Looking for advice for small BXEB slim gen 3 build

[RadRiverOtter]

I know this forum is flooded with people asking about gen 3 builds, but here I am. Please Bare with me. I have been using pre-built blurples with cheap supplementals for 380nm, and 430nm for the last 3 years.
My space is 4'x2" not tented, but enclosed on 3 sides, and my ceilings are 14'

I impulse ordered:
(4) BXEB-L0590U-40E1500-C-C3
(2) BXEB-L0590U-30E1500-C-C3
(4) 48" x 1" aluminum extrusion heatsinks from heatsinkusa

This is only about half the strips I think I'm going to need, but I wanted to see how these performed before going all in.

So my question is: is it possible for one of the Mean Well driver(s) to allow me to run 6 strips at 7-800ma with the potential to increase to, say.. 1-1200ma at various times?

Also, will any 1 driver also give me the ability to potentially add 6 more? Maybe by switching from series to parallel?

Feel free to tell me I'm going about this completely wrong.

Thanks in advance.

[TEKNIK]

If you run the strips in parallel you can use as many strips as you like, if you want to have things adjustable then use the B or AB drivers with a dimmer POT
make sure you have enough spare current if you want to run them to 1200mA, usually you would keep things at nominal current for higher performance and longer lifetime

[RadRiverOtter]

If you run the strips in parallel you can use as many strips as you like, if you want to have things adjustable then use the B or AB drivers with a dimmer POT
make sure you have enough spare current if you want to run them to 1200mA, usually you would keep things at nominal current for higher performance and longer lifetime

Oh great. Would that be cv? Then I match voltages with the strip reqs. Run parallel. And then the POT adjusts the current? And by the spare current, do you mean pick a driver that ranges from 700-1200ma?

Or am I not thinking about this correctly?

Oh. I have been operating under the assumption that increasing the current for short spurts won't do severe long term damage to the board if I keep it under 1700ma.

[TEKNIK]

when running strips in parallel you need to add you currents up
Say you want to run 6 strips @ 1200mA that means you need to have a 7200mA driver or 7.2Amps
You then take that number and multiply it by the forward voltage on the strips, 24V drivers are the easiest to come by so the equation is 24 X 7.2 = 172.8W
You then need to find the closest driver in that range, easiest to use a HLG150-24B as they are a very common driver

The HLG 150-24B driver will allow you to drive your strips upto 1041mA
You can search around to find a driver with lower voltage but 24V is common and cheaper
Dont over drive the strips, these strips are so so cheap just buy an extra strip instead

[RadRiverOtter]

when running strips in parallel you need to add you currents up
Say you want to run 6 strips @ 1200mA that means you need to have a 7200mA driver or 7.2Amps
You then take that number and multiply it by the forward voltage on the strips, 24V drivers are the easiest to come by so the equation is 24 X 7.2 = 172.8W
You then need to find the closest driver in that range, easiest to use a HLG150-24B as they are a very common driver

The HLG 150-24B driver will allow you to drive your strips upto 1041mA
You can search around to find a driver with lower voltage but 24V is common and cheaper
Dont over drive the strips, these strips are so so cheap just buy an extra strip instead

Wow. Thanks brother. Probably a dumb question. If the voltage range on the strips is 17.8v-22.1v and I use a 24v driver is that safe? Or do I need to fit something to reduce the volts?

[TEKNIK]

The voltage will adjust itself to the correct voltage, 24V is as high as it goes but it can drop down lower to about 14V from memory if it needs to

[RadRiverOtter]

Yeesh. Good to know, those drivers are cheap. I had no clue.

I'm sure you guessed, but I'm not growing canna. Some species of drosera like short photon increases to convince them to fruit. So the more diffusion the better.

Are there strips with similar efficasy, but more reliable build?

[TEKNIK]

Strips are pretty much the same shit TBH and performance is good with the bridgelux especially for the price, there are only really 2 differences, 1 type is protected in a housing to prevent the plants from physically touching the leds and also offering some sort of waterproof protection and the other type are exposed strips that do not have any protection at all.
With the slim line gen 3 from bridgelux you can find housings quite cheap online that double as a heatsink and also diffuse the light, you do loose from 8% to 40% of the light output though the diffusers depending on which type you choose and this is why many prefer not to house the strips.

If you google search LED lighting profiles a few should come up locally to you, freight is expensive with these so best to buy local
I have no idea how the plants you are growing work or what sort of spectrums are required, I have been asked about it before but I really do not know enough to give an answer to orchids.
If you wanted to try out exotic spectrums than thats another route you could try but price increases significantly

[RadRiverOtter]

Thank you brother. I'll look around.

I think I can get the same effect with an increased +600nm/-400nm/+600nm day shifting schedule. That's definitely going to be a whole new fun rabbithole to go down.

[RadRiverOtter]

Finally pulled the trigger on everything. Does anyone see any issues with this array before I solder/wire everything up?

For a 4'x2' space
(10x) BXED strips (4@4k, 4@5k, 2@3k)
(5x) heatsinkusa 50"x .601" heatsinks
(10x) cree 655nm photo reds
(5x) cree xp-e2 740nm
(5x) luminous SST-10-UV 385nm
(2x)Mean Well APC-8-350 drivers
(1x) Mean Well HLG-240H-24B driver
(2x)HiLetgo 2pcs Digital Voltmeter Ammeter

I think the only thing left is a decent looking potentiometer. Might have to build one though.