DIY led growlights - Builds and Results

[Rocket Soul]

DIY is bad ass. You get better quality and it is EXACTLY how you want it.

Too little is made out of this point; being able to exactly plan a light for your space and height restrictions, even designing in multiple drivers so that you can perfect even spread by running edges and corners on a separate driver. Ive made some special designs like that and they been surprisingly usefull.

 

[doc_loomis]

But my main gripe with it was that all extra channels didn't seem to do anything for potency or quality :\

The far red and UV channels are usually measured in MAR, as they are merely morphologically active. So they have an impact on your plants overall growth structure. So for example, plants in the shadow get more red light, as it has a larger wave length. So those plants need to create bigger leaves and stretch out a little more, as they think they're in the shadow.
You could - for example - use that in the very early stages of veg. Turn on far red to make your plants grow bigger leaves, so they can absorb more light, and then turn it back off until flower. You can also use it to enhance your plants recovery (so called Emerson effect) and thus go with a 13/11 cycle.
UV is right on the other side of the spectrum. It's what causes sunburns, and plants usually react to sunburns by creating more resin. So an idea could be to ramp up the UV once the flower really started, like after 3 weeks 12/12 (or 13/11). Like start with 1 hour/day in the middle of the day and ramp up to full power for the last two weeks for the whole day.

Some of this is still bro science due to the legislation in most countries, but SanLight is doing a pretty good job at comparing different scenarios on their blog.

 

[Rocket Soul]

The far red and UV channels are usually measured in MAR, as they are merely morphologically active. So they have an impact on your plants overall growth structure. So for example, plants in the shadow get more red light, as it has a larger wave length. So those plants need to create bigger leaves and stretch out a little more, as they think they're in the shadow.
You could - for example - use that in the very early stages of veg. Turn on far red to make your plants grow bigger leaves, so they can absorb more light, and then turn it back off until flower. You can also use it to enhance your plants recovery (so called Emerson effect) and thus go with a 13/11 cycle.
UV is right on the other side of the spectrum. It's what causes sunburns, and plants usually react to sunburns by creating more resin. So an idea could be to ramp up the UV once the flower really started, like after 3 weeks 12/12 (or 13/11). Like start with 1 hour/day in the middle of the day and ramp up to full power for the last two weeks for the whole day.

Some of this is still bro science due to the legislation in most countries, but SanLight is doing a pretty good job at comparing different scenarios on their blog.

Reds are not more abundant in shadows, though far reds are (together with green). Reds are usually taken up mostly by top cannopy.

We tried various uv approaches with this light and nothing really moved the dial on potency or terps for this light. Tasted amd smoked the same as plain white. We did have success uva on other light fixtures though.
I know all about bro science and science; you have to find a way between the two
On the far red never noted much difference at all in flower, these lights dont veg, only flower.

 

[Rocket Soul]

The far red and UV channels are usually measured in MAR, as they are merely morphologically active. So they have an impact on your plants overall growth structure. So for example, plants in the shadow get more red light, as it has a larger wave length. So those plants need to create bigger leaves and stretch out a little more, as they think they're in the shadow.
You could - for example - use that in the very early stages of veg. Turn on far red to make your plants grow bigger leaves, so they can absorb more light, and then turn it back off until flower. You can also use it to enhance your plants recovery (so called Emerson effect) and thus go with a 13/11 cycle.
UV is right on the other side of the spectrum. It's what causes sunburns, and plants usually react to sunburns by creating more resin. So an idea could be to ramp up the UV once the flower really started, like after 3 weeks 12/12 (or 13/11). Like start with 1 hour/day in the middle of the day and ramp up to full power for the last two weeks for the whole day.

Some of this is still bro science due to the legislation in most countries, but SanLight is doing a pretty good job at comparing different scenarios on their blog.

I like Sanlight for their approach but it seems somewhat hamstrung by the RGB thinking: RGB is something that we imposed on the science by using it for reasearch but its not at all clear that all reds are equal; is a huge peak of 660 really the same as a wider band of red with peaks in 630/660/680 with the same amount of red energy? In my experience its not.
But the generally low green content of Sanlight makes it an excellent place to start uf you want to add UV.

 

[Mr.NotSoFast]

We tried various uv approaches with this light and nothing really moved the dial on potency or terps for this light. Tasted amd smoked the same as plain white. We did have success uva on other light fixtures though.

I have tried to damage the leaves of plants from below with UV (B=12%, A=20-30%) and after several growing attempts, I have increased the UV dosage every other day to full power for the whole day, and I hardly see any damage occurring to the growth. Occasionally, I have tested 8-10 hours straight for a whole week to see if I could cause any damage, but only the lowest leaf tips are taking just little damage, and I'm not even sure if UV is causing it... The distance of the UV lamp to the lower leaf is 30-40 cm. UV given from below, not from above.

 

[Rocket Soul]

I have tried to damage the leaves of plants from below with UV (B=12%, A=20-30%) and after several growing attempts, I have increased the UV dosage every other day to full power for the whole day, and I hardly see any damage occurring to the growth. Occasionally, I have tested 8-10 hours straight for a whole week to see if I could cause any damage, but only the lowest leaf tips are taking just little damage, and I'm not even sure if UV is causing it... The distance of the UV lamp to the lower leaf is 30-40 cm. UV given from below, not from above.

Blues and especially UV is very phototropic; it shows the plant where the sun is. Giving UV from below seems very counter intuitive.
I havent tried using tubes for uv, just adding some UV diodes.

 

[Charles Dankens]

Great thread. I started out using a Mars way back. Then built a couple cob rigs that matched my space perfectly. I grew some beauties under Vero and and Cree cobs 680w dimmable for a 2x4.

When I saw a chill led 500w for 500$ I switched to that bar setup. It's way sleeker that the contraption I put together.

BUT, it started strobing and flickering. I removed the pot and that solved the problem. Can anyone let me know what is the correct replacement for this failed potentiometer?

 

[doc_loomis]

Can anyone let me know what is the correct replacement for this failed potentiometer?

Electronic Potentiometer Knob 1-10v Dimmer Controller Grow Plant Light 0-10v Dimmer For 0-10v Dimmable Led Drivers - Buy Grow Plant Light Dimmer,Led Dimmer 220v,010v Dimmer Product on Alibaba.com

Electronic Potentiometer Knob 1-10v Dimmer Controller Grow Plant Light 0-10v Dimmer For 0-10v Dimmable Led Drivers - Buy Grow Plant Light Dimmer,Led Dimmer 220v,010v Dimmer Product on Alibaba.com

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I googled for "ec011-v3" as written on your microcontroller, and that was the first hit. As you can see it's a 1-10V Dimmer, so any 0/1-10V Dimmer should do, you don't need to buy the exact same one.

 

[Charles Dankens]

Electronic Potentiometer Knob 1-10v Dimmer Controller Grow Plant Light 0-10v Dimmer For 0-10v Dimmable Led Drivers - Buy Grow Plant Light Dimmer,Led Dimmer 220v,010v Dimmer Product on Alibaba.com

Electronic Potentiometer Knob 1-10v Dimmer Controller Grow Plant Light 0-10v Dimmer For 0-10v Dimmable Led Drivers - Buy Grow Plant Light Dimmer,Led Dimmer 220v,010v Dimmer Product on Alibaba.com

www.alibaba.com

I googled for "ec011-v3" as written on your microcontroller, and that was the first hit. As you can see it's a 1-10V Dimmer, so any 0/1-10V Dimmer should do, you don't need to buy the exact same one.

Darn, thank you very much. I did try Google but I have eye issues and struggled to make out those characters.

 

[doc_loomis]

Darn, thank you very much. I did try Google but I have eye issues and struggled to make out those characters.

No worries Like I said, doesn't have to be the exact same one, most lamps come with 0/1-10V potentiometers, so you can just grab any and wire it to your lamp.

 

[Piecho]

Great thread. I started out using a Mars way back. Then built a couple cob rigs that matched my space perfectly. I grew some beauties under Vero and and Cree cobs 680w dimmable for a 2x4.

When I saw a chill led 500w for 500$ I switched to that bar setup. It's way sleeker that the contraption I put together.

BUT, it started strobing and flickering. I removed the pot and that solved the problem. Can anyone let me know what is the correct replacement for this failed potentiometer? View attachment 19024563 View attachment 19024569 View attachment 19024568

You can give it a try without desoldering step - Potentiometer Repair - element14 Community
I usually just soaked faulty in ISO/any alcohol >95%, sometimes helped as well.

 

[Rocket Soul]

Electronic Potentiometer Knob 1-10v Dimmer Controller Grow Plant Light 0-10v Dimmer For 0-10v Dimmable Led Drivers - Buy Grow Plant Light Dimmer,Led Dimmer 220v,010v Dimmer Product on Alibaba.com

Electronic Potentiometer Knob 1-10v Dimmer Controller Grow Plant Light 0-10v Dimmer For 0-10v Dimmable Led Drivers - Buy Grow Plant Light Dimmer,Led Dimmer 220v,010v Dimmer Product on Alibaba.com

www.alibaba.com

I googled for "ec011-v3" as written on your microcontroller, and that was the first hit. As you can see it's a 1-10V Dimmer, so any 0/1-10V Dimmer should do, you don't need to buy the exact same one.

Make sure the pot is 100K ohm, assuming that it only dims one driver.