Building New Panels - Sharing the Process
- Thread starter rrog
- Start date
2cent13adz
New member
Hey rrog, just re-read some of the last weeks postings, and want to make a few clarifications:
¤ Didn't tell anyone to go fixed full throttle at all times. Did promote the idea to have the option to do so.
¤ Never do I have the intention to tell someone else what is best for him, or what is to be achieved by his hobby.
¤ All whites used are NW. Heatsink is 1½'' (not 2), small drivers are LPC-35-700.
That said, this is what I actually did: First I used part of a 7'' sink to build a ~14w 5 xml cloner. Driver is the one sold by RL, 0,7A. Was put together at the kitchentable as a warm-up, to get the feel of things. Looks like this:
The lamp described earlier looks like this:
Or like this:
Top of cab:
The guy who operates the cab had the lamp a few months by now, growing same clone as always. Most of the time xml's @ ~300w (~93-94%) + red's. So far, no complaints. Overkill? Probably not. All parts pretty balanced, everything run inside specs. Almost lame, I'd say.
Never built a led-lamp before these two. If I can do it, anyone can. It's not a Nuclear Plant, just a lamp. Do some basic math, stick chips on alu, solder some wires, hook up the driver and you're done. When H. Simpson say 'Trying is the first step towards failure', my belief is too many people listen..
(Sorry rrog, not much about your build in this post. File under 'inspiration'?)
¤ Didn't tell anyone to go fixed full throttle at all times. Did promote the idea to have the option to do so.
¤ Never do I have the intention to tell someone else what is best for him, or what is to be achieved by his hobby.
¤ All whites used are NW. Heatsink is 1½'' (not 2), small drivers are LPC-35-700.
That said, this is what I actually did: First I used part of a 7'' sink to build a ~14w 5 xml cloner. Driver is the one sold by RL, 0,7A. Was put together at the kitchentable as a warm-up, to get the feel of things. Looks like this:
The lamp described earlier looks like this:
Or like this:
Top of cab:
The guy who operates the cab had the lamp a few months by now, growing same clone as always. Most of the time xml's @ ~300w (~93-94%) + red's. So far, no complaints. Overkill? Probably not. All parts pretty balanced, everything run inside specs. Almost lame, I'd say.
Never built a led-lamp before these two. If I can do it, anyone can. It's not a Nuclear Plant, just a lamp. Do some basic math, stick chips on alu, solder some wires, hook up the driver and you're done. When H. Simpson say 'Trying is the first step towards failure', my belief is too many people listen..
(Sorry rrog, not much about your build in this post. File under 'inspiration'?)
Check the driver spec sheet - it should say if the two wires need to be connected together or isolated from each other for 100% output.
10-4. Thanks Rives.
I have 6 fried LEDs out of 50. They were handled on ground-isolated mat with similarly isolated wrist strap and the Sink was also grounded. I even opened the box in this environment. One block of 6 (still connected) is not functioning. Rats...
EDIT:
http://www.trcelectronics.com/Meanwell/pdf/lpf90d.pdf This is the spec sheet for the drivers. One Driver will have a switch on / off. None will use the dimming function. The last page of this spec sheet looks like it describes a resistor between the Dim leads to get constant output. I'm probably reading that all wrong, so I thought I'd better check.
Thanks for the eyeballs...
I have 6 fried LEDs out of 50. They were handled on ground-isolated mat with similarly isolated wrist strap and the Sink was also grounded. I even opened the box in this environment. One block of 6 (still connected) is not functioning. Rats...
EDIT:
http://www.trcelectronics.com/Meanwell/pdf/lpf90d.pdf This is the spec sheet for the drivers. One Driver will have a switch on / off. None will use the dimming function. The last page of this spec sheet looks like it describes a resistor between the Dim leads to get constant output. I'm probably reading that all wrong, so I thought I'd better check.
Thanks for the eyeballs...
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On the far right of the resistance table, it says "Open - 102%-108%", so if you isolate the two wires and put heat shrink on them, that is what you should get.
Are you certain that you have all of the polarities right? How are you checking them? I wouldn't use that driver for it other than for a couple of seconds if you don't have them attached to the heat sink yet.
Are you certain that you have all of the polarities right? How are you checking them? I wouldn't use that driver for it other than for a couple of seconds if you don't have them attached to the heat sink yet.
I'm checking them with a couple of AA batteries. Just touching the leads from the batts to the + - terminals on the star. Just a brief pulse.
EDIT: I'm an idiot. The leads from the battery tester make a difference. All LEDs are fine. Such a newb!
Thanks for the heads up on that driver. I'll independently isolate and heat shrink them
EDIT: I'm an idiot. The leads from the battery tester make a difference. All LEDs are fine. Such a newb!
Thanks for the heads up on that driver. I'll independently isolate and heat shrink them
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Mini XM-L U3 Veg panel
Mini XM-L U3 Veg panel
Don't want to high-jack this thread, but recently I have built a small LED panel for my old veg box and I want to share this with you guys.
For this project I used 10 pieces of CREE XM-L U3 LEDs, driven at 2500mA. They are mounted on a small heatsink (100x200x25mm), together with the 'drivers' and the voltage regulator for the fan.
I had some problems with the driver I purchased for this project so I had to do some major changes. Initially my intention was to connect all 10 LEDs in series, but this would require a 30-33V power supply and the received driver was not working as expected. Instead I used a 90W Dell power supply (19V, 5A) and I connect the LEDs in 2 strings of 5 chips. The current is limited by a MOSFET transistor.
The cooling fan (92x92x20mm) fan is powered also by the main PSU , through a 7812 voltage regulator (mounted also on the heatsink).
When running on full power, my watt-meter shows a 99W power consumtion (and the Dell PSU is getting quite hot) but the heatsink stays cool enough (40-42 degrees Celsius).
Here are some pictures :
You can see the panel in action here : https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=5620289&postcount=110
Mini XM-L U3 Veg panel
Don't want to high-jack this thread, but recently I have built a small LED panel for my old veg box and I want to share this with you guys.
For this project I used 10 pieces of CREE XM-L U3 LEDs, driven at 2500mA. They are mounted on a small heatsink (100x200x25mm), together with the 'drivers' and the voltage regulator for the fan.
I had some problems with the driver I purchased for this project so I had to do some major changes. Initially my intention was to connect all 10 LEDs in series, but this would require a 30-33V power supply and the received driver was not working as expected. Instead I used a 90W Dell power supply (19V, 5A) and I connect the LEDs in 2 strings of 5 chips. The current is limited by a MOSFET transistor.
The cooling fan (92x92x20mm) fan is powered also by the main PSU , through a 7812 voltage regulator (mounted also on the heatsink).
When running on full power, my watt-meter shows a 99W power consumtion (and the Dell PSU is getting quite hot) but the heatsink stays cool enough (40-42 degrees Celsius).
Here are some pictures :
You can see the panel in action here : https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=5620289&postcount=110
Keep in mind the original nasa spec was long ago, before white diodes were viable
Here's my current 2 plant grow using only WW bulbs. I have a thread on another site. The first 3 pics are from today. The plants look pale due to 3000K WW bulbs. If I added some NW the color would look natural to our eyes, but the plant only needs WW. In regular daylight they are a lovely healthy shade of green
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no doubt petflora look'n good; yeah in my mind, i kinda just call any of the red/blue configs 'nasa' ~probably most accurate w/ 660 red and something like 8:1 red to blue but its mostly a joking reference
first switching those on it was like when the lights come on behind you and you're getting pulled over <they must run 660/430 on the bars ~lol
first switching those on it was like when the lights come on behind you and you're getting pulled over <they must run 660/430 on the bars ~lol
Thanks to a mentor on another grow site, I finally came to realize that the WW used for home lighting (or flood lights) intentionally avoids red as the rendition would be too soft. As you can see it works great for veg.
No problem, supplement during flower
Today I added my 3 yo UFO 90 which is ~ 8:1 R/B
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No problem, supplement during flower
Today I added my 3 yo UFO 90 which is ~ 8:1 R/B
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You need a high enough voltage at the source to compensate for the voltage drop across each chip, so no, two AA's aren't going to get the job done. You could total up the number of chips in the string and use a couple of batteries for each one, but it would cost you as much as one of the following meters. Quit flying blind, pick up a cheap meter and use it until you figure out what you really want!
http://www.amazon.com/Greenlee-DM-6...362328531&sr=1-1&keywords=greenlee+multimeter
http://www.amazon.com/Greenlee-DM-4...62328531&sr=1-10&keywords=greenlee+multimeter
