Hey guys, couple of questions. I'm setting up my first 4x4 flower tent. I currently have: (4) qb 288 v2's on (2) slate 2 triples driven by (2) hlg-240H-C2100A's wired in a series. I have on the way: (2) qb96 elites with heatsinks, and (2) hlg-240h-54A's I'm running 2 5gal dwc setup. Would the best be the 2 qb96's centered over the buckets and the 288's/slate triples sandwhiching them in? Also, this is lot of light for 2 plants but I'll plan on dimming everything appropriately. This will ultimately be 4 plants. Also on the way is my veg light for setting up my veg tent: (2) qb304's in 4000k with slate 2 heatsink. Trouble here is I accidentally ordered the wrong driver not paying attention to HLG's website. Too ripped reading the under the wrong subheading so I got the hlg-240h-c2100.... I see that I can wire this in parallel with this driver.... is there any disadvantage to doing to versus series wiring - and what would the wattage be to each board? I'd like to avoid going through a return if possible but if its advisable its not a big deal. Thanks for any help!
You can use the 2100a to run two qb304's in parallel no problem. Running in parallel will split the current to each board so they'll get the 1050mA they need. No disadvantage except slightly more complicated wiring. It's quite slick and easy to wire two boards in series on a qb260. Not quite as slick to wire two in parallel but it can be done.
You're pretty much overdoing the lighting but as long as you dim you'll just have great distribution. either the 4 qb288 boards or the 2 qb96's are capable of covering the 4x4 by themselves. You'll have a total possible power output in the flower side of 1150 watts or so at the wall draw. That's a hell of a lot. I also have two qb96's in the mail but I decided to run the two on a 320h-54a. It's cheaper then two 240h's and I don't need 500 watts out of them. All your flower lights maxed out are capable of covering like a 5x6.
Okay perfect, thank you! Yea I saw the wiring would be "sloppy" but nothing overwhelmingly complicated. I did try and make a last minute request to cancel my order and order the correct driver (I think the HLG-240H-C1050 was what was reccomended). Would there even be any advantage in doing so? And pardon my electrical ignorance - in either case how many watts is each board being pushed?
I also have 2 qb260's in a 4x4 already with 304 boards. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the qb96's. I was thinking about putting one qb260 in the center and the qb96's on either side. I was either going to do that or slide the qb260's all the way apart from each other toward the outside of the tent and put both qb96 boards in a row in the middle. I might just do that but they will all have to be dimmed quite a lot.
I think it's going to be the exact same amount of watts either way. Both the c1050a and the c2100 are constant current drivers so they will automatically vary the voltage to the load. 2100mA is exactly double 1050mA. The only real difference is more difficult wiring but it's easy. One slight consideration is in order to run two qb304's in series you need like 216 volts from the driver DC. That is actually approaching the 300v rating on some wire insulation and is some pretty high voltage. Running them in parallel cuts the needed voltage in half down to 108 volts. Higher voltage can run slightly more efficient because it doesn't effect resistance over the circuit as much. I wouldn't worry about running the 2100 if you already have it or it would be a hassle to cancel. It will work fine especially for veg.
1050mA is 1.05 amps x 108 volts is 113.4 watts per board. 226.8 watts per fixture. That is the output of the driver and HLG drivers are known to go a little past the rating with the dimmers all the way up. There is some loss in the driver not accounted for in most discussions on board wattage. A 240h driver will draw about 255 watts at the wall or so possibly slightly more with two 288 or 304 boards.
You've been most helpful sir and I thank you for the excellent advice! Looking forward to completing my setup. Good luck with yours and squeezing in the qb96's - I hope they will be as beastly as they seem on paper!
When you get yours up and running, I hope you’ll join us over at the qb96 thread. Mine will be here tomorrow so should be up and running by dinner, I’m hoping
Yea I've been following that thread since you guys started posting a couple weeks ago. I finally decided to add 2 qb96s yesterday and pulled the trigger! My previous expensive hobby was high end custom computer builds - and I think its just been replaced. I've been in some serious rabbit holes the last few weeks geeking out on setting up my first grow. Finally up and running and waiting on lighting for my veg and exciting about these new fixtures. Once I'm up and live I'll chime in!
Like a zombie chore It’s just robotics after awhile Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk @ I love growing weed
I did car stereos and won a national competition in high school for digital electronics and robotics. I also build portable power supplies for ice fisherman and campers. It’s the same principle, but higher wattage. Expensive but simple, and yes, I’m excited for the mail today
One more annoying question @Tbone Shuffle Its unclear how to wire 2x 304's in parallel on HLG's website - I'm guessing because most people wouldn't use the HLG-240H-2100A for these 2 boards. Do I splice 2 positive and 2 negative wires from the driver to to each boards' respective positive and negatives? Or do I run 1 positive and 1 negative to one board - and connect the other boards' positive and negative respectively into the main board wired to the driver (not opposites like in a series - but pos to pos, and neg to neg?) There are 2 depictions but I don't want to screw something up and short out the driver and/or boards! Thanks for any advice, yet again
All of the positives need to be tied together from both boards and the driver and all of the negatives from each board and the driver negative output. There's obviously many ways to do this but that's the general idea of parallel wiring. All home runs. All positives go to the same place from each board and the driver and all the negatives so they distribute evenly. Sometimes a terminal block of some sort is easiest. If you have some wago connectors that can make things easy if you put more then one wire under each lever or buy versions with 4-5 outputs all tied together. Wirenuts work fine for DIY.
You'll have 3 wires to tie together. One positive from both boards tied to the positive output of the driver and the same on the negative side.
Perfect thanks once again. This is what I was thinking. You called it - I'm using 2-banger Wago connectors so I hope to fit 2x stripped 18 gauge wires into one side from the boards. If that doesn't work I'll revert to wire nuts. Thanks again my man
Should be fine. If they're the wagos I have they're good for down to like 14 awg and up to 22. You can easily stuff 3 or even 4 18awg wires under them.