LED DIY : Making of a "DJ SET "-style grow led light .

Now ....
Some project updates ....
Driver's pcb is ready ..(waiting for laquer to dry ,before gets installed in place ... )

Lid is ready to accomodate pcb .....


And the trickiest part is left for the end ....
......
Solder these tiny wonders to their mc-pcb(s)....

My response to SDS post #340

In my own screw bulb testing, my 2 one month old seedlings literally jumped out of their net pots after I replaced a 6.5w/5000K/490 lumen with a 12w/5000K/850 lumen bulb. Both of these bulbs are/were between one 12.5w/3000K/1100 lumens + 22w/3000K/1600 lumen bulbs. Here's before and after pics. First 2 are from 2 days ago, prior to swapping 5000K bulbs.

Seems this strain is really liking more blue

I like the Amethyst Crystal ...It does the whole job !

Anyway ...
As I said ...
For years,I've been cultivating great plants with only ~5% blue wls ,that HPS (greenpower 400 W ) had to offer ....

During my led grows ,I've noticed increased aroma/taste using CW / NW leds ...
But not increased potency ..( Genetics & UV is probably responsible for that ,if not some other factors also ... )

" Pitfall " with leds (generally ) is blue light ...
Blue leds emmit way powerful blue light and as for CW/NW already,most of their light is in blue region ...

In nature ,blue photons
( based to the facts that : a ) are less in numbers than other photons for same power & b ) they are really dispersed ...) ,are not
" abuntant " falling to leaves ..
(that's why plants have developed so many pigments with peak absorption in blue part of light ,including ChB ..) ...

Moreover ?

Winter light has plenty of blue wls ....
And ...
Our plant ,does not grow in wintertime ...
...
I 'll leave it ,up to you to guess / understand the meaning/ point of that ...

I, too was/am in the < 20% blue camp. I upped the blue as my plants are 2 shades lighter green than I am used to under similar conditions

Color hasn't changed, but, they are exploding. NOW, that could also be due to increasing ppm from 450 to 600. Hell, when I hit 450 on my previous grow (different strain), they quickly pre-sexed, but when I backed down to 400, they reverted back to veg.

I don't expect to need this much blue during flower, but then, I have never grown this X, so all bets are off

Seems like we need more flexibility with panels- extra blue and 660 on separate circuits, to be used if needed

I'll tell you a small "secret " ,regarding blue light ....
I won't get into details though ...(Rather looooong chapter ....)

Blue light (wavelengths ) power percentage ,plants can handle / tolerate ,without too much impact on yield ..
.Now,get ready ..
..Is directly dependant on ambient temperature ..
A hint : Ambient temperature has to be less than 15° C ,for blue light not to affect flowering..... (quantity / number of flowers and/or "budsites " ) ..
But ..

but ..but ...
15° C ???
!!!
How that's possible ?
Well ....
Winter ....
Water molecules vibrating by high energy,released by blue photons ..
Absense of red light/ FR ...
Long Day plants ...

Yes ,there are plants that tolerate and probably even utilise (excess ? ..x% ? ) blue light for vegetative growth and early flowering..
Thing is ,that our beloved one ,does not fall into that "type" / category / ect of plants ...

Wait ...
No ...
There are some situations that we need low temps (to minimise water evaporation & transpiration => https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transpiration )
To slow down PS ...

Because there are no roots (yet ) to support intense PS ....

There blue light ,can be useful ...


Now ....
For me-at this point of led " quest " ,5% is max limit .......
I do not have a WHOLE ATMOSPHERE or something like that ,
between leds and plants ,to "filter out"(disperse enough ) blue Wls coming from
CW or NW leds ..Or even worse from pure ,powerful, blue dies..
Its just less than 1 m (most of times ) air ....
Way powerful sources of blue light ....
....
Call me crazy ...

We speak all the time about light power and wavelengths ...
Like there are the only variables/parameters of light ...
...
Sun seems to have at March or at a cloudy May ,around 25% ..
Yes ...
Of total PPF ....

"Coming How ,from The Sky ? "

"From Where exactly ..?"
...And yes ,then we should ask also ...

For how long and when ....
And along with what other wls ?
Or with which missing ?


As a said .......
Loooooooooooong ......Chapter .

.........

Total PUR PPF = PAR PPF+ %PAR UV + % PAR FR / NIR

Let me brake it, into pieces .....

Total usable photosynthetic radiation of -artificial -light source =
Photosynthetic active radiation ( 400-700 nm ) + UV (in % of PAR ) + FR/NIR (in %of PAR )

I.e ...
High Pressure Sodium Vapor -High Intensity Discharge Lamps .
At average .....
Great "bloomers-fruiters " for Short Day plants ..
Ok ?

Now ..
Their average spectral analysis ....
Blue (400-490 nm ) : 4.9% of total PAR PPF ...
Green (491-600 nm ): 67.2 % of total PAR PPF ...
Red (601-700 nm ) : 27.9 % of total PAR PPF ...
...
4.9%+67.2%+27.9% = 100%

Say at average a 400 W hps has 700 umol/sec total PAR ..

So 0.8% of Par in Uv region ....=5.6 umol/sec
Blue is 34.3 umol/sec (from a 400 Watt light !!!!! )
.....
56.5 % of Par in FR/NIR region is 395.5 umol/sec .....



Think it over ,what's going on ....
Tips-Hints :
-Emerson Effect Red / FAR red
(~196 umol/sec reds-~ 40 watts flux of red leds= - & ~395 umols FR/NIR )
-700 umol total(high flux ),~470 of them in the region of 491-600 nm ....
-Blue ~34 umol/sec ( ~ 10 Watt of blue leds )
-High ambient temps ( >15°C ).
......
I really trust my new combo of SSLs ....

4 x 660 & 8 x WW 2700 K ....
(~4.5 % blue )
Might be a really good flowering combo ...
As for veg ...
Who really cares that much ..
Only four weeks ,usually ..
Main thing is to be /enter at a healthy condition into flowering ...
Even if it starts to stretch ,there are ways to ..."stop " it ...
Guh-guh ..Supercropping ...
And no..
This time I do not really need "compact " internodes and "many " ......

I think I like more the few ,far away nodes ...

Yes ..
Few budsites ..
Mainly at tops ...
..
The leds , will " fill " properly the .." empty space " ......

(Ohhhh..,I trust that they will ,just fine .....I've a ...Forget it ...)

You can't do that with fixed panels...

Yes ..But some "fixed panels " aren't like others ...



...



......
Versatility of design ....
I.e ....

Extra heat wanted ? (cold environments )
PSU goes inside ...

...

....
(Europeans .. i.e Guod and me ...No matter Hellens ,Germans ,Spanish,Italians or else ...
If only we were trully a " union "...What we would have 'had achieved ....Generally speaking ....
(And Specially ...Just imagine : (alphabetical in order ) Guod-Knna-SDS ,all working for same led light ...Imagine ..)

But ....Anyway,European Immigrants and others from all over the world, did united ...
Started ~300 years ago ...
Today ...
They are ,for pretty long time now ,an Empire ...
Union ...
A word ,a meaning behind the word ,so rare , in many people's (mental) " vocabulary " ..

As for the chosen leds ...
Simply put ...
Osram Oslon SSL Warm White 2700 K (cri 95 ) ,the LCW-CQ7P-CC ..
Best warm white ( plant growth -wise ) led .
For many reasons .Efficiency ,spectral -electrical-thermal characteristics & specs , lens angle,size ,ect
..Same goes for the red ....
Best red led ,plant-growth wise .....

Both of them from Osram ....

And no others like them ....

By far The Best leds for the job ...

A straight comparison with any other (same type power-spectrum-angle ) led,speaks by itshelf ...

I grind my teeth in my dreams waiting for this light to be hovering over my happy plants...

[video=youtube;eUDpllpMg6g]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUDpllpMg6g[/video]

How many of your luxury panels will run off that monster meanwell driver??? It's about time you came over to the "deep" red side

PSUAGRO. said:

How many of your luxury panels will run off that monster meanwell driver??? It's about time you came over to the "deep" red side

Click to expand...

Guod ,is your guy for that ...But I think at their max (700mA ) No more than three(maybe four ) panels ..each panel needs ~1.5-1.7 A (leds/bucks/fans /resistors )
....Maybe a bit more .....

This PSU can handle / ( cover the needs ) up to 7.3 A in total ....

As for the deep red side ....

No ....I'm still on the (Warm ) White side ...
.....
It's just that the best company for warm whites, are ...deep reds .... ;-P

(remember never-to-be-released- EVO 4 ?
Same Oslons SSLs 80°....
Each "module " had Deep reds(x 4 ,if I remember correctly )
and Neutral whites(x2 ) ,-the basic model was like that I think ....
Well ......Warm(-est of ...) Whites with Deep reds ..My preference ...

Well ...
Top half of light is completely finished ...


Now ,I've to wait for solder paste to arrive to continue further with the "bottom part " ..

...
1-Solder(hot plate ) leds to mcpcbs ...
2-Attach mcpcbs to heatsink (rivets & Arctic Silver Epoxy of 7 W/m-K )
3-Wire mcpcbs to driver pcb ...
4-Attach( with double sided tape) protective plexiglass "mushrooms " to bottom of heatsink ...

And project then is over ..
Light will be ready to rock'n'roll....

Fk'in gorgeous.

Wait........they still haven't released the EVO v4 yet??? I had no idea they that many problems.........So what lovely female will be your "test" subject?

So what lovely female will be your "test" subject?

Click to expand...

with that WARM white spectrum he should better go for some Gays

the choosen meanwell-driver(350W) is good for 4 panels. 75W per Unit x 4 = 300W

guod said:

with that WARM white spectrum he should better go for some Gays

the choosen meanwell-driver(350W) is good for 4 panels. 75W per Unit x 4 = 300W

Click to expand...

You think that there will be an issue with hermies ?
i think not ...
We shall see....

(The country I live is / could have been the main producer of high quality cannabis,in the whole Europe ..
Yes ..Spain And Portugal ,have nice conditions but they can be too windy and rainy (humid ) ...

Southern France ,Southern Italy and Hellas ,are the only countries in Europe,in fact ,
with the appropriate climate ,to support cultivation of massive yields of high quality (potency ) of cannbis flowers ......
And trust me Guod ....
Sun at summer here ....Really has a "warm light temperature " ...
Like the little Oslons have ....


Trust me on that ...
Just them ( LCW CQ7P-CC ) can grow fine quality buds ...
Without any other type or color of leds ...
And of really decent to great yields ...
...
Do not trust me ?
Ok .. then you can always "Just give it a go "..
Simple enough... )

PSUAGRO. said:

Wait........they still haven't released the EVO v4 yet??? I had no idea they that many problems.........So what lovely female will be your "test" subject?

Click to expand...

White Russian ,of course ..
My favourite strain ....
There's no original EVO4 from gudomedled grow...
Never made it to market ...

Well ..
Really rough approximations here ,but will do for now ....


4-24-68-3 ...
in % ... ..

Cie : 0.5 & .392 .....
Nice color ...Amber light ....
Reminds me summers ....
I will name the combo 2:1 ( WW : 660 ) officialy : SES ...( "E" after "D" ) ....But it really means :
Sunburns Every Summer .

White dot is the Cie that the calculator gives ..
Shaded "egg" shape , is the range that the actual light color probably will ..."float " inside ....
Summer ,I'm tellin' ya !
Sunburns every summer ....

[video=youtube;Wl7Rx1x3Wr0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl7Rx1x3Wr0&list=RD06eUDpllpMg6g[/video]



24 % from 500 to 599 nm
68 % from 600 to 699 nm

Way much red ?
Hmmm ..yeah ..
But total output from/of these lights (1 to 4 )can be from low to moderate/high ..
I plan for two of these ..Maybe later three ....
So ..Overall flux is low-to moderate ...( for up to 1 m^2 )
Thus the extra red and the 4% blue ...(more than enough at this case ....And at this emission angle -80° )