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^ bro, relax.. I have found this far in my life nothing is worse the fear, worry, and anxiety.. banish them and get back to being calm and confident, and you can do anything
I'm as far from 'educated' as you can get, no degree, dropped out of school twice, just life experience.. think for a second, how is it that babies can learn languages? how can mentally handicapped people learn multiple languages.. because were built to LEARN.. I think that word study used in school is bullshit, they should call it learn or learning..
I'm gonna say it again and again, rives taught me everything I need to know. Looked before at knna stuff, couldn't understand shit, till rives took the time to explain it to me till I got it... it's why I bought every new LED that came out for a long time because I couldn't build one yet
trust me you can get it.. what you didn't know is everything fits together like a puzzle.. you need the correct heatsink, correct number of LED, correct voltage, correct wattage, and that means the correct driver which doesn't always work out, which means you need to go back and adjust... you just need to adjust if something is off..
remember your doing something few do.. now you can give up and go back to HPS or whatever you use, or you can push through and do what you want.. no one ever said getting what you wanted was easy.. actually if it was easy it wouldn't be worthwhile..
so, that said.. let us know where you stuck, and where your at
I do say you need fans, it's a simple principle that more heat = less output, and as rives said the higher you drive the led the less efficient it becomes, so just keep that in mind.. I had to use 16 xm-l on one of my heatsinks, so 32 xm-l for one tent only of 140 watts, but I wanted more efficiency then 14 10 watt chips... it costs more, but I get more spread, and higher light output..
remember above all, your light is your creation, giving thought to reality, you should create whatever makes you happiest, we are hear to see that come to creation
at the very least; look @ this *the driver is in the description and it runs 10 of these many thanks to 1030 for links to this site {from which i have purchased nothing} BUT; these guys have it set up as simple as possible & that particular LED is the shining star right now
for me the breakthrough was realizing that LEDs are wired in series & that; in series; you add each diode to reach your total volts e.g. 24V runs 8 3V diodes
its also important to note that amperage remains constant {or however you say it} and that means each LED will run @ say .7 amp for instance {assuming a .7 amp driver}
i havent looked @ drivers such as might drive 10v diodes so i have a hard time imagining how many drivers that would take but yeah ~thats something of an undertaking @ that level
Assume 50 LEDs per panel mixing WW+ NW+ CW in a 2:2:1 ratio, 10W LEDs
I run them at 2000mA, to get effective 6.5W output from each
Forward voltage is 3.2V
20 WW
20 NW
10 CW
Broken Down:
10 WW Dimmed
10 WW cc
10 NW cc
10 NW cc
10 CW Dimmed
Per Rives: So I want a driver that has a minimum voltage output of 30v or less, a maximum voltage output of 34v or more, a current level of 2000ma, and a wattage output of at least 65 watts.
I'm looking at RapidLED for drivers and not finding any that will push 65W. I'll keep looking.
looking @ the dimensions of your room; you would want several similar panels to that ~probably like 4 in each room ~maybe more {have you thought about vertical?}
you might consider putting 1 string of warm on a switch and putting the cools on a switch - run the string of cool for veg and the warm string for flower
but; you are talking about 2 separate rooms so why not a veg light and a flower light? similarly; you could adjust blue in veg for more or less compact plants and possibly use extra blue instead of red for 'the stretch' then go from extra blue to extra red for flower development?
speaking of vertical; it seems like your friend might be better served w 1 central overhead panel and maybe strips in the corners of his closet?
my opinion is that a strong advantage of LED is their potential for coverage they can actually be arranged to fall within the canopy and lend themselves well to vertical applications ~i like to see them integrated w/ the walls and ceilings of the grow space more closely emulating light coming 'from everywhere' like outdoors
you might consider just switching off a line of the warms and switching the cools as well?
have you considered vertical or intra-canopy? w/ smaller LEDs the plants can basically touch the diodes and even if it happens to be hot its only a small area on the plant but they are not that hot usually ~so, the lights can actually be down in the canopy too
my opinion is that a big advantage to LEDs is they can be placed for coverage comparable to just being out in the sun
for instance; your friends space might be better suited w an overhead fixture but also some strips a single LED wide in the corners
my next try with some drivers for your projekt
select constant current
select your power(Watt)
input voltage make no change
select output current 2.1A
the DT(ST)series is dimmable
That's a pretty slick way to go guvoo. Thank you. Processing my above parameters from Rives I would go with a 75W. The next lowest was 60W.
These are the three from the search result.
Boy, these are big and I need 5 and they need to stay cool...
http://www.inventronics-co.com/uploads/2012_10_893224.pdf
Output Current 2100 mA
Input Voltage Range 249 ~ 528 Vac
Output Voltage Range 18 ~ 36 Vdc
Max Output Power 75 W
Efficiency 86.0%
Power Factor 277Vac 0.95
Power Factor 480Vac 0.90
Model Name ESC-075S210DT(ST)(4) Dimming Control.
"With a 54vdc output, I could run 15 diodes at 3.2 forward volts?" The voltage works, but the wattage isn't there. At 6.4 watts per diode, you would top out at 11 LEDs on that driver. All the parameters have to work.
Understood. That Meanwell looks good. Per the math, could handle 12 LEDs. Also a good size and price. I'll need 5 and need 2 external dimmers. Cool- That looks like a winner. Many thanks.
EDIT: Sorry for the dumb question, but I just put a standard AC prong connector to these, right? There's no additional equipment for the driver?