Buddies, side-light and under-canopy LEDs

Airwalker16

Well-Known Member
Hi Airwalker, can you show us the lights you are talking about please? Again, we are always interested in flexible, water-proof, low-cost lights in plant-friendly colours. We are especially interested in anything high CRI. Also, Buddies will retail for about US$1 per LED (US$20 per string), so will your lights be able to compete with that? Thanks.
Strips.... F series... HinFlux.. EBGen2&3 .... Lots of lens covers for them.

 
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PadawanWarrior

Well-Known Member
Yes, Far Red and near UV will be coming. Prawn mentioned 6500K and I understand there will be other white phosphors available in different temperatures, but the PC Reds, near UV, Far Reds and CRI95 4000K are the ones that should interest growers the most.

We may be getting a limited number of these in the next couple of weeks that will go up online, but unfortunately no-one seems to know what will happen after that. I'm not even sure which colours we will be getting (we'll definitely be getting some 4000K and PC Red) or when there will be a reliable supply. As we all know, we live in interesting times. :?
Those look pretty sweet. Let me know when you have them in stock again. I'm on board with those, lol.
 

end_of_the_tunnel

Well-Known Member
I know he's working on a FAR RED version and I think that as a product would be very useful as an add for people at a pretty low entry price
cheers
Mark
But doesn't his PC RED already offer nice enough bleed through of far red.
Maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way. but in a smaller format of 3030/2835 it could be a very nice proposition. The PC Red.
 

Gardenator

Well-Known Member
I got these off LED Teknik a while ago. They are strings of 20x 0.72W fully enclosed LEDs with diffusers. Teknik calls them "Buddies" and I've got 4000K and phosphor-coated red. Each string is about 15W, so I have a 60W Osram driver driving four strings of Buddies which are simply stuck to the inside of my 4x2 tent using the included 3M adhesive patches on the LED housings.

Here they are with a couple of new Hazes in some coco pots.

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What are you trying to achieve with the leds stuck on the side of the tent? Added specificity in a certain spectrum? Adding light under the canopy? They look pretty cool on the tent lol and im interested in the gains you see from running them or dont see
 

Airwalker16

Well-Known Member
What are you trying to achieve with the leds stuck on the side of the tent? Added specificity in a certain spectrum? Adding light under the canopy? They look pretty cool on the tent lol and im interested in the gains you see from running them or dont see
I think it's almost entirely focused on getting photons into the lower canopy that is usually always robbed of light from being under so much foliage.
 

Gardenator

Well-Known Member
I think it's almost entirely focused on getting photons into the lower canopy that is usually always robbed of light from being under so much foliage.
Makes sense, just never really saw the point of these lights like this when you could use more powerful strips (in any spectrum you want) around your tent in the same manner... doing a little looking around and there are many different strips decently priced (not amazon) made for this type of application, i personally havent looked into doing this at all but when i saw the thread it gives me a thought that i have had in the past to added lighting with led strips in my room vertically hung on the walls around the plant, now i might have to try this out :)
 

Grow Lights Australia

Well-Known Member
Strips.... F series... HinFlux.. EBGen2&3 .... Lots of lens covers for them.

Yes, I think we all know about strips and lenses, but they are not exactly the same form factor as Buddies, are they? They don't come in the same colours (targeted PAR range), they can't be cut, they're not flexible, they're not self-adhesive, and you need to do a bit of work with them – even if you have lenses – to make them waterproof. And what about the price?

I'll tell you what else you can do with Buddies that you can't do with strips: run them over in a car! 61Falcon, on another forum, ran over them in his 4x4! They are tough!
 
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Gardenator

Well-Known Member
Yes, I think we all know about strips and lenses, but they are not exactly the same form factor as Buddies, are they? They don't come in the same colours (targeted PAR range), they can't be cut, they're not flexible, they're not self-adhesive, and you need to do a bit of work with them – even if you have lenses – to make them waterproof. And what about the price?

I'll tell you what else you do with Buddies that you can't do with strips: run them over in a car!

61Falcon, on another forum, ran them over with this! They are tough!

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Well the "Buddies" are really cool, waterproof, easy, and cheap and tough lol... I think they are cool and i might use them if i didnt enjoy DIY'ing so much and making use of the more powerful strips, but certainly as supplimental under canopy and side of canopy lighting these things look solid and are very low power- in the end basically everything they say they are and not meant to be a significant source of lighting as to where the strips could be but as well they could be over powering used in this same application and burn your plants in a tent... on a side note i dont believe the strips could get run over but my hope is my grow tent in never run over by a truck lol
 

Grow Lights Australia

Well-Known Member
As far as I read, availability will be open to all. Whats going on here?
TEKNIK has a limited number of pre-production run Buddies that he's offered to us to put up on our website. Once they are sold out no-one knows with certainty when the full production run will be available because of what's happening in China and around the world. In the mean time if anyone on RIU is interested we're happy to sell to them before they go up online. TEKNIK just wants to get them into the hands of growers so he can see what people do with them and how they perform.
 

Prawn Connery

Well-Known Member
Are you guys serious?
Cob string lights = GameChanger?.
Storefront string lights beefed up .
Sounds like a good idea to have come out with 3-5 yrs ago.
Strips replace those nowadays.
I feel he should work on something used for similiar applications by using today's lego-strip lighting. You can cut these things anywhere from 2" - whatever size you want, has quick connect wire attachments, along with every kind of attachment or corner bracket you can think of.
HE & probably a shit ton less money.
Spray with silicone or whatever sealant n call it a day. Even have strips like cobs that have no diodes you can see. Just a strip of uninterrupted light.
Come on mate, WTF are you smoking? How are you going to replace these with strips? I've got nothing against side-canopy strip lighting etc, but you haven't really thought this out, have you? You can't grow plants into strips – they will burn the fuck out of your plants. And I would love to know how you will make them waterproof and fire-resistant for putting them under the canopy where dead leaves and other shit will fall on them. And how are you going to make them flexible? And show me a strip that's as tough as that photo @Grow Lights Australia just posted.

As for cost, show me the money!!!

But in all seriousness, if you thought TEKNIK hated you before, well he's gunna go apoplectic when he reads this shit ^

o_O
 

Prawn Connery

Well-Known Member
But doesn't his PC RED already offer nice enough bleed through of far red.
Maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way. but in a smaller format of 3030/2835 it could be a very nice proposition. The PC Red.
It's all about the ratios. The PC Reds include Far Red, but most other LEDs don't – or at least they have a very low Far Red to Red ratio (actually, when we talk about R:FR ratios it's usually the other way around – most LEDs have a very high Red: Far Red ratio). Also, some growers are running Far Reds as initiators, leaving them running for 15 mins or so after lights-out and priming them 15 mins before lights-on to speed up flowering. So there is a market for a Far Red product that can be run independently of other LEDs in the grow room.
 

Prawn Connery

Well-Known Member
What are you trying to achieve with the leds stuck on the side of the tent? Added specificity in a certain spectrum? Adding light under the canopy? They look pretty cool on the tent lol and im interested in the gains you see from running them or dont see
In my tent I've got about as much light as I can use at the top canopy level, so there was really only room to improve yields by introducing side and under-canopy lighting. I decided to blend the 4000K and PC Reds because they are a nice combined spectrum. I also saw another grow on another forum (incidentally it was 61falcon) that showed the PC Reds actually slow stretch a bit due to the very high Red: Far Red ratio. I wondered how that would work with some of the taller, stretchier sativas I grow.

But really, I'm just curious to see what happens. I've added about 15% more light to the tent now, so theoretically I should see a bump in yields. I should also see a bit of improvement at the lower canopy level which is usually fluffy buds. I was hoping to clean up the larf as I run a pretty dense tent. Which is to say, I usually squeeze a lot of plants in a small space.

I'm not sure how many we're getting yet but if @Prawn Connery is happy for me to post in his thread I'll offer them here first. If there are any leftovers they will go up online.
Yes mate, post whatever you want in here.

If anyone else wants to post up their Buddies grows or even something similar, like strip side-lighting or under-canopy lighting, I'm all for it. We're all here to learn.
 

PadawanWarrior

Well-Known Member
I'm not sure how many we're getting yet but if @Prawn Connery is happy for me to post in his thread I'll offer them here first. If there are any leftovers they will go up online.
Thanks.

Come on mate, WTF are you smoking? How are you going to replace these with strips? I've got nothing against side-canopy strip lighting etc, but you haven't really thought this out, have you? You can't grow plants into strips – they will burn the fuck out of your plants. And I would love to know how you will make them waterproof and fire-resistant for putting them under the canopy where dead leaves and other shit will fall on them. And how are you going to make them flexible? And show me a strip that's as tough as that photo @Grow Lights Australia just posted.

As for cost, show me the money!!!

But in all seriousness, if you thought TEKNIK hated you before, well he's gunna go apoplectic when he reads this shit ^

o_O
Love your post Prawn. I'm definitely gonna follow along. Really interesting thread.

I hope you don't take offense to this, but I thought it was funny. And in my defense, I am a stoner Prawn, lol.
IMG_3989.JPG
 

Gardenator

Well-Known Member
In my tent I've got about as much light as I can use at the top canopy level, so there was really only room to improve yields by introducing side and under-canopy lighting. I decided to blend the 4000K and PC Reds because they are a nice combined spectrum. I also saw another grow on another forum (incidentally it was 61falcon) that showed the PC Reds actually slow stretch a bit due to the very high Red: Far Red ratio. I wondered how that would work with some of the taller, stretchier sativas I grow.

But really, I'm just curious to see what happens. I've added about 15% more light to the tent now, so theoretically I should see a bump in yields. I should also see a bit of improvement at the lower canopy level which is usually fluffy buds. I was hoping to clean up the larf as I run a pretty dense tent. Which is to say, I usually squeeze a lot of plants in a small space.


Yes mate, post whatever you want in here.

If anyone else wants to post up their Buddies grows or even something similar, like strip side-lighting or under-canopy lighting, I'm all for it. We're all here to learn.
Let us know how it beefs up the larfy stuff underneath, if it brings A or B quality bud underneath that would be cool
 

Prawn Connery

Well-Known Member
Let us know how it beefs up the larfy stuff underneath, if it brings A or B quality bud underneath that would be cool
I'm already seeing evidence of it. There's quite a bit of light in the lower canopy now where there wasn't any before, and it has had an obvious effect. I don't expect these Buddies to be as efficient as the High Lights I'm using, but they're not designed to be the most efficient LEDs on the planet: they're designed to be rugged, waterproof, flexible lighting that can be mounted almost anywhere you need a bit of light. And I love the fact they come in different spectra. In fact, if I could use only one colour I would probably choose the CRI95 4000K.

I'll also be interested to see how these go as cloning lights now that the weather's a bit cooler. I probably need to halve the number of buddies from 20 to 10(cut the string in half) to reduce some of the heat in the clone box .
 
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