Chinese LED Grow – 75 (actual draw) Watts per plant veg/100W per plant flower

GroErr

Well-Known Member
Almost makes you feel a bit naughty for spying on girls while they're sleeping :). Go go infrared!
Ha, it does indeed ;) Nice thing with these wireless cam's (they do video too) is they're easily transported into rooms with more activity ;)
 

GroErr

Well-Known Member
Hey GroErr, do you feel the grow/flower switches are a useful feature?
Hey WDICK thanks for stopping by. Yes, definitely, have used the veg/flower switch quite a bit so far, I'll elaborate a bit.

Flexibility:
Sometimes, particularly in small or very enclosed cabinets, and when you're using them for clones or seedlings. Having both switches on (or a panel with no switch) is too much power and unnecessary heat to deal with (you can extract more but why if not necessary). When I first started with these I ran some tests with both switches on and burned/dried the shit out of some seeds and clones. Good example here is I have a 2x2x4' tent. Typically used for clones or seeds, and in this tent, for initial clones or seedlings I only use the small panel ("150", actual 60/100 depending on the switch setting), this is working great (veg-only switch, 60W output) and within 2-3 weeks the seedlings are ready for transplant/vegging. Sometimes I want to use it vegging out plants while I wait for the true veg cabinet to be free. I don't want them growing too fast or they'll outgrow the small tent, using and keeping them on the veg switch only allows me to do that. e.g. I have 2 new seedlings in the 2x2 tent right now using the "150" panel on veg-only which is more than enough light. These will be transplanted into 3Gal pots this weekend. Once these 2 are in the 3Gal pots, I'll move the larger 7Gal plant in the veg cabinet (somewhat of a mother, want some clones off this one before flowering, will veg for around 8 weeks total), plus the two new seedlings in 3 Gal pots, total of 3 in there which gives them plenty of room. At that point I'll veg these with a "300W" (actual 125/200) on veg-only in the tent, while I have the 3x 3Gal plants (the test round I'm documenting here) in the larger (2x4x5.5') veg cabinet vegging. This will give me 3 in the veg cabinet this round, using the "450W" (actual 200/300) or approx. 70W per plant in veg mode, then turn on the full 300W actual (100W per plant) just before flowering and move them into my new room (why I need the 3-4 weeks in the tent and veg cabinet, building a new flower/lab room).
In summary, nice to have the flexibility of using a larger light in a small enclosure while not burning/drying the crap out of your plants, or temporary/hold areas while waiting for the flower room.

Spectrum/Power consumption:
The spectrum on veg-only provides them with the light they need while using less power, not a bad thing. Again, from a flexibility standpoint, this can also allow you to run a bigger light for veg and crank it for flowering.
Also, I've read (still researching, trying to find data on this) that giving young plants too much far red can actually work against you. One such claim is it can turn reg seeds to males easier (again, considering this heresy until I find some data, don't quote me on it). I think they'd be fine as my first light had no switch and vegged just fine, but they were also clones so definitely female to begin with.

Hope that helps...
 

WDIK

Active Member
Hope that helps...
It does help, thank you very much. Another question. Have you opened any of them up? The reason I ask is with the "separate panel" design, I was wondering if a switch could be installed to turn one of the "panels" on and off? The thought would be to start seeds using even lower light/power consumption. Then veg with the panels set to "Veg" and flower with all the lights on. It would just add another level of flexibility.
 

GroErr

Well-Known Member
It does help, thank you very much. Another question. Have you opened any of them up? The reason I ask is with the "separate panel" design, I was wondering if a switch could be installed to turn one of the "panels" on and off? The thought would be to start seeds using even lower light/power consumption. Then veg with the panels set to "Veg" and flower with all the lights on. It would just add another level of flexibility.
No only one of the small 150's to have a look at the build, interesting thought but not sure how these "separate panels" are integrated, when I get a chance will open up one of the 450's and get a pic.

Did some more reading up on the whole red/far red thing, there seems to be nothing to the claims on that male-inducing factor, heresy as far as I'm concerned. However, from an efficiency stand-point these lights put out reds in veg mode, just less and from reading other papers/articles that's enough during veg (blue promotes more veg growth but some red is good in combination). Found some interesting papers on red/far red and their effects in flowering that makes some sense, using them just prior to and just after lights out during flowering. Has to be something to it considering one of the best induction lights Inda-Gro use those pontoons to effectively do exactly that. Got me thinking when I finish this test (don't want to use anything other than the standard panels for lighting this grow to see what they can do as-is, out of the box) I may try mimicking that pre/post shot of reds using the smaller panels on bloom-only which turns on only the reds as supplemental light during flowering... Never enough time - lol
 

GroErr

Well-Known Member
Haha. I thought I was the only one with a camera on my grow. I use a Foscam that I can log into from work. Just for general interest and to check the temps during the day. The camera is on the same timer as the lights though.
Yeah they're great and I like the Foscam brand, for the money they're pretty reliable and decent feature set. Got the software as well so I can manage/monitor 3 cameras through one screen. I turn it on/off on my router when I travel, handy and saved my butt a couple of times, well worth the investment... In my case I'm an indy contractor so anything that has any possible tie to technology is a bonus, get to write it off :) I love the fact that the government is directly supporting my grows ;)

Opened up the 450 that's not in use and took some pics, will post them later or in the morning when I can get them off the camera. Looks like you might be able to easily modify the panel but not in 3x150, looks like they do a 300 + 150 the way it's configured in the 450 model.
 

hillbilly86

Well-Known Member
damn, just checked out the foscam site and they look pretty good. Probably gonna invest in 1 for my grow room and 1 to go out on my balcony. There's all kinds of wrecks at the corner where I live and I've joked with my roommate that I was gonna put a security camera out there for future entertainment, the prices are good enough that I could actually do just that haha.
 

WDIK

Active Member
damn, just checked out the foscam site and they look pretty good. Probably gonna invest in 1 for my grow room and 1 to go out on my balcony. There's all kinds of wrecks at the corner where I live and I've joked with my roommate that I was gonna put a security camera out there for future entertainment, the prices are good enough that I could actually do just that haha.
If you're going to set it up to be viewable online, be sure to use strong passwords and a non-standard port. You don't want anyone to be able to view your grow. :)
 

GroErr

Well-Known Member
If you're going to set it up to be viewable online, be sure to use strong passwords and a non-standard port. You don't want anyone to be able to view your grow. :)
Can't be too careful, I use super long/complex passwords, changed about once a month, port changes on a regular basis too, if you leave it on too long on any one port the f'krs do port scans and try brute force attacks, it's a ducking game when you have anything exposed. I personally wouldn't recommend opening it up to the internet to anyone that doesn't fully understand how this shit works, even then I only turn it on when I'm away and I don't have some low-end Linksys router, I run Cisco's. It's still handy using it inside your own network, saves me trips to the basement and saves opening the room and interrupting the environment unless you're in there to do maintenance.
 

GroErr

Well-Known Member
It does help, thank you very much. Another question. Have you opened any of them up? The reason I ask is with the "separate panel" design, I was wondering if a switch could be installed to turn one of the "panels" on and off? The thought would be to start seeds using even lower light/power consumption. Then veg with the panels set to "Veg" and flower with all the lights on. It would just add another level of flexibility.
Here you go WDIK, some pics of the "450W" panel. Couldn't get much better without disconnecting the wiring but will give you an idea.

Although they use one "300" board, and one "150" board for the LED's, they are all wired separately, that is 3x leads going to each "150" is what it looks like from the wiring so with a little tweaking you might be able to wire each one separately. There are 6x power supplies, 3x for each fan, 3x for each panel. Overall it's pretty clean, was expecting to find something a little messier than this but it looks alright. Not sure how they control the veg vs. bloom but with a little time and google you could probably figure it out...
450W-LED-1.jpg450W-LED-2.jpg450W-LED-3.jpg450W-LED-4.jpg450W-LED-5.jpg450W-LED-6.jpg
 

hillbilly86

Well-Known Member
I'm about half tempted to get a trail cam and set it to take a picture every 30 minutes or so just so I can do a time lapse. I don't plan on being gone for a while till this spring so I don't really have to worry about watching my plants while I'm gone for a little while. What I'll probably do then is just set up a pump hooked to a timer to come on for so long every few days
 

hillbilly86

Well-Known Member
Am I missing something? Where are the heatsinks located?
I didn't even notice that until you mentioned it, kind of makes me a little weary about mine. Not unless they're located under the light panel with another panel over top of 'em which is kind of hard to fathom in my mind
 

Oddjob

Well-Known Member
I didn't even notice that until you mentioned it, kind of makes me a little weary about mine. Not unless they're located under the light panel with another panel over top of 'em which is kind of hard to fathom in my mind
Right? An LED panel almost pushing 300 true watts and no heatsink? Maybe GroErr can chime in about this..
 

GroErr

Well-Known Member
I didn't even notice that until you mentioned it, kind of makes me a little weary about mine. Not unless they're located under the light panel with another panel over top of 'em which is kind of hard to fathom in my mind
I'm thinking they're inside that panel/board where the LED's are, didn't went to take it apart too much, removing the boards would have been a bit of work. They run very cool and almost noiseless, they have to be running them under that panel (pic #6), there's about a 1 1/2 to 2" space there so they could easily fit them in there.
 

GroErr

Well-Known Member
Love how you had to write Chinese LED test grow... pretty much everything is made in China :D
Lol, true enough. The title was on purpose, to attract both users and bashers of chinese LED panels. The thread is meant to (hopefully, if I don't f'up the grow) show that even cheap chinese ebay panels (no different than what is sold at most hydro stores for 2x the price btw) can grow weed. Also to test against a future side-by-side where I'll veg with these panels and flower with induction to see the difference.
 

GroErr

Well-Known Member
I'm about half tempted to get a trail cam and set it to take a picture every 30 minutes or so just so I can do a time lapse. I don't plan on being gone for a while till this spring so I don't really have to worry about watching my plants while I'm gone for a little while. What I'll probably do then is just set up a pump hooked to a timer to come on for so long every few days
These foscam cameras can do that, they have a script language you can use to take snapshots, may try that on one run, be a hell of a lot of pics, but it would be cool to run a slideshow at the end...
 
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