F-series strips, side lighting build.

[J232]

Alright, I been dicking around collecting materials and info, here’s what I cooked up. 4 x 5 strip racks on 4 drivers, 20 strips total.

Cost, $2 a strip, $12 a driver, $75 in materials. SI-B8T521560WW 4K strips, delta LNE-48V150WAAA drivers.

Built one for now, need to assemble the other 3, haven’t checked the amps, running at 45 volts on my first rack built. Will grab a watt meter on my next amazon order. I shit canned any connectors and went with center splice and solder, heat shrink. Used abrasion tape to secure the wiring. XT-60 connectors to plug in each rack.

32” tall, 23” wide, 1” thick, can unbolt individual strips if I find or decide to change in some 3k 3500s.. can also bolt all racks together to make a overhead fixture, these racks will also swing up and peg the wall to go over head... all 4 fixtures move up the wall independently.. here’s some pics. Will update the thread when all 4 are lit up.

Simple frame, 1.5” flatbar, 1.5” x 3/4” U chan.



Countersunk screws, taped strips on.



Wired up and testing.



Can see the rope for the back side light, each plant will have one. Paired with my 1700w of de and se hids overhead. Don’t mind the mess, I’m upside down with “improvements”. Cracking beans very soon...

 

[PadawanWarrior]

Alright, I been dicking around collecting materials and info, here’s what I cooked up. 4 x 5 strip racks on 4 drivers, 20 strips total.

Cost, $2 a strip, $12 a driver, $75 in materials. SI-B8T521560WW 4K strips, delta LNE-48V150WAAA drivers.

Built one for now, need to assemble the other 3, haven’t checked the amps, running at 45 volts on my first rack built. Will grab a watt meter on my next amazon order. I shit canned any connectors and went with center splice and solder, heat shrink. Used abrasion tape to secure the wiring. XT-60 connectors to plug in each rack.

32” tall, 23” wide, 1” thick, can unbolt individual strips if I find or decide to change in some 3k 3500s.. can also bolt all racks together to make a overhead fixture, these racks will also swing up and peg the wall to go over head... all 4 fixtures move up the wall independently.. here’s some pics. Will update the thread when all 4 are lit up.

Simple frame, 1.5” flatbar, 1.5” x 3/4” U chan.

View attachment 4725342

Countersunk screws, taped strips on.

View attachment 4725343

Wired up and testing.

View attachment 4725345View attachment 4725346

Can see the rope for the back side light, each plant will have one. Paired with my 1700w of de and se hids overhead. Don’t mind the mess, I’m upside down with “improvements”. Cracking beans very soon...

View attachment 4725347

Nice. Where'd you buy the aluminum?

 

[Moflow]

Nice clean build.
That's a powerful light you have there @J232
How far away from the sides of plants will your lights be?

For curiosity I threw together 4 of the strips with no heatsinks on a temporary wire frame with a cheapo Chinese driver to see how much light they produce.
The light size was 11" × 22" - 280mm x 560mm.
56.6 watts over the 4 x strips or ~ 14 watts per strip.
Quite a lot of photons.
Warmest temperature at back of bare strips was 31.9°C - 89°F Cool to touch.
I took some PAR readings with Apogee PAR meter and was surprised at how powerful it was.
Centre PAR reading of fixture
At 12" - 300mm away - 400 umols/s/m2
At 8" - 200mm away - 600 umols
At 6" - 150mm away - 750 umols
At 4" - 100mm away - 845 umols

 

[J232]

Nice. Where'd you buy the aluminum?

Thank you, grabbed the alloy from a local hardware store, looks like I will need more flat bar yet.

Nice clean build.
That's a powerful light you have there @J232
How far away from the sides of plants will your lights be?

For curiosity I threw together 4 of the strips with no heatsinks on a temporary wire frame with a cheapo Chinese driver to see how much light they produce.
The light size was 11" × 22" - 280mm x 560mm.
56.6 watts over the 4 x strips or ~ 14 watts per strip.
Quite a lot of photons.
Warmest temperature at back of bare strips was 31.9°C - 89°F Cool to touch.
I took some PAR readings with Apogee PAR meter and was surprised at how powerful it was.
Centre PAR reading of fixture
At 12" - 300mm away - 400 umols/s/m2
At 8" - 200mm away - 600 umols
At 6" - 150mm away - 750 umols
At 4" - 100mm away - 845 umols
View attachment 4725522

Thanks moflow, yeah I figured they might be a bit strong, they will be 12” or less. Think the driver is rated for 3.2 amps so I was shooting for 50% of nominal. Will have to measure it yet but full output should be around 650mA. My temp gun needs a battery but I ran the one rack for a couple hours and I would guess it’s in the 30s for temps. Will play around with the trim this week. Also ordered some led glasses, things are intense pointing off the wall

 

[PadawanWarrior]

Thank you, grabbed the alloy from a local hardware store, looks like I will need more flat bar yet.



Thanks moflow, yeah I figured they might be a bit strong, they will be 12” or less. Think the driver is rated for 3.2 amps so I was shooting for 50% of nominal. Will have to measure it yet but full output should be around 650mA. My temp gun needs a battery but I ran the one rack for a couple hours and I would guess it’s in the 30s for temps. Will play around with the trim this week. Also ordered some led glasses, things are intense pointing off the wall

How big's your tent?

 

[J232]

Whipped up this harness to plug inline with the racks for easy voltage and current adjustment, all my connections are sealed so thought it was a good idea.

 

[J232]

How big's your tent?

6 x 7 x 9.5, it’s a room. Will prob keep the canopy 5.5x5.5.

 

[PadawanWarrior]

6 x 7 x 9.5, it’s a room. Will prob keep the canopy 5.5x5.5.

Well get busy. I wanna see it all setup, lol.

 

[J232]

Well get busy. I wanna see it all setup, lol.

Shit man, me too, this was going to be a quick turn around and it’s been 2 months lol. Biggest thing was changing the room over to sealed. It’s close now, will dry run this week and make sure I can control temps.

 

[J232]

Right on the money, drivers rated for 48 volts, 3.2 amps. I didn’t touch the pots and this is what it is out of the box. Strips are rated for 46 volts @ 1.2 amps nominal. Have not checked the other drivers. My test harness works perfect as well. I accounted for about .1 volt drop per connection, I’m not going to bother measuring the voltage drop. 640mA per strip. I have no light meter, just the phone apps.

 

[J232]

So with that being said, avg 140 watts per rack. 560 watts of side lighting should do

 

[Jeffislovinlife]

Very nice I'll be hanging out to watch you work if the lights are any indication of your work this should be fun as always thank you for your time and the best of luck

 

[J232]

Very nice I'll be hanging out to watch you work if the lights are any indication of your work this should be fun as always thank you for your time and the best of luck

Thanks jeff, I’m watching for your demo grow as well. I’m itching to get this show on the road!

 

[NukaKola]

Shit man, me too, this was going to be a quick turn around and it’s been 2 months lol. Biggest thing was changing the room over to sealed. It’s close now, will dry run this week and make sure I can control temps.

Going to get a journal going? Would love to follow along

 

[J232]

Going to get a journal going? Would love to follow along

For sure, will be glad to have you along, thanks for checking it out!

 

[calvin.m16]

You're going to want to place the plants two or three times further away from the wall than normal. Thank me later.

Any chance you have a infared thermometer you could test your LST (Leaf Surface Temp) with? I'd be interested to see how side lighting effects this. Normally my lower canopy gets a bit chilly especially in the Winter in Michigan. I was thinking about doing some LED bars along my walls, the kind that click together and see how that works... lol

 

[J232]

You're going to want to place the plants two or three times further away from the wall than normal. Thank me later.

Any chance you have a infared thermometer you could test your LST (Leaf Surface Temp) with? I'd be interested to see how side lighting effects this.

I’m anticipating having to dim, plants are usually touching the walls, going to wing that part. I do have a IR thermometer but my main lamp is a 1k de so it won’t really be accurate. Nothing on the go just yet either.

 

[calvin.m16]

I’m anticipating having to dim, plants are usually touching the walls, going to wing that part. I do have a IR thermometer but my main lamp is a 1k de so it won’t really be accurate. Nothing on the go just yet either.

I'll stay in the queue hopefully we see some epic results.

 

[J232]

I'll stay in the queue hopefully we see some epic results.

Thanks man, my expectations are high, stay tuned!

 

[Yesyes3000]

Could I get some help with fishing a driver and wiring some of these same strips please???? They are the F series Gen 3 I have 12 of them and I attached the picture of the strips. Here is the link https://www.arrow.com/en/products/si-b8t521560ww/samsung-electronics?q=SI-B8T521560WW. Thank you