DIY LEDs. Looking for advice from people with experience.

[GeriPie93]

Hey everyone.
I've just finished my first run ( technically 2nd as I grew an auto whilst vegging a photo and then flipped after harvesting the auto) and I'm now thinking about any changes I want to make for the future. I currently have a 4x4 tent running 2x 600W Meizhi LEDs and, honestly, I wasn't too disappointed with the quality of the end product but it wasn't amazing due to various, obvious factors. I really want to continue growing and working towards producing some really good quality cannabis, and I don't think I'm going to get there with these lights. They're great for the meantime but at some point I want to upgrade, I want to stick to LEDs, and I'm not sure I want to just go and buy a better unit from another company for a lot more money if it's going to be more cost effective and possibly more efficient if I look into building my own setup.

Basically, I'm just interested in opinions and advice from people who have first hand experience to help me figure out what I want to do moving forward.

I'm especially interested in hearing from UK growers as I prefer to buy locally when possible.

Thanks!

 

[ilovereggae]

Hey everyone.
I've just finished my first run ( technically 2nd as I grew an auto whilst vegging a photo and then flipped after harvesting the auto) and I'm now thinking about any changes I want to make for the future. I currently have a 4x4 tent running 2x 600W Meizhi LEDs and, honestly, I wasn't too disappointed with the quality of the end product but it wasn't amazing due to various, obvious factors. I really want to continue growing and working towards producing some really good quality cannabis, and I don't think I'm going to get there with these lights. They're great for the meantime but at some point I want to upgrade, I want to stick to LEDs, and I'm not sure I want to just go and buy a better unit from another company for a lot more money if it's going to be more cost effective and possibly more efficient if I look into building my own setup.

Basically, I'm just interested in opinions and advice from people who have first hand experience to help me figure out what I want to do moving forward.

I'm especially interested in hearing from UK growers as I prefer to buy locally when possible.

Thanks!

According to a quick Google search, those lights only draw 120 actual watts from the wall. The other number is irrelevant marketing hype.

For a 4x4 you need @ 480W of quality LED. so at minimum I would recommend another 240W of DIY strips or HLG quantum boards. I suggest selling those lights and replacing with an additional 240W of the same high quality white led. Will run cooler and more efficiently.

 

[GeriPie93]

According to a quick Google search, those lights only draw 120 actual watts from the wall. The other number is irrelevant marketing hype.

For a 4x4 you need @ 480W of quality LED. so at minimum I would recommend another 240W of DIY strips or HLG quantum boards. I suggest selling those lights and replacing with an additional 240W of the same high quality white led. Will run cooler and more efficiently.

Thanks for the response.

Yeah I went in on the lights with a mate to do a grow at his place a couple years ago when I didn't really know anything about anything. I didn't realise they weren't actually 600w until after I was already into my own grow. I just put that so people knew the size I was using. Should have put the true watts too.
And thank you for the advice. I'll have a look into those.

I'm thinking down the line I'd like to have separate veg and flower tents so figured they might come in handy for vegging.

 

[Boatguy]

https://diyleduk.com/
The highlights are a good value. They have a thread here

 

[GeriPie93]

https://diyleduk.com/
The highlights are a good value. They have a thread here

Thank you!

 

[coreywebster]

Thank you!

Lots of UK guys in the LED section mate.

You cant go wrong with any light diyleduk sells because he doesn't sell crap.
But if its out of your budget then building your own isn't too difficult, if you want to shop local and diy then your going to be looking at 480-560w of strips like Samsung, bridgelux available from places like digikey , arrow ect.
You can take a look at LED gardener's strip builds (google it) to get some ideas , at least as whats available and matching drivers to strips.
But in the UK heatsinks are not that easy to get or can be very costly so it means you would want to over build , spend more on strips so you can run them soft and negate the need for expensive heatsinks.

It going to come down to how much you are willing to spend vs how much time you want to invest.

P.S I own some of those highlights (amongst other LEDs) they are very nice lights.

 

[GeriPie93]

Lots of UK guys in the LED section mate.

You cant go wrong with any light diyleduk sells because he doesn't sell crap.
But if its out of your budget then building your own isn't too difficult, if you want to shop local and diy then your going to be looking at 480-560w of strips like Samsung, bridgelux available from places like digikey , arrow ect.
You can take a look at LED gardener's strip builds (google it) to get some ideas , at least as whats available and matching drivers to strips.
But in the UK heatsinks are not that easy to get or can be very costly so it means you would want to over build , spend more on strips so you can run them soft and negate the need for expensive heatsinks.

It going to come down to how much you are willing to spend vs how much time you want to invest.

P.S I own some of those highlights (amongst other LEDs) they are very nice lights.

Excellent info. Thank you
I'll look into that straight away.
I'm happy to spend the money on good equipment eventually but right now I can just afford to upgrade a little bit at a time.

The highlights do look pretty good. If I can get the cash together I'll look into those for sure

 

[GeriPie93]

Lots of UK guys in the LED section mate.

You cant go wrong with any light diyleduk sells because he doesn't sell crap.
But if its out of your budget then building your own isn't too difficult, if you want to shop local and diy then your going to be looking at 480-560w of strips like Samsung, bridgelux available from places like digikey , arrow ect.
You can take a look at LED gardener's strip builds (google it) to get some ideas , at least as whats available and matching drivers to strips.
But in the UK heatsinks are not that easy to get or can be very costly so it means you would want to over build , spend more on strips so you can run them soft and negate the need for expensive heatsinks.

It going to come down to how much you are willing to spend vs how much time you want to invest.

P.S I own some of those highlights (amongst other LEDs) they are very nice lights.

Just found this board that has the Samsung LM301B diodes and it's seems pretty cheap. Just wanted to see what you thought? This might work out cheaper than buying all the strips and sinks separately if these boards come with sinks and are just under £60 each.

 

[coreywebster]

Just found this board that has the Samsung LM301B diodes and it's seems pretty cheap. Just wanted to see what you thought? This might work out cheaper than buying all the strips and sinks separately if these boards come with sinks and are just under £60 each.

You got a link or name, something I can search?
Depends on the board, most have 288 diodes so you can push them around 120w -150w each with a heat sink, some are smaller though .
You would want 4 boards and heatsinks and a couple of drivers , meanwell XLG are a good choice now due to them been smaller and cheaper than HLG series drivers. That would work great in a 4x4.
Would need to see the boards though to check specs and to get an idea if they are genuine.

 

[go go kid]

just to get your lips drooling. 180w 3 plant 1/2 lb of weed

 

[GeriPie93]

You got a link or name, something I can search?
Depends on the board, most have 288 diodes so you can push them around 120w -150w each with a heat sink, some are smaller though .
You would want 4 boards and heatsinks and a couple of drivers , meanwell XLG are a good choice now due to them been smaller and cheaper than HLG series drivers. That would work great in a 4x4.
Would need to see the boards though to check specs and to get an idea if they are genuine.

Yeah my bad, thought I'd copied it in.

Atreum 288.2 LED Board, Horticulture Full Spectrum Grow Light Panel, Samsung LM301B

This high efficiency LED Board uses 288x Samsung LM301B SK Bin diodes for full-spectrum lighting; critical for the vegetative and flowering stages in your indoor grow. Accepts up to 120W of power at a compact 9"x9". Uses Meanwell drivers, and can be daisy chained for a clean setup.

atreumlighting.com

 

[GeriPie93]

just to get your lips drooling. 180w 3 plant 1/2 lb of weed

I love Mr Canucks!! I think I've watched most of his videos about 3 times haha

 

[coreywebster]

Yeah my bad, thought I'd copied it in.

Atreum 288.2 LED Board, Horticulture Full Spectrum Grow Light Panel, Samsung LM301B

This high efficiency LED Board uses 288x Samsung LM301B SK Bin diodes for full-spectrum lighting; critical for the vegetative and flowering stages in your indoor grow. Accepts up to 120W of power at a compact 9"x9". Uses Meanwell drivers, and can be daisy chained for a clean setup.

atreumlighting.com

I see they are $75 a pop with heat sink and in the US.
Make sure you check the international postage fees and add on at least 20% of total price for import duty before purchasing.
They are 54v boards so a meanwell xlg-240-h-ab per two boards wired in parallel will get you 120-130w per board.
Probably cost £40 a piece. So £80ish and some 1mm twin and earth (stripped of outer layer) to wire boards to driver wont cost more than a few quid.

 

[GeriPie93]

I've

I see they are $75 a pop with heat sink and in the US.
Make sure you check the international postage fees and add on at least 20% of total price for import duty before purchasing.
They are 54v boards so a meanwell xlg-240-h-ab per two boards wired in parallel will get you 120-130w per board.
Probably cost £40 a piece. So £80ish and some 1mm twin and earth (stripped of outer layer) to wire boards to driver wont cost more than a few quid.

Sound, thanks. Would there be a benefit to using the 2 drivers you suggest as apposed to the Meanwell HLG-480H-54A for all 4 like the site suggests?
I'll see if I can find anything similar closer to home but if not I'll probably go with these and I'd still be making a saving compared to if I bought something with similar quality diodes from a company. It seems that if I wanted to buy a high end led with these kind of diodes from a big company I'd be paying around £1000

 

[coreywebster]

I've

Sound, thanks. Would there be a benefit to using the 2 drivers you suggest as apposed to the Meanwell HLG-480H-54A for all 4 like the site suggests?
I'll see if I can find anything similar closer to home but if not I'll probably go with these and I'd still be making a saving compared to if I bought something with similar quality diodes from a company. It seems that if I wanted to buy a high end led with these kind of diodes from a big company I'd be paying around £1000

Mostly just cheaper to buy two xlgs than it is to buy one HLG driver. Also means you can build two aluminium angle frames and mount a board each end and driver in idle unless you remote mount the drivers outside tent.
£1000 is ott, but yeah for a pre built fixture your looking at £600ish , like the lumatek zeus 465c