LED DIY (planning, suggestions are welcome)

lax123

Well-Known Member
no get them with pcb, if you get them without you have to be much more carefull and to do more planning when attaching them to the heatsink as you dont want to short circuit anything.
 

feelmyanger

Active Member
That was one reason, I don't know how big it will be, but I was planning on getting them fixed to the heatsink with little screws. Saw someone doing that and seemed to be the easiest way to get them on place.

Since I'll have to use 4 CC to power the whole thing, I'll probably divide the leds in 4 individual panels...

Something like this:
1 x 730 nm
10 x 660 nm
5 x 625 nm
5 x ww 2700k
5 x cw 6500k
2 x 440-450 nm
2 x 410-420 nm

How does this "sound" like?
 

feelmyanger

Active Member
if you like the adventure...there r also quite cheap cobs on ebay...you can get a WW with 30W for like 4,30$....http://www.ebay.com/itm/30W-Warm-White-High-Power-LED-Panel-2700LM-30-Watt-Lamp-Light-/380515675337?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5898806cc9
My main problem is knowing which power supply to use, but thanks to you guys I think I'm starting to get some light ( :lol: ) on that.
Let's say I went with 10 x 30w cobs...do I power them the same way as the 3w leds?
 

PICOGRAV

Well-Known Member
My main problem is knowing which power supply to use, but thanks to you guys I think I'm starting to get some light ( :lol: ) on that.
Let's say I went with 10 x 30w cobs...do I power them the same way as the 3w leds?
Every LED is different, if you are going to be experimenting with a range of LEDs I would get a bench top power supply, with voltage and amperage read outs, $100 on ebay will get you something usable.

Example:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/30V-10A-10AMP-3010D-Pro-Digital-DC-Power-Supply-Precision-Variable-Adjustable-/331030948612?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4d12fb6b04
 

feelmyanger

Active Member
I saw someone using one of those on youtube and thought it would be a nice addition. But maybe for later, or after a long search on ebay...I live in Europe and the one you mentioned only has free shipping to the US, it would be another $60 for shipping.
In your opinion will "my" ratio for the 3watters be ok for veg+flower?
 

PICOGRAV

Well-Known Member
I saw someone using one of those on youtube and thought it would be a nice addition. But maybe for later, or after a long search on ebay...I live in Europe and the one you mentioned only has free shipping to the US, it would be another $60 for shipping.
In your opinion will "my" ratio for the 3watters be ok for veg+flower?
I would do even amounts of 660 and 625, the pick either 440-450 or 410-420 and double up, not have both, forget about adding whites to this set up, what ever else you have space for add a few infrared and UV.
 

tags420

Well-Known Member
Tags, why do you feel COBs are not that good? I think they are the best option for lighting large areas for growing, inside a COB is just a hole bunch of 1-5 watt diodes in a compact package. COBs are like CPUs these days, instead of having a quad CPU mother board with four heatsinks and complex power distribution on the mother board, they are packaging 4 or more CPU cores on a single chip, which makes them more efficient and a higher percentage of the power goes into processing, I think its the same thing with COBs, more energy is going into light, ever millimeter of of copper saved is less heat loss.
They are not the best...they do not put out the most light/w. Also, I like they idea of spreading the sources out over the canopy instead of concentrating them too much. They make it easy to wire up, but other than that they are not superior to me.

Something like this is what I consider cobs...
http://www.cree.com/LED-Components-and-Modules/Products/XLamp/Arrays-NonDirectional/XLamp-CXA3050

Not these kind if things...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/50W-50-Watts-Cree-XTE-LED-Emitter-Neutral-White-Warm-White-Light-4000LM-4500LM-/360488394190
 

PICOGRAV

Well-Known Member
They are not the best...they do not put out the most light/w. Also, I like they idea of spreading the sources out over the canopy instead of concentrating them too much. They make it easy to wire up, but other than that they are not superior to me.

Something like this is what I consider cobs...
http://www.cree.com/LED-Components-and-Modules/Products/XLamp/Arrays-NonDirectional/XLamp-CXA3050

Not these kind if things...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/50W-50-Watts-Cree-XTE-LED-Emitter-Neutral-White-Warm-White-Light-4000LM-4500LM-/360488394190
Well, that's, just like, your opinion man.
 

PICOGRAV

Well-Known Member
^^^ light/w, if all you care about is the actual didoes ability to turn power into light, you might as well just be shining lasers at your plants, that's almost what these narrow band LEDs are, I guess if you want to have some sort of Italian disco grow room they would work out quite well...

The real king will be the person that figures out how to utilize that extra heat :)
 

tags420

Well-Known Member
Cree xt-e white is better than any cob. They also have a more photosynthetically target spectrum too. I never said COB's were bad...but they are not the best. Tell me why they are better. I am willing to listen/learn if you have info to share.
 

Staxxx

Active Member
tags, how did you come to the conclusion that the xt-e produces more lm/w than a COB (for example a Bridgelux Vero or Cree CXA). I'm not quite sure about the CXA series but the VERO destroys xt-e as far as efficiency. I'm almost certain the CREE CXA does too. Are you looking at some datasheet that I missed? I'm not trying to be an ass or anything, just genuinely interested in your source.
 

tags420

Well-Known Member
I looked up the cxa3050 top bin 5000k and it was doing about 124lm/w from what I calculated . compared to the 130lm/w of a 5000k xt-e. Is that wrong? I am not an expert on cobs. Like I said, if you have the info then share. I am here to learn, as well as share my knowledge and research that has drawn me to my already stated stance. Not just say something is wrong with no elaboration of why or what is correct.

And then there is still the problem of which actually has more photon output(PAR). Sucks we have to compare in lumens.
 

tags420

Well-Known Member
1400ma x 37v=51.8w
Top bin(Y2) was 6430lm @85c...divide by 51.8w=124.13lm/w
Feelmyanger- Keep the whites they will really balance the spectrum out. I would support more whites if adding anything. And you have enough 730nm in there imo.
 

PICOGRAV

Well-Known Member
Cree xt-e white is better than any cob. They also have a more photosynthetically target spectrum too. I never said COB's were bad...but they are not the best. Tell me why they are better. I am willing to listen/learn if you have info to share.
This is from the data sheets, the spectrum's look identical. The xt-e series can peak out in the 148 lumen per watt yes, but that's the 6000K, I don't think we will be using those for growing. The Cree diode is very good and so are Bridgelux diodes, that fact the Bridgelux has found better ways to package these diodes onto a chip before anyone less, has everyone all butt hurt, just like when AMD was beating Intel in the CPU battles, sure one day Cree might come up with a better COB but right now the Bridgelux is the best.
What they do when they build a COB is the same thing these LED panel manufactures are doing, but on a tiny scale, saves time money and power this way.

Edit: I forgot the pic, lololol

Bride vs cree.jpg
 

PICOGRAV

Well-Known Member
1400ma x 37v=51.8w
Top bin(Y2) was 6430lm @85c...divide by 51.8w=124.13lm/w
Feelmyanger- Keep the whites they will really balance the spectrum out. I would support more whites if adding anything. And you have enough 730nm in there imo.
This again confuses me, if you are making up a custom LED spectrum, then why are you adding white? Why wouldn't you just start with the white?

Add some blue, some red, little bits of green, that's pretty much what white light is...
 

tags420

Well-Known Member
This is from the data sheets, the spectrum's look identical. The xt-e series can peak out in the 148 lumen per watt yes, but that's the 6000K, I don't think we will be using those for growing. The Cree diode is very good and so are Bridgelux diodes, that fact the Bridgelux has found better ways to package these diodes onto a chip before anyone less, has everyone all butt hurt, just like when AMD was beating Intel in the CPU battles, sure one day Cree might come up with a better COB but right now the Bridgelux is the best.
What they do when they build a COB is the same thing these LED panel manufactures are doing, but on a tiny scale, saves time money and power this way.
They are similar becase they are white. But not identical. The cob's spectrum is wider and less dialed. Slightly more green in it than the xt-e.

I didn't even bring up the cool whites. I stated 5000k cxa vs 5000k xt-e...and the xt-e is 130lm/w vs the cob 124lm/w. read below...
I looked up the cxa3050 top bin 5000k and it was doing about 124lm/w from what I calculated . compared to the 130lm/w of a 5000k xt-e. Is that wrong? I am not an expert on cobs. Like I said, if you have the info then share. I am here to learn, as well as share my knowledge and research that has drawn me to my already stated stance. Not just say something is wrong with no elaboration of why or what is correct.

And then there is still the problem of which actually has more photon output(PAR). Sucks we have to compare in lumens.

This again confuses me, if you are making up a custom LED spectrum, then why are you adding white? Why wouldn't you just start with the white?

Add some blue, some red, little bits of green, that's pretty much what white light is...
Why are you quoting me for this...considering it is not me making the panel, I only answered his question for what he was planning, not trying to chang his design to do exactly what I do(like you are). If you looked at what I am using, you would know that I would make a white dominate panel myself and supplement the red for the flower boost. But feelmyanger asked about the whites that he already planned on using in his design.
And to expand on that thought I would use both warm and cool white then pure red as well. I think that cool whites with additional pure red are very effective. The addition of warm white would just broaden the red output. But is not total necessary to the design if you do it right, like the apache I have been using have already shown that.


EDIT:
What is the best bidgelux that you are talking about? The one you are using(vero 29) says 120lm/w?
 
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