Questions For You Led Folk

[Balanque]

So I was going to build an led setup. I was thinking of running vero29 3ks. But I need help, I have zero patience to learn anything Im not fully interested in, but I want to build some cobs so I can run my second CMH in flower while retaining my veg quality and speed. So whatever, I order 4 of these, do I need to buy a driver for each? Is it a matter of what volts the driver supplies/volts the cobs demand? If I buy a mean well hlg-480h-c2100b with a max output voltage of 229v, could I run 4 if the forward volt of the Vero is 52v? Where does mA fit into this puzzle. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Dan789]

Not following exactly what you ordered four of, but regarding just the ma question, that’s the current through each of the proposed cob’s you’d be connecting in series. You’ll need to learn the difference between parallel and series connections as it applies to cobs, but it’s not too difficult to grasp.
What are you using as a guide for what your thinking of doing?

 

[Balanque]

4 Bridgelux Vero29 3k cobs. My veg is a 2x6 so probably hang one every 1.5 feet. They would be best to be all running in series and be dimmable, if I can get away with running them on a single driver I would. Piecing it together on rapidled.com

 

[crimsonecho]

In series, you can multiply each cobs voltage and that would give you your total voltage need.

For example

4x36v = 144v

Then you get a constant current driver. They’re the easiest to use. These will provide a determined current no matter what. Of course in the correct voltage range.

So lets say you will drive these 4 cobs at 700ma. You will then need a constant current driver with 144v and 700ma output. Some unused voltage will make it run cooler, its better to go 10-20% more when choosing a driver but its an issue of budget of course.

There is also parallel connections and constant voltage drivers and fully adjustable drivers etc etc. So you see this is a very broad question but series works like as i described and constant current is very easy to use. I suggest utilizing these.

Also that driver should work with 4 veros if they’re 52v.

 

[Dan789]

4 Bridgelux Vero29 3k cobs. My veg is a 2x6 so probably hang one every 1.5 feet. They would be best to be all running in series and be dimmable, if I can get away with running them on a single driver I would. Piecing it together on rapidled.com

I've gotten two light kits from them, a twelve cob vero 29 3500k with three drivers, and another 4 cob set up with cree 3590 cobs also 3500k. Each group of four cobs used a dimmable driver, not sure of the exact number, but they should be able to give you a complete bill of material. What I kept in mind was though you can drive each cob up to 100 watts, you start to create more heat, so for me I stopped at 50 watts per cob...