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

[Aristoned]

Watch out for high wattage infrared lmap solutions theyre likely to cause stretch, especially when combined with low levels of visible light. This is why i like low watt halogen spot solutions (well in theory, havent tried yet): directs radiation downwards and are fairly easily controllable.
Cermic heater worked well for a friend of mine, even after light out. No extra stretch but somewhat pricey

Each bulb is rated to 75W max, having two I would get 150W max. The lamps have a dimming feature as well. There are also ceramic heaters with the same socket base.

I don’t mind having extra photons in the red spectrum, I have 6.5’ of height now and the 2x4 has almost 7’ of height. These lamps will only operate during lights-on and they will be 18-24” from the canopy.

I’m anxious to see what these are going to do next to the LED’s (x2 3000k x1 4000k).

 

[Aristoned]

@Neferhotep have you used IR to wake up and sleep the plants?

I have three spectrums I’m interested in:

1. IR, start 15 min before light on, carry 30 minutes. Opposite for lights out.

2. UVA, first and last two weeks of flower.

3. 2200k 100 CRI, main four weeks of flower.

Have you tried this?

 

[Neferhotep]

@Aristoned I have installed a huge radiator in the growroom and a fan that forces air through it when the thing is warm.
The three things you mention I never had.
My temp goes from night temp to day temp ten minutes before the lights turn on.

My latest addition were the 660 nm red LEDs but having read many of this thread I should have spent my energy in adding UVA probably - for terpenes. So adding UVA will probably be my next project

 

[Aristoned]

@Aristoned I have installed a huge radiator in the growroom and a fan that forces air through it when the thing is warm.
The three things you mention I never had.
My temp goes from night temp to day temp ten minutes before the lights turn on.

My latest addition were the 660 nm red LEDs but having read many of this thread I should have spent my energy in adding UVA probably - for terpenes. So adding UVA will probably be my next project

Timing is everything.

The terps don’t come in until the finish if I recall correctly.

I’ve read where plants need far less UVA to react, which is why I’ve been skeptical of testing it. However, these incandescent bulbs have changed that since I need added heat.

I’ll post the results as I walk through these journals.

 

[Rocket Soul]

@Aristoned I have installed a huge radiator in the growroom and a fan that forces air through it when the thing is warm.
The three things you mention I never had.
My temp goes from night temp to day temp ten minutes before the lights turn on.

My latest addition were the 660 nm red LEDs but having read many of this thread I should have spent my energy in adding UVA probably - for terpenes. So adding UVA will probably be my next project

660 is still useful to compensate red/blue levels once you add UVA.

 

[Neferhotep]

660 is also useful for nice pictures

 

[Aristoned]

660 is still useful to compensate red/blue levels once you add UVA.

660 is also useful for nice pictures
View attachment 19167533

The idea is to have the enclosure look like the photo above for 15 minutes before lights-on for 30 minutes total, then on 15 minutes before lights-out for 30 minutes total. The LED’s will run with the UVA bulb for the first and last two weeks. The middle four weeks will use a 2200k 100 CRI incandescent.

This is the experiment that I’ve wanted to try to for a decade, now I’m finally doing it! The added heat from the bulb should increase the leaf temperature enough to compensate for the lack of IR from LED as well as give me the opportunity to adjust the spectrum as it does in Nature.

Cheers!

@Neferhotep thank you for your advice!

Edit: I also instinctively set my heater to start the cycle 30 minutes before lights-on.

 

[Rocket Soul]

The idea is to have the enclosure look like the photo above for 15 minutes before lights-on for 30 minutes total, the on 15 minutes before lights-out for 30 minutes total. The LED’s will run with the UVA bulb for the first and last two weeks. The middle four weeks will use a 2200k 100 CRI incandescent.

This is the experiment that I’ve wanted to try to for a decade, now I’m finally doing it! The added heat from the bulb should increase the leaf temperature enough to compensate for the lack of IR from LED as well as give me the opportunity to adjust the spectrum as it does in Nature.

Cheers!

@Neferhotep thank you for your advice!

Edit: I also instinctively set my heater to start the cycle 30 minutes before lights-on.

660 wouldnt work well in a lights out scenario; you should look for a 730>660 for that. I dont know how well it works objectively; some swear by it some say meh. 660 at lights on would "wake up" the planta but so would standard white since it contains 660>730.
However i very much encourage experimentation

 

[Aristoned]

660 wouldnt work well in a lights out scenario; you should look for a 730>660 for that. I dont know how well it works objectively; some swear by it some say meh. 660 at lights on would "wake up" the planta but so would standard white since it contains 660>730.
However i very much encourage experimentation

The IR incandescent should be putting out way more 600-700 than any of my LED’s. It doesn’t need to be a large quantity of photons, just enough to cover one plant right now. The IR and UVA are both 75W and the 2200k is 60W, the fixtures are dimmable.

I will share my findings, good or bad. Photographs and all. There is a hold-up in the shipping, Monday looks like the ticket. I should at least get one week with the UVA this round, then the full two at the end for terpenes.

I think I will spend this time finishing the 150W luminaire for the vegetation tent. There is an XLG-200 on the way… these EB3 Slims are running so cool at nominal current I think I’m going to use even lighter aluminium for the next fixture. This will allow me to spread the strips for a more uniform canopy. Those Vero’s are ridiculous, I don’t remember them being that bad.

Oh, now I remember. I didn’t have the XLG running the 4000k in the center. The ELG would only run the one COB on or off with 120V, so I only used the HLG-120H for ~140W of 3000k. Oddly enough, the 4k produces more PAR than the 3k, just more blue and green so it looks more like sunlight.

Cheers!

 

[Rocket Soul]

The IR incandescent should be putting out way more 600-700 than any of my LED’s. It doesn’t need to be a large quantity of photons, just enough to cover one plant right now. The IR and UVA are both 75W and the 2200k is 60W, the fixtures are dimmable.

I will share my findings, good or bad. Photographs and all. There is a hold-up in the shipping, Monday looks like the ticket. I should at least get one week with the UVA this round, then the full two at the end for terpenes.

I think I will spend this time finishing the 150W luminaire for the vegetation tent. There is an XLG-200 on the way… these EB3 Slims are running so cool at nominal current I think I’m going to use even lighter aluminium for the next fixture. This will allow me to spread the strips for a more uniform canopy. Those Vero’s are ridiculous, I don’t remember them being that bad.

Oh, now I remember. I didn’t have the XLG running the 4000k in the center. The ELG would only run the one COB on or off with 120V, so I only used the HLG-120H for ~140W of 3000k. Oddly enough, the 4k produces more PAR than the 3k, just more blue and green so it looks more like sunlight.

Cheers!

For leds of same brand/series: youll always get more par out of the colder spectrums. Green is the most efficient phosphor and the blue comes from the blue photon pump, the little blue led behind the phosphor. Red and yellow phosphor tends to be less efficient.

 

[Aristoned]

For leds of same brand/series: youll always get more par out of the colder spectrums. Green is the most efficient phosphor and the blue comes from the blue photon pump, the little blue led behind the phosphor. Red and yellow phosphor tends to be less efficient.

The 2700k of this series only makes 10% less par than the 4000k. The only issue is I have to purchase an entire tray which is about $1,000.

So, if anyone wants to get in on the action I wouldn’t mind breaking the tray down after I take what I need.

 

[Rocket Soul]

The 2700k of this series only makes 10% less par than the 4000k. The only issue is I have to purchase an entire tray which is about $1,000.

So, if anyone wants to get in on the action I wouldn’t mind breaking the tray down after I take what I need.

Bridgelux vesta gen2 is the same diodes and have 2 channels: 2700k 90cri and 5000k 90cri. Perfect if you want a full cycle solution. They are more common to find in stock but more expensive.

 

[jonesfam7715]

I just bought 150 of these a few weeks ago, 4 up xpg3 2700k 90 cri .15 each not as efficient as mid power strips but good for expiramenting or supplementals, even has thermal tape already

 

[Aristoned]

Bridgelux vesta gen2 is the same diodes and have 2 channels: 2700k 90cri and 5000k 90cri. Perfect if you want a full cycle solution. They are more common to find in stock but more expensive.

I found the Blx Vero Gen 8 in 2700k 90 CRI. I think I will get three of those until I can figure out an avenue to the EB3 Slims.

 

[greyfader]

way back in dec 2022, page 45 on the led and bud quality thread, icmag member @vermontman posted these pics of his oaxacan gold grown with 300 watt galaxyhydro led fixtures he got from amazon.

i colorized a print of the diode distribution to see their arrangement better. i assigned percentages to them. the only ones i left out were the 4 10000k white diodes.

i just thought you guys might like to see this. only 14% blue diodes.

 

[Aristoned]

way back in dec 2022, page 45 on the led and bud quality thread, icmag member @vermontman posted these pics of his oaxacan gold grown with 300 watt galaxyhydro led fixtures he got from amazon.

View attachment 19168339

View attachment 19168341

i colorized a print of the diode distribution to see their arrangement better. i assigned percentages to them. the only ones i left out were the 4 10000k white diodes.

i just thought you guys might like to see this. only 14% blue diodes.

Do you know what each were running?

They usually drive the reds harder than whites and blues.

 

[greyfader]

Do you know what each were running?

They usually drive the reds harder than whites and blues.

i have no idea.

 

[Rocket Soul]

way back in dec 2022, page 45 on the led and bud quality thread, icmag member @vermontman posted these pics of his oaxacan gold grown with 300 watt galaxyhydro led fixtures he got from amazon.

View attachment 19168339

View attachment 19168341

i colorized a print of the diode distribution to see their arrangement better. i assigned percentages to them. the only ones i left out were the 4 10000k white diodes.

i just thought you guys might like to see this. only 14% blue diodes.

This light is an example of multiband blurple, kind of like the second generation blurple when they started to add diodes and play around with which red/blues they use. Very nice looking results, very good looking morphology but with only pics its hard to evaluate.
I cant find the spectrum and it looks like GH arent in business anymore though with plenty of old stock available. If anyone has their info please post it.

If theres one thing that strikes me its not the amount of blue diodes but the abundance of 630 compared to relatively few 660: modern white+red lights seems to go the opposite way with a dip around 630-640 and a huge peak at 660.

It would be interesting to see someone trying to do something similar with modern diodes, reds are almost twice as efficient as back then.

 

[Aristoned]

If this graph is accurate, we are off by just a bit. I would think the LED’s would produce enough on either side of 660nm which is that frequency is preferred.

 

[Rocket Soul]

If this graph is accurate, we are off by just a bit. I would think the LED’s would produce enough on either side of 660nm which is that frequency is preferred.

Can you say something about where this is from? I dont get the diagram really, what is Chlorella?
Appreciate new data cause i haven't seen this before, but need some more details on what it is