LEDgardener

Are you running your strips perpendicular to the length of your panel? Or parallel? I was planning on running mine lengthwise (6 sets of 2, end to end) But all of the other builds I see are perpendicular. Now I'm doubting myself. Lol

RadRiverOtter wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 05, 2020 5:56 am

Roost wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 04, 2020 1:07 am

Well I made the idiot mistake of ordering a non dimmable driver. So either I attempt to return it or order more strips. Currently It would be running each strip at 1.1a. Not ideal im sure.

I'm no expert by any means. Far from it. That is why I ran my build plans by an electrician engineer at my job. He told me that you can easily attach a resistor, potentiometer or reostat to the line to fine tune the juice. I paid more for the b-type, but it is apparently just to make it more plug-and-play. I do not know enough about electrical witchcraft to tell you how to do it. But someone on here probably does.

From what I gather pulse width modulation would be the most efficient way to go about it, I'm not that much of a electrical guru to pull that off though. Maybe a house dimmer on the input side would work idk. Tbh I'm fine with a fixed wattage, I was just going to experiment with how much heat dissipation this monstrosity fixture is capable of.

RadRiverOtter wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 05, 2020 6:27 am

Are you running your strips perpendicular to the length of your panel? Or parallel? I was planning on running mine lengthwise (6 sets of 2, end to end) But all of the other builds I see are perpendicular. Now I'm doubting myself. Lol

Lengthwise. Same idea as you got going on. My end goal is 2 sets of 8 end to end with room for a far red array down the middle and two rows of t5's either side.
Hey no worries, I don't have much grow experience so I feel like I'm diving off the deep end on all this. I feel like I should start with just the strips as a base line and work off of that, baby steps. That's just me though.

>Maybe a house dimmer on the input side would work idk.
(Narrators voice:) It won't.

The resistor on the DC side is also a bad idea.

Yes, not something I was going to attempt. Good for you to clear that up for anyone reading that may be more "bold".

Still a work in progress, more strips to come.

Man these things are bright! pictures don't do them justice.

Hour test running 1.1a, heat output is barely noticeable. Defiantly will have a lighter approach for any future additions. Was fun building though.

Got it hung while I had the time. Still lots to do. The upper fans are run off a 6v charging brick and are inaudible. That's cool I suppose (no pun intended). I should of aimed them at the driver, that's the hottest thing in this operation.

I would suggest to remote mount the driver out of the tent if you are worried about heat

That did cross my mind. Currently the driver housing is providing ground to the frame, something I would like to be anal about. I will be working on some kind of ventilation system once the light is complete. Will see how manageable heat is, got to get myself a thermometer among other things.

You don't need to ground the frame, you need to ground the driver. You are not using a high voltage series set up so it's safe

Yup driver is grounded and the fixture gets ground from the driver body(0 ohms from driver plug to the frame).

Your probably right, Im sure the driver has safety checks if the low voltage side shorted some how. I think I will also cover the solder connections with liquid tape.