Cheapo DIY Chinese LED grow. 200w

cannabuilding said:
Plants are looking good, subbed for this, i've seen the same led arrays on ebay and wondered about these.

I might order 3x30watt cool white arrays, but would these work with the 100 watt driver from ebay?

Peace to all and happy growing.
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They sell 30w drivers for the 30w arrays.

** Oh, didn't see the 3x there. Not sure about that. I have a feeling if you wired then in parallel a single 100w would power all three but i'm not really the one to ask.
 
Interesting read Gastanker. I know next to nothing about leds, and never seen them grow anything. Will keep on watching.:grin:
 
Gas,
I was wondering how much time you have put into these led units? Really when it all comes down to it, man hours are what is important. Half of the time I don't do DIY projects is because: brainstorming these lights consumes time, searching for the best components takes a lot of time, and assembly takes even more time. It is definitely worth it to develop a skill that will last a long time and hopefully in time pays for its self.

I guess I just wonder how people can justify a such a time consuming effort, when the reality of the matter is that you have to assemble these units your self? They don't have cases or any real protection from water damage, no dimming capabilities, and no warranty if the outsourced materials fail (maybe you have some sort of warranty but I'm assuming no). You seem to be bearing a brunt of the responsibility of these units. Big balls sir, you have big balls. Stoked to see those sweet results!
Sincerely,
ILovePlants
 
IlovePlants said:
Gas,
I was wondering how much time you have put into these led units? Really when it all comes down to it, man hours are what is important. Half of the time I don't do DIY projects is because: brainstorming these lights consumes time, searching for the best components takes a lot of time, and assembly takes even more time. It is definitely worth it to develop a skill that will last a long time and hopefully in time pays for its self.

I guess I just wonder how people can justify a such a time consuming effort, when the reality of the matter is that you have to assemble these units your self? They don't have cases or any real protection from water damage, no dimming capabilities, and no warranty if the outsourced materials fail (maybe you have some sort of warranty but I'm assuming no). You seem to be bearing a brunt of the responsibility of these units. Big balls sir, you have big balls. Stoked to see those sweet results!
Sincerely,
ILovePlants
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Thank you, but to play devils advocate:

-Assembly time per unit was less than 45 minutes.
-I only used two sources - a single buyer on ebay and heatsync USA. (Very simple purchasing)
-No need for brainstorming on my behalf - I went with cheapest and asked for the driver made for em. No need to know anything. I'm a nerd so I looked into just because it's fun for me.
-Compatible dimming driver is $1 extra - I just don't like/trust dimmers. I don't think most units offer dimmers either.
-Ballasts are in water proof cases - came that way. Lights aren't but neither are any other unit and they don't have the luxury of remote ballasts.

Now if something fails they are under either a 1 or 3 year warranty but I'd probably be better off just replacing as I would have to deal with China. At $27/chip and $40/driver I'm willing to chance it (for the 100ws), the 30's are $5-10/each - keep in mind I'm paying $1/w versus the $2.50/w of most typical units. And keep in mind it's mostly all the same parts as a pre-made unit but I have a much better heat sync and know the wiring is legit.

Now in my particular case I'm doing this to waste time. So I'm spending way more time than necessary on every step because it's fun for me. The getting it done is fast - the thinking about getting it done is where I get to linger and enjoy. Going slowly and carefully it took me 45 minutes to assemble each unit. If you have a drill press it'll take you less time. Right now I'm brainstorming how to drill fancy cord holes so the next project doesn't go by so fast ;)
 
very very fucking cool gastanker :D seen these on alibaba a while back and always wanted to see em in action and poof you pop out of knowhere with em :) way to be man haha, you think with the same heatsink and a better or stronger fan you could mount more than one of them per sink? cant wai to see how this turns out keep up the good work man , cheers .
 
curly604 said:
very very fucking cool gastanker :D seen these on alibaba a while back and always wanted to see em in action and poof you pop out of knowhere with em :) way to be man haha, you think with the same heatsink and a better or stronger fan you could mount more than one of them per sink? cant wai to see how this turns out keep up the good work man , cheers .
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That fan I have on top of the warm white is overkill - I could have gone with a much smaller lower power one, but there's no way you're getting more than perhaps a 120w array on the same size heat sync, and I wouldn't suggest that. Now if you went with a bigger heat sync you could. Or if you were just adding like 4 3w reds around the outside you could probably get away with it. I'm planning on doing two 3x 50w on a 4.5" x 24" piece.
 
@Gastanker

What is the size of the LED diode, inches or mm?

That seems to be a pretty nice heat sink, with a good fan, I think if the size of 3 LEDs are within the size of the fan, 3 LEDs would be okay, as long as you were only powering each LED at no more than 1/2.
 
Eraserhead said:
@Gastanker

What is the size of the LED diode, inches or mm?

That seems to be a pretty nice heat sink, with a good fan, I think if the size of 3 LEDs are within the size of the fan, 3 LEDs would be okay, as long as you were only powering each LED at no more than 1/2.
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It's a 100w array - 100x1w being run at near full power, the warm white is running at 96w at the array (not the plug/driver) and the cool white is at 87w. The heat sync is only 5.5"x6". It is a rather heavy one with a .3" base but 250+w would be a bit much for it to dissipate regardless of fan power imo. Keep in mind most 250w LED units are like 10"x24" and use two separate 4"x20" heatsync and like 6 fans if not larger.

This isn't the particular one I got but I think it's close:
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Thats in mm. This is in inches and is what I'm currently using. The new ones will be just slightly different:

heatsync.jpg
 

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You're almost running them @ 100%. I wouldn't expect more than 6-8 months of use out of them like that. Even with a nice heat sink and fan.

Did you try running 2 LEDs on 1 driver? If the voltage and mA's match up, I bet you'd have close to similar light output, but 60% of the energy you're using. If the voltage and mA's line up proper.

I have a bunch of LED parts I'm messing with to see what works and what doesn't work. Currently I'm working on a 4260k veg array, so far everything seems to be going well. Much milder for seedlings for sure.
 
Yeah, we'll have to see how long they last. They are being run at whatever the drivers provide and the chips want to pull - supposedly 3000mA 20-38v which for mine are running at 29-32v. Regarding running two from a single driver - it would work till I burn the driver out. I'm not too terribly worried about it all. I've seen people do the same thing and they seem to run for quite a while without too terrible degradation. It's definitely not being super efficient but running them at 87% and higher still puts out more light than running em lower. And for all I know they are 1.5w or 2w diodes and not 1w diodes and are being run at a legitimate rate.
 
Lack of information is actually kind of frustrating with them. Everywhere I see says they run at 3200mA 32-36v but none of the sources state if that's a maximum, normal, low... Like CREEs are all tested at a super low very efficient mA but I could see the Chinese testing them really high just to print a maximum lumen output number on the package. Who knows... that's what experiments are for right? :)
 
Hmm. So the Bridgelux equivalent was tested at 2800mA 30.2v which isn't far off. They list their maximum as high as 3750mA.
 
Gastanker when you get time throw together one or your shopping lists and i will see if i cant improve and buy all the stuff by the end of the next month or 2. ive been wanting to get in on LED but im not trying to spend more than 1$ per watt. (if its like a 90w array for 120$ i think i can deal with the diff lol)

BUT im not trying to do a single array like you are currently i wan to do something more like you had in mind a page back, 3 arrays of 30w and a handful of single reds on thier own driver. its not that i couldnt do it my self..... but i think you have a better grasp on this im more of a hands on person i dont think i can understand it completely until i build and use one(LED). also with you handfuls of red will you be using a lenses? do the arrays have lenses?(might be a dumb question)

i guess my third question is do you think its best to just build off the heat sync? and have leds directly to it?
 
Depends on quantity bought, I purchased 5000pcs of each color I needed, 1000pcs for the lesser colors I needed. The top bin whites are about $2.45usd each @ 5000pcs with shipping from Taiwan to DC, USA figured in.
 
polyarcturus said:
Gastanker when you get time throw together one or your shopping lists and i will see if i cant improve and buy all the stuff by the end of the next month or 2. ive been wanting to get in on LED but im not trying to spend more than 1$ per watt. (if its like a 90w array for 120$ i think i can deal with the diff lol)

BUT im not trying to do a single array like you are currently i wan to do something more like you had in mind a page back, 3 arrays of 30w and a handful of single reds on thier own driver. its not that i couldnt do it my self..... but i think you have a better grasp on this im more of a hands on person i dont think i can understand it completely until i build and use one(LED). also with you handfuls of red will you be using a lenses? do the arrays have lenses?(might be a dumb question)

i guess my third question is do you think its best to just build off the heat sync? and have leds directly to it?
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Yeah... I keep making revisions based on price points. Right now I can do 300w of white via 10x30w arrays for $355 on two 4.5x24" heat syncs but I'm thinking I might do 6x 50w arrays instead for $312. Still waiting for quotes to roll in via alibaba though. The 30w arrays need to go through alibaba to keep the price in line but the 50w are actually cheaper through ebay for some reason. You can get lenses for the arrays for ~$1.50-2.50 a piece but I'm not using any, just my ugly DIY reflectors. For the time being I'm scrapping the reds and will have to add them on later. They just didn't fit into my price point and I didn't want to sacrifice wattage.

And yes, build directly on the heat sync. The LEDs need to be directly mounted to it. The drivers will be remote.

Eraserhead said:
Depends on quantity bought, I purchased 5000pcs of each color I needed, 1000pcs for the lesser colors I needed. The top bin whites are about $2.45usd each @ 5000pcs with shipping from Taiwan to DC, USA figured in.
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Quite the investment. I can't imagine them not doing a great job with veg.
 
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