3 X 3 tent: Updayday 500 watt light? 400 watt MH bulb? HLG300RedSPec? 2X Viparspectra XS1500pro?

So, I'm getting ready to set up my Fall/Winter indoor setup. I have accumulated a lot of lights over the years.

The Updayday light is the only one I haven't tried. It has some weird kind of built-in timer switch with green display that stays on ....not sure if I can bypass it or not. Anyone?

The rest of the lights listed have all proven to get the job done in the past, but I do have a slight preference to use the old MH 400 watt magnetic ballast fixture again. It's a mogul-base bulb in a special reflector hood and is unshielded. The bulb is a Sylvania....nothing special...I think the design was for older style stadium lighting...but that's what we used to grow with in the old days and I think they still have some advantages to this day both in terms of spectrum as well as providing UV and IR.

Input/ideas welcome!

Oh....and going to use the Gas Lantern Technique in veg. I'm sold on this lighting schedule. I've used it many times and it is legit!

tstick said:

The Updayday light

Click to expand...

Got a link for the light?
Is that the one that you can change the spectrum on?
Is it ~ 300 watts?
You could just cover the green display with a bit of card and tape.
It shouldn't bother the plants. I've a fan speed controller with a digital display running.
It'd be interesting to see a par map of it.

Moflow said:

Got a link for the light?
Is that the one that you can change the spectrum on?
Is it ~ 300 watts?
You could just cover the green display with a bit of card and tape.
It shouldn't bother the plants. I've a fan speed controller with a digital display running.
It'd be interesting to see a par map of it.

Click to expand...

Search on Updayday on Amazon...a bunch of models come up.
Yeah I'm leaning toward using it for the first time.

Yes, it's the kind you can fiddle with the spectrum...OR, use one of the pre-set spectrums. Honestly, the instructions are non-existent and it's going to be a bit of trial-and-error to see what it does.

No, it is 500 watts (supposedly)

And yes, I will cover the display with some tape.

I would try to find some way to combine the metal halide and the 300rspec.

LEDs can struggle in the winter if temps are too low. And 400 watts of metal halide isn't a lot of power.

Together, the problems are solved.

If you can get max photons with a variable spectrum, that's the way to go. The only light that I'm aware of that has variable spectrum is from Kind and maxes out at 750µmol.

I checked out the $146 S3000 which is a 300 watt light and is labeled a "replacement for 500 watt HPS". At 12", it's got a decent footprint for a 3' x 3' but at 12" it's going to warm up your plants more than they should be if you want to maximize cannabanoids (<=78°). When that light is raised to 18", it runs out of gas with <700µmol once you move off center. Given the price, it's not a bad light but it's not going to give you a "back up the truck" harvest like a light with a 500 watt driver will.

If you're OK growing at 700µmol, the variable spectrum will be helpful because blue light, which is great in veg, induces a penalty in flower, per the attached paper.

All in all, it's a good light for $150 but it's still a $150 light.

Re. the HLG - remember the hot spot that HLG's have. It's nice to have higher % of red in the spectrum but the PPFD maps in HLG indicate that there's very rapid fall off. Is the form factor of the Rspec good for a 3' x 3'? I was thinking it was for a 2' x 4'.

The Vipar XS 1500 Pro does a lot of things well but it does have a lot of blue in the spectrum because it's marketed at the 2' x 2' tent crowd and lotsa blue helps ensure that plants stay short and compact. Having said that, it does have an excellent PPFD map and if you could add a second light, that would be a great setup.

That rspect will be overkill in a 3x3

I had an updayday ua5000 which is a 500w variable spectrum. Worked great....it has a cmh, hps, mh spectrums and and a sun preset. You can fiddle with the rest if you want.....I ran it on "sun" setting to use all the diodes.
The display light can be turned off but it never bothered my photos in flower. I had an owners manual for it somewhere....
You can pick those things up for under $150 on sale. Great cheap light and plants loved it.
I had it in a 3x3 and of course kept it turned down.....should last forever that way and coverage was wall to wall.
+

Yeah, too much light for for the 3 x 3. Sell the updayday and the vivaspectras and get a bigger tent.

driver77 said:

I had an updayday ua5000 which is a 500w variable spectrum. Worked great....it has a cmh, hps, mh spectrums and and a sun preset. You can fiddle with the rest if you want.....I ran it on "sun" setting to use all the diodes.
The display light can be turned off but it never bothered my photos in flower. I had an owners manual for it somewhere....
You can pick those things up for under $150 on sale. Great cheap light and plants loved it.
I had it in a 3x3 and of course kept it turned down.....should last forever that way and coverage was wall to wall.
+

Click to expand...

Decided to go with the Updayday light. I've been fiddling with it and there really are some cool features about it.

First of all, the pre-set spectrums are "MH" (metal halide), "CMH" (ceramic metal halide), "HPS" (high pressure sodium) and "SUN" (sun). I will say that they DO resemble the color of those particular spectrums. I have mine on the CMH setting. I also have the fixture dimmed way down to about 30%. It's a bright light for a 3 X 3. I think it's going to generate enough heat to keep the tent at ~80-85F during lights on. I think it might get too hot at full power.

Yeah, it's a really cool idea. The switches and components could be a little higher quality, but I'm not using any of the Temperature/CO2/etc. features it has. I don't need those and I figure that, if I use them, then they will be the things to fail first.

Yep, I figured out the display, too. The manual is kind of written in odd Chinese-to-English translation, but the pictures help.

If someone were to make a light just like this -except with higher quality components, then they'd really have something. I think it would be the next evolution in grow lighting. It's pretty fun!

And yep, a 4 X 4 is coming next year. The 3 X 3 is going to be retired!

I have the 500 watt light and the manual says that it has 2,888 LED chips on it!

VaSmile said:

That rspect will be overkill in a 3x3

Click to expand...

Actually, I used it once and it performed very well in the 3 X 3. It's a great light. I really like it.

Delps8 said:

If you can get max photons with a variable spectrum, that's the way to go. The only light that I'm aware of that has variable spectrum is from Kind and maxes out at 750µmol.

I checked out the $146 S3000 which is a 300 watt light and is labeled a "replacement for 500 watt HPS". At 12", it's got a decent footprint for a 3' x 3' but at 12" it's going to warm up your plants more than they should be if you want to maximize cannabanoids (<=78°). When that light is raised to 18", it runs out of gas with <700µmol once you move off center. Given the price, it's not a bad light but it's not going to give you a "back up the truck" harvest like a light with a 500 watt driver will.

If you're OK growing at 700µmol, the variable spectrum will be helpful because blue light, which is great in veg, induces a penalty in flower, per the attached paper.

All in all, it's a good light for $150 but it's still a $150 light.

Re. the HLG - remember the hot spot that HLG's have. It's nice to have higher % of red in the spectrum but the PPFD maps in HLG indicate that there's very rapid fall off. Is the form factor of the Rspec good for a 3' x 3'? I was thinking it was for a 2' x 4'.

The Vipar XS 1500 Pro does a lot of things well but it does have a lot of blue in the spectrum because it's marketed at the 2' x 2' tent crowd and lotsa blue helps ensure that plants stay short and compact. Having said that, it does have an excellent PPFD map and if you could add a second light, that would be a great setup.

Click to expand...

Yep, it would be perfect for a 2 X 4 tent, but I only had 2 plants under it in my 3 X 3 so each plant got a spot directly under each side. I have TWO Viparspectra XS1500s, so that was an option, too.

The Updayday light is up and running. So far, so good. I can tell that this fixture could get hot at full power. My seedlings just surfaced yesterday, so the light is dimmed way down...probably 30% of full power. At that, it raises the internal tent temperature by about 10F with the fans running at a minimum. I'll have to continue to adjust the exhaust fan speed as I increase the light intensity, but there's no way this light will ever be at full power in this 3 X 3.

It's really a neat concept and it's fun to be able to switch the spectral outputs with the press of a button.

Maybe HLG could make one....but with higher quality/more durable components...?

At this point, the light is doing what it says it can do. The most I can find to criticize about it is the packaging it was sent in. It was the worst packing I've ever seen. The shipping box looked like it was recycled from a bigger box and cut down to size with a knife. The styrofoam that covers the switch plate is like 1/16th " thick and the accessory box was just loose inside the larger box and was banging around. I think they should really invest in some better packaging because they are going to be suffering a LOT of loss due to damaged lights.

I guess it's always exciting to try a new light for the first time. I've always felt that way, anyway. And I have nine lights now! By the way, what do people do with their old lights?

tstick said:

The Updayday light is up and running. So far, so good. I can tell that this fixture could get hot at full power. My seedlings just surfaced yesterday, so the light is dimmed way down...probably 30% of full power. At that, it raises the internal tent temperature by about 10F with the fans running at a minimum. I'll have to continue to adjust the exhaust fan speed as I increase the light intensity, but there's no way this light will ever be at full power in this 3 X 3.

It's really a neat concept and it's fun to be able to switch the spectral outputs with the press of a button.

Maybe HLG could make one....but with higher quality/more durable components...?

At this point, the light is doing what it says it can do. The most I can find to criticize about it is the packaging it was sent in. It was the worst packing I've ever seen. The shipping box looked like it was recycled from a bigger box and cut down to size with a knife. The styrofoam that covers the switch plate is like 1/16th " thick and the accessory box was just loose inside the larger box and was banging around. I think they should really invest in some better packaging because they are going to be suffering a LOT of loss due to damaged lights.

I guess it's always exciting to try a new light for the first time. I've always felt that way, anyway. And I have nine lights now! By the way, what do people do with their old lights?

Click to expand...

I never ran mine higher than 70% in my 3x3. That is around 350w which was more than enough for that tent.

tstick said:

By the way, what do people do with their old lights?

Click to expand...

I just took down a 6.5 year old led fixture. I took it apart and repurposed half of it on a smaller driver for side lighting.
I might use the other half as a garage light or more side lighting.

Moflow said:

I just took down a 6.5 year old led fixture. I took it apart and repurposed half of it on a smaller driver for side lighting.
I might use the other half as a garage light or more side lighting.

Click to expand...

For us they retire in our veg, its like a Fotop old folks home there. I would like to switch the veg aswell, give them all a final remembrance service and give them their final rest, not liking the 3000k for veg really. But i need to fucus on flower now really, maybe a bit of 400nm monos would get me the changes i want in there before i can do a full switchout. Give them a last bit of life and use before panel heaven...