I would like to add one thing... The future of LED lighting will be adjustable wavlengh lighting. Phillips already does this at a consumer home lighting level with HUE. The same will work for our application. Imagine plugging your light into a usb port (or wifi) and setting the spectrum to a hortilux eye or MH veg spectrum. This is doable today and I know a couple vendors working on this concept.
I have a question - kind of aimed at Skunky but anyone chime in... I have been all LED now for close to a year. I did some measurements today to see if my lumen values have decreased any over time. I can the numbers I am reading on both my newer lights and my older lights have not changed since the day I first measured - somewhere back in this thread are the original measurements. This could be due to the LED brand (cree 10w), the components used and heatsink size (Rapid LED) or the power supplies themselves. The Rapid units come with an over-sized external industrial power supply... Would love to hear what others are seeing Has anyone else checked to see if their lights are showing any degradation??
To hell with you I just burned out an HPS bulb and need to spend four hundo on bulbs NOW which is no good at Christmas :LOL: This is def one high mark for LED. HPS bulbs are expensive (relatively).
Another thing, led gave me more frostie buds and everyone says its way better stuff than last time ,,,to bad they dont know it as same strain, same clone and only difference was first one was hps bulb and second was led. Anyone knotice a difference in quality?
So far no decreased values. PAR values are still spot on for both the original xgs and rw. The CXA fixture I made has only been running for about 2 months or so. Xgs is almost a year old and rw is about 8mo. I need to update my grow. Shit has turned into a jungle in there. Lol
Nice to see your observations jibe with mine on this. With the threads regarding blown bulbs and ballasts and the YEARLY costs associated with new bulbs - well - you know where I am headed..... Come on guys - get with the program - stop spending $$ on glass bulbs that only produce 15% usable light (rest is heat), need to be replace yearly and just plain increase your operating costs!!!!! Happy Holidays asssit:
Were Back!!!!GreetingsAs most of you know, I have been having awesome results using the Rapid LED Bloom Onyx LED fixtures. Others have gotten them and are seeing similar results.One of my observations - and one experienced by others is the tight light pattern - a 2x4 table is ok with three units but the outsides suffer somewhat due to the tight light dispersion pattern.Well, Rapid has listened - new fixtures - actually a new system is on the way.The new lights come in a frame thats only 3.5 inches wide yet is supposed to provide 18 inches of coverage. The units also come in various lengths - 20 inches, 30 inches and 40 inches. Each gives about 6 inches outside the frame coverage.The units also use dual drivers, support swappable modules so you could add red in if you want, are dimmable and USE LESS CURRRENT!!!!!The lights also have the option of using different lenses - they ship with an 80 degree lense but 60 and 40 are options.The same power supply is shipped but you can easily run three units on a single supply.The current draw is 1.5 amp (120vac) for the 20 inch unit, 2.25 A on the 30 inch unit and 3A on the 40 inch unit.I dont have pricing info yet - I dont think these are officially announced for a few weeks yet.Rapid has been good enough to send me some units to evaluate and compare against the current Bloom Onyx. I should have these next week and will post pictures, light measurements, etc, etc, etc on this threadStay tuned - this is good stuff!!!!The picture below is the 30 inch unit /monthly_2015_04/IMG_5102.jpg.c7ed3dd2abc07f0c261c9b7f7556904c.jpg
Tuned in for this. I would second that the outside lacked some coverage but overall a great product. Plants seem to love the light. Still close to a month before I can make an apple to apple comp. Thanks dxe for the updates and keep them coming
I've got Lush Lighting working on something for me! Stay tuned for lots of LED stuff in the future from me, too.
DXE, any clue what LEDs they will be using? I'm guessing those current draws are total per framed unit. I know A51 is looking at realeasing some new lights too. Some Vero COBs and maybe some CREE CXB series COBS. Looks like they are taking a somewhat similar approach to the arrays as BML, innoled, and illumitex fixtures except more modular. Any idea if they will do anything similar to Kessil and it's light holder/spinner that can accomodate a certain number of modules to be central linked but like the BML/Inno/Illumitex can be adjusted for concentrating or spreading the light. If you aren't familiar with what I'm talking about. Something similar to this. Disco, Are they giving you lights or crazy good deals? Lush uses a bunch of old school tech. They use crap PCBs with zenner diodes with generic relicensed Epi mono chrome LEDs running at ~700mA. Those are just the run of the mill drop ship china lights with a different name. Unless they can provide you with real Cree or bridgelux LEDs I'd stay clear. Right now there is nothing more efficient LED wise than the COB LEDs, specifically with the higher bin LEDs(think of bins as performance/trim levels for the same model). Best most common/known/available being the Bridgelux Vero 19 and 29s, along with the CXA and CXB series CREE 3070s and 3590s. If you aren't getting these practically free I'd strongly suggest a DIY fixture. Nothing manufactured so far are able to best the DIY stuff people are making. A51, rapid, apache are all falling behind now to a degree. Apache because of old nichia chips being used, A51 and rapid because they are now starting to develop lights similar to the DIY sector. A51 and rapid are still the best bang for your buck for a out of the box LED setup unless you have one of the DIY guys build you one, though no warranty there. But all that aside if you are just wanting to do it for shits and giggles go for it. If you are wanting to do it to see what LEDs can do you'd be short changing yourself. Would be kinda like running a 250W HPS and expecting 400-600W yeilds. If that makes any sense. That is unless you got something up your sleeve which you very well could.
They'll be giving me some test lights to see how viable it is once they get the LEDs positioned correctly. I've got something up my sleeve, that no other company will be putting out. I can guarantee that one!
Sweet! Looking forward to it. Hopefully you can give them enough input and ideas, and given they are feasible and they listen to you that could help set them up as a better lighting company. They already have a good supply chain, so really looking forward to see what you and they can work out. Been wondering why for so long now why one of these companies that tries to be more prominent in the scene like Lush, Kind, Black dog doesn't take more initiative in making a name for themselves.
Good to hear. The LED market needs more companies offering top quality gear. Wish I could have been in Denver myself. Excited to see for sure!
