Quantum board chips

There are a few different types being used. Name brand companies use Samsung LM301b or the older higher voltage LM561c. HLG also uses Lumileds for qb96 and osram reds for the 288 rspec along with the 301b. I think qb11 are Lumileds but not certain.
I take it you’re trying to buy cheap Chinese boards and not get ripped off? Watch out for black dots on the epistar chips, epistar are not very good. I have a few small pcb with epistar chips and they have a terrible beam angle and tend to burn or not give enough light. I went with HLG and I’ve bought time and time again from them. American made besides the actual diodes.
Just go with them or invisible sun or chilled or cree or timber...but if you’re going chinese look for diodes with brand names like Samsung and then type the diode in online to make sure it’s right.
All of the companies above are transparent about what they use. I’ve found on alibaba that there are many suppliers who use tricky words and low prices to fool you. Stay away from them.
Check the seller reputation and don’t even message someone that does not list their diode/fixture specs very clearly to understand.
“quantum board” is a pretty generic term for “diodes on pcb” nowadays but the term was coined by HLG Im pretty sure. The three best LED chips used?? You kinda gotta look at the specs and decide if they are right for your grow yourself. But Samsung, Lumiled, Osram. That’s what most QB are made with. Cree COBs are good too, just not used on quantum boards.
I honestly only responded because you preemptively thanked me for my time, i reallllly appreciated that hahaha, seriously.
But seriously too...you need to use your internet resources to find your own spoon to feed yourself.
I can tell you what God is, I can SHow you, but you shan’t understand the true joy of enlightenment until you experience it by finding it for yourself. Maybe you just wanted people to argue about which three diodes were best. Either way, in case you haven’t found the threads/info yet on your own, I figured I’d throw you a bone. I’m a dog, i need one occasionally. We all do. If we didn’t we’d be here alone.
I found zero difference between my 301b and 561c btw as far as total output/energy used. Both those are Samsung. The Lumileds are great and bright, i can’t speak for the osram diodes though. Cheers!

 

The new Mars Hydro SP-250 series are a whole 'nother level to the gear they've been pumping out for a long time. They use a newer Epistar diodes which are much improved. Much improved system to the typical Mars setup. Near quantum board prices, so there's that to consider.

Cree does make diodes for quantum boards, and they are top notch in their niche, but they tend to be the far red diodes, I haven't seen them as any other QB diode option just yet. They absolutely spike the far red. KingBrite uses them as an option on their boards. I think Osram are an option too with them, not sure.

Epistar makes the far red diodes for my boards, not quite Cree quality, but still good. I use the "800" boards. Each board is 300W max. 800 diodes total. On two of the sets, 700 of the diodes are top bin Samsung LM301B (Version 2) diodes, and the other 100 are the Epistar far reds. (660nm)

I have 3 600W sets, so 6 boards. 1800W (potential, actual draw) and 4800 diodes lighting my 6x6 tent lol! I only have to run them at 65% to get 33W/sq ft, more than enough, and keeps my temps decent.

These boards are flipping awesome. They are Chinese 'knockoffs' but they rock. From one of the reputable Alibaba dealers, Shenzhen Meijiu Lighting Co. I believe they actually came up with the 800 boards. If HLG did, they abandoned them, because I have never seen them there, not sure.
The middle row in my pic are older V1 (LM561C diodes at 2700K very flower heavy). I get very dense nugs with thiz setup. HID dense, without all the HID crap.
Now there are LM301H diodes that are a more broad, full spectrum. The latest (V3) Samsung chip. Those will start being more present as an option on boards soon enough. As far as whether the new V3's are better, they supposedly have a better spectrum, but their efficiency is not what some claim it to be. They were supposed to be the next best thing, for BOTH spectrum and efficiency, but they fell short. V1's and V2's both still rock. And the V1's are constantly going down in price now, so still a great option for new QB buyers. I may try the LM301H V3's, but from what I've been told, don't expect as much is claimed by some, and to "save my money".
There are so many options out there, it's almost overwhelming.

 

Nice setup

 

I’ve got 4 3000k qb288 V1 on 1/8th plate aluminum with two qb11 strips down the center and a qb3 far red on each side with 2 qb144 4000k between the far reds for my flower light.

My veg light is a qb288 V1 3000k with qb144 4000k on either side of it. 2 qb144 per slate two heatsink on each side of the 288. The 144 are V2.

The qb144 are one thing I wouldn’t recommend except to add some blue to your flower board ha! I’ll take a pic of both my light setups tomorrow. I am new to Quantum Boards/LED but holy trichomes on the girls. I’ve got three girls at 370 watts at 20” and might need to dial it down (550watts max). The red and far red have photosynthesis maxed so I def say get some red and far red. I’m glad I added them. I run red and far red the whole lights on period. I even grew seedlings with the far red on. I saw zero shade response. Great growth. Frosty and smelly.

I’m on my third LED grow and def thinking about having my own pcb made with diodes I choose but it’s a pipe dream bc I do not have extra time right now.

I heard that HLG chose not to use the Samsung V3 for the Rspec board bc it was not much more efficient than the V2 with a voltage more similar to the V1, and so why not keep the V2 then? But I’m not staring at the Samsung data sheet so I may be wrong on the voltage. The reds on the rspec are OSRAM. Osram make fantastic reds for sure, and there are chinese boards with osram but yeah, I think I’ve heard most use epistar reds. The figures on the Invisible Sun are very comparable to HLG.

Dude up until two weeks ago, when my 144s had diodes go out, I ALWAYS GOT AN ANSWER FROM HLG!!! But then they send my F&$*in return to my old address and I couldn’t get them on the phone!! Still can’t so maybe they’re busy. Thank God Itself for Priority Mail rules: can be forwarded strait from destination town. After an hour hold with USPS though!!!! Who the fudge doesn’t check your address before sending a return?? I used to call HLG once a week just to talk to Steve about what was up in the LED diode world of amazing occurrences in lighting! That’s why you can’t get them, bc when people like me talk to Steve it lasts a fudging hour. He told me all about how LED are packaged and what issues there are. Really interesting but THEY NEED MORE PEOPLE to answer phones and emails. Returns can take a week just to get a response I’ve heard... not in my experience really.
See that comment laugh guy WAS being a dick about it by laughing at you! Some people on here expect everyone to just know where to start and that’s bogus! This is where you start so don’t be a jerk and answer a question instead of laughing. So I’m glad you liked the response bc you even have QBs so that asshole was thinking you’re a noob when you were just curious and needed a starting point. So I’m sorry I even said to research yourself. Obviously you’ve done some if you have boards. The guy that laughed misunderstood your question. I couldn’t believe you had no answers. Pay it forward by continuing to ignore troll monsters.

 

Oh duh, also HLG did not want to wait to bring out the Rspec. But I heard that was not the only reason ehem.

 

The flower light pulls 738 watts at absolute full. I only run it at 370-400 but 20 of those watts are far red. The veg light is about 390 at full but usually it’s at 200-250 watts. I can flower four very large bushy plants with the red light. Or Six to eight small ones. I did not top nor scrog this round just to see what would happen with the qb penetration on lower colas vs the main cola. There isn’t a huge difference. They are doing great but I’ll be back to early topping again this round. I said I’d post pics a few days ago sorry it took.