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DIY leds Discussion Thread for all your how tos and doubts and anything related

Is DIY led worth it.

  • No idea never tried and it seems complicated.

    Votes: 1 3.6%
  • No, i tried it and it was just shit/i burnt down my house/im just a negative nelly about it

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • No, its too expensive nowadays, can find cheaper than diy growlights

    Votes: 2 7.1%
  • No, it takes up too much time and work for the results it gives

    Votes: 2 7.1%
  • Yes! The time and effort it takes is what actually makes it enjoyable

    Votes: 2 7.1%
  • Yes, with my prices considerations and needs its actually cheaper than bought lights

    Votes: 2 7.1%
  • Yes, its actually safer with me doing the work since i know what im doing and can choose parts

    Votes: 1 3.6%
  • Yes, it means i can repair it myself if it breaks

    Votes: 4 14.3%
  • Yes, it means i can get a light that is perfect for my unique space and needs

    Votes: 6 21.4%
  • Yes, cause i cant get the results i want which i cannot find in any light on the market

    Votes: 1 3.6%
  • All of the above yes answers

    Votes: 9 32.1%
  • I dont know but im leaning yes

    Votes: 6 21.4%
  • I dont know but im leaning no

    Votes: 1 3.6%

  • Total voters
    28

Prawn Connery

Licence To Krill
Vendor
Veteran
Of course UV isn't going to increase thc in Utah cbd weed grown by government sponsored boomer frauds who think carbon is a myth. How did Bugboi measure leaf temp, because it surely wasn't the same scientific method I employed while pioneering all this science which his prostitute caste chooses to mock for a living.
I have been critical of Bugbee's studies – especially his UV studies – and still am. But surely it's not that hard to measure leaf temperature in a controlled environment? Not everything Bugbee says or does is wack. But I completely agree with you about his testing methods on "cannabinoids" when all he grows is hemp.
 

greyfader

Well-known member
Cannabis makes light dependent terpanenes to cool itself, like methyl salicylate-anene.

I thought you weed heads were really into terpanenes n shit?




Terpanenes are like icebreaker breathmints, for weed.



Cannabis studies are pointless when they are performed on hemp strains no one will ever grow. We need studies on clades that will actually be dipped into, not random cbd poly hybrid backyard fentanyl dealer seedbank bullshit.

Of course UV isn't going to increase thc in Utah cbd weed grown by government sponsored boomer frauds who think carbon is a myth. How did Bugboi measure leaf temp, because it surely wasn't the same scientific method I employed while pioneering all this science which his prostitute caste chooses to mock for a living.

please tell me more about these terpanenes you speak of!

and which scientific method did you employ while pioneering all this science?

i enjoy learning new things!
 
Can anyone diy guy help me with how to power these? The data sheet doesn't list this part number. It lists a 1 up and 3 up, and says by description that this is an xmL2. If I'm looking at it right. But it could also be the xpe. Big difference in what they handle. Got a killer deal for them and I figured I would definitely use them in my new tent. Please help if possible.
1000012193.jpg
 

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Rocket Soul

Well-known member
D
Can anyone diy guy help me with how to power these? The data sheet doesn't list this part number. It lists a 1 up and 3 up, and says by description that this is an xmL2. If I'm looking at it right. But it could also be the xpe. Big difference in what they handle. Got a killer deal for them and I figured I would definitely use them in my new tent. Please help if possible.
View attachment 19142128
This is a bit strange; you say you got 1ups and 3 ups but got 2ups pictured. Generally its 3V per diode.
3ups can be either in series or parallel which means either 3x3V or just 3V.
I suggest asking the seller what is the exact configuration of these.

Also the 2 ups look like they are in series config but hard to say without more info.
Generally ledstars is a good way of supplementing reds and blues but a looooot of work setting up if used for your main white channel.
 
This is a bit strange; you say you got 1ups and 3 ups but got 2ups pictured. Generally its 3V per diode.
3ups can be either in series or parallel which means either 3x3V or just 3V.
I suggest asking the seller what is the exact configuration of these.

Also the 2 ups look like they are in series config but hard to say without more info.
Generally ledstars is a good way of supplementing reds and blues but a looooot of work setting up if used for your main white channel.
It would just be for a 2x2 to house keepers or seedlings I will start next round.
The datasheet for this star says 1 and 3 up only. Yes typically it's 3v a pop but then it's figuring out what to run them at.
So I could take this one chip and treat it as 6 volts you think? That's what I was figuring but I'm not sure if it's the xmL2 or the xpe. It would help to know to run them at say 700 ma or not be able to even power them at 700 ma...
The seller had no info just just pointed me to the datasheet. They were a reseller. Maybe I'll ask indus. Idk. I have made quite a few lights and 40 of these for 20 bucks is cheap. . . If I can only figure out how to do it. Lol. Thanks man. Might end up blowing a couple just to see what they are. 🤟
 

Rocket Soul

Well-known member
D
It would just be for a 2x2 to house keepers or seedlings I will start next round.
The datasheet for this star says 1 and 3 up only. Yes typically it's 3v a pop but then it's figuring out what to run them at.
So I could take this one chip and treat it as 6 volts you think? That's what I was figuring but I'm not sure if it's the xmL2 or the xpe. It would help to know to run them at say 700 ma or not be able to even power them at 700 ma...
The seller had no info just just pointed me to the datasheet. They were a reseller. Maybe I'll ask indus. Idk. I have made quite a few lights and 40 of these for 20 bucks is cheap. . . If I can only figure out how to do it. Lol. Thanks man. Might end up blowing a couple just to see what they are. 🤟
Usually these type of diodes can handle 700mA but check with seller/manufacturer to be sure, or post some link to the datasheet if youre unsure about it.

Its hard to give advice on how to wire these, since its a bit unclear what you got and what numbers of diodes: seller seems to indicate 3ups and 1ups but pics show 2 ups.
generally: you can do a long series string but if its 40x 2ups, where the 2 ups are in series config on the pcb, youd get a voltage of around 40x6V =240V which is a bit high for my taste, high voltage DC is not to be played with.
The other strategy would be using several series strings in parallel where every string has the same amount of diodes. But in order to figure that out youd have to give some info on how many diodes you have, 1 ups and 2 ups and if there are possibly some 3ups in there aswell.
 

Neferhotep

Member
Possibly during manufacturing of the stars a reel ran out of leds? But also a 0 ohm resistor is missing.
You'll have to figure out yourself if these are in series or in parallel. A lab power supply would come in handy.
I used to check things like this with a magnetic 24 volt transformer, a variac, a bridge rectifier, a capacitor and a multimeter.
Watch out with high voltages.
 
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Maybe just buy 9v battery and wires couple led in series to test yourself what's a minimum forward voltage to light on? Also if added resistor you can make precise Voltage from battery
 

jonesfam7715

Well-known member
Can anyone diy guy help me with how to power these? The data sheet doesn't list this part number. It lists a 1 up and 3 up, and says by description that this is an xmL2. If I'm looking at it right. But it could also be the xpe. Big difference in what they handle. Got a killer deal for them and I figured I would definitely use them in my new tent. Please help if possible.
View attachment 19142128
Looking at these they lookin like either xpe2 or xpg3 the boards are capable of 3 individual circuits or setting them In series with the 0 ohm resistor making the connection, personally I would add a photo red to that empty space leaving your 2 whites in series with 1 red on a seperate circuit for each star. What's the color? Looking at the phosphor color Looking fairly cool, they use 70 cri diodes for these stars a lot, being they get highest lm/watt can't blame em. Run them at .350 ma either way, these boards are not direct thermal path and multiple diodes they will get hot 350ma will give you 1 watt each diode. You can get xpg3 photo reds $0.50 each on arrow right now I bought 140 myself. That deal won't be there long
 
A current source is better.
Voltage is not the right way to drive LEDs.
Yes you are right. I was looking that xml2 forward voltage "minimum" was 2.85 but it was "typical" so xpe and xml have basically same minimum forward voltage to light on...
Idea was to test minimum voltage to now what model they are.
Brain fart, my bad 😶‍🌫️
 

SwS

Member
Hey new member longtime grower, I've been reading this thread and some others. And I want to change over from HPS and been doing some research about leds and need some help. This is the plan any help is much appreciated...so I want to build a veg light and a flowering light. This is what I have settled on, or so I think.
20 x

10 x

So the plan is to use 15 strips of the
BXEB-L0590U-40E1500-C-C3
As a veg light since it has red and blue in the spectrum (4000k)

And for Flower 10 strips of the
BXEB-L1190U-27E3000-C-C3
Plus 5x of the
BXEB-L0590U-40E1500-C-C3 .
Which brings the spectrum to 3100k.
Both lights would be using this driver

HLG-240H-24AB/10659907 Mean Well
Would those light be sufficient? And I'm on the fence of running those 2 lights vs COBs.
If I'm going with cobs it would be the Vero 29 series but finding heatsinks is proving to either be a pain or expensive. So any advice or suggestions is welcome to help me decide. The reason for cobs is the intensity as I'll be growing sativas mostly and want intensity (from the cobs ).
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Rocket Soul

Well-known member
D
Hey new member longtime grower, I've been reading this thread and some others. And I want to change over from HPS and been doing some research about leds and need some help. This is the plan any help is much appreciated...so I want to build a veg light and a flowering light. This is what I have settled on, or so I think.
20 x

10 x

So the plan is to use 15 strips of the
BXEB-L0590U-40E1500-C-C3
As a veg light since it has red and blue in the spectrum (4000k)

And for Flower 10 strips of the
BXEB-L1190U-27E3000-C-C3
Plus 5x of the
BXEB-L0590U-40E1500-C-C3 .
Which brings the spectrum to 3100k.
Both lights would be using this driver

HLG-240H-24AB/10659907 Mean Well
Would those light be sufficient? And I'm on the fence of running those 2 lights vs COBs.
If I'm going with cobs it would be the Vero 29 series but finding heatsinks is proving to either be a pain or expensive. So any advice or suggestions is welcome to help me decide. The reason for cobs is the intensity as I'll be growing sativas mostly and want intensity (from the cobs ).
Hello
A few notes on this:
The strips: Bxeb gen 3, the strips youre looking at exist in 2 versions: regulars and slims. Ive worked with the slims and i wasnt super happy with them. Its the same as i used for a build in the first few posts in this thread. My gripes:
- they are kinda thin and flimsy and break easily, broke a couple of connectors. Though thats kinda on me. Being thin is nice if you want to get really high diode density: you can fit more per area which was a consideration. But i would have preferred working with the regulars i think. This also means they do need a bit of backing to work nicely, i wouldnt feed them 700mA without heatsink tbh, even if the datasheet says thats fine.
- they didnt pair well with 1mm stranded wiring. Just couldnt get them in the connectors. Tried some .75mm stranded wire and this didnt work well neither; the strands were a bit thinner so when i tried to push them in they were just too soft. I ended up having to resize 1mm stranded wire to a bit less. No biggie but i had to do this for an eternity: 16x2x8 times to be exact, which was a major hassle. In my country i couldnt find solid core for some reason.
- efficiency is not great if you run them above 700mA which means about 13w per strip: it means you need to work a lot for every watt. After than build i decided im not going to do designs which mean less than 20w per wiring connection. Its not only due to me being a bit lazy: it becomes very cumbersome with all those cable connections in parallel. Ill mention some workarounds with series/parallel later.

Basicly i kinda chose them cause it was the best efficiency for the spectrum i was after in a non alibaba made led but it was a cumbersome build, but if youre going for 3000/4000k 80 cri there should be some different options; samsung being the major option.

Will they fit??? If working with a 1.20 tent u beed to remember that those strips are 59cm, with two on the same sink youre at 1.18. but you need to think about the frame aswell, something on the ends of your sinks have to hold them togther unless you figure out a way to hold them together from the top rather than the ends. If you have space then no biggie but in a tent you may end up with a light that wont to inside your tent.
Regulars are 56/112cm which would make them an easier choice. Another option would be using one 2 footer and a 1 footer in series per sink which would give you something like a 1m light at around 28V per string.

Driver choice: the 24V driver will not give you a great match; a 240w driver at 24V where you only use around 19-20V means the output will be around 200w.
My advice would be doing either 2 or 4 in series (series connections are much easier to make since youll have much less mess) and try to find a driver which matches up nicely with that, either the 42 V meanwell or some kinda constant power driver which cover the range of around 80V for a 4 strip string.

If this is your first build id kinda steer you towards something different; something that isnt as hard to driver match with and that has higher output per pcb. Hope this doesnt discourage you too badly.
Is alibaba a good option for you in your country? It does mean you have to pay import taxes if which i dont know about in your country (south africa?) but even digikey would normally mean import taxes: they are sold internationally so theres always something extra to pay.
 
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Ttystikk

Well-known member
Veteran
Hey new member longtime grower, I've been reading this thread and some others. And I want to change over from HPS and been doing some research about leds and need some help. This is the plan any help is much appreciated...so I want to build a veg light and a flowering light. This is what I have settled on, or so I think.
20 x

10 x

So the plan is to use 15 strips of the
BXEB-L0590U-40E1500-C-C3
As a veg light since it has red and blue in the spectrum (4000k)

And for Flower 10 strips of the
BXEB-L1190U-27E3000-C-C3
Plus 5x of the
BXEB-L0590U-40E1500-C-C3 .
Which brings the spectrum to 3100k.
Both lights would be using this driver

HLG-240H-24AB/10659907 Mean Well
Would those light be sufficient? And I'm on the fence of running those 2 lights vs COBs.
If I'm going with cobs it would be the Vero 29 series but finding heatsinks is proving to either be a pain or expensive. So any advice or suggestions is welcome to help me decide. The reason for cobs is the intensity as I'll be growing sativas mostly and want intensity (from the cobs ).
I would think the whole point of growing your own is to guarantee intensity from the plants...

I don't have specific advice. My knowledge is 7-10 years out of date. What I CAN say is that every light I have from that era still works just fine to grow intense plants.

I know COB LED is not in fashion right now but I still really like mine.
 
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SwS

Member
The strips: Bxeb gen 3, the strips youre looking at exist in 2 versions: regulars and slims. Ive worked with the slims and i wasnt super happy with them. Its the same as i used for a build in the first few posts in this thread.
The reason i chose the slims is because I want to put 2 side by side on 1 piece of alluminium. That being 1 bar, I will fasten them to the alluminium. Would that be enough support, to prevent them from breaking ?



i wouldnt feed them 700mA without heatsink tbh, even if the datasheet says thats fine.
They ill be on a piece of alluminium with thermal tape, so that would be theyre sink. I would like to run them @ 700mA constantly for efficiency. But would like a driver that would be able to run it @ 1.4A max, for if the need arises to run it harder.


they didnt pair well with 1mm stranded wiring. Just couldnt get them in the connectors. Tried some .75mm stranded wire and this didnt work well neither; the strands were a bit thinner so when i tried to push them in they were just too soft. I ended up having to resize 1mm stranded wire to a bit less. No biggie but i had to do this for an eternity: 16x2x8 times to be exact, which was a major hassle. In my country i couldnt find solid core for some reason.
I have access to 1mm solid core, thanks for the tip. I'll probably have to just shave 0.1mm off to fit ? Can do that lol after a blunt.

Basicly i kinda chose them cause it was the best efficiency for the spectrum i was after in a non alibaba made led but it was a cumbersome build, but if youre going for 3000/4000k 80 cri there should be some different options; samsung being the major option.

The reason I'm going with the
BXEB-L1190U-40E3000-C-C3
Strips is because of the lumens/Watt rating of 200lm/W the samsungs I see are all 175lm/W is that not making the bridgelux strips more efficient? Or am I missing something ?

Will they fit??? If working with a 1.20 tent u beed to remember that those strips are 59cm, with two on the same sink youre at 1.18. but you need to think about the frame aswell, something on the ends of your sinks have to hold them togther unless you figure out a way to hold them together from the top rather than the ends. If you have space then no biggie but in a tent you may end up with a light that wont to inside your tent.
Regulars are 56/112cm which would make them an easier choice. Another option would be using one 2 footer and a 1 footer in series per sink which would give you something like a 1m light at around 28V per string.
Haha thank you for pointing that out I quoted the wrong part number 😅 the right part number is
BXEB-L1190U-40E3000-C-C3
Those ones are 1m, but still going with 15 strips. I will be making a all alluminium frame. So that should be enough heatsink if I run it at 700mA and it will receive airflow aswell from fans in the space. I have read that it is not wise to run alot of strips in series, due to the connectors on the strips not being able to handle high voltage? So will preferably be wiring it in parallel.


Driver choice: the 24V driver will not give you a great match; a 240w driver at 24V where you only use around 19-20V means the output will be around 200w.
My advice would be doing either 2 or 4 in series (series connections are much easier to make since youll have much less mess) and try to find a driver which matches up nicely with that, either the 42 V meanwell or some kinda constant power driver which cover the range of around 80V for a 4 strip string.
Sorry those 2 drivers were for the cobs that's also in planning the proper driver that I'm using for the srips is the
Mean Well HLG-480H-36AB
Would that one be sufficient?


If this is your first build id kinda steer you towards something different; something that isnt as hard to driver match with and that has higher output per pcb. Hope this doesnt discourage you too badly.
Is alibaba a good option for you in your country? It does mean you have to pay import taxes if which i dont know about in your country (south africa?) but even digikey would normally mean import taxes: they are sold internationally so theres always something extra to pay.
This will be my first build yes, bear in mind I have no soldering skills lol ( hands shake more then an alcoholics ). I'm open for suggestions I just want a good ppfd reading with the 4000k spectrum for veg, and the same for the flowering light in 3000k. Oh and I hope I don't have to sell some kidneys for it 😅 hahaha. Alibaba works for me, can it be trusted though and is reliable? Yes we do pay import taxes but don't worry about that lol 😉 even if ther is something from cutter aswell I'm all ears.
Thank you for helping.
 

SwS

Member
I would think the whole point of growing your own is to guarantee intensity from the plants...

I don't have specific advice. My knowledge is 7-10 years out of date. What I CAN say is that every light I have from that era still works just fine to grow intense plants.

I know COB LED is not in fashion right now but I still really like mine.
@Ttystyou mean intesity from lights ? Or plants ?
im with you on that one but getting tired of buying bulbs 😥 and i really like to intensity of the cobs saw some ppfd readings and its hitting the numbers I would like. Just haven't gotten around the spacing and how many to use in a 4x4 space. Oh and the heatsink prices is ridiculous, will be weighing the 2 to see which one makes more sense financially and which one gives the better quality light. Care to share some pics and details of your cob build?
 

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