Quick Question mA

chronic masterbaker

chronic masterbaker

Member
I am very new to LED lighting and I'm wondering what the difference is for different mA settings.
I have read that higher mA currents reduce life of diodes, does it also create more intense light?
Is there a standard mA setting that is good to grow at?
I'm sorry if this seems stupid I have searched before this I couldn't find a coherent answer especially in regards to growing MJ.

Thanks! :leaf:
 
its amps. its how to gauge the wire and breaker loads. ,,,milli amps. not even 1 amp..thats why led suck. theres no pentration. nothing you can do to change the amps anyways so not sure why even looking at that info. its for how to wire safley
 
Cannabisworks said:
its amps. its how to gauge the wire and breaker loads. ,,,milli amps. not even 1 amp..thats why led suck. theres no pentration. nothing you can do to change the amps anyways so not sure why even looking at that info. its for how to wire safley
Click to expand...

These are high-watt output drivers, so they could power alot of 3-watt chips. which would provide for penetration and intesity, right?
 
3w diodes are driven @ 700mA to usually give them just over 2w's, 1w Diodes are driven @ 350mA which usually run @ just under 1w.

Haight SS uses 6w diodes, not sure how many amps they run at. They could be the same amperage and just higher voltage; but this is all just speculation.
Blackdog uses 5w diodes.... again not sure of the stats.
 
like was said...no power. dont know to many awesome grows with that small of wattages. we may save on the running cost but at the expense of good and lots of bud. so is a waste.
 
Beefbisquit said:
3w diodes are driven @ 700mA LED's to usually give them just over 2w's, 1w Diodes are 350mA LED's which usually run @ just under 1w.

Haight SS uses 6w diodes, not sure how many amps they run at. They could be the same amperage and just higher voltage; but this is all just speculation.
Blackdog uses 5w diodes.... again not sure of the stats.
Click to expand...

Thanks Alot! Just what I was looking for!

They are usually driven at 700mA, but could a higher or lower amperage be used? And what would the effects be? At this point I'm just trying to get to know the technology man, thanks for the help.
 
Cannabisworks said:
like was said...no power. dont know to many awesome grows with that small of wattages. we may save on the running cost but at the expense of good and lots of bud. so is a waste.
Click to expand...

brosef, the whole point of LEDs is how much light they make per watt. They are very "efficient" which means they have a good ratio there. As a sidenote heat is no longer the problem it is with HID lights.

So when you comment on how low the wattages are, you are correct. Thats the point.
 
You're fkin biased and ridiculous; stop spouting misinformation, leds produce great light; it's you that failed to implement them effectively.

Just because LEDs produce lumens efficiently doesn't mean that an they can't match the output of MH or HPS lights. Yes you'll need a large quantity; yes the initial cost is higher. If you were smart you could figure out how to create a strong penetrating led light that is not only effective on a PAR scale; but also on your wallet; oil; co2 and the environment.

Pathetic...Can...
 
and they suck as a grow light is my point. growing and light info is all about pentiration and output. not money saving. youll never recover the loss in less weed from them. there isnt anythiung good about them expect less cost to run...but at a less to everything else that we dont want a loss in
 
never have met hid outputs..ive yet to see any output 150k lumens..if i was smart???...lol..no if the companies where they would do it and they cant. they flopped long ago and been prven by REAL growers since day one they suck. just like the missleading info in comparing cfl wattages. to many stuck on par info...if you cant get the nice fancy colour to the plant well enough all your par is nothing...need candle power/lumens also....if you where smart to youd know that.
 
chronic masterbaker said:
I am very new to LED lighting and I'm wondering what the difference is for different mA settings.
I have read that higher mA currents reduce life of diodes, does it also create more intense light?
Is there a standard mA setting that is good to grow at?
I'm sorry if this seems stupid I have searched before this I couldn't find a coherent answer especially in regards to growing MJ.

Thanks! :leaf:
Click to expand...


Anyways Leds take a specific voltage; sets are often 12-24v and include the resistors and wiring in order to deliver the proper ~2 volts to the individual diode. If you increase the voltage you change the hue because you are over-driving and overheating the diode changing the way the material reacts to electrons passing over the diode gate that emits light at a frequency related to the type of material. Some are more efficient than others all over the spectrum; there are several materials leds are made from.

milliamps is a fraction of an amp, 1 milliamp is 1000 of an amp (.001) . the current draw is rated at a specific voltage that is fed to the led based on the power supply and resistor if needed. For example a 12v power supply and a 1.9 volt led; the package will tell you the current needed ~50 milliamps; you need a resistance around 200 ohms; or a 220 ohm resistor.

The equation is R = (SupplyVoltage - LED VOLTAGE) / LED amperage (12 - 1.9) /50 milliamps (.050) 50 thousandths is 5 hundredths' (.05)

You can wire leds in a series and wire to 12v volts. You could wire about 6 on a 12v supply using 1.9v leds... I believe The Equation would look like this:
(12 - (1.9*6)) / (6*.05)

There are calculators out there so just use them to make it easy; or just get sets that are already wired with 10' rolls that can have 1200 + leds.
 
ihatefoxnews said:
Anyways Leds take a specific voltage; sets are often 12-24v and include the resistors and wiring in order to deliver the proper ~2 volts to the individual diode. If you increase the voltage you change the hue because you are over-driving and overheating the diode changing the way the material reacts to electrons passing over the diode gate that emits light at a frequency related to the type of material. Some are more efficient than others all over the spectrum; there are several materials leds are made from.

milliamps is a fraction of an amp, 1 milliamp is 1000 of an amp. the current draw is rated at a specific voltage that is fed to the led based on the power supply and resistor if needed. For example a 12v power supply and a 1.9 volt led; the package will tell you the current needed; you need a resistance around 200 ohms; or a 220 ohm resistor.

The equation is R = (SupplyVoltage - LED VOLTAGE) / LED amperage (12 - 1.9) /50 milliamps (.050) 50 thousandths is 5 hundredths' (.05)
Click to expand...

holy shit man this is getting confusing.
 
Cannabisworks said:
never have met hid outputs..ive yet to see any output 150k lumens..if i was smart???...lol..no if the companies where they would do it and they cant. they flopped long ago and been prven by REAL growers since day one they suck. just like the missleading info in comparing cfl wattages. to many stuck on par info...if you cant get the nice fancy colour to the plant well enough all your par is nothing...need candle power/lumens also....if you where smart to youd know that.
Click to expand...

I'm not going to argue --------- there is no winning there. I will say this; Leds especially white leds can easily outperform in lumens. I know of a set that produces 14498 lumens white light with only 7.95 amps at 24V (75 watts) with a huge spike around the 670-690NM range. That's 194 lumens per watt. You would have 194,000 lumens at 1000 watts...... where as a MH based off some AFC grow info site; produces 125 lumens per watt.
That's not even the most efficient I've seen...
 
chronic masterbaker said:
Thanks Alot! Just what I was looking for!

They are usually driven at 700mA, but could a higher or lower amperage be used? And what would the effects be? At this point I'm just trying to get to know the technology man, thanks for the help.
Click to expand...

I believe the general idea is that pushing it over 700mA will produce light but it will also shorten the life of the diode substantially, and produce more heat making the unit less efficient. 700mA is the best balance between power and longevity for the majority of the panels that use 3w diodes.

As you might already know certain LED companies often use lenses on 3w LED's to get better penetration, while other companies panels are using different higher wattage LED's with a wide angle lens to attempt to get better coverage without sacrificing penetration.

Cannabisworks said:
never have met hid outputs..ive yet to see any output 150k lumens..if i was smart???...lol..no if the companies where they would do it and they cant. they flopped long ago and been prven by REAL growers since day one they suck. just like the missleading info in comparing cfl wattages. to many stuck on par info...if you cant get the nice fancy colour to the plant well enough all your par is nothing...need candle power/lumens also....if you where smart to youd know that.
Click to expand...

You are correct, the coverage on LED's is pretty crappy compared to HID in that sense. 60 degree lenses on 3w LED's and 5-6w LED's are fighting this problem, but still haven't gotten to HID quality coverage. I think it's safe to say that for the small-medium grow LED's have shown they're more than adequate to keep up with HID, provided you can come up with the large start up costs.

Lumens are visible light to the human eye, and the human eye is sensitive to green light the most, which is the most useless colour to plants. Red and blue light, which are the most useful to plants, are harder for the human eye to see, so to us they don't look as bright. To a plant, it's much brighter than a comparable wattage from HID lighting.
 
ihatefoxnews said:
I'm not going to argue --------- there is no winning there. I will say this; Leds especially white leds can easily outperform in lumens. I know of a set that produces 14498 lumens white light with only 7.95 amps at 24V (75 watts) with a huge spike around the 670-690NM range. That's 194 lumens per watt. You would have 194,000 lumens at 1000 watts...... where as a MH based off some AFC grow info site; produces 125 lumens per watt.
That's not even the most efficient I've seen...
Click to expand...

white light is useless to the plant. its good for household lighting. apears to be brighter than they realy are.
14 hundred lumens isnt going to grow anything to its best. that the flouro tube and cfl range for outputs, your right, therer is no argument comparing 1400 to 150.000
 
not 1400, 14000....

HID system produce about 20% usable light. LED's are closer to 95%, depending on the system you buy.

[video=youtube;8j3xdB-0pGE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j3xdB-0pGE[/video]
 
14000 to 150, 000. still a whole world of difference. nice colour still isnt reaching the plant to make tight nuggets. dont see how they can even try to compare them to out puts of hid lights. 14k is still cfl and flour tube outputs but 100x more money to buy.. even a 400 hid is only about 15 to 20 a month to run. to pay off the cost to run savings would take years in weight loss and quality loss, they may have their place but there are many other cheeper way to avoid led and get better results
having some abngle to make a bigger footprint is even worse if you follow inverse square law for how light dimishes over distances.
 
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