Building a Home Made LED

[hempfield]

I also noticed a delay in ambering when using ONLY leds, but this can be solved by adding some CFLs or T5.

This really make me thinking if the lack of amber thrics means longer flowering time of just a less percent of degrading THC glands ?

I deed a small scale test , harvesting 3 plants (the same strain) almost 2 weeks apart and I didn't notice any difference in potency (the first one harvested with some clear thrics and rest of them cloudy, the second one with all of them cloudy and the last one with some of them amber - but the leaves where all gone for more than one week - so just a quick trim was necessary).

 

[tebos]

Comparable LED setups are way more expensive than traditional HPS, some report better bud consistency with LEDs though, I don't if it's worth it.

If you grow somewhere in the Micro range then it's probably a good idea to take LEDs into consideration because they're in fact much better than CFLs/Fluos because of efficiency, heat, size, yield and the missing need to keep the plants very close to the lamp.
Also if you're growing in your home you can avoid noisy ballasts.

Full spectrum, even if it's just a small percentage of white LEDs, is way to go imho, supplementing the reds/blues will make things even more worhtwhile.

 

[rrog]

All very interesting. I would tend to think lack of amber is a lack of some wavelength rather than some prolonged damage, but who knows. Not me.

 

[babelfish]

Comparable LED setups are way more expensive than traditional HPS, some report better bud consistency with LEDs though, I don't if it's worth it.

If you grow somewhere in the Micro range then it's probably a good idea to take LEDs into consideration because they're in fact much better than CFLs/Fluos because of efficiency, heat, size, yield and the missing need to keep the plants very close to the lamp.
Also if you're growing in your home you can avoid noisy ballasts.

Full spectrum, even if it's just a small percentage of white LEDs, is way to go imho, supplementing the reds/blues will make things even more worhtwhile.

you guys with your super efficient reds blues oranges and such, then u toss in a white or 3! i think what it REALLY means is there's another wavelength or two that is missing. the white has it and the others don't, mass experimentation needed!

 

[habeeb]

I'm ready to build more but this LED flowering concern has me... concerned. I may go CMH

what's to fear RROG?

hows yours friends light going?

 

[rrog]

Hey H-

The issue is whether the bud really matures / amber trichs. Not all LED users feel the LED finishes a plant very well.

So far my buddies grow is doing fine.

Last day of veg

 

[tebos]

you guys with your super efficient reds blues oranges and such, then u toss in a white or 3! i think what it REALLY means is there's another wavelength or two that is missing. the white has it and the others don't, mass experimentation needed!

White LEDs offer everything from UV to IR that's why it's a good idea to use them. E.g. green isn't used that much in photosynthesis, though it get's covered, if you add in a few white LEDs, making the light overall more efficient.

Experiments would indeed be great, let's get some crowdfunding experiment going

 

[rrog]

Might be a function of output at the extremes. Very little UV comin' out, for example. I would still supplement with a UV-b Metal Halide. I'm wondering about a specific red LED or two in addition to the WW

 

[DZLHIT]

I also noticed a delay in ambering when using ONLY leds, but this can be solved by adding some CFLs or T5.

I have noticed the opposite while using only LED, however I am running 9 730nm diodes in a 7 spectrum panel. I believe that could account for the difference. Flowering times are down, the plants start producing buds after 14 days of 12/12. If pistils were not showing before, the plant shows pistils < 48 hours after entering the tent. The first harvest was easily 10 days ahead of schedule compared to the same cut under 1k hps in hydro.

All very interesting. I would tend to think lack of amber is a lack of some wavelength rather than some prolonged damage, but who knows. Not me.

I believe you can damage the plants with an incorrect spectrum, or just too much light causing photoinhibition. But there would be signs of this well before the expected harvest window passed.

 

[rrog]

I wonder about the 730nm supplementation. So easy to do, why not. The output from Whites is minimal above the high 600's

 

[thaichimaster]

Hello guys. I have something on my mind but im not sure if its going to work actually there is a few this kind of thing on my mind hehe. Nwm. Here is the thing: im planing to build led panel for the place 40x60cm (i think 1 foot is about 30cm). I was thinking 8xWW 7xNW 2xCW all 5W. + 4x deep red (as far as i understood reds are good for late flower). Do you think this setup will do for my place? Ah and about leds.. is Cree's xml the way to go or is there anything cheaper that will do the job ? What about these samsung 3535 http://www.led1.de/shop/lng/en/high...rm-white-2700k-448-lumen-sphwhtl3d305-w0.html ? But they only come in 2700K and 5000K (5000 is I guess CW or is it NW?). A lot of newbie questions i know but in fact I am a newbie This is my first post here hehe. I hope someone will find some time and will to answer some of my questions.

Have fun!

 

[brotherjericho]

^^ Sorry, can't give you a good answer because I have questions of my own. Hope someone can help you. My questions:

Two Drivers vs one? I have 18 Cree XT-E whites I want to drive. If I figure the typical 3.0v and 700ma per chip, it is ~38w. I can get a Philips 39w driver that runs at 700ma max, is dimmable (not really needed), and 56v max. That is right at maximum. Should I go for such a solution, or split them in two with say two Mean Well LPC 35-700 (9-48v, 700ma, 35w) drivers? Cost is actually slightly cheaper, but this also means that my entire 60 pc panel will end up with 6 drivers: 2 dimmables for reds, 4 for whites.

Fyi, I wanted to go with 4, 1 for each bank of whites (2) and 1 for each reds (2), because I wanted to section off each side at 30 pieces.

On another item, if I run my drivers remote to further reduce flower tent heat build-up, do I need a thicker gauge wire from driver to first LED? It would be roughly 4-6 ft from drivers to panel.

Thanks!

 

[habeeb]

well, my newest attempt in DIY

I tried to "simplify" the design / process with this bar, my old ones are big and heavy... I wanted something small / simple / "light" / more pleasing to the eye...


I went with the newest driver the meanwell LDD's ( dc to dc ). a nice package from makers combines a fan power source / dimmers / 2 drivers / I think some zener or protection of some sort. there a little pricey, but I don't mind as it's a all in one box.

I used a fan adapter to increase the airflow while being able to work with this thin bar. I used a 40mm to 60mm adapter, which keeps all airflow at 40mm ( the bar size ). I played with the idea of a very powerful / very loud 60mm fan and toning it down, but this should be fine, but the ability exists for a backup. just requires a dimmer for the fan as there around 50 decibels ! ( if anyone knows, I'm obsessed with fans )

it will run XM-L2 again. I was thinking the cree COBB, but didn't want to mess with finding a way to mount them on the bar, and like the spread out idea still.. I can always change it though.. the XM-L2 are going to be run at 4000k I'm thinking. this was built for veg plants, trying to clean up the design of LED, while providing sufficient light. it's not as powerful as my old light, but should do the trick in veg. the max power I can run on it with the design of the driver is 36 watt, so 2 over a 2x2 tray should work well ( 72 watts , 18 watts a sq foot )

toying with the idea of lens', but well see, as I'm not sure adding a lens will help that I have to pull it up to reach 1 foot across.. I aim to keep the light as low as possible. my meter ( li-cor ) tells me distance is a very bad thing....



this is a test model, as my real plan is a 3x3 tray with 3 of them. I was thinking I need to re-design the fan, but I already have a solution for that. also wanted to "hook them together" to be able to raise one set of light hangers to move them all at the same time.. I hope these work though as I like the slim design, and would replace my lights to turn them to flower lamps for a 2x2, and update them to these makers drivers... enough for now


EDIT: bought another fan to play with, should put out a little more air and be a little more quieter. also bought the XM-L2, decided on 4000k, not sure why, but seems like a mix of blue and red.... was contemplating the MK-R, but decided it might create some hot spots and un-equal light in areas, but I am still open to the idea. another problem might have been buying a minimum amount of MK-R stars, which I don't need 40 laying around, and paying for.. think I might go copper stars on this, not sure if it's going to help once the bar gets heated up, but it's been on my mind to try the copper stars.. I've done some testing with my light meter, and the sinkpad stars, even DIY reflow give better numbers using them vs. a pro reflow with shit star... so boys, buy good stars. that's all to report. I got another bar as the test is for a 2x2 tray. also looks like I finally found a rental, so hopefully all my tests will get cleared up soon .. got my med card updated as did the wife.. I'm really to roll

 

[turnip brain]

Fan doesn't look effective for that rail. Have you looked at steve's leds tube heat sink and "pressurized" fan set up?

 

[jcmjrt]

Yep, I know that works and cools well. The fan is quiet too.

 

[positivity]

Thinking of putting this together
I'm no electrician so I'd love some critique if this is even doable in this configuration
It's a lot of power in a smaller heatsink but the dimmers should give me the ability to turn down cool white during flower or warm white in veg..that is unless the plants respond well to full intensity

Anyone see any problems with this configuration?
Will this one power supply be able to handle all the leds plus fans?
Would inventronics or mean well drivers be better than a power supply?

Just trying to minimize wiring by having one power supply to run fans and leds

 

[positivity]

One other thing
This is meant to be run lumigrow style..run higher up to get a decent footprint..trying to cover about a 36 x 20
Probably no optics initially to spread all that light around

 

[habeeb]

Fan doesn't look effective for that rail. Have you looked at steve's leds tube heat sink and "pressurized" fan set up?

I thought it looked oversized?

well the try test is to run it, but it's pushing 17 cubic feet a minute, can't be that much with the adapter, but it's pushing air out the ends, and some is going up before it hits the end. I also bought a more powerful and more quiet fan too... that fan shouldn't even be on that bar as half of it sticks off of it, it only fits becuase of the adapter, using a 40mm fan you would get like 5 cubic feet and more noise. also keep in mind, your really not even suppose to put fan's on these heatsinks, there meant for passive cooling, which we can see works as 10:30 does it. so anything is just extra, which is what I always choose to do.

I think, not sure, but we know 10:30 was pushing 20 watts a square foot on his rails ( double check ) and he had no fan, and are working fine, so this should cool pretty decently.


steve's led, hate it. his site looks home built, and I am just turned off by his stuff. if he has XM-L2 then I can talk more, but just seems like site I try to avoid.. also I like rails with easy access to mounting LED, as I for sure would switch to new chips anytime they come out, making a bar pointless that I have to drill or permanently glue down the LED.

thanks for the suggestion, but I'll stick with my bar ( easy mounting, tapped, anodized ... )

 

[turnip brain]

No worries, didn't mean to offend you.

 

[Pegleg]

Load blown.. thank you sir