LED - Lets get serious

Discussion in 'DIY LED Builds' started by DXE, Mar 10, 2014.

  1. skunky

    skunky labor smoke'n lumberjack

    Yeahhhhh buddy. Sounds about right. I can do the same with 600W LED as 1000W HID easily all day long with less hassles. Yeah heat is heat and watts are watts but what people forget to take into account and why LEDs "seem" cooler is the energy. Not soo much light energy wasted spread around the area as much as drivers above the light source or separate from the light source producing heat ABOVE or completely away from the canopy not projecting down into it. Also to a lesser extent. Magnetic and digital ballast have different efficiencies. Would you grow with a mag ballast in the same room? Probably not as likely as a digi. LED takes that a step further with better ballast efficiency AND lamp/well diode efficiency.
     
  2. skunky

    skunky labor smoke'n lumberjack

    Came across these earlier. Results in the second video were interesting.


    [YOUTUBE]4Ert3fmYQlk[/YOUTUBE]


    [YOUTUBE]z9gdoTO3_kw[/YOUTUBE]
     
  3. DXE

    DXE Moderator

    Awesome to see this done at scale - Its what we have all been seeing as well - just on a much smaller scale....


    Not much else to say - to me its a no brainer but I have been all LED for a couple years now.....
     
  4. skunky

    skunky labor smoke'n lumberjack

    I was just excited to see someone with a good sized grow getting similar gram per wattage. Had others say or message me particularly on other forums saying my ~1.35g/W average was bullshit like i worked for these places trying to sell snake oil. As far as GK goes while in the near past you and I were the ones that took the plunge. Learned what we could and went from there. Most or really everyone one else was skeptical. But man some other places guy's are just straight up closed off dickheads. Unlike here where people just waited to see if we wasted a nice chunk of change. It's been cool for us to dive into this and share the knowledge on the technology and experiences growing. Then for others to come back and try other brands it's getting interesting. Got the onyx guys,couple with new rapid lights, my diy, some a51 action, some lumigrows kicking, a new advanced diamond series log and couple others. Kinda cool experimenting with new stuff and then watching others.


    There was a cool video from John Berlflo. Comparing led to hps also. But what was cool was the end of the video discussing how strains vary under light sources how some did much better under led while for some it was the opposite as far as yield goes. Waiting to see more videos with chemical analysis and comparisons. I've seen a few where led showed to have a little better cannabinoid production.Like what green genes shows here.


    [YOUTUBE]YrUDJA00soI[/YOUTUBE]
     
  5. skunky

    skunky labor smoke'n lumberjack

    Most impressive diy build i have seen.


    [YOUTUBE]jGlP8fJcgRg[/YOUTUBE]
     
  6. ResinRubber

    ResinRubber Civilly disobedient/Mod

    Thnx for digging these vids up skunky.:bravo: Haven't been posting but have watched every one.
     
  7. ducrider

    ducrider growing your mamas weed

    his second DYI build is equally impressive. after seeing first hand what the white LED's can do in both veg and flower I have to question the need for the added reds & blues. very clean work tho.


    [YOUTUBE]emIAgXxjTE0[/YOUTUBE]
     
  8. Justcheckingitout

    Justcheckingitout GK Old Timer

    On the first build, 1.83 g per watt, that light set up was bad ass!!! Couple cool things, $7 calipers from harbor freight!! Lol. So the drivers for the reds burned up. Wonder if the month with out really made much difference? Any Idea of what the total cost of the light set up was? All those leds under 300w. Way Cool.
     
  9. skunky

    skunky labor smoke'n lumberjack

    $640 for all the hardware. Cases, heatsinks, diodes and drivers. Said he spent almost another $200 on solder, wire, thermal paste, kapton tape and other misc stuff. He has a full thread for that build on rollitup I can post up.


    http://www.rollitup.org/t/growmau5s-bml-spydr-clone-a-diy-led-build.864115/


    Here is his run down on cost. It's on page 2. I mis spoke.


    How much did that whole project set you back, Growmau?


    like many projects, if I built it again, I could build it better, faster and cheaper. But here is the breakdown


    16- xml2 - $96 (Rapid LED)


    LPC 60 - $44 ($22/ea) (mouser maybe, or amazon?)


    heatsinks - $140 (heatsinkusa)


    hlg120-700 $65


    cxa3070AD (ebay $37ea, 20 lot price) $240


    alum channel $52 (online metals.com)*


    12 luxeon 3w and driver ~ $55


    component total ~$640 plus $150-200 for solder, flux, server screen, heatshrink, fans, apv12-12, wiring, screws, paint, alum polish, cob holders, thermal grease & epoxy, connectors etc.*


    its the little shit that adds up, but you buy way more than you need so you have it for the next project.
     
  10. blazerwill420

    blazerwill420 Fuck AUMA

  11. DXE

    DXE Moderator

    PAR


    Well - DIY is nice - fun for the home grow BUT if you are taking it beyond a closet and concern yourself with things like spectrum and PAR value as well as reliability - you have to ask yourself some questions....


    1) what is the PAR at various distances?


    2) What does the spectrum look like - looks like it was a pissing in the wind decision as to the different LED configurations and colors


    3) What does the heat sink temp look like?? Again - looks like it was a guess with no real engineering work to determine heat sink size and dissipation rates


    I for one see absolutely no value in adding LOW POWER color LED's. Unless you can show me a spectral output that shows me compelling reason to use this - I am very happy with using only white.


    Again - I am not knocking DIY. It just doesn't work for me - it is cool and fun but you have to keep it in perspective. You can prolly buy a crappy unit from Cali Lightworks that performs equally as well.


    Just remember when something does break - who ya gonna call..........


    There are times when you just cant wait three weeks for a part from China. I recently lost a driver and had a replacement next day - along with some spares to keep on hand - thats what you get when dealing with a reputable vendor.


    Finally (then i will shut up) :) the very nature of the beast - LED - you are going to get better gram per watt numbers than HPS. An HPS bulb produces only 15% usable photons - the rest is heat and wasted wavelength energy. An LED produces 85% usable spectrum and only 15% garbage. With this in mind, even a poorly designed LED fixture (I am not saying this example is poorly designed) will out perform a glass bulb. The trick is to MAXIMIZE the advantage LED gives you.


    D
     

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