Advanced Lighting Spectrums for T5 Floro and LED

polyarcturus

polyarcturus

Well-Known Member
PetFlora said:
Here's some tasty 411 (read down the page past the specs) for $150 could be a bargain http://www.htgsupply.com/Product-Gen3-90-Watt-UFO-LED-Grow-Light.asp
Click to expand...
i dont know PF.... unless they where following our thread around im still not convinced they know shit.

perhaps it is improved but you could make a better one.

downsides, 2 w leds, 90w, claiming UFO brand, ect...

i think the real improvements and advances will come from the manufacturers copying the DIYers. the best results ive seen w/ leds have all been DIY setups unless they where official leds w/ HPS combined.
 
PetFlora

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
captainmorgan said:
I wish we could see a Fonzarelli spectrum reading on one of these.
Click to expand...
As I flipped through a couple HTG product pages I noticed no mention of

what brand/s leds
what bin
lens angles
how many of each spectrum diodes

They do say that missing the specific nms for chl A & B, even by a little, will minimize results

They call the white leds 'full spectrum, but do not state whether they are neutral or warm whites

I emailed them, but will probably get a run around response.
 
captainmorgan

captainmorgan

Well-Known Member
Got a couple 660's this morning and decided to test them out. One end of on one of them looks different from the other lamp and wonder if I got a bad one. The picture doesn't show as well as looking at it but there is a brite spot with a dark shadow around it. Emailed Jeff a pic but their not open on the weekend.What do you think?
 

Attachments

Fonzarelli

Fonzarelli

Active Member
captainmorgan said:
Got a couple 660's this morning and decided to test them out. One end of on one of them looks different from the other lamp and wonder if I got a bad one. The picture doesn't show as well as looking at it but there is a brite spot with a dark shadow around it. Emailed Jeff a pic but their not open on the weekend.What do you think?
Click to expand...
Most T5's have a little dark area on each side of the tube. That one that you have looks like it's a bit more. It probably isn't going to hurt anything. Contact them when they are open I guess and see what they say.
 
Fonzarelli

Fonzarelli

Active Member
PetFlora said:


They do say that missing the specific nms for chl A & B, even by a little, will minimize results


They call the white leds 'full spectrum, but do not state whether they are neutral or warm whites
Click to expand...
We all know that plants adapt quite well to spectrum so that's a false statement for the most part. HPS do quite well and they do not have any 660 or 630 or 460 or 440 for the most part.

White leds will never be "full spectrum" because they do not contain any UVb or any blue deeper than 460 in them. So another false statement. 2 for 2 not bad. LOL

All the outsourced Chinese made LED fixtures are all the same for the most part. All bullshit.
 
PetFlora

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
Adapting should not be the point. The point should be providing optimal spectrums, which LEDs can do, but hps cannot.

Just looked around Rapid LED.

5 watt Cree Neutral White solderless @ $4.50

The wavelength chart looks pretty full spectrum to me, at least as far as what our plants need

http://www.rapidled.com/solderless-cree-xp-g-5w-neutral-white-led-old-version/


Here's a dimmable kit with 24 leds @ $200 + pre-tapped 23" x 4" heat sink ($50-60)

http://www.rapidled.com/24-led-plug-n-play-retrofit-kit-dimmable/

Maybe mix 18 NW + 6 @ 660s (just to kick em up a bit during flower), would require additional driver, or switch

so roughly $250 for 125 watts
 
PetFlora

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
Not surprising, I got a BS answer (it's proprietary') from HTG. I told them that due to their reply, I was no longer interested

Now that I priced the rapidled solderless kit, I see that as a much better option. Wish I had $250 doing nothing so I could buy one, but then they are coming out with new heat sinks- no predrilled tapped are available today
 
PetFlora

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
Slowly, we are learning that the 460-590 are important to highest quality, meaning RB alone never was the answer 100%. The majority of led manufactures focused on R/B, any other spectrums were hard to come by and very expensive, up until ~ 2 years ago.

LED tech is a lot like computer chip tech- storage=white diode tech is doubling ~ 9 months, BUT, we don't see it commercially for several years, not so with DIY.

If you think of the sun in electrical terms it's Analog, whereas indoor lighting is like Digital. Sony introduced the SACD music format~ 10 years ago. It is the closest medium to this day to matching analog, but Sony priced its' use beyond main stream mfgs, let alone DIYers. The existing commercial digital formats will never reproduce analog 100%. For most people that missing ~ 10% doesn't matter, but in mmj? MMJ requires roughly 10-20% of 460-590nms, which act as a catalyst to the others.

Today, companies like CREE have introduced Neutral Whites which provides ALL the spectrums indoor gardens need in a single bulb in ample quantities.

A DIY led thread on another site: a guy uses a Kessil 350 but has built parallel runs of CREE NWs (~20w). These and just about anything you want is available as DIY solderless kits! On that site another has a DIY who started a grow where he mixed R + NW. He decided to remove all but 4 Rs (I forget which nm, but probably 660s) and is blown away by the vegging performance. My idea is R (660) should be on a separate circuit/on off switch to be used from flower- harvest.

Rapidled has solderless kits using 5w CREES (nms buyer choice!), outputs range 60-120 watts. The 4.5 X 23 @ ~150w is $250, including tapped/drilled heat sink. They are made with better quality parts, use no fans (noise) with the BEST leds currently available
 
polyarcturus

polyarcturus

Well-Known Member
i just noticed phillips 5w LED prices(rapidLED) and thier cool, neutral whites and reds look promising. 5w for 3.50 thats a pretty good deal if they preform.
 
Fonzarelli

Fonzarelli

Active Member
Just finished building my first 90w LED panel. All using soldered starboard connections. I did the drill and tap method to machine screw the stars on and WHAT A BITCH that was. It was recommended to me to use 3 screws per starboard. Well, it's A LOT harder than using 2 screws to get everything to line up. I really don't think 3 screws are necessary, but whatever. The fucker is super bright! The heatsink is sitting at a comfortable 80 F! So obviously my active cooling method is working to the extreme.

What I would do next time(or not do).

I think I would use the Arctic Silver Epoxy instead of trying to screw the stars onto the heatsink. This creates A LOT less work.

When soldering the wires to the stars, I will pre-tin them with A LOT MORE SOLDER than I did to begin with so that the wires are fully covered with solder.

If I do decide to do the screw on technique, I will probably have a bolt hole template made with a CNC, so that the holes are not off EVEN A 1/4 OF A MILLIMETER!

This was a very fun project and will be making many more Led panels in the near future. It definitely takes some practice and a HOT HOT HOT soldering iron. The pre-tinning is of the utmost importance. For the stars I'm using I will trade my 60w soldering iron in for a 80w one. The 60w didn't have enough juice to quickly do the final soldering of the wires to the board.
 
captainmorgan

captainmorgan

Well-Known Member
Fonzarelli said:
Just finished building my first 90w LED panel. All using soldered starboard connections. I did the drill and tap method to machine screw the stars on and WHAT A BITCH that was. It was recommended to me to use 3 screws per starboard. Well, it's A LOT harder than using 2 screws to get everything to line up. I really don't think 3 screws are necessary, but whatever. The fucker is super bright! The heatsink is sitting at a comfortable 80 F! So obviously my active cooling method is working to the extreme.

What I would do next time(or not do).

I think I would use the Arctic Silver Epoxy instead of trying to screw the stars onto the heatsink. This creates A LOT less work.

When soldering the wires to the stars, I will pre-tin them with A LOT MORE SOLDER than I did to begin with so that the wires are fully covered with solder.

If I do decide to do the screw on technique, I will probably have a bolt hole template made with a CNC, so that the holes are not off EVEN A 1/4 OF A MILLIMETER!

This was a very fun project and will be making many more Led panels in the near future. It definitely takes some practice and a HOT HOT HOT soldering iron. The pre-tinning is of the utmost importance. For the stars I'm using I will trade my 60w soldering iron in for a 80w one. The 60w didn't have enough juice to quickly do the final soldering of the wires to the board.
Click to expand...
Have you seen these?

http://makersled.com/
http://makersled.com/?p=519
http://www.ledgroupbuy.com/bjb-solderless-connector-optic-holder-6-pack-0-37ea/
 
polyarcturus

polyarcturus

Well-Known Member
i had a soldering iron explode like a grenade once (glad it was not in my hand) but anyways always wear a glove when soldering and buy a QUALITY soldering iron. just my 2 cents.
 
PetFlora

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
Now you see why rapidled predrilled/tapped heat sinks are worth the $$$$, as well as their solderless kits

I started a new grow on 8/23. Seedlings were transferred from window sill to tent 8/28.

Lights; old ufo 90; RB ~ 85:15% so I added 2 warm low watt cfls + 1 daylight cfl + a Repti-Glo 10.0 (26 watt). Bottom of bulbs ~ 2ft above.

2 days ago I lowered the lights to ~ 10". They have been growing really fast.

Yesterday afternoon, I picked up 2 @ 7.5w 5000K led spots at Lowes @ $14.95, and replaced the 2 warm cfls then took out the ufo.

This morning they look fine but appear to have stalled. I may have too much 'blue' in there now (or not enough wattage), or I need to move the bulbs around on the 4 bulb vanity fixture. Currently the leds are on the outsides, not all of their light is directly over the plants. Will do this as soon as I finish this; Done + replaced 23 w cfl white with 23w warm white

These will all get moved to the main area with my T5 in ~ 7 days
 
PetFlora

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
Just an FYI, I went out for a few hours. A quick check and all leafs are beginning to reach up towards the lights now that I have a better blue balance due to the new day light leds
 
herballuvmonkey

herballuvmonkey

Well-Known Member
i dont use leds i still use several 400w switchable ballasts over 3x3 screens. i have a question. so if i was to buy 30 14 watt, 3500k temp led screw in type light bulbs giving 800 lumes ea so 24000 lumens total. spread correctly over the screen do you think i could flower with them? im talking 3 lights 2400 lmns per sq foot. good color temp. id have to research par values and spectrums. the issue for me is the heat. sure i would be running the same amount of wattage in lights. but i could save big money on the ac and otherduct fans i run thru the lights. my 8000 btu ac is probably pulling close to 2k watts everytime it cuts on. my 5000 in the veg chamber pulls about 1500 they are on and off constantly when the lights are on. add to that 1 500 cfm and 2 250 cfm fans helping to push and pull air through 4 400w hid lamps. i could see significant savings. elec bill just broke 575 this month. understand i live in the hot part of the u.s. it would cost me 900 bucks to put this together but if it cuts my electric bill in half during the summer it would pay for itself in a couole of months.
 
PetFlora

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
Let's do the math 30 screw ins @ $15= $450 to cover a 3 x 3 area. Now, that's not terrible, BUT, during flower you want ~ 10% 660 nms, which AFAIK, is not available in screw ins. And while you can buy cheap chinese 660 only fixtures, it is unclear how good they will be. What to do?

You could keep one 400 hps and supplement with a few DIY LED rails using a combination of cool whites + 660s...

OR

maybe get a 250-400 w CMH (or 2) with posted SDG then fill in the missing spectrums

OR and this might be the simplest with excellent potential, get 2 @ 2 x 4 ft HO T5 fixtures (assuming you have the length), if not ~ 2 ft HO T5 fixtures + UVLighting 660 bulbs
 
polyarcturus

polyarcturus

Well-Known Member
best bet for a good led fixture is neutral white with a good ratio of 660 reds, no they will not be screw in(there are some arrays out there but i dont know if i trust em yet) but you can still mount the star types fairly easy with thermal glue.

but i agree w/ PF hps with T5 sidelighting or LEd sidelighting.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top