Hi all, the most common lights I've seemed to notice around here are ones from HLG so I thought I'd check them out. Their cheapest light is the QB288v1, I'm growing in a PC case and need to keep things as cheap as possible. They say this light doesn't need a heatsink until you run it in the 60w range, and I'm planning on only running it as 50w max which is great because the board itself has very little extra space once mounted, the heatsink doesnt actually fit, lol. If I was to upgrade my lighting I'd get one of these at 3000k. I'm not new to electronics, I wired up my PC grow box without any issues, however DIY LEDs are new to me. First off, I'd want to be able to dim it from the lowest up to 50w, does this complicate things or is it as simple as getting a driver that runs it at 50w and hooking up a dimmer in between the driver and board? Or is dimming these not possible or not recommended? What is the lowest I could run it at? I currently have 2 household LEDs 3000k at 10w each, and a cheap shitty blurple Chinese board that apparently only pulls about 8w (cant test myself) so 30w total give or take. If I was to run it at 50w, is there any real difference between giving it 50v 1a, 100v 500ma, or 25v 2a? Please don't tell me my setup is rubbish because I already know it is. Due to my restrictions this is all I can do, and it is working just fine for me. I'm more interested in gaining knowledge as apposed to dry weight, besides it's fun and addicting waking up in the morning and seeing how much they've grown. Thanks in advance, Dax
Why not get a kit designed for the space? Plenty of companies make a kit. Hlg has there 65 kit. Budget LED has a small board kit you can get for like $80 shipped to your dollar. If you really want diy, I think hlgs 132 board is a better route to go if you want to avoid a heatsink. Just my two cents.
If you want maximum control over dimming you should get an HLG "A" type driver, those have built-in pots that control both the voltage and the current separately. An HLG-60H-54a is the closest you can get to 50w, you will need to dim it a bit to get to 50w. Might want to get a simple multimeter to dial it in. hlg-60h-54a Stock and Price by Distributor
Thank you both for your input. I don't think I need to upgrade but once I saw the 288 was almost a perfect fit I got really excited. No doubt I'll get some spare time and look up kits and setups lol