I'm looking to get on board with these wonderful lights, but want to make sure I'm ordering the right parts. I also have some questions on wiring, dimming, and finding certain items. What I've tried to follow via @Or_Gro's post (slight tweaks due to 3 lights and not 1) found in this thread, post #5 (3) QB96 Elite V2 Engine (1) HLG-480H-54A (1) Husky 9 ft. 14/3 Power tool replacement cord 300v (3) Insulated butt splice connectors (3) Pairs male-female insulated disconnect connectors (1) Heavy wall waterproof heat shrink tubing What I can't find (1) 300v 18ga solid core copper wire. I can only find 150v solid core or 300v stranded core. - Are the wires sufficient to carry the extra load from the larger power supply (Husky cord and the 18ga copper wire) - Is the DC-side Measurement meter to make sure I have the power supply set correctly? If so, I realize I would need extra supplies than what I mentioned above. Would I need 3 of these? Also to wire this in parallel what would be the best way to go about it? As in, each QB96 will have it's own individual positive and negative wire coming back to the power supply. The power supply will only have one positive and one negative coming out of it. Do I solder the 3 into 1, or is there a way to use an insulated butt splice connector for this as well? This is a wall of text and a lot of questions. I'm going to keep researching because I want to do this as safe as possible. Thank you to anyone who reads and/or replies.
Maybe @Tbone Shuffle or @Soil2Coco can help on the wire and parallel wiring... The dc meter is not required, those who add it, do so to help understand what each individual light is receiving from its driver, which affects light intensity at a given height. If you put disconnect connectors on wires between driver and lights, you only would need to have a single meter; you set one light using meter, then move meter to next light and set it, then move & set, repeat for all lights. Having a meter on each light is a convenience...
Ok I will wait and see if they can chime in for the wiring. That makes a lot of sense. I had wrongly assumed it would remain wired up indefinitely. Being able to set it and remove it, I'd probably just go with the one. Thank you for the help!
You're only wiring at 54 volts on the output side of the driver. 150v rating on the insulation is no problem. You're way under half of that rating on your voltage. You don't need a meter at all. In fact I wouldn't put one in. IMO they seem to be prone to issues being wired right into the output between the driver and the load. You're going to want to run them at full power most likely if your temps can manage. If they can't you'll just dial back the i/o adjustment screw counter clockwise until they start to dim a little. Pick a level. Run them like that and check temps again. No need to actually measure the current. This is the easy way to wire parallel to that driver. 120 volt 3 prong male and female replacement extension cord ends. Put a male on the input of the driver and a female on the output. Buy a short extension cord with 3 outlets on the end for your driver output. You can customize the length by cutting it and splicing the male end back on with your preferred length. IMO you don't need a long cord on the driver. It can be located near a plug or a power strip. Just put a male plug on the end. They have screw terminals and clamp shut water tight. Put a short piece of wire on each board with a male plug. Plug them into the 3 outlet extension cord you bought for the driver output. Wiring this way is heavy duty and it makes the whole setup modular. I can actually plug in another board or subtract one if I want. Keep positive on the small prong. I don't use the ground on the output side but you could run it to the case of the driver if you wanted then run it to the heatsinks. There is not a single splice on my entire fixture. It's all screw terminals and push in connectors.
Thank you so much for this detailed explanation. I feel capable of doing this now when a day or two ago I was ready to buy a premade QB kit. I can't wait to stop using my mostly blurple LED lights and HID setup I have going now. My next grow will start in about a month, so this is going to be perfect timing. I think I can manage temps fine so I will run them at full power. I'm currently using about 800 watts of wall draw in LED and 400 watts of HID in a 4x4 without heat issues (sticking around 70-74 degrees lights on) so I can't see roughly 480 watts from this new setup being any more problematic. Well, I was using it in a 4x4 tent with those temps just fine until my plants grew too large to fit in there with fans/access to water. So I'm not actually using a tent anymore, but the temps were fine when I was. If I need to add fans for cooling on the heatsinks/boards themselves I will make that happen. I really like your idea of how to wire it more modular. I will follow that and post up pictures of when I have everything in hand and wired up. I may or may not run the extra ground to the heatsinks, but if you don't then I feel confident I won't need to either. Once again, thank you a million times over. I am very excited to run these lights!
I got all of the items in and want to double check I have my wiring correct before turning anything on. Some reassurance would be very much appreciated. From the input of the power supply (to the wall power) Blue ACN wired to left prong ("larger prong" on left). Brown ACL wired to right prong ("smaller prong" on right). Green/Yellow to ground (bottom prong). From the output of the power supply (to the extension cord with 3 separate outlets, toward the lights) Blue Vo- wired to left slot (larger slot on left). Brown Vo+ wired to right slot (smaller slot on right). Nothing to bottom slot. From the extension cord outlets to the lights Black hot wire to the positive of the light White neutral wire to the negative of the light Green ground either not used, or to the metal chassis everything (power supply and lights) are mounted on Does this sound good? Also should I turn the Vo and Io of the power supply all the way to the max, or slightly under max? Thanks in advance. I don't want to power on and blow these lights up immediately.
Looks good just make sure you keep track of positive and line up the same prong on the lights positive input. It all sounds correct to me. You can max out the dimmers.
Alright thank you! I will get this finished up later tonight or tomorrow and post back then. Just need to plug in the final few wires and adhere the lights to the heatsinks. I'll either swap out a few lights in my current grow with this or have it ready for when the next one starts (once it gets to flower, that is).
Everything is wired up and it's blindingly bright. I had to turn down the power slightly as the boards were sitting at 185F (85C). That's the max recommended temperature according to HLG's website. With the power lowered they are sitting between 110-140F. I'll look into getting some PC fans on each of the heatsinks so I can run at full power again. They're only getting about 150 or so watts each. Assuming the heatsink on these (from the HLG website) is the SSTX it should be good for 200 watts, but maybe it's due to some other conditions. Here are two pictures vaguely showing the setup. It's held up in each of the corners, the extra metal wires around parts of the frame are there just as backups. I'm using new ratchet strap hangers and don't want them to fail and drop the board (unlikely, but still).
I put a fan on top of each heatsink blowing air down through them. At max power the board temperatures are now reading between 110-135F and holding steady. That's a big improvement over the 185F they were reading with the heatsinks and no fans.