Economical multi LED Chip Projects for Growing

[OneHitDone]

Just found this web page on water cooling LEDs with some interesting and innovative setups, shows what you can get away with.

Water Cool High Power LED
View attachment 3789859
https://watercoolhighpowerled.wordpress.com/tag/water-cooled-led/

In a situation like this are they just using thermal adhesive to attach the individual epi led's?

 

[DIY-HP-LED]

In a situation like this are they just using thermal adhesive to attach the individual epi led's?

It's hard to tell, since there's no description with the pictures. I'd say they used thermal or some other epoxy, though I've found double sided CPU and LED rated thermal tape to be quite effective and very easy to use with water cooling.

 

[DIY-HP-LED]

Grow room air to water cooling conversion project update
Hydrostatic Testing Completed for Small Tubes

I finished up the hydrostatic testing of the 24" tubes this morning. All the tube ends were sealed with plastic filler plugs and epoxy resin, troweled level with the tube ends.


I tested both tubes to between 30 to 40 psi (estimated from gauge tube) for 5+ minutes with no leaks. Here is a picture of the gauge tube under pressure, note the level of the water in the tube. I went this high on the pressure because of my experiences with using silicone to seal the ends and the subsequent failures under pressure. I wanted to be absolutely sure about this method of sealing the tube ends and felt that pressure testing the end seals was the only way to be sure of a leak proof seal. So if you want to build something similar to this I would recommend using an epoxy adhesive.



A picture showing a tube under hydrostatic testing.


Tomorrow after cleaning up the tubes a bit, I can attach them to the lamp assembly, apply the LEDs, complete the wiring and hook up the cooling system hoses. Maybe I can get the lamp ready for first light and a bench test as well.

 

[DIY-HP-LED]

Grow room air to water cooling conversion project update
Small Water Cooled Lamp Conversion

I've completed the assembly of the lamp, next I'm going to apply more LEDs and start wiring up the DC side of things.


I used 1" sections of 1/4" ID vinyl hose to fill the space between the bolt and the tube.


Here's what it looks like on the assembled lamp.


A top view of the assembled lamp.


I had hoped to make more progress today, but a few things popped up and I'll have to see about trying to finish things up tomorrow and getting it up and running.

 

[DIY-HP-LED]

I managed to apply the LEDs this evening, all LEDs and street light arrays are attached with the CPU thermal tape show in the picture. Tomorrow I can begin to wire the DC side up and hook up the cooling system hoses.

 

[DIY-HP-LED]

Grow room air to water cooling conversion project update
Small Lamp Completed and Under Test

I completed the conversion on the air cooled light into water cooling a couple of days ago, here are a few pictures.

I had to adjust a buck converter before closing things up and hooking up the hoses.


I bench tested it for several hours and got some temperature readings with 50 liters of water in a tote.


Another view of the bench test


I added some power and extra monochrome 4 band cobs to the light, but I still have about 40 watts of slack in the 12 volt power supply, none the less it draws slightly less than 500 watts.


The bench test was successful, so time for an extended test, here's what the lamp looks like doing it's job.


Another view of the lamp in the test grow.


Today I completed a cooler for the lamp composed of a car heater core and a used air cleaner, works great. I'm still collecting data from the setup, but it seems to work well with the blower fan set to low. More on the cooling system next post. I've begun construction on the larger 60" big lamp by drilling and putting in fittings and applying 1/4" aluminum end caps with offset edges. I used JB Weld epoxy to glue them on one end of both tubes and they're standing in an upright position curing now, tomorrow I'll epoxy on the other end plugs.

Here is a picture of the cooler sitting on a shelf in front of a 100 liter tote that serves as a reservoir.


The car heater core fit perfectly sideways in the filter compartment of the air cleaner, but a couple of inches stuck out of the top,so I improvised with a sheet of plastic and some duct tape.

 

[DIY-HP-LED]

Grow room air to water cooling conversion project update
Large Water Cooled Lamp Conversion
I'm currently working on the large 60" long water cooled rig, but I've been encountering some electrical issues with the center section of the lamp. I've completed the two outside tubes and since the lamp is a modular design, I can rig it up so that they can be used independently of the center tubes. So tomorrow I'll detach the outside tubes from the center frame, then rig up temporary mounting, and thermal protection systems and put the lamp over the grow table. I've got plants ready to flower and I figure the 700 watts of light the new rig will provide should do the job for now, When the center section is complete, it can be quickly added to the assembly.

Here is a picture of the 3" x 1" x 1/4" aluminum plates I used on the tube ends. They were cut on a table saw using a carbide tipped blade, as were the offsets on the edges. I filed these pieces down to make a good fit in the ends of the tubes and used JB Weld epoxy to glue and seal them in. I successfully tested these tubes to over 50 PSI for 5 minutes using the hydrostatic method described earlier.


I used old desktop computer PSU boxes to hold the drivers for the outside bars and mounted them to the bars with bolts and 4" mending plates.


A view of an outside light bar under construction.


Here is what the assembly looked like a few days ago, I've since added the center bars, LEDs, wiring and center electrical box and components. Perhaps I'll update the photo next post.


A better view of the outer tubes and center support frame for the electrical box and center cooling tubes.

 

[DIY-HP-LED]

Grow room air to water cooling conversion project update
I Finally got the grow converted over to water cooling with the small lamp moved into the flower room along with the 60" lamp that is partially completed. I put the outside 3" bars on a temporary frame 12" apart with a thermal protection system and hung it over the grow table. This will give me a week or two to complete the center section and perhaps repair the 200 watt 12 volt power supply. When the center section is complete, I'll take an hour to bolt the outside tubes to it and hook up the cooling and thermal protection systems.

Here's a picture of the temporary arrangement with the two outside bars.

Another view of the large lamp, the outlet box mounted on the crossbar is in series with with the thermal protection system, composed of a 65C thermal fuse and a 40C thermal switch. I'll add a digital thermostat to shut down the complete system as another layer of protection, when I finish the build

Here is the small lamp in it's niche, it runs off of the same cooling system as the large lamp.

Here is a photo of the cooling system composed of a used 55 gallon plastic barrel and the cooler I made from the air cleaner and heater core. I have the 1/2" hoses from the lamps going into "T"s with 2 x 1/2" outlets and 1 x 3/4 " outlet. I have 3/4" ID hose coming from the pump to the inlet "T" and another "T" with a 3/4" ID hose going into the cooler, with another 3/4" ID hose from the cooler to the reservoir. The 24 watt centrifugal pump is in the bottom of the reservoir and is connected to the "T" at the top of the barrel with 4' of 3/4 " ID vinyl hose. The pump moves 9 liters a minute through the system and the lamps each have about 10' of inlet and outlet hoses leading to the "T"s located on top of the reservoir.


I made sure the table for the reservoir is strong and sturdy, since it has to support about a 500 pounds of static load.


I'm using about 60 US gallons in the reservoir, the 55 gallon mark is well below the water level, I figure there's about 230 liters in the system. You can get used barrels like these from a dairy or other industrial places for around $20 or even free.

 

[Godfather420]

I'm currently working a water cooled light and thank you so much for volunteering all the time it took to document this. I'm sure some would complain about your building style, but maybe then they didn't read that you live in the middle of nowhere on a retried income. Totally impressed with the level of creativity you possess. When I get my shit together and compile my photos, I'll post a link to your page. Heres a picture of my new water-cooled base. Once I get more time, I'll get my own thread going.... Working three jobs right now...

 

[Jaybodankly]

Read your entire thread. Excellent work. I am looking to make my own. What kind of cobs would you recommend and on what spacing?

 

[mahiluana]

Grow room air to water cooling conversion project update
I Finally got the grow converted over to water cooling with the small lamp moved into the flower room along with the 60" lamp that is partially completed. I put the outside 3" bars on a temporary frame 12" apart with a thermal protection system and hung it over the grow table. This will give me a week or two to complete the center section and perhaps repair the 200 watt 12 volt power supply. When the center section is complete, I'll take an hour to bolt the outside tubes to it and hook up the cooling and thermal protection systems.

Here's a picture of the temporary arrangement with the two outside bars.
View attachment 3818598
Another view of the large lamp, the outlet box mounted on the crossbar is in series with with the thermal protection system, composed of a 65C thermal fuse and a 40C thermal switch. I'll add a digital thermostat to shut down the complete system as another layer of protection, when I finish the build
View attachment 3818600
Here is the small lamp in it's niche, it runs off of the same cooling system as the large lamp.
View attachment 3818603
Here is a photo of the cooling system composed of a used 55 gallon plastic barrel and the cooler I made from the air cleaner and heater core. I have the 1/2" hoses from the lamps going into "T"s with 2 x 1/2" outlets and 1 x 3/4 " outlet. I have 3/4" ID hose coming from the pump to the inlet "T" and another "T" with a 3/4" ID hose going into the cooler, with another 3/4" ID hose from the cooler to the reservoir. The 24 watt centrifugal pump is in the bottom of the reservoir and is connected to the "T" at the top of the barrel with 4' of 3/4 " ID vinyl hose. The pump moves 9 liters a minute through the system and the lamps each have about 10' of inlet and outlet hoses leading to the "T"s located on top of the reservoir.
View attachment 3818606

I made sure the table for the reservoir is strong and sturdy, since it has to support about a 500 pounds of static load.
View attachment 3818609

I'm using about 60 US gallons in the reservoir, the 55 gallon mark is well below the water level, I figure there's about 230 liters in the system. You can get used barrels like these from a dairy or other industrial places for around $20 or even free.
View attachment 3818612

Hi brother just bought a very similar thing with 50w cob chinise pink
and I wanna ask you if you ever tried mixtures of cold-warm- and pink china-leds.
The pink must be around 1600-2000K they say but there are no PPFD values - so do you have any information about PPFD of these chinise full specs 380-780nm ?

And shouldn`t you open up a public pool with all the hot water produced every day ?
And a pully-warm coffee-shop with wintergarden and direct acess to the base ??

My watercooled is only 10% power of yours - but I can heat my bathtube every day i grow.
I copied some specifics from the shop- hope it is interesting for you.
to get more inspiration.



*** World first *** High-efficiency LED Plantgrow Aquarium Industrial Light

- Take advantage of the waste heat from your LED-Lighting for production of hot water.

- Ideal for greenhouses, larger aquariums, industry and always where hugh demand for light and heat join the same place.

~ 50-60% of the electrical energye can be used, recovered and stored in form of hot water.

In case of COOLMAC-300 - a total consumption of 290 watts lamp power

enables to rewinn 160 Watt stored as waste heat in the cooling water.

Operating the chips at temperatures just a bit above the room temperature means further efficiency gains of 5-15%

Different power levels (200-1200 watts) - The ability to select the desired spectrum of

10W, 30W or 50W chips offers endless combinations to customize the kit.

Design your own individual LED light with your own sizes. Length: 50cm - 150cm

Width: 10cm - 100cm

Height: 4cm - 10cm

With optical lenses or without - this LED lamp is endless - in terms of individuality.
The kit comes completely mounted but without connected drivers.
Buyer has to solder the chips and connect the drivers to the cable.
After all connections are done - the lamp has to be filled with water
and can get started.
Caution !!! Aluminium tends to be regarded as poisoning.
Don´t drink the cooling water and don`t use it for your plants.
It`s recommended to put anticorrosion in the watercircuit. (for aluminium coolers)
The best efficency in solution is to cool the circuit-water with aluminium-radiators.
Hanging them into cool ground-water that later needs less suplemental energy
for to be used by plants and human beings .


The pictured below shows Coolmac-300 with a price of EURO 300, - and has the following specifications and components:.



Size: 50 x 33 x 4.5cm

Reliable performance: 290 Watt

Heat / power: ~ 160W / corresponds to the heating of 80L water from 16 ° to 36 °

within 11.6 hours. Or with daily use of 12 hrs. a power output of 701 KWh annually.

Chip: 6 x 50 Watt Full Spectrum Chip 380nm-740nm / 33V @ 1.5A

Driver KSQ: 6 x 50 Watt 1,5A @ 20-39V / IP 66 / PF 97%

6 x optical lens 80-90 ° with reflector and retaining ring

Other materials: aluminum sheets and square tubes, 4 x hose-fitting, 6m hose 12mm,

3 steps underwater pump 2.3 watts, stainless steel screws

brand: lumen-laden

http://www.lumen-laden.de/products/coolmac-300-w-wunschspektrum-wassergekuhlte-led-lampe-6-x-50w-cob/

 

[MMJ Dreaming 99]

LOL! Awesome thread. The OP has mad skills. Great water cooled setups

 

[GreenSanta]

for the record, I grow organically in big pots and I keep my lights way way way farther from the top of the plants than you do. You might want to try. Nice work building the lights and stuff.

 

[DIY-HP-LED]

Read your entire thread. Excellent work. I am looking to make my own. What kind of cobs would you recommend and on what spacing?

Thanks for the interest. I'd recommend spacing COBs about 10" apart and I wouldn't buy the cheap Chinese flood light type like those I've used in this thread. Instead I'm going to convert the cob's over to Citizen COBs, here is a really good price on what are called, "Cree killers". See the other items the seller has for holders, reflectors and drivers. You could also drive three of these off of one 3.5 amp Chinese driver in parallel at close to the recommended 1050 ma, if your using a water cooled fixture you could run a pair of them at 1500+ ma with no problem. When run at 1050 ma they claim an efficiency in the high forties as opposed to the cheap flood light 100 watt LEDs that generally run in the mid 20% range.

 

[Jaybodankly]

Thanks for the interest. I'd recommend spacing COBs about 10" apart and I wouldn't buy the cheap Chinese flood light type like those I've used in this thread. Instead I'm going to convert the cob's over to Citizen COBs, here is a really good price on what are called, "Cree killers". See the other items the seller has for holders, reflectors and drivers. You could also drive three of these off of one 3.5 amp Chinese driver in parallel at close to the recommended 1050 ma, if your using a water cooled fixture you could run a pair of them at 1500+ ma with no problem. When run at 1050 ma they claim an efficiency in the high forties as opposed to the cheap flood light 100 watt LEDs that generally run in the mid 20% range.

 

[Jaybodankly]

Should have waited for your comments but

I got on a roll and built a unit using cheap Chinese 100W chips. I was not not impressed with the chips but the water block is cool, dry and silent.

 

[DIY-HP-LED]

for the record, I grow organically in big pots and I keep my lights way way way farther from the top of the plants than you do. You might want to try. Nice work building the lights and stuff.

Thanks for dropping by, I've been busy with life etc. I use a LUX meter with white LEDs and shoot for 50K to 80K LUX in (in hot spots), when I convert to better COBs I figure I can increase the distance. Also I'm starting to use monochrome red and blue LEDs to supplement the spectrum and power of the white COBs so I'll have to make adjustments.

You can grow organically in coco coir, there are several threads and YouTube videos on the subject. I get great results using air pruning as well and make my own pots from weed barrier cloth and milk cartons or laundry baskets. The combined effect of coco coir media and air pruning make a huge difference in plant size and yield, provided you have enough light.

 

[DIY-HP-LED]

View attachment 3857511 Should have waited for your comments but

I got on a roll and built a unit using cheap Chinese 100W chips. I was not not impressed with the chips but the water block is cool, dry and silent.

Nice build! A couple of things I noticed: I put the fittings in the tubes, not the ends to avoid stressing the adhesive joints on the end caps (unless you weld them) when handling the light bar etc. I would recommend a thinner rectangular tube, but yours will work just fine, it's the flow rate that counts the most. I can't see what drivers your using, looks like your driving the COBs at 50 watts, which is good, if your using 100 watt drivers, I recommend you use two COBs in parallel for each driver. It looks like your using kapton tape to hold on the COBs, how's it working?

 

[Jaybodankly]

The end caps are much beefier than the heatblock. I got 3/8"x2"x3" stock for the ends. Used a drillpress with a forstner bit to make a hole for the aluminum tube. I used a low-temp aluminum solder for that connection. To join the end cap I wound up using a two part metal epoxy from auto parts store. Map gas torch could not heat the metal hot enough to melt solder. I offset the holes toward the top. If I spring a leak all the water can't drain out of the tube unless it boils away.
They are hooked up one driver one cob. I will re-purpose these cobs with some heatsinks outside my growroom. I have been calling it Crapton tape. It works well holding cobs but sucks but getting it off the roll without it running off sideways. Maybe it was an old roll. I had a shitty solder iron so it was hard to make good connections. Two came off while I was wiring it so I taped them in place for testing. lol Shit I even taped the grounding terminals. Call me lame. It's cool.
Got a nice dual Weller the next day and fixed the connections. Temps stabilized 50F in. 55F out. That is in a 3gal pot + water in the loop+ 550gal/per hour pump. I like the garden hose. It is cheap, durable and I can easily add on to it. They also have quick disconnects for garden hoses. So you can take it out of the loop without draining the pipes.
Recently, got legal in MA putting in a 8x10 in the basement 6 plants. I have a ceiling height of 6'-6". LED/CMH seem like the best option to me.

 

[DIY-HP-LED]

The end caps are much beefier than the heatblock. I got 3/8"x2"x3" stock for the ends. Used a drillpress with a forstner bit to make a hole for the aluminum tube. I used a low-temp aluminum solder for that connection. To join the end cap I wound up using a two part metal epoxy from auto parts store. Map gas torch could not heat the metal hot enough to melt solder. I offset the holes toward the top. If I spring a leak all the water can't drain out of the tube unless it boils away.
They are hooked up one driver one cob. I will re-purpose these cobs with some heatsinks outside my growroom. I have been calling it Crapton tape. It works well holding cobs but sucks but getting it off the roll without it running off sideways. Maybe it was an old roll. I had a shitty solder iron so it was hard to make good connections. Two came off while I was wiring it so I taped them in place for testing. lol Shit I even taped the grounding terminals. Call me lame. It's cool.
Got a nice dual Weller the next day and fixed the connections. Temps stabilized 50F in. 55F out. That is in a 3gal pot + water in the loop+ 550gal/per hour pump. I like the garden hose. It is cheap, durable and I can easily add on to it. They also have quick disconnects for garden hoses. So you can take it out of the loop without draining the pipes.
Recently, got legal in MA putting in a 8x10 in the basement 6 plants. I have a ceiling height of 6'-6". LED/CMH seem like the best option to me.

A very good job on the end caps, looks first rate. I had similar experiences with aluminum soldering, the stuff is just too good at conducting away heat! I've had good results using double sided CPU adhesive tape to hold on the cheap Chinese COBs, though when I convert over to better COBs I'll use a good thermal paste on the COB and epoxy down the COB holder to the cooling block with a little weight on it until it sets. Garden hose works very well for this application better and cheaper than clear vinyl hose, and it fits 1/2" barbed fittings perfectly.

Glad to hear you'll be legal in MA, but with Donald and crew, ya never know! Keep a low profile for now. It looks like we'll have plant limits up this way too, so... If ya can only grow 6 total, say 2 in flower at any time, then ya gotta grow em big and that means hydro or coco coir with air pruning and enough media volume, long veg periods and of course lot's of light during veg and flowering. You can grow monsters indoors with LEDs and illuminate plants from more angles than just the top. If you have your temps, airflow and humidity nailed and lot's of powerful penetrating light on the plants, you should get results, provided you've got the genetics to start with. I regularly get 1/2 lb+ per plant and I know I can do much better when I finally get things rolling. I spread and flatten the plants by pruning and training them on a grid to spread the plant out. I can usually train the main branches out to the outside light bars and let the center bar fill in the middle of the grid. I use the grid to spread out the plant, not to weave the branches in and I lollipop all the lower branches and leaves to put the growth up top. With plant limits, you'll want to maximize the yield of each plant and with water cooled COBs you'll be able to do that in a small space, without over heating or moving a ton of air.

If anybody can do CO2 supplementation in a grow, then it has to be those using water cooled COBs. If you do it right, extra CO2 can give a 20 to 30% boost in yield and this can be accomplished cheaply in a small grow with an alcohol lamp burning methanol and a cheap CO2 monitor. With plant limits, maximum yield per plant is the rule, not efficiency, though that's nice too. Exceeding outdoor conditions in a grow is now within economical reach and better than out door results, indoors are now possible (at least in our latitudes!).