Is it possible to take apart a UFO grow light and rebuild in a custom shape?

[valuablevariable]

I would like to do some experimenting with LEDs in small spaces. 90w UFOs are rather cheap, but the light is too focused and I would rather have them spread out more for an area with less hight. Should it be possible to take a UFO apart and use the components to make a customized LED light? Besides it being a bit of work, what are the problems I would be facing doing this?

 

[RetiredMatthebrute]

as far as i know LED's are just small light diodes wired in series.....you would have to take the LED's off the circuit board and create your own board....

im sure with the right equipment you could do it....

might be cheaper to just go to radio shack and get some supplies there to just build your own custom LED panel. they sell most evrything you will need.

 

[Bumping Spheda]

The LED driver will be for all the lights. Every LED has to be within wiring distance otherwise you have to buy new LED drivers and at that point (especially at that point, I should say) it doesn't make much sense. Not to mention you'll probably be paying a premium for a completely built unit only to tear it apart, desolder all the LED's, risk heat damage in this process (low, but the chance is there if you don't know what you're doing), rewire everything, thermally couple the LED's individually to a heatsink, etc. and not even get "premium" LED's in the process. I'd highly recommend building the entire thing(s) yourself. It's really not that hard!

Have you seen this?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/10W-Red-Blue-8-1-HIGH-POWER-LED-for-Plant-Grow-Growth-lights-660nm-450nm-DIY-/271104667863?pt=US_Lighting_Parts_and_Accessories&var=&hash=item3f1f18f0d7
You have the option to purchase virtually everything you need to make it work for $26 shipped. That's more than I want to spend for 10W, but if you bought multiple sets the guy might give you a deal on pricing as well as shipping, you never know. Also, that 90W UFO isn't 90W at the plug, I'm guessing 45-60 true watts. So, if you bought five sets you'd probably end up with a similar amount of light. Before discount that's $130, and we're already not doing too bad. If he was willing to cut you a deal would you really still be thinking about that 90W'er plus all that work/added expenses to get it to work?

And, hey, good luck no matter what you do.

 

[valuablevariable]

The LED driver will be for all the lights. Every LED has to be within wiring distance otherwise you have to buy new LED drivers and at that point (especially at that point, I should say) it doesn't make much sense. Not to mention you'll probably be paying a premium for a completely built unit only to tear it apart, desolder all the LED's, risk heat damage in this process (low, but the chance is there if you don't know what you're doing), rewire everything, thermally couple the LED's individually to a heatsink, etc. and not even get "premium" LED's in the process. I'd highly recommend building the entire thing(s) yourself. It's really not that hard!

Have you seen this?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/10W-Red-Blue-8-1-HIGH-POWER-LED-for-Plant-Grow-Growth-lights-660nm-450nm-DIY-/271104667863?pt=US_Lighting_Parts_and_Accessories&var=&hash=item3f1f18f0d7
You have the option to purchase virtually everything you need to make it work for $26 shipped. That's more than I want to spend for 10W, but if you bought multiple sets the guy might give you a deal on pricing as well as shipping, you never know. Also, that 90W UFO isn't 90W at the plug, I'm guessing 45-60 true watts. So, if you bought five sets you'd probably end up with a similar amount of light. Before discount that's $130, and we're already not doing too bad. If he was willing to cut you a deal would you really still be thinking about that 90W'er plus all that work/added expenses to get it to work?

And, hey, good luck no matter what you do.

Hey, thats a great reply. I would be more interested in building it myself and I dont need 90w either. Do you know of any grows where these have been used? Are there any alternatives to this or should I just go right ahead and order?

 

[Bumping Spheda]

There is a member who bought one of these recently. He's planning to retrofit just the LED inside of a 10W LED floodlight that he's already bought. Plug and play for him, but not the most cost efficient. Same thing, though, really. I don't think he's even received the LED yet, though, so there's nothing I can really point a finger at currently.

Alternatives? Yea, you could buy a bunch of 3W LED's, figure out what driver you need, buy an extruded Aluminum heat sink to mount the LED's onto, the rest is just assembly. You could also buy 5050 SMD LED strips. A member named stardustsailor recently built a grow strip of these with variable driver box, and another member name Panelata has a grow currently in progress here. You'll want to make sure you get the right wavelength, though, in order zero in on photosynthesis peaks. A Chinese company named VanQ has 5050 SMD strips with the colors you want, although I don't know how much money those will run you, or how much shipping will be. The 5050 strips are also one of the less efficient LED growing methods, but they could be worth their weight in Gold depending how tight of a grow space you've got exactly.

Apart from those options, maybe these?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-pcs-6000K-10W-Cool-White-High-Power-Square-LED-Bulb-Super-Bright-Light-45mil-/130864817150?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e7826a3fe
Same deal as the first link I sent you (the 10W LED with Red/Blue chips), but this one is Cool White. The Whites are a boat load cheaper just because you add the term "grow" to a light and there's an immediate 200% markup. You can use just Cool Whites and Warm Whites, or maybe mix some 3W 660nm LED's in there if your budget permits. 45mil chips (for Blue) and 42mil chips (for Red) are about the best I've been able to find in these multi-chip LED's. The larger the chip the more light (less heat) the chip produces per watt (usually). So try and make sure the vendor specifically states the chip size and pray they're not lying scumbags. Also, the link I gave you says 45mil. Yes, even though it's a White LED it's using Blue chips. There's a phosphor layer over the chips that is excited by Blue light which subsequently emits White light. That vendor has some nice stuff, and even they might be willing to cop you a deal if you purchased multiple lights, heat sinks, drivers, etc. from them. Can't hurt to ask what people can do for you.

Edit - Forgot to mention. Hell, no, don't take my word and plunk down $100+ on something. Read as much as your brain can withstand and make the best educated decision that you can. For one, that 10W has a Blue chip on it. There's plenty of people who hate Blues these days and just want combinations of Whites (different CCT's) coupled with Reds. Really, there's as many ways to use LED's as there are growers, so find your niche and be happy with whatever route you take.

 

[valuablevariable]

I have build a lot of stuff and always managed to find out what I need to know on the way. Since I do like to experiment, I thought adding some LEDs might make things more interesting for a while. However, Ive got to say I dont know much about these 10w LEDs, that I need a heat sink or an AC driver. I do like to shop around for the best deals, but in this case I think your first link seems very attractive and I probably wouldnt mess with the others where I need to figure out what driver I need.

I have been keeping an eye on Panlatas journal but if you look at his recent updates he isnt having much success with the LED strips during flowering. I looked at the strips on ebay today and it seems like they arent the right wavelength. Thats why I was curious if these kinds of 10w LEDs have been used before or if they will just end up being a disappointment. If there are no tests, then I would still try them for the sake of science.

 

[Bumping Spheda]

Yea, Panelata's low yields so far are disappointing, I was really rooting for him. I do suspect it's because he bought generic lights, like you said, though. Looks like they love the Blues, but the Red's just aren't cutting it for flower.

And if you do go with the 10W'ers I'd love to see what you do with them. People have been tuning in to LED flood lights more and more, partly due to Chronikool's grow (which is awesome), and that's basically what you'd be making just its wavelengths would be honed in on PS peaks/efficiency. Good luck, and make a thread, I'll be the first to subscribe.

 

[valuablevariable]

As this is for a small microgrow, either as an addition or on its own, how many watts do you think would be needed for the size of about 2 pc grows next to eachother? Here is a first look at it, scrog will be added. Yes I know they are all in the same pot but thats just something I wanted to try.

 

[pedrovski]

it would be very pricey to take apart a ufo light to change the spectrum and would require probably less effort to just build your own array. I've been speaking to vanqled after Bumping Spheda mentioning them as i was considering using these 10w leds. They were saying 10w red and blue = 3:1 led is $6.36 1:2 , the price is $4.36; in any of these spectrums (660nm, 630nm, 470nm, 440nm) Postage would obviously be ontop of this price but said would be around $10 for these leds via dhl. I'm currently putting together my first pc grow building an array using 10w 3000k, 6500k leds and 1w leds at 420nm 460nm 630nm 660nm which should produce at least if not more than 8000 lumens which from what I've read is plenty for 1 plant and all this speak of wattage just seems silly to me cos some lights are obviously far more efficient than others example being 3 1w leds would produce more light than 1 3w led would which is what made me choose the 1w leds over the 3w ones and if you look around there are threads explaining this more indepth if you wanted to read up on it, the leds can be bought on ebay as cheap as about $2.50 for 10 leds shipped however the leds such as the 660nm leds are a little more at like $8 This should give you a little more to think about

 

[Bumping Spheda]

How many 10W'ers? Maybe 3, or 4 for that space. One or two of those CFL's would be kind of nice in there if you can deal with the heat. They'd round off the spectrum well, imo.

pedrovski: Yea, the shipping is what gets ya when buying from VanQ. Kind of a shame, I should move to China and reduce my carbon footprint. <<< Sounds backwards, but I'm sort of serious, how much shit do you get from China? Think about it. Anyway, I got gouged pretty good on postage, but I wanted to try them out, and all said and done the price really wasn't bad. At first glance I thought LED's were crazy expensive, but do your research and they really aren't bad. If you spend tons of money it's either because you wanted to, or because you didn't know what was up, imo. And hey, I like the sound of your grow, I hope it all goes well.

 

[pedrovski]

im using 2 warm 2 cool and i have got 1 23w 2700k and 1 23w 6500k i am going to fit them if temps are within tollerable levels and things are certainly cheaper getting them shipped from china than what they are buying them from within the uk and with all these leds there is a huge price difference from buying within the uk. The only issue is the shipping,now very impatient, ive got everything i need bar the leds, pc is hollowed out seeds are waiting but still no signs of these leds that were ordered on the 14th feb

 

[valuablevariable]

How many 10W'ers? Maybe 3, or 4 for that space. One or two of those CFL's would be kind of nice in there if you can deal with the heat. They'd round off the spectrum well, imo.

pedrovski: Yea, the shipping is what gets ya when buying from VanQ. Kind of a shame, I should move to China and reduce my carbon footprint. <<< Sounds backwards, but I'm sort of serious, how much shit do you get from China? Think about it. Anyway, I got gouged pretty good on postage, but I wanted to try them out, and all said and done the price really wasn't bad. At first glance I thought LED's were crazy expensive, but do your research and they really aren't bad. If you spend tons of money it's either because you wanted to, or because you didn't know what was up, imo. And hey, I like the sound of your grow, I hope it all goes well.

Im curious to the whole thing and will order some. Do you know how much heat these 10Wers give off?

 

[Bumping Spheda]

The LED's themselves, not much, the cabinet shouldn't get out of control just from the LED's assuming your air exchange rate is where it needs to be to draw fresh air to your plants, especially since I see you've got CFL's in there now. The drivers will produce as much if not more heat than the LED's. If you need the added warmth then you could keep the drivers in the grow space, if not, then mount them externally. I'd actually recommend keeping the drivers external, though, and if you need to raise the temps put some of those CFL's back in like I had mentioned. You should be able to keep the sockets in there and mount the LED's in between everything and get really nice coverage by the looks of things.

This is gonna be fun, I'm kind of excited to see how this turns out.

 

[valuablevariable]

Yeah its always great to play with new toys. Ive gone with ordering 2x10W and am planing to add them to the two big 65W CFLs mounted in the center and probably unscrew the other 3x20W CFLs. That would mean 2x65W CFLs and 2x10W LEDs.
I just dont have a comparison grow with this growbox to see what kind of influence the LEDs are having, but I would have expected about 30g with CFLs (maybe up to 40, 20 if things go wrong).
My temps are at a level where I wouldnt want them to go higher, so I would look at keeping the drivers externally if they get rather warm.
Im excited about the LEDs as well, its very possible though that they take 4 weeks to deliver, thats not uncommon for china. Thatd still be OK for this grow since my plants would pnly be about half way through flower.

Another thing is that I have a 400w hps sitting around that I might use for an hour a day to blast the plants from the side as a boost. Thatd again make it hard to tell how much the LEDs are helping.

 

[Chronikool]

Sweet little cabinet you have there....think of how much more room you would have with all LED's (if you go that route) Bumpings on to it...listen to him.

The 2 x 10w you ordered? They are warm white i take it?

You have a heatsink already?

 

[valuablevariable]

Its Red + Blue 8:1 with 660nm 450nm and comes with heatsink. Wonder what they will do to the temps, for whatever reason my temps went up to 36C from 29C for no real reason. Currently trying to find out what happened.