Has anyone got or heard of CRxSunny LED lights?

[LOAF]

Cutter electronics the best value boards are there 404 boards cheapest ones are 64 bucks and have 404 diodes on them here's the link 4 boards will do a 4x4 nicely. The beauty of these boards is they are 24v

SSK-404-Thrive-4K Powerful panel grow light - Cutter Electronics

SSK-404-Thrive-4K, balanced grow light, matches efficacy, canopy spread, penetration with spectral diversity and simple power configuration

www.cutter.com.au

That’s not bad at all, I’m a chippie by trade and try to make anything I can to help with cost so I might have to look into that

 

[Rabbitlicker]

How mechanically minded are you? I build all my lights for 250 you can build a light that will eat that thing. All solderless connectors these days they just plug into wago connectors. If you can build the frame your good. You tube has a heap of different styles you can build and if you use meanwell drivers and good connectors your sweet

Building the frame, I can do & I'm prepared to have a go. It's understanding all the electronics side of things & what's compatible with what that does my head-in.

 

[ED-209]

Building the frame, I can do & I'm prepared to have a go. It's understanding all the electronics side of things & what's compatible with what that does my head-in.

LEDs run on DC which makes things a lot easier and arguably safer to wire than AC gear. I'm not an expert, but have dabbled a bit in this stuff and this is what I've learned and focus on when wiring stuff:

1. Voltage. DC voltage for LEDs is usually anywhere from 5v to 48v. Above 24v you are more likely to get a good zap, but 48V is still pretty safe to work with if you pay attention.

2. Wattage. This is the total draw of your LEDs. You want to specify a driver which has some overhead to ensure efficiency and not cause strain on the driver.

You will have to of course wire up the AC side - but this is also fairly simple if you triple check your wiring. You have live, neutral and earth which are all colour coded. As long as you ensure good secure connections to the wall (don't in anyway cheap out on this part) you will be fine. The DC side only has +ve/-ve red/black wires which is dead simple. A basic mulitmeter is essential to cross check your solder points/wiring and ensure continuity and no bad circuits.

I always draw out a rough schematic (not professional just enough so I have the sequence). Triple check with your multimeter before powering up and you'll be fine. If soldering, practice and ensure a good hot solder point or use Wago or similar connectors

 

[Goonie Goat]

You will have to of course wire up the AC side - but this is also fairly simple if you triple check your wiring. You have live, neutral and earth which are all colour coded. As long as you ensure good secure connections to the wall (don't in anyway cheap out on this part)

Well said. If you don't know how to connect a plug to a cable then I'd probably not dive into DIY LEDs

 

[ED-209]

Well said. If you don't know how to connect a plug to a cable then I'd probably not dive into DIY LEDs

Yeah, AC is not something to muck around with. When I wired up my last light, I decided to just put on a plug straight to the Meanwell driver lead - it was only about 30cm long of a cable, which is annoyingly short, but seemed easier and safer than to extent the cable. I could have easily extended the cable, but didn't have the suitable items on hand so kept it simple.

For most AC work, I find the cheapest and easiest thing to do is go buy an extension cable and strip out the wire and or use the pre-wired plugs. This ends up being cheaper than buying the cable alone and you get plugs. It's a bit of a waste and stripping the outer coating isn't fun but it works great.

Also, automotive connectors are usually pretty good for DIY stuff from Repco or Supercheap - Bunnings stocks some also. Avoid Jaycar as they are crazy expensive.

 

[Goonie Goat]

Yeah, AC is not something to muck around with. When I wired up my last light, I decided to just put on a plug straight to the Meanwell driver lead - it was only about 30cm long of a cable, which is annoyingly short, but seemed easier and safer than to extent the cable. I could have easily extended the cable, but didn't have the suitable items on hand so kept it simple.

For most AC work, I find the cheapest and easiest thing to do is go buy an extension cable and strip out the wire and or use the pre-wired plugs. This ends up being cheaper than buying the cable alone and you get plugs. It's a bit of a waste and stripping the outer coating isn't fun but it works great.

Also, automotive connectors are usually pretty good for DIY stuff from Repco or Supercheap - Bunnings stocks some also. Avoid Jaycar as they are crazy expensive.

Yeah that's a good idea. I've gone through a few cheap vacuums, the starters burnt out. I Should have kept the cable so I could extend my driver cables too. Don't think I've ever shopped at Jaycar either but I remember they were selling bulk thermal paste in tubs I think which seemed pretty cheap but probably shit house quality. Got one of these when I built my light for stripping cable, won't get through the outer shroud but worked well on the smaller cables

 

[OZIOZIAUTO]

Cheers Ed I’ll have to read up some more on the subject. At $230 I might just try it and see how it goes.

Fuk that is cheap , hope cheap is safe , be careful

 

[OZIOZIAUTO]

Ignore that , misread again

 

[Rabbitlicker]

Thanks or the input/feedback, folks!

I've actually done a bit of AC wiring from building multiple STC1000's (double-relay, heat/cool thermostats for my homebrewing hobby), that I'm now using to maintain res temps. Think DIY Inkbird units, but at a fraction of the cost. This bit, I'm confident with.

It's more like knowing which Meanwell driver to get soas not to under/over-power the boards, then how to dial them up/down. Constant current, or constant voltage?? Do I wire-up the boards in series or parallel? Stuff like that. It's more a case of WHAT to do, rather than HOW to do it.

If anyone has a link to a "DIY grow lights build for dummies" guide, I'll happily reconsider my ignorance & have a crack at it.

 

[ED-209]

It's more like knowing which Meanwell driver to get soas not to under/over-power the boards, then how to dial them up/down. Constant current, or constant voltage?? Do I wire-up the boards in series or parallel? Stuff like that. It's more a case of WHAT to do, rather than HOW to do it.

Again - not an expert - but from my observation and experience say this:

Meanwell drivers, you have two choices: HLG or XLG series. There are others, but these are the two I look at for higher power devices. I've only bought HLG series though. You want constant voltage and wattage. The main thing is to get the correct voltage (in this case 24v using the previously linked supplier) and selecting a wattage which gives you overheard from what the LEDs will draw.

For example, if you had 3 x 120 watt LED boards that = 360 wattts. In this case I would select the HLG-480H-24B which is a 480 watt, 24V supply with dimming. You might think oh cool, 480 watt supply, I might just wire in 4 x 120 watts since that's within spec. But that would be maxing out the driver and cause it to run less efficiently which is not a good idea. EDIT: ok maybe that isn't entirely correct - spec sheet shows efficiency goes up with power draw. I just learned that you should always have breathing room with a power supply from when I built 3D printers. We had to heat up chunks of aluminium to 110c and always had PSUs which had overhead for that. I apply the same logic for my DIY lights. I dunno if commercial lights do this though.

To identify which model you need, check the spec sheet:


I think with the AB model, because of the inbuilt potentiometer, you can use that to adjust brightness - but that would be annoying. So in either case, wire in a potentiometer to control brightness. Check both Mouser and Digikey for stock availability. They will be free ship from US and arrive within a week.

As for wiring in series or parallel - I don't think it matters. Parallel would mean redundancy if a board failed as you could swap it out. I've seen commercial lights done in both fashions. The LEDs will only draw the wattage they need, so if one failed in parallel it wouldn't be a hazard for the driver.

I buy all my wire via Aliexpress from this seller: https://skymax.aliexpress.com/store/5062004

I then sourced some IP67 connectors like these: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003180200877.html

So that with a Mouser supplied driver, I wired up one of these (which came with a potentiometer but you can find them elsewhere) : https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004798231336.html

Hope that helps

 

[Hudo]

LEDs run on DC which makes things a lot easier and arguably safer to wire than AC gear. I'm not an expert, but have dabbled a bit in this stuff and this is what I've learned and focus on when wiring stuff:

1. Voltage. DC voltage for LEDs is usually anywhere from 5v to 48v. Above 24v you are more likely to get a good zap, but 48V is still pretty safe to work with if you pay attention.

2. Wattage. This is the total draw of your LEDs. You want to specify a driver which has some overhead to ensure efficiency and not cause strain on the driver.

You will have to of course wire up the AC side - but this is also fairly

Most of them come with the AU plug already on them. So you only have to wire the DC

 

[Hudo]

Again - not an expert - but from my observation and experience say

Your almost there. First you have to decide if your going to run them in parallel or series to determine what driver. For example there will be multiple configurations of 480w the 24v driver will be putting out 20a which = 480 w or a 48v driver putting out 10a which = 480. So in series the voltage adds together so you need to make sure you have more V than what's requires or nothing will turn on so say you want to run 2x those boards you would need 48v but you would have to go more because the surge on start up would go over and it won't work so you need the 54v version. But then you would have the problem of the amps being to much and suffering thermal runaway. So for these in series you would need a 240w HLG 54v this would push them to 106.8 w a peice 24v×4.45a =106.8 ×2 = 213.6. With led just because the driver is rated at a certain wattage doesn't mean you will get the full 240.
In parallel the current is divided . For example if you had a 240w driver but it was say 24v the current would be 10a the boards would split this and run on 5a each and you would get the full 240w when dimmer turned up 24v×5a = 120w×2 =240

 

[Hudo]

Here is a combo that I use
First the heat sink cheapest is to get some 6mm plate @190mm wide by 300mm . If you can get some scap cheap bonus . I got some of this from a local boat builder 50 bucks for a bit big enough to cut 2. These 2 boards

SSK-404-Thrive-4K Powerful panel grow light - Cutter Electronics

SSK-404-Thrive-4K, balanced grow light, matches efficacy, canopy spread, penetration with spectral diversity and simple power configuration

www.cutter.com.au

This driver

Mean Well HLG-240H-24A LED Driver 240W 24V 10A with built-in potentionmeter – TecArt

www.tecart.com.au

Wired in parallel this means positive to positive negative to negative. In other words positive from driver to positive on first board the positive from other end of board to positive on second board and same for the negative.

 

[Goonie Goat]

Here is a combo that I use
First the heat sink cheapest is to get some 6mm plate @190mm wide by 300mm . If you can get some scap cheap bonus . I got some of this from a local boat builder 50 bucks for a bit big enough to cut 2. These 2 boards

SSK-404-Thrive-4K Powerful panel grow light - Cutter Electronics

SSK-404-Thrive-4K, balanced grow light, matches efficacy, canopy spread, penetration with spectral diversity and simple power configuration

www.cutter.com.au

This driver

Mean Well HLG-240H-24A LED Driver 240W 24V 10A with built-in potentionmeter – TecArt

www.tecart.com.au

Wired in parallel this means positive to positive negative to negative. In other words positive from driver to positive on first board the positive from other end of board to positive on second board and same for the negative.

How big is your tent?

 

[Hudo]

How big is your tent?

4×8 I have 2 of these on one side and a bar light on other that I built

 

[Hudo]

You can also cannableis old lights.the one with the 2 round drivers are from 240w highbay leds I picked up 10 for 200 bucks the drivers are Hlg 36v 6.7 a. One will run 2 boards but under powered so each board has a driver dimmed down to 150w each. The light cost me $40 for the drivers 130 for the board and 50 for the heat sink. 2 of these when my mate par tested wasn't far of his 480R spec from HLG. The other 2 I've got are made out of groboxau lights that the cheap boards had shat themselves rescued from a mates destined for the tip total for them was 130 aeach for the boards the drivers were good and still going strong the 3rd is a bar light I made out of scrap aluminium tube and strips from cutter. They aint pretty but ive got a 4×8 setup for around 750 with all quality diodes and componants

 

[Goonie Goat]

4×8 I have 2 of these on one side and a bar light on other that I built

Damn that's huge

 

[Hudo]

.

If anyone has a link to a "DIY grow lights build for dummies" guide, I'll happily reconsider my ignorance & have a crack at it.

I watched this video year's ago when started to get into building lights. My first couple use cree CXB3590 cobs. This is what he is using in this video but the principles are the same on how to work out components

 

[Goonie Goat]

Main questions are - what brand is the driver, what brand are the diodes and what is the spectrum?

I'm all for buying direct from PRC, and have bought from Kingbright a few times. Can't fault them thus far. Not sure how they'd compare on price, but they do come with Meanwell drivers (assume authentic) and generally provide test results for spectrum

Did some digging and found out they use Inventronics Drivers, apparently they are pretty reliable and some people prefer them over Meanwells.

Horticulture LED Drivers - Inventronics

Inventronics offers the broadest portfolios of high-power, programmable LED drivers that make a great fit for the growing horticultural market.

www.inventronics-co.com

And Samsung LM301B diodes but who knows if they are legit

Do you think the Kingbrites have genuine Samsung diodes?

 

[ED-209]

Did some digging and found out they use Inventronics Drivers, apparently they are pretty reliable and some people prefer them over Meanwells.

And Samsung LM301B diodes but who knows if they are legit

Do you think the Kingbrites have genuine Samsung diodes?

I've seen Inverstronics on a few lights - haven't looked into them but yeah probably just as good. I went with Meanwell from previous experience and exposure. I don't know the technicals of either to judge which is better.

I am fairly sure Kingbrite is legit for Samsung diodes. Their Alibaba page says official partner https://kingbriteled.en.alibaba.com/
And Migro has reviewed a few of their lights and rated them highly. I've not checked the ones I've bought to be certain. I can say that the bar I got recent with Cree LEDs does seem different than the Osram LEDs for red... but that's just looking at them.

So yeah, if the CRx ones are using Samsung diodes and Invertronics drivers, they are probably decent. Though the LM301B's aren't the best - the latest LM301H Evo ones seem to be good efficiency. But it's kind of fighting at the margins and for a good price isn't worth haggling over. If it suits the space and budget, rock it