lighting Thoughts and opinions on LED grow lights

[hotjohn]

COB = Chip On Board. Kind of an all in one unit. Just need a power supply and heat sinks. If you Google Cree cob, you will find all kinds of info.

 
Thanks.  I couldn't decipher the COB... though with an electrical background you think I might have clued in!   

 

[flexy123]

Saying COB are an "all in one unit" is so not accurate. "Chip on Board" is correct tho.
 
Yes, you still need a driver (or "power supply") for COBs. The "difference", is that COBs have multiple (sometimes 100s) of individual, small LEDs "on chip", in the case of the CREE COBs 100s of white LEDs. As opposed to grow lights where a fixture sometimes consists of a number of individual, single LEDs.
 
 This is why a COB module can have 100s of Watts, while a single "normal" LED is normally just 3W per each LED only.
 
Here is an image where you can sort of see the grid of individual LEDs "on the chip" of a COB LED module:

 

[tryptamino]

What are these CREE COBs you guys keep talking about?  I get Cree is the brand name of a led light manufacturer... but what does COB refer too?   
 
Working on my first indoor grow now with a 4 tube Agrobrite T5.   4 plants under it.  Was already thinking I might need to supplement that light with something else... so following along here to see what I can pick up.  

 
 
I highly recommend watching GrowMau5's LED tutorial videos. I was like you a couple days ago when a friend of mine recommend I look into COB's. I then started googling it but was so lost with all the information out there. GrowMau5's videos cleared alot of things for me and I learned alot from his LED theories. 
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlM5uvO7sao&list=PLFeGgzTAA8vkzWTM7SWiQPlYAhNe3GMGi