Using and Testing Vesta Strips

[BuddyColas]

So this is my first go at a thread. I hang out and read the threads mostly, with occasional comments.


I am a small hobbyist grower. I grow vegetables, herbs and our favorite herb. Electronics and DIYing have always floated my boat.


One niche that I like in our very large LED DIY community is getting the most usable photons for the lowest price (another type of efficiency). I was impressed with the Cutter 560 Cree strips for a whopping $10.72 USDs per strip. I ordered 6 of them. TEKNIK tested these strips on his thread:

https://www.rollitup.org/t/cutter-cree-strip-tests.987995/page-2

Short version: 4000K, 80CRI, 22.7 watts, 56.8ppf (360-840nm) for 53% efficiency. I like it. So he tested them with a Viso LabSensor (spoiler alert…the sensor stays fixed and the light moves). Watch the video. Way cool. That way of testing a light and the IES files were new to me.


I know what you’re thinking, “So when’s he going to start talking about Vesta strips?” OK, OK, so I built a Vesta light for my 2x4 foot tent (details to follow). At $11.25 for 25 watts each of 90CRI, 2700K and 5000K light, they are a real deal. And after reading his thread, I sent TEKNIK a Vesta strip to test. More on that when TEKNIK gets the test done. Results forthcoming.


So here’s my build. The frame cost a whopping $20. I used 2.5”x1.25” steel studs pop riveted to 1”x1/8” aluminum stock. The bars are 8” on center, and the frame is 46.25” long. So 2 Vesta strips per bar at 50 watts each, and 3 bars for 300 watts. Plenty for a 2x4 foot tent. I don’t run it at 1 amp wide open.

 

[TheTinkerer]

Total cost of your 300 watt fixture?

 

[BuddyColas]

Total cost of your 300 watt fixture?

$20 for the frame. I did have the pop rivet tool.
$67.50 for the 6 Vesta strips
$82.00 for a hlg-320h-c1000b (from Arrow)
$169.50 total

To keep it fair I did have the terminal board, wiring, ty-raps and small white PVC tubing laying around.

 

[Moflow]

$20 for the frame. I did have the pop rivet tool.
$67.50 for the 6 Vesta strips
$82.00 for a hlg-320h-c1000b (from Arrow)
$169.50 total

To keep it fair I did have the terminal board, wiring, ty-raps and small white PVC tubing laying around.

Are they the 560mm strips?

 

[Moflow]

Are they the 560mm strips?

Yea , must be! Lol

 

[BuddyColas]

Are they the 560mm strips?

Yes.

 

[Chip Green]

I'll be taking note. I will go ahead and anticipate a plus satisfactory performance.
I glanced at the Vesta at one point, never to revisit.

 

[whytewidow]

I think vesta will have a new strips fall. With different ccts other than 27, and 5k.

Next time I'd use all aluminum. No steel. Steel holds the heat alot longer than aluminum. Running at 1amp and under I'm sure they really dont get hot. But if you ever go bigger and push alot of watts. Steel is last resort kinda thing. In my opinion only. I mean it does cool faster. But nice digs man.

 

[GBAUTO]

The Vesta I retro-fitted into my old King fixture(250w) has grown some serious fire for me. I really like the ability to run it as a veg light at 50% power and then have the ability to add another 50% of 2700k. I run mine at about 15% above test current just riveted to the old PCB panel with the original active cooling-they barely get warm.

 

[BuddyColas]

I think vesta will have a new strips fall. With different ccts other than 27, and 5k.

Next time I'd use all aluminum. No steel. Steel holds the heat alot longer than aluminum. Running at 1amp and under I'm sure they really dont get hot. But if you ever go bigger and push alot of watts. Steel is last resort kinda thing. In my opinion only. I mean it does cool faster. But nice digs man.

You are right. Aluminum is better. I found them at my local lumber yard and had to give them a try. The steel studs surprised me by how thin and light they are (cheap too). There are so many ways to measure the temperature of cobs/strips. Most involve a therm-couple (which I don't have), so I use droop. If I can keep the droop under 1% that's great. I really like to keep my builds under 2% at all times. Fortunately, the same fan that blows across the canopy also cools the strips!

 

[BuddyColas]

I'll be taking note. I will go ahead and anticipate a plus satisfactory performance.
I glanced at the Vesta at one point, never to revisit.

I know. At 129/135 lumens per watt, they are nothing to get excited about. But Bridgelux usually under-reports their performance specs. And I think they will look better when all the photons are counted! Time will tell.

 

[BuddyColas]

The Vesta I retro-fitted into my old King fixture(250w) has grown some serious fire for me. I really like the ability to run it as a veg light at 50% power and then have the ability to add another 50% of 2700k. I run mine at about 15% above test current just riveted to the old PCB panel with the original active cooling-they barely get warm.

I'm interested...are you up to sharing a picture(s) of your King makeover?

 

[TEKNIK]

Hi guys.
Thanks Buddy for mentioning me here, I will get the tests done as soon as I can, hopefully tomorrow to show everyone, I will test each colour at 500mA and 1amp. I will also show a combination report that has both colours working at the same time. The combination report will have a strange beam angle but the rest of the results will be accurate. Once again I will show the lumens reports so it will be easy to do a Lux to par calculation. I am not sure when my account will be fixed. They don't tell me anything to be honest. Hopefully within the next year I will be able to get back on here properly.
I will email Buddy the results so he can share them with you all.
Cheers

 

[jungle666]

Hi guys.
Thanks Buddy for mentioning me here, I will get the tests done as soon as I can, hopefully tomorrow to show everyone, I will test each colour at 500mA and 1amp. I will also show a combination report that has both colours working at the same time. The combination report will have a strange beam angle but the rest of the results will be accurate. Once again I will show the lumens reports so it will be easy to do a Lux to par calculation. I am not sure when my account will be fixed. They don't tell me anything to be honest. Hopefully within the next year I will be able to get back on here properly.
I will email Buddy the results so he can share them with you all.
Cheers

Looking forward to seeing the results myself teknic , keen to have a crack at indoor

 

[Rocket Soul]

I know. At 129/135 lumens per watt, they are nothing to get excited about. But Bridgelux usually under-reports their performance specs. And I think they will look better when all the photons are counted! Time will tell.

Those numbers are better than you think:
The LER on those 90 cri spectrum is around 280-290 and not 320-330 as for 3000k 80 cri so they are closer to 50% efficacy than you think.

The Vesta I retro-fitted into my old King fixture(250w) has grown some serious fire for me. I really like the ability to run it as a veg light at 50% power and then have the ability to add another 50% of 2700k. I run mine at about 15% above test current just riveted to the old PCB panel with the original active cooling-they barely get warm.

Didnt like the halfnhalf spectrum for flower that much. But the 2700 flowers great, even on lower wattage. We did a 4x2.5 with 12 vestas on a hlg240, about 24w per square foot. The tray was on point with the rest of the grow that was around 30+ w per square foot.

I like the strips for 20w, they stay very cool on sinks.

Id recommend them to anyone who wanna try. Its around 200 diodes for just over 10$. However id do it on a 2 to 1 basis for the more common samsung strips.

 

[TEKNIK]

I'm back again, sorry to ask this on your thread Buddy but hard for me to get on threads at all. I have a question for you guys, I want to improve the reports I can provide, the software is capable of producing a par map for you once I have done a test. What do you all want to see exactly? Is it a 4X4 par map at 12 inches hang height? Or is there a few that you want seen such as a par map for a 4X4 @12 inches then another @18 inches? This will be more important when I am testing a fixture rather than a DIY strip but because my machine creates an IES file when it does a test it's something that can be implemented into a standard report.

 

[BuddyColas]

Those numbers are better than you think:
The LER on those 90 cri spectrum is around 280-290 and not 320-330 as for 3000k 80 cri so they are closer to 50% efficacy than you think.


Didnt like the halfnhalf spectrum for flower that much. But the 2700 flowers great, even on lower wattage. We did a 4x2.5 with 12 vestas on a hlg240, about 24w per square foot. The tray was on point with the rest of the grow that was around 30+ w per square foot.

I like the strips for 20w, they stay very cool on sinks.

Id recommend them to anyone who wanna try. Its around 200 diodes for just over 10$. However id do it on a 2 to 1 basis for the more common samsung strips.

You are right. I forgot about that. I went back to an old thread:
Cheap and Cheerful DIY using Citizen cobs
For 2 year old Citizen COBs at 2700K and 90CRI the LER was 276 and the QER was 5.04.
So if you divide the QER by the LER you get .018 (a conversion factor).
Then multiply the lumens/watt by the conversion factor, or 129 * .018 for 2.32. Or 2.32 umols/watt.
So 50 watts at 2.32 umols/watt for $11.25 is pretty good.
It will be interesting to see what the real world numbers look like.

*I could not find any QER and LER values for 5000K

 

[BuddyColas]

I'm back again, sorry to ask this on your thread Buddy but hard for me to get on threads at all. I have a question for you guys, I want to improve the reports I can provide, the software is capable of producing a par map for you once I have done a test. What do you all want to see exactly? Is it a 4X4 par map at 12 inches hang height? Or is there a few that you want seen such as a par map for a 4X4 @12 inches then another @18 inches? This will be more important when I am testing a fixture rather than a DIY strip but because my machine creates an IES file when it does a test it's something that can be implemented into a standard report.

I like the 1 page summary you posted on your thread.
Not sure what other builders would like to see, but I am a small grower in tents or growcabinets.

 

[BuddyColas]

Here is a pic of the Vesta's first run. I ran both colors equally for about 700ish umols/sec. at the canopy. I flowered a little early, so the canopy does not totally fill the screen (actually a car-top bungee cargo net). The strain is CBD Divine from CBD Crew and Mr. Nice which is supposed to take 6-8 weeks. The picture is 42 days in flower. 90CRI is supposed to help them finish a bit early.

 

[TEKNIK]

Hi, I have sent the files to buddy as I am unable to upload them, just to note one mistake on one of the reports, I was in a hurry and wrote that it was in parallel not in series, easy to see that it is if you look at the report properly.
They performed better than I thought they would. Really nice colour also. If they were on an aluminium back that would be alot better.
Hopefully Buddy will be able to get on here today to share the results

Cheers