new build, lights really dim and there's a slight flicker?

[wardo]

I built 3 others all with the same parts that work fine, so one of those 3 things

[TEKNIK]

Maybe try swapping the driver with one of the others you built

[wardo]

I switched out the driver and the cord connector for ones I know work and sure enough it did the same thing so i'm guessing cobb holder rather than cobb? How to figure out which though... it definitely isn't obvious visually

[TEKNIK]

Look for any dark spots like a burn mark. Also any dags of stranded wire can cause the problem. I would take everything apart and re assemble it all. Alot of the COB holders are really cheap crap so they can fail. Next time you do a COB build use bender and wirth holders

[wardo]

They're Ideal 50-2303 holders that came with the kit. they're solderless, you just shove the end of the wire in the connector and it grabs it somehow. I'm not sure if can i yank the wire out and stick it back in. I may just order new ones. The Bender and Worth holders lays over the cob and is screwed down to the heatsink? [http://bender-wirth.com/katalog/pdf/449-1-tec-data.pdf]the tech sheet[/url] doesn't indicate which I guess it wouldn't. Didn't see anything else indicating how they actually hold the cob either.

[TEKNIK]

The way they hold the COB is they have a square cut out shape at the right height to apply pressure evenly across the surface area of the COB. Most of them have 2 wires comming out the sides to make connections. Bender and Wirth are not plastic like the rest, they can withstand higher temperature and are not effected by the radiation as much as plastic.