The far red thread

MrTwist1

MrTwist1

Well-Known Member
I just finished my Far Red DIY fixture... converted a 10w LED floodlight with a 10w 730nm COB that i got from Ebay (as per a post earlier in this thread). It was pretty easy, although I was a little surprised and disappointed that I had to get a DC/DC driver to power it - I wrongly assumed that the driver inside the floodlight would work with the 730nm COB. Oh well pretty easy once I got all the parts in, and my dual output timer was super easy to setup to come on exactly as the main lights went off. I'm near the end of week 2 and running for 5mins at lights off - wish me luck!

Cheers for all the great info here everyone!
 
8

8/10

Well-Known Member
Update:

I've had some reveg the past few days (long single-leaf shoots on top of buds) so I checked the timer, light leaks and far red setup. Sure enough one of the far red leds had stopped working (which means none of them work), so the plants had been on a 13,5/10,5 with no far red schedule lately, which has pushed them to reveg....

I can't get the far red driver to power only two far red leds, so I'll have to flower without far red the rest of this project. The good thing is that this proves the far reds work and can actually shorten the amount of dark needed to flower. I know there's a lot of you who know this already, but it's cool to see it first hand. I'll be doing a 11,5/12,5 regime the rest of flower. Hope the plants do fine and continue flowering.

EDIT: Actually I have a bunch of old resistors in the attic somewhere, could one of those replace the damaged led to bump the Vf to within the range of the driver?
 
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BuddyColas

BuddyColas

Well-Known Member
8/10 said:
Update:

I've had some reveg the past few days (long single-leaf shoots on top of buds) so I checked the timer, light leaks and far red setup. Sure enough one of the far red leds had stopped working (which means none of them work), so the plants had been on a 13,5/10,5 with no far red schedule lately, which has pushed them to reveg....

I can't get the far red driver to power only two far red leds, so I'll have to flower without far red the rest of this project. The good thing is that this proves the far reds work and can actually shorten the amount of dark needed to flower. I know there's a lot of you who know this already, but it's cool to see it first hand. I'll be doing a 11,5/12,5 regime the rest of flower. Hope the plants do fine and continue flowering.

EDIT: Actually I have a bunch of old resistors in the attic somewhere, could one of those replace the damaged led to bump the Vf to within the range of the driver?
Click to expand...
Actually a series resistor could do just that. I run a series string of 5 far red stars with a 5 ohm resistor in series (a 5 watt resistor). Then power that string with a 15 vdc supply. Basically the 5 ohm resistor acts as another led and is a series current limiting resistor. So each led and the 5 ohm resistor drops about 2.5 volts and the whole string draws about 500ma. :mrgreen:
*Ohms law is your friend.
 
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Mean Gene

Mean Gene

Well-Known Member
Ok so im all on board to buy the cobs and driver from rapid led.... how do i find out where i can buy a power cord or something to wire to the driver? (Meanwell LPC 35-700) Growmau5 uses a female pigtail and phone charger with his different driver in the video. What do i need to get for the meanwell driver?
 
Mean Gene

Mean Gene

Well-Known Member
I mean is it as simple as just buying a 16guage power cord from lowes and wiring in to the ac side of the driver?
 
Airwalker16

Airwalker16

Well-Known Member
Mean Gene said:
I mean is it as simple as just buying a 16guage power cord from lowes and wiring in to the ac side of the driver?
Click to expand...
Absolutely. I'd recommend going to a thrift store or any kind of computer salvage and just pick up a computer power cord. Cut the head off, strip it and spread the wires. Strip the 3 wires and hook er up!
 
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Mean Gene

Mean Gene

Well-Known Member
Airwalker16 said:
Absolutely. I'd recommend going to a thrift store or any kind of computer salvage and just pick up a computer power cord. Cut the head off, strip it and spray the wires. Strip the 3 wires and hook er up!
Click to expand...
Thanks for clearing that up. I see some drivers have dc inputs and some have ac so i probably overthought it and confused myself.
 
Airwalker16

Airwalker16

Well-Known Member
Well, I purchased 14 (only using 12) new 770nm Far Red semileds from steves leds along with 12- 3" square tube heatsinks, thermal glue, 30' of 22 awg wire, and a meanwell apc35-700. I'll be connecting this as an easy on off assembly for my current diy light and will space the heatsink tubes with a bunch of scrap u channeling I have. It'll be an interesting build but I'm excited to have my flower Initiator. All for $75 delivered wasn't bad.
 
BOBBY_G

BOBBY_G

Well-Known Member
Airwalker16 said:
Absolutely. I'd recommend going to a thrift store or any kind of computer salvage and just pick up a computer power cord. Cut the head off, strip it and spread the wires. Strip the 3 wires and hook er up!
Click to expand...
if you go to computer salvage they usually have cheap/free cpu heatsinks too

oftentimes its cheaper to buy an extension cord and cut off the female end, and you have more options of color/wire ga as opposed to the big box stores overpiced appliance cords and replacement tool cords

you can get the (whatever iec cord a computer power supply uses) cords on ebay for a buck or two delivered to your door
 
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