HLG Tomahawk 650 bar light

curious2garden

curious2garden

Well-Known Mod
Staff member
shnkrmn said:
I suspect we are nearing a plateau where most lights will perform well. A lot of competition in the last dozen years has weeded out blurples and most cobs and other designs in favor of bars and panels and has certainly driven diode innovation. My first leds from Area 51 were cutting edge in 2011 but they were chunky boxes with cooling fans blowing on the heatsink and giant lensed diodes. I still have them for sentimental reasons lol.
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That's why I only started to move to LED when the ramp up started to slow, paying for technological evolution is personally expensive.
 
TCH

TCH

Well-Known Member
shnkrmn said:
I suspect we are nearing a plateau where most lights will perform well. A lot of competition in the last dozen years has weeded out blurples and most cobs and other designs in favor of bars and panels and has certainly driven diode innovation. My first leds from Area 51 were cutting edge in 2011 but they were chunky boxes with cooling fans blowing on the heatsink and giant lensed diodes. I still have them for sentimental reasons lol.
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Remember when we thought that when HD TV first came out. And then 1080p came out and it was like "well, it's gonna be hard to look better then this" and then 4k came out and it's like "well, we can't make it any better than this. It looks like we are watching through a window" and THEN 8k happens and it's like "fuck it, we are going to be paying for this FOREVER!!!!" HAHA. They'll find a way.
 
Tolerance Break

Tolerance Break

Well-Known Member
shnkrmn said:
I suspect we are nearing a plateau where most lights will perform well. A lot of competition in the last dozen years has weeded out blurples and most cobs and other designs in favor of bars and panels and has certainly driven diode innovation. My first leds from Area 51 were cutting edge in 2011 but they were chunky boxes with cooling fans blowing on the heatsink and giant lensed diodes. I still have them for sentimental reasons lol.
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The drivers, materials, and distribution of diodes will be the biggest factor of improvement until we better understand the relationship between light spectrum/wavelength, and plants. When diodes are created specifically for agriculture with these factors in mind, it will be a revolution.
 
shnkrmn

shnkrmn

Well-Known Member
Oh we aren't at the end but progress is almost always a punctuated equilibrium, a term that always stuck with me from Evolutionary Biology class. Long periods of little change interrupted by rapid speciation events; same thing happens with technology. Remember when everyone was excited about electronic HID ballasts replacing magnetic ballasts? Although, frankly, that was hype and the electronic ballasts I bought into emitted so much RFI I was knocking out cable on my whole block and burning up the power company's meters repeatedly until they clued me in. A kindly lineman dropped the word to me. My grow was gone that night and I quit for nearly 8 years. If nothing else LED is much cleaner in that regard.
 
D

Dave455

Well-Known Member
shnkrmn said:
I suspect we are nearing a plateau where most lights will perform well. A lot of competition in the last dozen years has weeded out blurples and most cobs and other designs in favor of bars and panels and has certainly driven diode innovation. My first leds from Area 51 were cutting edge in 2011 but they were chunky boxes with cooling fans blowing on the heatsink and giant lensed diodes. I still have them for sentimental reasons lol.
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Need for future LED museum
 
SaHt420

SaHt420

Well-Known Member
shnkrmn said:
I just got one and I haven't seen anybody here using one yet. Their 25% off sale was too much temptation to resist, still running through the 28th btw. Thought I would show some of its features.

Well packed, of course, but I have yet to receive a light that was poorly packed.View attachment 5335725

The fixture is easily the lightest bar light I've seen, not counting the driverView attachment 5335726
Nice driver with 2 annoying features: one is the dangling dimmer. All my other lights have a knob mounted on the driver, maybe someone likes this but not me. The other issue is the short cord to the light. HLG sells this extension separately and they include hardware to mount the driver to the light but the installation instructions warn that if you do so you void etl certification! I will cough up for the extension cord but for now I poked a hole in my tent roof and put the driver up there. Not hugely pleased. Strangely the included power cord can power 2 lights, so you'd need 2 extension cords. I see a pattern here.View attachment 5335727
The hanging hardware included is okay but I used straps to get it as close to the tent ceiling as possible. I could get it a couple inches closer if I had 3 hands.View attachment 5335730View attachment 5335729
It's very bright!View attachment 5335732
Here are photone ppfd readings for my previous light, a Phlizon pH-B8, also a 650w fixture. Center and corner at 12 inches:View attachment 5335733View attachment 5335734
And here are the same readings from the Tomahawk:View attachment 5335735View attachment 5335736

Looks pretty good to me and the tent should run cooler than the Phlizon which has a integrated driver that can't be removed from the grow space.

Overall, pretty pleased with this light so far obviously time and a 5 year warranty will tell. Happy growing!
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How is ir clear I thought photon you need a diffuser or is that the one they sell ?
 
shnkrmn

shnkrmn

Well-Known Member
SaHt420 said:
How is ir clear I thought photon you need a diffuser or is that the one they sell ?
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I never got good readings with a diffuser, especially from a bar light. I really only use photone as a rough comparison tool. Results seem to be what matters here. I just harvested 4 plants grown under this light and got almost 850g of top shelf buds. I actually have 2 more plants from that tent I haven't harvested yet. Really pleased with this light, glad I bought 2.20231120_080012.jpg20231119_081344.jpg
 
SaHt420

SaHt420

Well-Known Member
shnkrmn said:
I never got good readings with a diffuser, especially from a bar light. I really only use photone as a rough comparison tool. Results seem to be what matters here. I just harvested 4 plants grown under this light and got almost 850g of top shelf buds. I actually have 2 more plants from that tent I haven't harvested yet. Really pleased with this light, glad I bought 2.View attachment 5344866View attachment 5344875
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Yea I build my own hlg light excited see what I can do
 
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