I have many BJB connectors.. they are good if you plan on switching out chips often, one thing though is I find the optics are getting hard to find ( maybe they didn't sell good ) or who knows.. maybe you know a place that has all the angles in stock.
I think this is more dependent on your setup. I am no expert though, so take my words lightly. placement matters so much in LED, I think the reason we don't see any WOW results with LED is one or a combination of the following:
-cooling ( paste / stars / fans / mass of sink )
-placement / layout of LED
-LED themselves ( bad spectrum / waste of color in areas / low quality chips )
-driving power ( too high / too low )
-heatsink ( length / mass / width )
all these add up to a "good" LED or a bad LED. if I were you I would go through all these ideas, and see if you can match what it needs, if not. I would just buy a panel from someone, as it's a lot of work to not do it right.
back on angle and Lens' .. I think this is more a matter of placement of LED / distance from canopy / amount of LED. all these add up to sometimes I would tell someone to not use lens' , in most instances I would tell someone to use lens'. I would suggest no lens if the light is going to be super close to the plants, and you have good spread from spacing of LED, as the problem with no lens and super close is the light is not going to stray far.. I'm talking like 4-6 inches.. anything more and I'm talking the other side.. which would be to use lens'. when you move the light up, what happens? what happens is the light spreads out as the angle of the lens on the LED plays into this obviously. what happens as a side effect though is you get mass stray light, which will bascially be pointless bouncing around, not being of any help.. it's where lens' come into play, as you narrow the focus of the beam, and you have less stray light, getting more onto the canopy and not the walls.
once again no easy answer, as it all matters on layout / placement of LED / amount of LED. this is best done with a light meter of any sort using the numbers as a baseline to try and equal the spread..
once again, I'm no expert, but I am finding, it might be wise to use differnt angles for differnt placements, one being a very tight angle on the end LED to get side lighting up, but this is also dependent on length of heatsink, as I cannot advise a tight angle when your led ends 6 inches from the plant, as then you need to go bare or bigger angle lens.
this is bascially like trying to fit a puzzle together, when each piece represents a thing, all coming together to work in harmony.
I guess my adivce is give some thought to the layout as a whole, draw ideas, then try another way, and another.. find a groove where you want to go and follow that. remember DIY is just that, it's not very simple, and needs some thought beforehand.
. I am also considering solderless, which would mean I would lose the ability to use optics anyway.
