choosing an LED light?

oldschooltofu

Well-Known Member
long time HPS grower. expanding from 5x9 tent (1000w and 600w) to 9x12 room, wanting to add 1 or 2 LEDs, remove the 600 or 1000 and eventually switch over to all LEDs in the future. looking at the following models. which one would you suggest? or is there a better alternative in this price range? TIA

spider farmer SF-4000 $529
maxisun pb-4000 $399 (240 w/coupon)
HYPHOTONFLUX HPF4000 $550 (500 w/coupon)
MARS HYDRO FC-E6500 $729 (680 w Coupon)
Crecer Lighting PanthrX II $660
VIPARSPECTRA XS4000 $370
 

Tracker

Well-Known Member
long time HPS grower. expanding from 5x9 tent (1000w and 600w) to 9x12 room, wanting to add 1 or 2 LEDs, remove the 600 or 1000 and eventually switch over to all LEDs in the future. looking at the following models. which one would you suggest? or is there a better alternative in this price range? TIA

spider farmer SF-4000 $529
maxisun pb-4000 $399 (240 w/coupon)
HYPHOTONFLUX HPF4000 $550 (500 w/coupon)
MARS HYDRO FC-E6500 $729 (680 w Coupon)
Crecer Lighting PanthrX II $660
VIPARSPECTRA XS4000 $370
Look at @bk78 shit show thread to see how the Shenzhen Meiju lights from Alibaba perform.
 

MidnightSun72

Well-Known Member
long time HPS grower. expanding from 5x9 tent (1000w and 600w) to 9x12 room, wanting to add 1 or 2 LEDs, remove the 600 or 1000 and eventually switch over to all LEDs in the future. looking at the following models. which one would you suggest? or is there a better alternative in this price range? TIA

spider farmer SF-4000 $529
maxisun pb-4000 $399 (240 w/coupon)
HYPHOTONFLUX HPF4000 $550 (500 w/coupon)
MARS HYDRO FC-E6500 $729 (680 w Coupon)
Crecer Lighting PanthrX II $660
VIPARSPECTRA XS4000 $370
Hard to beat for value right now.

A42CF140-8849-44B4-8455-F1BCB467F707.png

I am not associated or affiliated I grow with my own home made lights.If this light was around when I did mine I'd have bought it.
 

Tracker

Well-Known Member
Hard to beat for value right now.

View attachment 4936630

I am not associated or affiliated I grow with my own home made lights.If this light was around when I did mine I'd have bought it.
I've been seeing the posts about this light, but I havent seen verified results, and I didnt see specs about the diodes used. It does look interesting for sure.
 

MidnightSun72

Well-Known Member
I've been seeing the posts about this light, but I havent seen verified results, and I didnt see specs about the diodes used. It does look interesting for sure.
"Many brands try to lower the cost by scrimping on diodes. However, the Medic Grow Fold 8 uses a high quantity of name brand diodes. There is a total of 2,800 Samsung LM301Z+ diodes. In addition, there are 64 Osram 660 nanometer diodes. I inspected the diodes to ensure that they are authentic. The diodes check out. They do not help us solve the mystery about why this fixture is so affordable"

 

Tracker

Well-Known Member
"Many brands try to lower the cost by scrimping on diodes. However, the Medic Grow Fold 8 uses a high quantity of name brand diodes. There is a total of 2,800 Samsung LM301Z+ diodes. In addition, there are 64 Osram 660 nanometer diodes. I inspected the diodes to ensure that they are authentic. The diodes check out. They do not help us solve the mystery about why this fixture is so affordable"

Looks interesting. I would think if they are using samsung lm301 type diodes, they would clearly advertise that. Since they don't, they must not use them. I want to see someone post a grow journal with these. @bk78 shit show is the kind of proof that medicgrow needs someone to show for their light.
 

OSBuds

Well-Known Member
Medic Grow Fourth of July Weekend Flash Sale!

One of the sweetest deals in horticultural lighting just got even sweeter! July 3rd and 4th only, Everything at Medic Grow is 20% off with Discount Code: CCFC.


Dr. Coco tested the Medic Grow Fold-8 a few months ago, and – even at full price - he thought it was the best deal in horticultural lighting! The fold-8 can light up a 5 x 5 grow space, but it is so affordable he also tested it in a 4 x 4. The 4 x 4 PAR test with the fold-8 dimmed to 80% made an incredibly good PAR map – and it had a Usable Photon Efficiency of 2.34 µmol/w! It is on sale this weekend for only $524!!! That is only 32 cents per micromole! It is about half the price of most competitors. It is a deal worth posting!


Check out Dr Coco's full test report of the Fold-8 as well as his video review to find out more about this fixture.

 

insomnia65

Well-Known Member
Medic Grow Fourth of July Weekend Flash Sale!

One of the sweetest deals in horticultural lighting just got even sweeter! July 3rd and 4th only, Everything at Medic Grow is 20% off with Discount Code: CCFC.


Dr. Coco tested the Medic Grow Fold-8 a few months ago, and – even at full price - he thought it was the best deal in horticultural lighting! The fold-8 can light up a 5 x 5 grow space, but it is so affordable he also tested it in a 4 x 4. The 4 x 4 PAR test with the fold-8 dimmed to 80% made an incredibly good PAR map – and it had a Usable Photon Efficiency of 2.34 µmol/w! It is on sale this weekend for only $524!!! That is only 32 cents per micromole! It is about half the price of most competitors. It is a deal worth posting!


Check out Dr Coco's full test report of the Fold-8 as well as his video review to find out more about this fixture.

errrr, you got a few hundred to spare, I haven't mate, they look good though.
 

Rocket Soul

Well-Known Member
"Many brands try to lower the cost by scrimping on diodes. However, the Medic Grow Fold 8 uses a high quantity of name brand diodes. There is a total of 2,800 Samsung LM301Z+ diodes. In addition, there are 64 Osram 660 nanometer diodes. I inspected the diodes to ensure that they are authentic. The diodes check out. They do not help us solve the mystery about why this fixture is so affordable"

I'm very keen on finding out what people use nowadays for criteria for inspection. Back a few years ago there was some ways you could distinguish a lm561c and b: size of the coils in the centre of the diode and the dreaded "black spot"/zenner diode. But I wouldn't have a clue as to how to separate a lm301 diode from another 3030 diode in the same casing.
 

Tracker

Well-Known Member
I'm very keen on finding out what people use nowadays for criteria for inspection. Back a few years ago there was some ways you could distinguish a lm561c and b: size of the coils in the centre of the diode and the dreaded "black spot"/zenner diode. But I wouldn't have a clue as to how to separate a lm301 diode from another 3030 diode in the same casing.
What's special about the Samsung lm301 diodes is the efficiency. How efficient is the configuration of driver, internal circuitry, and diodes can be known if the manufacturer will publish the test data they get from an integrating sphere including the actual power drawn by the driver during the test. That should be standard practice.
 

MidnightSun72

Well-Known Member
I'm very keen on finding out what people use nowadays for criteria for inspection. Back a few years ago there was some ways you could distinguish a lm561c and b: size of the coils in the centre of the diode and the dreaded "black spot"/zenner diode. But I wouldn't have a clue as to how to separate a lm301 diode from another 3030 diode in the same casing.
if I were to buy a fixture like that I'd throw it in a 4x4 and compare their ppfd readings to trust truthfulness.

This is 100% speculation but I believe it's possible that some of the Chinese diodes being sold as Samsung diodes just use a copy cat reverse engineered design of the same diode, either that or straight up stolen/leaked out design from one of the Samsung factories.
That being said they are using the same machines to build the electronics so we know they would be capable of recreating an equivalent if not better diode.

longevity aside we can always test how much ppfd and how much watts are spent and get an idea f the efficacy is as claimed.

but how to make sure the diodes are what the diodes are???? Impossible for me. Which is what ultimately led me to building my own fixtures with Digi-Key bought strips.

but still hard to argue with the results even if the diodes are total knock offs. I've seen decent grows with all kinds of offbrand LEDs.
 

MidnightSun72

Well-Known Member
Floraflex just dropped a new led same parts as everyone else and way better price point
I seen that green framed baby

$650 if you can wait

F984E46F-627A-4BCF-9EDE-D8E458E7C5D4.jpeg92DBEB82-326E-4E57-8445-C510CF6E932B.png
 
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1212ham

Well-Known Member
Looks interesting. I would think if they are using samsung lm301 type diodes, they would clearly advertise that. Since they don't, they must not use them. I want to see someone post a grow journal with these. @bk78 shit show is the kind of proof that medicgrow needs someone to show for their light.
There's more than one LM301 and more than one LM301B. I'm just speculating, but maybe they don't want to point out that they use LM301Z+ rather than LM301B or top bin LM301B.
 

Apalchen

Well-Known Member
They don't give a lot of info, how do you know it has the same parts as "everyone else"?
It’s 301b chips so I mean that’s the important part right and has over 3000 chips. It’s a US based company offering 301b chips in a high count for 50 dollars more than an alibaba fixture. Nothing wrong with Alibaba fixtures but if the company is us based has to be easier to warranty.
6FE63190-3405-4BC6-848E-2EE5C80DB86C.png
 

Apalchen

Well-Known Member
I seen that green framed baby

$650 if you can wait

View attachment 4937172View attachment 4937173
If I had not just picked up my gavita 1930 I would have bought these, could have bought 15 of em for what I paid for 8. I think I bought the better light for my garden but at the price point I couldn’t have made myself spend the extra money if these were available.
 

Hashishh

Well-Known Member
You really need to look @bk78 shit show thread, I bought my Meiiju lights after looking at his thread, it's well worth a read and a purchase.
Can definitely vouch for Meijiu. I haven't tried the bar LED yet since it's still in transit but I've had one of their QB 288's in my veg tent now for a couple weeks and I'd rather flower under 2 of these than my 600w HPS at this point.

Don't hesitate to message their reps, they actually contacted me after I bought 2 of their lights and told me next time to message them direct as they could've shaved a few bucks off.

Friendly and prompt service but I can't speak of their warranty or longevity just yet but the light seems to be of great quality (even better than my Amazon HPS).


Edit: I'm starting to think Bk should be getting some commission on these lights - seems like he's sold a bunch of us forum members on them :mrgreen:
 
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