again, even if I get no help right here, I've learned an awful lot from you all already, both here and on riu/around the net. But here is where you've made a great community I look forward to being a part of. Maybe even be able to contribute something someday (got something planned for cheap scheduled dimming/power)
-J

[Frank Cannon]

You sound alot like me, impulsive is my middle name too

My knowledge on LEDs is very limited but the boys like @Prawn Connery @Randomblame @Or_Gro and @TEKNIK will steer you in the right direction on them. Prawn got me into LEDs and the results have been nothing short of staggering! Heck you could even hop right in the deepend and try his panels... H_Influx would run on those drivers too.

Here is a couple of pics of what they made me do:
These are QB96s (not applicable as they are 54V) with 3 weeks to go

My current setup 1 week after flip using Prawns panels on 48v drivers

PC.jpg (47.21 KiB) Viewed 1334 times

H_Influx veg setup on 48V drivers

H_Influx Veg mods with addition of some 5000K side lighting all off the 1 driver

4K.jpg (30.66 KiB) Viewed 1334 times

You could do a lot worse than listening to these mad buggers.
Good luck cuz

[JayKell]

Man, thanks a lot for that. That all looks so tidy and perfect. Your girls look great! You must be quite proud. Mine is... not. It's sort of been a comedy of errors over here. Someone randomly showing up with plants in the middle of winter really set the stage.

But those panels look great anyway, are those from your thread? I'll have to go re-read it, I had forgotten about them (binge - read 30 pages of threads in the last few days) and they're perfect for me (vertical scrog cabinet).

Edit :oh, right, I didn't get in depth b/c it was on riu. Guess it's worth braving it. In I go...

[TEKNIK]

Need to let people know your room size including height, if you have a VEG and flower room ect.

There are multiple options available and if you like to solder and play around with electronics and building frames then the J series strips from Cutter are a good option.
Another suggestion is to mix boards with strips, 4000K CRI 90 strips and 2700K boards ect. This saves a bit of work building a frame.
I am going to take an educated guess and say that meanwell HLG are about to drop in price pretty fast over the next few months

[Frank Cannon]

Hey mate, have a read of these 2 threads, there is a tonne of good info in em. Then ask the Sensei Masters a few questions. If you listen better than me you'll be onto a winner guaranteed!

My path to light paradise has been a slippery slope too...never expected I'd be one of the virgins either

https://www.rollitup.org/t/5-x-5-light-set-up.978296/

https://www.rollitup.org/t/strip-leds-i ... se.954799/

[JayKell]

Need to let people know your room size including height, if you have a VEG and flower room ect.

There are multiple options available and if you like to solder and play around with electronics and building frames then the J series strips from Cutter are a good option.
Another suggestion is to mix boards with strips, 4000K CRI 90 strips and 2700K boards ect. This saves a bit of work building a frame.
I am going to take an educated guess and say that meanwell HLG are about to drop in price pretty fast over the next few months

Sorry, you're right of course, got lost when I edited the novel that I wrote out. I currently have a 44"d 55"w 48"h box built to fit a space and a 36w22d42h (+mechanicals underneath, with plants sunk in) TV hutch as a test to grow vertical scrog. The box was thrown together in a hurry to house some orphan plants and the hutch was free. Plan is to prove concept, then move the whole thing to a wardrobe, one of these:
https://m2.ikea.com/us/en/p/songesand-w ... -90394559/

With another 2 door unit to match next to it. Would give a small veg area (couple of 1 x2 shelves) and two flower areas, about 2.5'x4' vert scrog per. I am also finalizing house plans and will have a dedicated space in the nearish future so I guess I can make do for now with it being sub-optimal. I am relatively new to indoors but grew commercially outdoors for 5+years. Don't sell, so not afraid to kill plants

I looked at boards originally and could still be swayed I guess, but saving money is way more important to me than time, especially when it means I can afford a better product because of it, or afford it at all

Why do you say hlg will get cheaper, competition? I think I got a pretty good deal on these, so even if the bottom drops out of the market tomorrow I'll feel OK about it. Unless you mean quality, then I'd be worried if fire was a risk..

[JayKell]

Hey mate, have a read of these 2 threads, there is a tonne of good info in em. Then ask the Sensei Masters a few questions. If you listen better than me you'll be onto a winner guaranteed!

My path to light paradise has been a slippery slope too...never expected I'd be one of the virgins either

https://www.rollitup.org/t/5-x-5-light-set-up.978296/

https://www.rollitup.org/t/strip-leds-i ... se.954799/

Already got the first one open, I'll go through them tomorrow, thanks for the encouragement man.

[TEKNIK]

I will take a look later when I can convert everything to metric and give you some ideas

[TEKNIK]

Cheapest option will probably the cree strips from Cutter, 8pcs 4k cri90 on one driver for veg and 3kcri90 on another driver for flower. This will give you 3500K when both turned on at the same power.
16 strips total, you can up the current with the AB driver to make use of the full driver potential.
Can repeat this for the other sections also.
If you did not want to use heatsinks you could add in another 4 strips of each color and it would run at about 2.6 micromouls per joule with very even coverage at the board level.
If you buy from cutter get them to supply you with dim pots also so you can adjust things to maintain stretch. It will be a close proximity grow and you will run out of height so being able to tune can be very important especially during stretch. 4K cri90 has enough red in it to do full cycle but it depends on the strain also as to how much it will stretch.

[TEKNIK]

Someone mentioned that bridgelux strips are going cheap right now as another option, could buy a heap of those and run them without heatsink also