building a quantum set up for a 5x5 on the cheap

[infosponge]

https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/ ... ND/4332671

Drivers are $11.40, then go down from there based on quantity

[slymer]

im thinking of going with like 26 of these for a 5x5
http://www.futureelectronics.com/en/Tec ... 94913&IM=0

i know these are only 130 lumen per watt so i might not go with them but i can change from 2700k to 5000k with these? is their a module added on or somthing?

[slymer]

https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/ ... ND/4332671

Drivers are $11.40, then go down from there based on quantity

im still getting my head around lot of this but are those drivers dimmable ?

[sdfoster22]

im thinking of going with like 26 of these for a 5x5
http://www.futureelectronics.com/en/Tec ... 94913&IM=0

i know these are only 130 lumen per watt so i might not go with them but i can change from 2700k to 5000k with these? is their a module added on or somthing?

One row is 2700k, one row is 5000k. You can run each row desperately, or you can wire them in series and drive them at about 3850k. They are 90cri which has a little more reds than 80 cri. The softer you run them the better the Effeciency.

[slymer]

im thinking of going with like 26 of these for a 5x5
http://www.futureelectronics.com/en/Tec ... 94913&IM=0

i know these are only 130 lumen per watt so i might not go with them but i can change from 2700k to 5000k with these? is their a module added on or somthing?

One row is 2700k, one row is 5000k. You can run each row desperately, or you can wire them in series and drive them at about 3850k. They are 90cri which has a little more reds than 80 cri. The softer you run them the better the Effeciency.

i found this video that seams they have some sort of switch to slowly transfer from 2700k to 5000k and back and forth and find the anywhere in the middle ground

[slymer]

so here's my plan,

--30 Vesta Series 3192-3352 lm 2700-5000K 90 CRI 3 SDCM Tunable White Linear about $300

--10 Thomas Research Products LED75W-025-C3000-D
about $100

build 2 lights
each with 15 vesta strips and 5 drivers with 3 strips per driver, each light 5x2

does anyone have any additional information to help set this up ? or a link to sho how to wire it up for 5000k or 2700k or both? will i have to re wire it every time i want to change the entire light to 5000k?

thank you guys you have been alot of help, if their are any adjustments that could improve it without changing the cost dramatically please let me know. ive been looking to get a new light for a while but my gf just said she will pay for it for my birthday in two days so im trying my best to build a great light lol

[slymer]

i would also love to know if anyone has an idea how i cant change from 2700k-5000k with some sort of controll without having to rewire it as id love to have the build work best for veg and flower without having to rewire it.. agian im new to this so the more info on how to do this the better!

[unkle_psycho]

Wow... things are happening fast here. Need coffee, but I'll try to give some fast answers to a few questions you gave.

So the TRP drivers are dimmable, but not exactly the same as meanwells. They use logaritmic dimming, and meanwells use something else

There are a few ways you can setup the color channels on the Vesta.
1. If you only wanted one temperature, you could just connect that.
2. If you wanted 3800k you could just feed both channels from the same driver.
3. If you would not want to waste driver capacity for tunability (see nro.4) you would have to switch wires around to change temperature. That would give you a wide range of options, but it would be pretty impractical. I'm waiting on a report from a guy who designs electronics on switches or other options that could be used for this.
4. For tunability, 2 drivers are needed, one per color temperature. To have full tunability, you would have separate drivers for both colors, with dimming. This allows you to have total control over both light intensity and color.

So at least until someone can realize some kind of switch solution, multiple drivers with dimming are needed to avoid changing wires.

A little more about Vesta vs EB gen2... Since Vestas are 90cri, its normal for them to have a lower lm/w. The actual drop in efficiency is less then would seem from comparing lm/w alone. I think people here calculated about 10% less PAR, comparing to F-series and EB. In light research they also separate photo reactive spectrum, and action spectrum, further complicating things. For some plants and light intensities it seems they grow better with the less efficient 90cri lights. It's not clearcut though.

It seems that for flowering 90cri seemed to speed up the flowering cycle, so it took a week or so less. Some reported it didn't produce more, others say it did. I don't see any clear picture on that yet.

The Thomas Research Products drivers are also about 88% efficient, vs 93% on meanwells, which are similarly priced. It's not a huge difference, but its still almost double the heat. I made the choice because I see this first lamp as a research lamp. It allows me to play around with internode length in veg, even tuning a different color for each plant separately. Also it allows me to increase or decrease stretch. My first fixture is 2x4ft, so I will later make another 2x4, which maybe does not need to be tunable.

So for example half the space with Vesta strips, and the other half EB's just for flowering. the side with vestas would have double the drivers for tunability. the extra capacity, say an extra HLG would only cost about 45$

[sdfoster22]

The TRP use linear taper pots, not logarithmic according to the email I got.

[slymer]

Wow... things are happening fast here. Need coffee, but I'll try to give some fast answers to a few questions you gave.

So the TRP drivers are dimmable, but not exactly the same as meanwells. They use logaritmic dimming, and meanwells use something else

There are a few ways you can setup the color channels on the Vesta.
1. If you only wanted one temperature, you could just connect that.
2. If you wanted 3800k you could just feed both channels from the same driver.
3. If you would not want to waste driver capacity for tunability (see nro.4) you would have to switch wires around to change temperature. That would give you a wide range of options, but it would be pretty impractical. I'm waiting on a report from a guy who designs electronics on switches or other options that could be used for this.
4. For tunability, 2 drivers are needed, one per color temperature. To have full tunability, you would have separate drivers for both colors, with dimming. This allows you to have total control over both light intensity and color.

So at least until someone can realize some kind of switch solution, multiple drivers with dimming are needed to avoid changing wires.

A little more about Vesta vs EB gen2... Since Vestas are 90cri, its normal for them to have a lower lm/w. The actual drop in efficiency is less then would seem from comparing lm/w alone. I think people here calculated about 10% less PAR, comparing to F-series and EB. In light research they also separate photo reactive spectrum, and action spectrum, further complicating things. For some plants and light intensities it seems they grow better with the less efficient 90cri lights. It's not clearcut though.

It seems that for flowering 90cri seemed to speed up the flowering cycle, so it took a week or so less. Some reported it didn't produce more, others say it did. I don't see any clear picture on that yet.

The Thomas Research Products drivers are also about 88% efficient, vs 93% on meanwells, which are similarly priced. It's not a huge difference, but its still almost double the heat. I made the choice because I see this first lamp as a research lamp. It allows me to play around with internode length in veg, even tuning a different color for each plant separately. Also it allows me to increase or decrease stretch. My first fixture is 2x4ft, so I will later make another 2x4, which maybe does not need to be tunable.

So for example half the space with Vesta strips, and the other half EB's just for flowering. the side with vestas would have double the drivers for tunability. the extra capacity, say an extra HLG would only cost about 45$

perfect, then I definitely want to wire it with drivers only connected to the same 5000k or 2700k leds, so i can dim each side of the stips depending on what stage the plant is in,

I was thinking two hlg-180s on each light, one connected to the 5000k leds and one connected to the 2700k leds

(or should i go with stronger drivers because i will be dimming half of them, but then i could be pushing just one line of leds on the strip to 24watts which could be overkill?) im kinda at a crossroads because if i turn the lights to just 5000k i still want 720 watts of light covering my plants not just 360 by just running one of the drivers.

with both lights together at full power there would be would be 720 watts and each light would be 360, so each 2 foot strip would have 24 watts out of the 30 strips ill be ordering,

also the problem is i dont know which hlg-180 driver i should go with, have any recommendations, there are so many and its pretty confusing lol