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

[Drop That Sound]

If I was growing in a tent in a room, I would make something just like this, but longer (as high as the grow tent) and maybe with bigger diameter, like PVC 5x5 fence post sleeves or 4-6 inch + sewer pipe and fittings + bigger inline fans, instead of gutter downspouts and weak pc fans like in the video..

I would 3d print the aluminum tube holder sections, and bang it out in a few hours. Keep it vertically mounted to the side of the tent towards the back on one side, and route the ducting from both air streams through it so the air flows from top to bottom inside the tent instead, and would barely take up any space outside of it. Less than a square foot.
Then tune the intake/exhaust flow rates to maximize effeciency and so it stays about 5-10 degrees warmer inside the tent than the rest of the room, and save big on energy costs compared to heating the entire room to achieve the same effect.

 

[Ca++]

I always imagined the best insulation would be none at all. Just fill all the exterior walls and roofs cavities with big flat stacked cross flow heat exchanger panels, in between every stud. All connected, with some way to mitigate all the condensation that will inevitably build up, and keep from molding up. Basically, the entire structure would be one giant breathing heat ex-changer on the outer shell, that retains almost 99% of the heat or cooling inside, while also being ventilated so good it's as if you were outside in the fresh air...

I can't actually do this. In hot weather, I need the tent insulated. I need it to hold the heat, where I can collect it from. Before it gets out and heats the room. By hot weather, I mean room inlet air above ~25C, so maybe not that often.
When my plants are small, I can have minimal extract on the tent, as I have no humidity problem with small plants and low extract. Now insulation serves to keep my tent warm, as I don't actually have enough heat from LED lights, to heat the entire room. I get what you are saying, that really good insulation could negate this. I have windows and such though. My contained area, is the tent. It's just easier to manage. I have the sides insulated (bubblewrap and clips on them seams again) to stop drafts from the bedroom door cooling the sides too much, as the area below the canopy gets little heat from the lights. That's why I must recover some from above, for below.

Various angles to work with this job. I don't think I'm rushing back to HIDs on mass though. I'm weighing up ditching the sodium again, as I may have too much FR. I kinda see it with the timing of the first buds showing. It's quicker under just LED. The FR is having a visible veg response, and papers are highlighting this too often to remain comfortable with my choice (50% HID). I won't stop adding FR though. Especially as I also light from below. I want them to know which way the sun is.

 

[Ca++]

If I was growing in a tent in a room, I would make something just like this, but longer (as high as the grow tent) and maybe with bigger diameter, like PVC 5x5 fence post sleeves or 4-6 inch + sewer pipe and fittings + bigger inline fans, instead of gutter downspouts and weak pc fans like in the video..

I would 3d print the aluminum tube holder sections, and bang it out in a few hours. Keep it vertically mounted to the side of the tent towards the back on one side, and route the ducting from both air streams through it so the air flows from top to bottom inside the tent instead, and would barely take up any space outside of it. Less than a square foot.
Then tune the intake/exhaust flow rates to maximize effeciency and so it stays about 5-10 degrees warmer inside the tent than the rest of the room, and save big on energy costs compared to heating the entire room to achieve the same effect.

I made a re-circ pipe from gutter. It sounded like a pipe organ lol

I will have to give it a watch. Copper pipe is getting expensive now, and a proper unit is £200. It would be easy to spend too much on a DIY job. I was offered an active unit with broken fan for £100 but then they avoided all contact. It does happen though.

 

[Drop That Sound]

Copper sounds even better (thinner the better), and is more resistant to being contaminated right?. Also, maybe you could rig up some kind of large diameter C-shaped induction coil, so that you could run it down along the outside of the main pipe housing to sterilize and burn off all the nasties that might try to grow inside all the internal copper tubing ports, while blasting compressed air through it to blow off the smoke...

 

[Drop That Sound]

Anyway, I got a few more projects to complete, then I'll start working on a hybrid triple core HRV system, for my RV grow trailer.. Not only will it utilize dual air to air crossflow cores, but also will be more like air to water to air to air, because I'm gonna use a big 55 gallon insulated water tank full of larger diameter automobile cold air intake turbo intercoolers, as somewhat of a secondary integrated pre-core, to help buffer the temps even better with the incoming outside filtered winter air.
I'll be cutting up a 50 ft roll (and then some) of 14" wide thin aluminum rolled roof flashing section off into squares, and then flattening and stacking them into cross flow plates using special 3d printed zigzag tesla valvish shaped strips\shims to create the 1/8th inch air channels between all the plates, which should increase the performance of the cores quite a bit, by restricting the flow even more.

Here's a dual core setup ^

 

[kro-magnon]

That's a great thread full of great informations. Personally I don't have the tools needed to build my own LED, it's certainly a great project but you need to have specific equipments and some knowledge to be able to do it successfully. Working with electricity is not a game, you have to be sure you don't make any mistake in the process to avoid burning anything, that's something to not take lightly. DIY is great and I like being able to make things myself, with electricity I try to not take any risks, the consequences can be terrible if you fuck up badly.
I have worked a lot with lights in spectacles, it has been my job for more than 15 years to install the lights for concerts, movies or theatre plays, I have seen a few people injured with electricity because they were too careless, it's not fun when you lose an arm because of a bad manipulation. With a DIY LED, there are no such risks but I prefer to be cautious still.

 

[Rocket Soul]

That's a great thread full of great informations. Personally I don't have the tools needed to build my own LED, it's certainly a great project but you need to have specific equipments and some knowledge to be able to do it successfully. Working with electricity is not a game, you have to be sure you don't make any mistake in the process to avoid burning anything, that's something to not take lightly. DIY is great and I like being able to make things myself, with electricity I try to not take any risks, the consequences can be terrible if you fuck up badly.
I have worked a lot with lights in spectacles, it has been my job for more than 15 years to install the lights for concerts, movies or theatre plays, I have seen a few people injured with electricity because they were too careless, it's not fun when you lose an arm because of a bad manipulation. With a DIY LED, there are no such risks but I prefer to be cautious still.

The equipment needed is so much less than you think. Screwdriver, powerdrill with alu/metal drillbit and wire cutters.
If you wanna go more advanced than the majority, hot point solder iron for soldering monos leds but in almost all cases, the led strips or boards come with push in connectors. If you have basic electrical experience, this is about as easy as it comes. Obviously you need to be careful with electricity. But personally, having seen how many wellknown brands having accidents; i actually think its more safe if i get to chose every component. Mars/spiderfarmer and a few other china made brands; ive seen them all burn in some way or another, usually due to dodgy quality connectors.
I think the real obstacle for getting into this is design and component sourcing: you kinda need to know what to get and whats available to set a design together, and also know what you want; why youre doing a diy project instead of just a finished bought light.
I started with it because led lights were prohibitively expensive back then. Continued cause i like to play around with spectrums. Then adding channels for pushing different flower responses. When you look at todays led lights every single one is extremely similar to the rest, all same spectrum pretty much and if you want something different and get a different flower quality its hard to do it without diy.

The days of diy in order to save a lot of money is over but there is definitely reasons play around with it, especially if you passionate about your grow.

 

[kro-magnon]

The equipment needed is so much less than you think. Screwdriver, powerdrill with alu/metal drillbit and wire cutters.
If you wanna go more advanced than the majority, hot point solder iron for soldering monos leds but in almost all cases, the led strips or boards come with push in connectors. If you have basic electrical experience, this is about as easy as it comes. Obviously you need to be careful with electricity. But personally, having seen how many wellknown brands having accidents; i actually think its more safe if i get to chose every component. Mars/spiderfarmer and a few other china made brands; ive seen them all burn in some way or another, usually due to dodgy quality connectors.
I think the real obstacle for getting into this is design and component sourcing: you kinda need to know what to get and whats available to set a design together, and also know what you want; why youre doing a diy project instead of just a finished bought light.
I started with it because led lights were prohibitively expensive back then. Continued cause i like to play around with spectrums. Then adding channels for pushing different flower responses. When you look at todays led lights every single one is extremely similar to the rest, all same spectrum pretty much and if you want something different and get a different flower quality its hard to do it without diy.

The days of diy in order to save a lot of money is over but there is definitely reasons play around with it, especially if you passionate about your grow.

I understand the motivations for such projects, it's the only way to have a personalized light, every market is standardized today and most brands sell more or lass the same products with different names sticked on it.
You can get a light done without having to sold anything in the process?
Those projects are not for everybody, you need some knowledge and have some rigor while working with electricity, some persons are too careless to do it properly.

 

[Rocket Soul]

I understand the motivations for such projects, it's the only way to have a personalized light, every market is standardized today and most brands sell more or lass the same products with different names sticked on it.
You can get a light done without having to sold anything in the process?
Those projects are not for everybody, you need some knowledge and have some rigor while working with electricity, some persons are too careless to do it properly.

No solder needed generally, theres almost everything you could ever want with push in connectors. I play around with mono diodes cause i have come to the point where i could advance my designs any further, and it was so easy that i kicked myself for not doing it earlier; it opened up a whole new range to the grow applying UV and exotic reds but these are rarely available from standard diy outlets. Learning to solder: i had gotten some strips from an alibaba supplier and for some reason they arrived without connectors much to my disappointment. So i didnt have a choice and got a solder iron for 20€, nothing fancy. The strips had really bad solderpads and was a night mare to work with but i got it done. Once i got to the ledstar pcbs for uv things went like a breeze: copper solder pads were much easier to work with than the china strips which looked like they were having untinned alu solder pads.
I basically just learnt while doing it. Put your tinn wore on the solderpad and apply heat with pre heated hotpoint. It will create a ball of molten tinn, sometimes it takes some time to get it to fix to the the pad. Flux is helpfull for this but usually the tinn wire has flux inside it. Dont melt tinn to the hotpoint and then try to apply it to the solder pad, its alot more difficult. Then tinn your wire. Put your tinned wire onto the tin on the solderpad and apply hotpoint until both lumps of tinn melts together to a blob. And ready. From first of my ledstars to finishing, 48 leds later, was a couple of hours. I was so surprised how easy it went. Solder is not something to fear or worry about, i encourage anyone who wants to start with leds to try it out. It opens so many doors.

 

[Rocket Soul]

When it comes to what led products to use; its a bit hard cause we cant post links outside icmag that could break the TOS or appear to be promoting products that compete with advertisers on icmag. But please ask away if you want to get into this

 

[Neferhotep]

Whatever zone you reside in will determine whether or not you need a regular HRV, or an ERV

In my situation moisture recovery is definately not needed. In contrary; getting rid of moisture is usually the problem here. So for me an aluminium plate heat exchanger would be it.
Fans, sensors and controls I will do myself.

 

[Ca++]

Finally, a use for all those HID barn shades

 

[Ca++]

Citizen 1212 cob at ~30w


2mm polycarbonate. It should of been ~25mm below the chip, but the plants got a bit tall. Just a bit. Pushing it up to the chip. Which was on a passive 100w cpu block, with forced air. So really.. unexpected.
I didn't sleeve the screw shafts, as I didn't want the extra shadow.
This might also explain my light coverage issues.

I have 4. Another is marked. Non are what they were. So all 4 to be replaced, and two kept as spares.


I should really do the QBs on the floor looking up. I have at least stopped watering them though.


I'm so good, I amaze myself sometimes

 

[jonesfam7715]

Citizen 1212 cob at ~30w
View attachment 19188680

2mm polycarbonate. It should of been ~25mm below the chip, but the plants got a bit tall. Just a bit. Pushing it up to the chip. Which was on a passive 100w cpu block, with forced air. So really.. unexpected.
I didn't sleeve the screw shafts, as I didn't want the extra shadow.
This might also explain my light coverage issues.

I have 4. Another is marked. Non are what they were. So all 4 to be replaced, and two kept as spares.


I should really do the QBs on the floor looking up. I have at least stopped watering them though.


I'm so good, I amaze myself sometimes

I used those same cobs for a couple years, they do work well. I replaced mine with cree cmu 2287 they fit the same holders diffrent voltage tho 54v, the cmu2236 and cmu2239 are both 36v tho, and I think they'll fit the same holders as well.

 

[Aristoned]

I understand the motivations for such projects, it's the only way to have a personalized light, every market is standardized today and most brands sell more or lass the same products with different names sticked on it.
You can get a light done without having to sold anything in the process?
Those projects are not for everybody, you need some knowledge and have some rigor while working with electricity, some persons are too careless to do it properly.

Bridgelux Vero SE do not require solder.

Bridgelux EB strips do not require solder.

If you have a drill, an 1/8” drill bit, 1/8” countersink, 1/16” aluminum angle/channel, a hacksaw, rivets, some double-sided thermal tape and some wires you can make one.

This fixture photographed below will hold 240W with no problems, I’m planning to build a second identical to the first so I have the option to run two panels @ 240W or I can simply plug them into the same driver to have two panels under-drive @ 120W each.

My custom built luminaires are 100% modular, hot-swappable and will fit any tent on the market.

 

[Neferhotep]

2mm polycarbonate.

What are they? Spray shields?
Is it necessary to have them?

 

[Ca++]

What are they? Spray shields?
Is it necessary to have them?

They were for this. I also figured the 20 degrees gained from diffraction might help. As plants hitting lights is all too common in my undersized veg area. I'm basically growing beanstalks, and moving them out at the most moment possible. Plus a week.

I don't want the plants themselves blanketing out the cobs. They very quickly brown and dry, to a very combustible state. I probably would of lost the cobs long ago, as the minimum unplanned disruption. If polycarb is deforming, the face of the cob must be pretty soft to, I figure. Perhaps soft enough to go digging around in. The risk of sparks from poor connections increasing. I feel the covers are pretty vital. Simply because they will get hit by the plants regularly. This has taken 6 years to happen iirc. I will probably give the face of the cobs a clean while the covers are off. They will be dusty, but not sap related dirt, I hope.

I try and look at all the angles when I build. It's why they are passively oversized heatsinks, with fan. The meanwell should be good, but the IEC socket is the filtered kind anyway. While the driver on standoff mounts for best airflow. Which is assisted by the fan. It's enclosed using self extinguishing plastic. My most notable mistake though, is not sleeving them standoff fixings. It would of only took a bit of silicone air tube. Bugger all light passes them anyway, but I don't know a cobs true spread, until after the build was running.


I will never tap 3mm holes through alloy blocks again. The cob mounts wanted this. Now, I use at least 4mm, and just trap the cob under the edge of the bolt heads. Using 3mm taps was near impossible. I bust a couple, but 4mm worked as it should.

 

[Aristoned]

If I was growing in a tent in a room, I would make something just like this, but longer (as high as the grow tent) and maybe with bigger diameter, like PVC 5x5 fence post sleeves or 4-6 inch + sewer pipe and fittings + bigger inline fans, instead of gutter downspouts and weak pc fans like in the video..

I would 3d print the aluminum tube holder sections, and bang it out in a few hours. Keep it vertically mounted to the side of the tent towards the back on one side, and route the ducting from both air streams through it so the air flows from top to bottom inside the tent instead, and would barely take up any space outside of it. Less than a square foot.
Then tune the intake/exhaust flow rates to maximize effeciency and so it stays about 5-10 degrees warmer inside the tent than the rest of the room, and save big on energy costs compared to heating the entire room to achieve the same effect.

I’m having the opposite situation, the tent is warmer than the rest of the room and I need to have a cooler intake charge to maintain temperatures.

I managed to burn the leaves with light, my LST is also 0-2° lower than ambient from top to bottom. It has been difficult to maintain a cooler intake charge now that the weather is changing. I have noticed an increase in production by lowering the lights-out temperature around 68°.

Even the habanero peppers are taking off, the catnip is growing like a bush and the clones are just loving it. I don’t even have ventilation in that tent.

 

[Drop That Sound]

I’m having the opposite situation, the tent is warmer than the rest of the room and I need to have a cooler intake charge to maintain temperatures.

I managed to burn the leaves with light, my LST is also 0-2° lower than ambient from top to bottom. It has been difficult to maintain a cooler intake charge now that the weather is changing. I have noticed an increase in production by lowering the lights-out temperature around 68°.

Even the habanero peppers are taking off, the catnip is growing like a bush and the clones are just loving it. I don’t even have ventilation in that tent.

Recovery ventilators technically can work either way, vice versa. If you had a small portable AC unit for the tent, you could keep the air inside cool, but also be ventilating it almost full blast at the same time, without sealing it and needing to supplement c02. Keep the rest of the room warmer instead of inside the tent.

 

[Aristoned]

240W of 3000K just went up in the vegetation tent.

The BBerry is going to be a Godzilla of a plant. I need to see if I can even get photos on the lower canopy.

THICK!