DIY LED Panel: Sourcing 60 and 90 Degree LED Chips

Hey guys,

I've decided to start growing my own crop and I'm interested in using LED's. The only problem is that I can't afford an awesome ready made LED panel. Through searching I've found that it's pretty easy to make my own, since I have a bit of a background with wiring small electronics, this shouldn't be a problem.

LEDs angled from 60-90 degrees are the way to go, but they're been super hard to find in the 1w-7w range. I've seen that detachable lenses can be added, but I am curious as to if they drop the intensity of the light being produced.

Can someone refer or help me find these elusive 60-90 degree LEDs? or give some insight on the clip on adjuster?

Thanks!

Ledengin LZ1

~3W, all colours and whites, 90 deg view angle

crosspost from my thread

• http://uk.mouser.com/new/ledengin/ledenginLZ1emitters/
  
  the 660nm datasheet. http://www.ledengin.com/files/produc...LZ1-00R200.pdf
  
  edit: i forgot to mention that one thing that i like about the LZ1, which is shared with the xte (makes it even more of a shame that i dont like the viewing angle...

  

  ) - they wont blow up if a fan fails and the heatsink reaches boiling point. (rated for 1.2A at 100C )​

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edit: i wouldnt use lenses. They will kill your output by some amount.

why not use optics? you can raise your fixture a little higher..

3w leds are a lot in market yet, and 5w also available in the led grow light. I would choose the 3w choices, as the efficiency and heat issues.
For the lenses, it makes the light focus, so the light can penetrate lower your canopy. It increase the intensity but drop the light total amount.

Thanks for the help guys, wish I could have responded soon.

Anyone else have input on this?

Check digi-key, they have a lot of options. Rapidled.com also has some nice stuff. You don't need 60-90 degree viewing angles or secondary optics to get penetration, imo, you can simply throw lots of Watts per square inch at your plants (Cree XM-L2, various Philips Rebel's or OSLON's, multichip LED's, multiple panels hitting the plant at different angles, etc.) and penetration should be fine.

GL.

I'll agree that you don't need 60 - 90 degree LEDs. I've also opted to ditch the secondary optics myself in order to avoid the light losses which they incur. As optics improve, I may change my mind. Cree XML and Philips Luxeon ES are both good quality LEDs which should give you good service. No name, no bin, totally unknown quality LEDs are almost assuredly not high quality. Builders shout about high quality and just don't talk about the places they shaved corners. You can also choose a good quality driver and heatsink which will make a huge difference in the quality of the light that you receive, the efficiency and the longevity of the fixture. I find it laughable how these slap-your-name-on-it-for-$25 chinese fixtures "manufacturers" talk about how important spectrum is and how unimportant good quality drivers and heatsinks are. Of course, most of the time they provide no actual spectrum info other than maybe the numbers of chips and basic (I say basic because the spectrum of an LED is over a range and part of what makes it a high quality bin is actually being close to the spectrum desired) desired spectrum but don't provide any actual spectrum info. No brand, no bin, no real spectrum data, often no real watts data and no data on what driver is being used, size of the heatsink, etc. These are all critical elements that cost money. You can't buy a Mercedes for the price of a Kia and in the case of the Kia, it's actually not too bad since it still gets you down the road....many of those cheap chinese fixtures die an early death after providing really poor service. There is no free lunch.

If you want to grow big plants, you'll need to go with higher watt LEDs. Cree XMLs are 10 watts which can easily be driven to about 6.6 watts each at 2100mA (driver current). You should be able to grow some fairly large plants with those. If you want to go as low a wattage as possible and try to max grams per watt rather than total grow weight, go with 3 watt LEDs and use multiple panels which you can keep close to your fairly even and low canopy (2 feet or maybe less). Phillips luxeon es are the best 660 nm chips and probably the best royal blue...whereas I'd give cree the edge on whites...but philips are still good on white. ledgroupbuy.com stevesleds.com

What is a clip on adjuster? Are you talking about the optics? or...?

Awesome, thanks for the help guys. This is a great community!!

Jc, I've been wondering about the no-name emitters I see on ebay for cheap. I've been wanting to build up a veg panel with them for practice, but I'm on the fence. High quality emitters cost a lot more, but it seems to be worth it. I'm looking into Osram Golden Dragon Plus's at the moment, anyone have experience using these emitters?

I'll be growing in a supped up wardrobe come the time to grow, I already have a nickname for it...The Hyperponic Time Chamber (play of the hyperbolic time chamber as seen in DBz). Since I'm growing in a small space I don't want them to get too big. I've been contemplating a scrog, so size shouldn't affect me to much I think.

The adjusters I was referring to are known as 'optics', I didn't know what to call them at the time, haha.

Thanks for schooling me in the right direction guys, once I get going with this build I'm sure you'll all enjoy it!

Also, are the cheap mpcb's sold on ebay and good? Like these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/170930455883?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

Work with Golden Dragon Plus?

Thanks for the tips Spheda. As I mentioned, I plan to build 2 panels, one for veg and one for flower. Do you think it's a good Idea to run them at same time? Would it be a better idea to create 2 panels with mixed spectrums and then run and then run them at the same time?

Fholston said:

Jc, I've been wondering about the no-name emitters I see on ebay for cheap. I've been wanting to build up a veg panel with them for practice, but I'm on the fence. High quality emitters cost a lot more, but it seems to be worth it. I'm looking into Osram Golden Dragon Plus's at the moment, anyone have experience using these emitters?
....
Also, are the cheap mpcb's sold on ebay and good? Like these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/170930455883?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

Work with Golden Dragon Plus?

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I use GD+ with great success. They have 170 degree viewing angles so they are ideal for smaller environments. You can get within an inch without burning the tops, although they do burn. 3-4 inches is ideal.

The cheap mpcbs don't have good thermal transfer to the heatsink. I'd find the Bergquist stars; those have much better performance in that regard.

also GD+, lenses and all the rest...

https://www.rollitup.org/led-other-lighting/547085-diy-modular-led-light.html

It depends on the temps in your grow space. If you're going to get huge swings where it's too warm during the day and too cold at night then obviously you'd want stagger the lights' on/off times between the two rooms. Make sure both rooms are extremely light tight, however, 'cause you really don't wanna hermie your first crop just to find out the flower box can "see" the veg tent.

Veg growth is super easy with LED's. I say save the money and build no-name/brand cheap Chinese LED panels for your vegging needs. Flower is 100% more demanding, so put the bulk of your funds towards that, imho.

I havent tested the space yet, the dimensions are:



I'm fitting it with a 50cfm exhaust fan and I have 2 200mm fans for intake at my disposal. With that setup I'm hoping heat won't be a problem. I plan to put everything on controllers to adjust the speeds, not so sure if it will work with the exhaust fan though, I'm hoping it will.

Yeah I think I may do it, Spheda. If they don't work I can all ways veg with cfls.

Would 35 GD+ emitters be too much for my space? This would be for the flowering panel.

If I build the cheapo chinese veg panel, I'm hoping to use about 30 for that one.

Guod! That's awesome! Great thread!! I'd love to build a light like that, would you mind providing a parts list for that or any of your builds?

I haven't worked with the golden dragon LEDs but but have heard they are good...but I don't think they've updated their chips in a while though. Compare the spec sheets between them, Cree and Philips luxeon es and see which ones are better. If the chips you are looking at don't have a known bin/associated spec sheet, don't buy them; they are most likely the poorest quality LEDs from the manufacturers run. Buy known brand and KNOWN BIN.

I take it that you aren't running separate veg and flower tents but rather running one tent that you use sequentially? If that's true, maybe you should think about one panel but providing dimmable drivers for your unit. You could have the reds, blues and whites on separate dimmable drivers so that you could use the same panel and get a good mixed spectrum but you change the spectrum over time through the dimmer. Take a look at ledgroupbuy.com and stevesleds.com

Inventronics dimmable drivers and stevesleds drivers can become dimmable with the cheap and easy addition of a pot. I've got inventronics drivers on my diy white cree xml strip lights and I'm trying stevesleds and drivers on some small fixtures (philips luxeon es) that I just built and am adding to my Kessil spinner.

Of course, you can build two separate fixtures and change them out; that will certainly work. Bumping is also right on with saying veg is much easier than flower. Make sure you spend your time and money on maximizing flower.

Thanks for the tips, Jc!