LED builders need to look at this high powered royal

blasterman · Aug 27, 2020

If you've DIY'd LED lights you've run into the annoying problem of having unlimited power level choices for white LEDs but limited options for royal blue. Even more annoying is that most of us run blue to white ratios of 4:1 or more. So, you have to like soldering lots of 3w LEDs, and even the Cree XPG3 presents a wall. Please don't get me started on the trashy chinese 1watt based arrays.

Luxeon has had some unique high powered COB blue arrays with their S2000/3000 and later K series arrays, but the royal versions were impossible to find. However, lately the K' series Royals have been showing up on Ebay and AliExpress for stupid cheap prices.

The 45watt K series I have linked is basically 16x 3watt Rebels on a single array in series. Thats.....some absurdly high PAR for a couple of bucks. My math shows the same PAR level as 6 XPG3s driven really hard with similiar efficacy. That's also 16 times fewer LEDs you have to solder. The voltage and current requirements are also easy to deal with. 1000mA max and 42-45v max.

I ordered half a dozen from an Ebay site, and just tested a few, and indeed they are pretty amazing. Need a big sink though with at least 1/4" thickness. For optics I would look at some of the Bridgelux based reflectors, which there are plenty of. I'm also going to be trying some 3-4" ceiling reflectors. If you are into DIY builds though you need to seriously look at these. The LED industry is quickly moving towards more distributed line type LED fixtures and away from high density / high current emitters so I don't expect anything on this level to come up again.

45W Luxeon Rebel ES Royal Blue 447.5nm 452.5nm Led Light Beads LUXEON K Royal Blue 16up 450nm Led|Light Beads| - AliExpress

Cheap Light Beads, Buy Quality Lights & Lighting Directly from China Suppliers:45W Luxeon Rebel ES Royal Blue 447.5nm 452.5nm Led Light Beads LUXEON K Royal Blue 16up 450nm Led Enjoy ✓Free Shipping Worldwide! ✓Limited Time Sale ✓Easy Return.

www.aliexpress.com

brandon clow · Aug 27, 2020

I have been tempted by this once/if I decide to switch away from my current XPG3's. What's going on with that price, I haven't ever seen them that cheap (but I guess I am not watching closely as others).

TDEcoral · Aug 27, 2020

The DIY LED crowd has known about these for a while. I used some in my build. I tried looking for the connectors they use because it would have made for a clean install, but didn't have any luck. Also, the voltage requirements limit your driver options and how the strings are wired.

oreo54 · Aug 27, 2020

brandon clow said:
I have been tempted by this once/if I decide to switch away from my current XPG3's. What's going on with that price, I haven't ever seen them that cheap (but I guess I am not watching closely as others).

Supply and demand. When first they were on fleabay they were dirt cheap as manuf discontinued/ old stock.

Generally they are still a bargain but not like orig. pricing.

blasterman · Aug 27, 2020

They are cheap because it's a dead product with only niche remote phosphor applications as the target market which was only a thing for 15 minutes, so I can see Philips just dumping them because other than reefing they are a dead product taking up warehouse space. The previous S2000/3000 chips actually had higher output, but I've never seen those pop up.

Too bad Philips won't make a royal version of their Fortimo arrays. I've built 24' skybays with those things for less money than a single Radion costs.

Not sure about the 'voltage' comment. Pretty much any 48-volt driver will push them with most mainstream buck based drivers handling 54-volt. If you're designing LED lights over 54 volt in series you are seriously doing it wrong and asking for either shorts or a nice tingle up your arm. You can pick up 48volt ELN's with built in dimming for pretty cheap on E-bay. Slap those on one of the big 50watt pin type sinks RapidLED sells and you've got a nice fuge light.

I've building a custom light for my 20L where I can dim each zone to taste. Can do this easily with the K's and some spare ELN drivers for dirt cheap and hit outrageous PAR levels.

TDEcoral · Aug 27, 2020

blasterman said:
They are cheap because it's a dead product with only niche remote phosphor applications as the target market which was only a thing for 15 minutes, so I can see Philips just dumping them because other than reefing they are a dead product taking up warehouse space. The previous S2000/3000 chips actually had higher output, but I've never seen those pop up.

Too bad Philips won't make a royal version of their Fortimo arrays. I've built 24' skybays with those things for less money than a single Radion costs.

Not sure about the 'voltage' comment. Pretty much any 48-volt driver will push them with most mainstream buck based drivers handling 54-volt. If you're designing LED lights over 54 volt in series you are seriously doing it wrong and asking for either shorts or a nice tingle up your arm. You can pick up 48volt ELN's with built in dimming for pretty cheap on E-bay. Slap those on one of the big 50watt pin type sinks RapidLED sells and you've got a nice fuge light.

I've building a custom light for my 20L where I can dim each zone to taste. Can do this easily with the K's and some spare ELN drivers for dirt cheap and hit outrageous PAR levels.

I meant that many people use the small LDD drivers for DIY builds and only the slightly larger LDD-H can handle the voltage of the k16. That's not really big deal though because, as you said, there are still other driver options. I'm using the LRS-350-48 power supply with a custom 6 channel driver board for example. Another issue is that their high voltage doesn't leave much room left to run other LEDs on the string with them, so coverage can't really be spread out across multiple LEDs. If someone wanted to adjust the color, they would have to run those other LEDs on a separate channel/driver. I guess my point is that these COBs are a great option, but there are some factors to take into consideration when building a light with them.

bblumberg · Aug 27, 2020

I got tired of wiring up lots of small LEDs and built a DIY fixture with these Citizen COB LEDs.

Citizen CLU048-1212C4-B455 (Blue COB) – CobKits.com

cobkits.com

A bit more pricey than the AliExpress ones noted above, but I think they are quite reliable and easy to use. Max is 83W (2160 ma * 38.7v). Mine are running at 1500 ma so more like 53 W if full power and assuming 35.8 V (but I haven't measured the draw). I have 4 of these on a 40g breeder frag tank with miscellaneous 410-430 single chips and a few limes. I also have 2 LumiLED whites on there, but they are turned off. All running on 2 LDD-H boards powered by an older LRS-350-48 and controlled by a bluefish mini. They are so close to tank that I don't use optics but you could put Ledil Brooke W reflectors on them for even more PAR.