CharlesU Farley
Well-known member
Liberation leads to freedom!
What is your lighting history?
- Thread starter CharlesU Farley
- Start date
xtsho
Well-known member
Years ago someone traded me one of those for a bag of weed. I ripped the ballasts and bulbs out and tossed the rest in the trash. Used the lights for starting seedlings.
No returns because once you used it you can't return it. The shipping cost to send it back was 100$ lol
Started with a 400 watt MH and a parabolic reflector and magnetic ballast purchased 120 miles away. Parking in a different parking lot and walking to the store I was so paranoid.
Had t-5 HO for veg and clones, even flowered under those a couple times...small but effective.
Moved up to 2 air cooled 600's with digi ballasts and thought it cant get any better
Built my own 660 watt PLC LED light and been rocking it for several years now with no issues at all.
LED has been great. Love the coverage and power use and lack of heat. Have to say I did grow some super good dank under the HPS and MH tho. That said I would not go back.
Have a sweet day! Peace, negative.
Had t-5 HO for veg and clones, even flowered under those a couple times...small but effective.
Moved up to 2 air cooled 600's with digi ballasts and thought it cant get any better
Built my own 660 watt PLC LED light and been rocking it for several years now with no issues at all.
LED has been great. Love the coverage and power use and lack of heat. Have to say I did grow some super good dank under the HPS and MH tho. That said I would not go back.
Have a sweet day! Peace, negative.
Drop That Sound
Well-known member
Yeah my uncle sold me one, back when I was still in highschool in the 90s. Before I knew a whole lot, but still enough to know growing was the coolest thing ever. F'er ripped me off @ $200 for a used one, lol. It was the big one though. I did grow in it and get buds. Second time got my first spider mite invasion.
I started flipping it on the side to fit bunches of seedlings for outdoors instead. Then at some point after a year or 2 I traded it for the dankest oz ever. Haha. Worth 300+ back then easy for stuff that good. Good times.
Somehow ended up with a few street lamp enclosures, and the ol' reliable hanging 400w shop ballasts with the big reflector domes after that..
CharlesU Farley
Well-known member
One thing I forgot to talk about in the original post was what kind of light I'd get if I needed another one now. If you could upgrade your light right now, which one would you get?
Hammer, you have experience with one of the Mars H bar type LEDs... not sure what the official name of that style of light is. As you can probably tell, I haven't done any light investigations since I made the decision to go to SMB lights three or four years ago.
I keep USB fans blowing on the SMB lights continuously, to keep them cool. On that Mars light you use, can you actually put your hand on the metal part (above the LEDs) without it getting warm / uncomfortable on your hand?
I know those style lights are supposed to stay cool by radiational dissipation, but do they run hot to the touch? I know you get better late dispersion with the larger H style LEDs rather than the SMBs, but I've already got enough fans going on my plants as it is now!!!! Can't imagine trying to get a fan big enough to blow across the big ass H-type fixture.
CharlesU Farley
Well-known member
After those King +'s crapped out (got tired of replacing the circuit boards) I strongly considered the DIY approach. I'm a real independent, self-reliant kind of guy but I'm a tight ass and I don't like to spend much money.
Got a brother and a nephew who are electricians, so I've gained enough knowledge from them where I wouldn't burn down the house, I don't think.
I've got arc fault outlets powering all of the lights/fans and networked smoke detectors out the yin/yang down in the basement tents, that will alarm here upstairs, since both me and Harley are getting deaf as shit. But since I'm here in the States, I was kind of reluctant to go to the Alibaba route and go full DIY. The SF boards used Meanwell drivers and Samsung LEDs... at least they said they did. So far, they've been reliable as hell but I've noticed on a couple of my shots that one of them has a couple of LEDs burned out. At least the only thing that can be replaced on those boards is the driver.
Had a maintenance guy bless me with a 250 Watt MH, and I ordered a couple of the 400 Watt Ballast
repair kits. Was gifted a group of really nice 600 Watt lights as part of the config on PPK.
Used them for years.
Was gifted with one of the Mars Hydro lights, which worked out well enough that I
bought another of the same from them. Am real pleased with their FC and FCE lines,
and would feel real good with the SP series as well.
repair kits. Was gifted a group of really nice 600 Watt lights as part of the config on PPK.
Used them for years.
Was gifted with one of the Mars Hydro lights, which worked out well enough that I
bought another of the same from them. Am real pleased with their FC and FCE lines,
and would feel real good with the SP series as well.
Last edited:
Mars FCE and SP LEDs work great. No issues with them. I have not noticed excessive heat. I have an LED that gets much hotter(BRAVIA 400W).
Building a LED light was super easy. That said I have a ton of DIY experience and am a mechanic IRL. Your skills may vary. I used Greengenes from Pacific Light Concepts boards and instructions. He made a great couple videos on the tube step by step builds with parts list and sources. Easy peasy.After those King +'s crapped out (got tired of replacing the circuit boards) I strongly considered the DIY approach. I'm a real independent, self-reliant kind of guy but I'm a tight ass and I don't like to spend much money.
Got a brother and a nephew who are electricians, so I've gained enough knowledge from them where I wouldn't burn down the house, I don't think.
The SF boards used Meanwell drivers and Samsung LEDs... at least they said they did. So far, they've been reliable as hell but I've noticed on a couple of my shots that one of them has a couple of LEDs burned out. At least the only thing that can be replaced on those boards is the driver.
I highly recommend doing it yourself. Plenty of boards and sinks out there available. Plus if anything goes wrong with it I know every part in it and how to fix/replace. I have never had 1 issue with it.
Not made in China shit...put together by a 7 year old...
You asked about heat. I can run mine at full bore(660 watts)and hold the heat sink in my hand comfortably forever...no fans at all cooling any part of the light. I built mine to put the drivers outside the room so there is not that added heat inside.
I have a entire thread dedicated to the build in the LED lighting section if you are interested.
https://www.icmag.com/threads/diy-660-watt-pacific-light-concepts-led-build.373579/
Have a sweet day. Peace, negative.
CharlesU Farley
Well-known member
Can you rest your hand directly on the top of the light fixture, where the LEDs are mounted, and be completely comfortable with the temp?
CharlesU Farley
Well-known member
Totally understand that! That's why I went with the Lumigrow rather than another G8LED, but those fuckers were expensive. California Light Works the exact same... great built lights with good technology, but expensive compared to the Chinese imports.
Now that is fucking awesome!!! Heat is always been the major failure point with LED technology, as far as I can tell. I think putting drivers for LED lights external to the SMB came about a bit after I initially purchased mine.
To show you what a fucking dinosaur I am, the massive magnetic ballast for that 1 kW HD light in the first post, I mounted that external to the closet here upstairs, situated between the floor joists, in the unfinished basement. Still got some heat infiltration, but that allowed me to keep temps in the 2x5 closet under 90.
Mars, HLG, off brand China yes, Bravia no. To be honest, the off brand China LED outperforms the HLG Diablo.. Next time I have the light down its getting swapped out for the China LED.
CharlesU Farley
Well-known member
In another forum I used to be active in, the HLG Diablo was like the Maserati of lights, several, long term participants there who pounded the table all the time. I certainly understand the high cost of building quality lights here in America, but my ass is retired now and on Social Security, so I can't drop 1.5k on a light like I used to be able to do.
The 1st light I tried growing with were regular incandescent 
If you want 1ft tall seedlings in 2/3 days they're the ticket
I left growing for a number of years when I got back into it the Internet was a thing so advice and equipment was easy af to find...Erm, yeah ok the equipment at least was easy af to find
If you want 1ft tall seedlings in 2/3 days they're the ticket
I left growing for a number of years when I got back into it the Internet was a thing so advice and equipment was easy af to find...Erm, yeah ok the equipment at least was easy af to find
Correction the LED that gets hot is BESTVAIn another forum I used to be active in, the HLG Diablo was like the Maserati of lights, several, long term participants there who pounded the table all the time. I certainly understand the high cost of building quality lights here in America, but my ass is retired now and on Social Security, so I can't drop 1.5k on a light like I used to be able to do.
I paid 250$ for their remote 850w. . It has Dimming, an internal timer, RJ45 chaining, and Remote control. It surpassed all expectations. There was another model with no remote 230$. It's over a year old now. I would have bought another but all sold out.
$229 for 800w LED.....how bad can it be?
While in search of an inexpensive led for a 4x4 tent...I found this *link removed by moderator* first thing is in description it says 800w but dig deeper and it's only 680w. Money is tight so it will definitely give the most bang for buck. Even claims samsung 301 series chips. But it's almost...
www.icmag.com
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