diy led

albert111

albert111

Well-Known Member
 
damn, i just bought a bunch of leds, but need more light, i may build me some of that. how long have you been using these for?
 
I'm sorry if I sound a bit pessimistic but as a "DIYer", here's my opinion. You went with a good idea but I think you lacked budget or didn't do sufficient research to obtain a really good light.
- The LEDs are bad; no-name "1w" chips from Chinese manufacturer, I really doubt they are any decent. I would recommend to go with branded LEDs such as Cree, Philips, Avago, Osram, etc.
- The spectrum you created is wrong. 20pcs blue and 40pcs white will make a lot of unefficient blue light. Roughly 50% of your light will be in the blue part of the spectrum, while for flowering it is recommended to have 15% or less. Even for vegging, 20% is recommended, you'd have far too much blue too.
As a rule of thumb, I'd recommend to go with 75% red/deep red, and 25% white/blue
Also a side note on white LEDs. You don't need multiple color temperatures for white LEDs. Basically a high-temperature white (cool white) will be a white with a lot of blue and a small amount of green-yellow-amber. When choosing a lower-temperature white (neutral, warm white), what you basically do is decreasing the ratio of blue to other colors. All in all, what happens is, for instance, 1* 6000k + 1* 2700k can be replaced by 2* 4300k with exact same results.

The idea of going DIY is good when you give yourself the opportunity to create something better or cheaper than manufactured products. Here, a low wattage HID will certainly have similar results for a similar price and without any hassle.
 
as far as the ratios on the lights, i would prolly switch em up a bit, but i dont really know if the fact that its a one watt no-name chip from a chinese manufacturer makes it less quality. i'd order extra because some are more likely to be defective than a name brand, and they prolly don't back up their proucts with warranties and return policies or anything like that, but i think it'd work fine.
 
thanks for the advice. this is just an experiment for a pc grow box later on i will build another one with cree led

i didnt want to spend much in mi first diy user104869_pic224721_1258813530.jpg this is not my pc grow box just an idea of what im looking for thanks again for the advice :weed:
 
any update on how that LED hood is working out? cause im thinking about doing the same as you, but id like the feedback on it.
 
Hey man, i dont post here very often at all but led technology has interested me for a while. I went the same route as you and bought leds from ebay as well as meanwell drivers. All the leds that i bought worked but did feel very cheaply made. I built the "frame" of the light with acrylic and put two pc fans that were driven off the driver. It worked pretty good and definitely looked good. However i do agree with some poster above that the cheap leds from ebay do not compare to any cree. I bought a cree to compare them and the difference is night and day, pun intended. Currently i am working on building another led light, the frame of the light is going to be made of aluminum angle and should come out nice. I will try and post pictures when i have completed it
 
jblunts said:
Hey man, i dont post here very often at all but led technology has interested me for a while. I went the same route as you and bought leds from ebay as well as meanwell drivers. All the leds that i bought worked but did feel very cheaply made. I built the "frame" of the light with acrylic and put two pc fans that were driven off the driver. It worked pretty good and definitely looked good. However i do agree with some poster above that the cheap leds from ebay do not compare to any cree. I bought a cree to compare them and the difference is night and day, pun intended. Currently i am working on building another led light, the frame of the light is going to be made of aluminum angle and should come out nice. I will try and post pictures when i have completed it
Click to expand...

I can't wait to check it out!
 
The LEDs will produce enough light to grow some plants.

Personally I don't use drivers that go above 45V because I want to minimize the electrocution hazard.

Patrikantonius is right that they could be better in several ways, though I have to add that there is often good reason to include multiple color temps for white, like limited availability.

Also, if you look at the spectrum graphs for the Cree whites, the blue peaks are in slightly different positions, so there may be some extra benefit to using a few color temps even if you have your pick of all bins.

Looks like a good experiment, and will give you good data for when you build the super-efficient Cree upgrade. :-)
 
First off i fully intend to call people on their shit.


Anyone who thinks that chinese LEDs are way worse then americans LED's is an idiot... maybe 10-20 percent difference in performance.... while at 1/4 the cost...... american companies often fabricate their semiconductors in china.... and those plants are susceptible to espionage just as companies in the continental US

also given the recent advancements in LEDs.... a cree LED bought last year,very well may have been surpassed by a non name chineses LED made this year or in the near future.....

dont belive me..... well check out how recently the 660 nm LED came into the market... im talking powerful 3-5 watt LED's ... the first company that i saw with 660nm was a japanese one... there was some articles on the usefulness with regards to plant growth. however i could not find a supplier ( as they probably only fill orders of 10 000 or more) this was about 8-9 months ago ... then a few months later i could buy LEDENGIN 660 nm leds(4-6 months ago)..... then about a month after that Ebay was flooded with 660nm led of the 3 watt variety made in china.... currently they are about 1USD for a 3 watt led.... ( buy 50 or so).


so with technology moving that fast its really ignorant to say that a chinese made is worse.... especialy because cree manufacturs in china.... so read a fucking book on semi conductors and realize that the quality of the product depends on the quality of the fabrication site.... most of the time these fabs need to be at 95-98% capacity to see a return on the huge investment of capital for the equipment to manufacture semiconductors. (pure cystaline silicon, lithography, photoresits, etching, chemical deposition, packaging ect) so basicly a company like Cree comes along... gives them a design and they make it... if it meets spects it ships... if it doesnt meet specs it get (thrown out.... or straight to ebay as a no name LED) when Cree's order is done they make some other guys LED design that may or may not be as good.... point here is its made in the same place with the same shit....... if you look really close at an LED that is off you can see a distinct pattern, this is the border between the anode and the cathode.... the shapes are really what changes form suppliers like cree to those of a no-name....

On another note

that transformer (AC-DC) looks like every other transformer just not in some shitty plastic case.... seriously people... you dont know what the fuck a transformer looks like.... hahahahahha they are old technology that has remained the same for the last 40 years.... just dont get it wet because that shit will sort.... but so would one in a case if water got in.... so dont stress it. just make it safe..... basicly you take 110 and depending on the coils of your transformer A:B for example 4:1 would imply that you get 1/4 the voltage... then its a simple diode bridge to rectify it and store the charge in some large caps.... you can build them youself with a toroid for about 5 bucks and some time winding wire.


your design is awesome and i expect a growlog...

regards.

ps. sorry about the spelling, as an engineer i figure math and theory is more valued.
 
patrikantonius said:
I'm sorry if I sound a bit pessimistic but as a "DIYer", here's my opinion. You went with a good idea but I think you lacked budget or didn't do sufficient research to obtain a really good light.
- The LEDs are bad; no-name "1w" chips from Chinese manufacturer, I really doubt they are any decent. I would recommend to go with branded LEDs such as Cree, Philips, Avago, Osram, etc.
- The spectrum you created is wrong. 20pcs blue and 40pcs white will make a lot of unefficient blue light. Roughly 50% of your light will be in the blue part of the spectrum, while for flowering it is recommended to have 15% or less. Even for vegging, 20% is recommended, you'd have far too much blue too.
As a rule of thumb, I'd recommend to go with 75% red/deep red, and 25% white/blue
Also a side note on white LEDs. You don't need multiple color temperatures for white LEDs. Basically a high-temperature white (cool white) will be a white with a lot of blue and a small amount of green-yellow-amber. When choosing a lower-temperature white (neutral, warm white), what you basically do is decreasing the ratio of blue to other colors. All in all, what happens is, for instance, 1* 6000k + 1* 2700k can be replaced by 2* 4300k with exact same results.

The idea of going DIY is good when you give yourself the opportunity to create something better or cheaper than manufactured products. Here, a low wattage HID will certainly have similar results for a similar price and without any hassle.
Click to expand...



your wrong... and your kinda a dic....

spectrum is a matter of choice and opinion... ive seen amazing buds form only white LEDs, equaly ive seen plants with too much red do shit withouht other colours present.....

dont even post about HID in the LED section... because we are looking to evolve not stay with the status quo. Dont you think that this guys attemtp to make something that is not on the market is more interesting then some shitty HID bulb? i mean this guy is going to learn how to make a light by himself.... give him a few more tries and im sure his products will surpass that of a simple CLF or even a HID bulb given that he wants to do a PC grow...

the real winner of the darwin awards here are people who try to cram 1000 degree lights into small dry closets. god my fire chief knows how that ends.... so let this guy learn, if you got nothing to say to help him dont kick him back to HID stone age.... fucker...
 
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