DIY led. My brain hurts.

hey guys I’m told you guys are the expert. I was turned on to diy leds. So here the thing. I’m spent the last 2 days reading about everything involved and I’m sure I can do all physical work my self. Where I’m having the biggest problem is information overload.

I really like the idea of this lamp but I see room for improvement.

Mars hydro sp250 (can’t post links need to likes I think)

I think this light is lacking red spectrum and a uv/ir switch. I’ve also been told that the diodes are not very good on this item. Could I also not push out more light with an active heat sink?

I like the strength and the even coverage of this light the most. Very little pffd loss at the edges of the 2 by 4 18”. My target pffds are 300 ppfd at 26” 4 by 2 space all of the 4 by 2 space. That’s what I believe to be the max end for my tent with all the equipment. Without co2 the theoretical limit for ppfd is 1000 I would like to be hitting that at 6 inches if I could. If I go over then I keep my plants shorter.

Review by migro on yt showed very little drop off on sides.

So what diodes should I use to build this?
Can I buy a heat sink like this in Canada? Cooper or aluminum?
I keep reading about the Samsung LM301b and I see them paired up with epistar reds, is this still an effective set up? If so what ratio of white to red to ir to uv should I be running? I’m only going to use ir and uv during flowering so I need them on a separate line with a switch? At the end of the line with a second switch? On their own driver? I know I don’t need may ir or uv diodes but I would like to have them.

How insane is water cooling? Worth it or not.
Bonus points for anything I’m not thinking about.

I’m not worried about price. Im not worried about saving watts fro my wall. I’m worried about making my plants happy. I have a 2 by 4 tent. I know you guys see posts like this all the time. I have a condition and I must have an answer.

I’m getting a migraine.

Can’t say I’ve seen a water cooled fixture before. I’d invest the money on controlling your environment to the max before liquid cooling an led strip

Looking up that sp250 I found this:

• Replace HID/MH: 255w-355w
• Draw Power: 260W + - 5%@AC120V

Wow, a new led that replaces 255 watts of inefficient HID with only 260 watt draw from the wall? At least they are honest enough to claim they are only almost as efficient as HID, which is better than most.

Look at Timber
https://timbergrowlights.com/model-3vl/

or HLG
https://horticulturelightinggroup.com/collections/all/products/elite-360-eco

These are just a couple examples of what these 2 companies offer that would work. What you want is at least 30 watts per square foot of GOOD QUALITY leds. Those Mars lights are not that. I don't care what the reviews or the manufacturer claim. Have you ever looked at the dirt bikes Autozone used to sell -- them looked at the a new Honda crf450r? That autozone bike is your Mars Hydro.

People have grown good weed with mars and other cheap LEDs, but they really do not compare to the latest and greatest. Buy once, cry once! If you buy the Mars/Phlizon/Viparspectra/etc, you will be replacing it if you continue to grow. Ask me how I know this! My Vipar "450 watt" light sits on the shelf, not hung in the tent.

Mate the DIY led rabbit hole goes so deep that the rabbits just fall into the earth's core and burn up. I understand you are getting a migraine. Maybe its best to start with something simple. Sellers like HLG didn't get their reputation with red diodes, they got it by making good lights that people managed to grow some dank with. you can do that with straight 3000k, 4000k, whatever. Combine some strips with UV bulbs if you feel fancy and you only need to worry about getting good strips and a good driver. Expand/upgrade as you like and as technology progresses. If you just want to hang a strong light source in the middle of your room and pretend you're growing with HPS you can just do whatever. The reason to DIY is not to simply get more light per watt, it's to get the best possible light spread in your own room. The ability to put light where you want it is priceless. Just my 2 cents. it was a lot easier when all you had to do was slap cobs on heatsinks.

If you want to have "THE BEST SPECTRUM!!!" LED then you better have the best testing equipment and a lot of time and money. It's a pipe dream for most.

Big Green Thumb said:

Looking up that sp250 I found this:

• Replace HID/MH: 255w-355w
• Draw Power: 260W + - 5%@AC120V

Wow, a new led that replaces 255 watts of inefficient HID with only 260 watt draw from the wall? At least they are honest enough to claim they are only almost as efficient as HID, which is better than most.

Click to expand...

Exactly why I want to diy something like it. Good coverage. Shit components.

10WeekFlushBro said:

Mate the DIY led rabbit hole goes so deep that the rabbits just fall into the earth's core and burn up. I understand you are getting a migraine. Maybe its best to start with something simple. Sellers like HLG didn't get their reputation with red diodes, they got it by making good lights that people managed to grow some dank with. you can do that with straight 3000k, 4000k, whatever. Combine some strips with UV bulbs if you feel fancy and you only need to worry about getting good strips and a good driver. Expand/upgrade as you like and as technology progresses. If you just want to hang a strong light source in the middle of your room and pretend you're growing with HPS you can just do whatever. The reason to DIY is not to simply get more light per watt, it's to get the best possible light spread in your own room. The ability to put light where you want it is priceless. Just my 2 cents. it was a lot easier when all you had to do was slap cobs on heatsinks.

If you want to have "THE BEST SPECTRUM!!!" LED then you better have the best testing equipment and a lot of time and money. It's a pipe dream for most.

Click to expand...

Exactly. I want even coverage of a 2 by 4. Not something representing an hps.

Coverage with even ppfd>efficiency>spectrum>heat.

ToFarGone said:

Can’t say I’ve seen a water cooled fixture before. I’d invest the money on controlling your environment to the max before liquid cooling an led strip

Click to expand...

Not to many of them. There a diy world of water cooling as it can offer up to 4 times the amount of heat transfer as air does. I see a lot of single cob set up on cpu coolers. I was thinking more towards a video card cooler with an aluminum or copper plate. Won’t give me the 4x cooling capabilities but I’ll get more space over a 1 by 1 inch space.

10WeekFlushBro said:

Sellers like HLG didn't get their reputation with red diodes, they got it by making good lights that people managed to grow some dank with. you can do that with straight 3000k, 4000k, whatever.

Click to expand...

This is a very deep rabbit hole. I noticed in the suggested light above they did use red leds and offer the 550 in both red and non red extra diodes. Just a marketing gimmick you think? Everything I’ve read and watched shows for sure you want more red then blue for a full cycle with something in green and yellow. Can’t believe anything about % though. I’ve yet to see a full lab test the reflected light off a cannabis plant which I believe would be useful information. The best I’ve came up with is controled ppfd with something everywhere in the spectrum. Good blue and better reds with a little bit of far red. Would be better for more far during flowering then veg. A little bit of uva and uvb and ir is also good in flowering. Test are inconclusive on to how much so I wouldn’t be looking to add much.

One last question with the Samsung diodes would the higher cri version of the LM301B be better?

NeoScott said:

spent the last 2 days reading about everything involved

Click to expand...

Imagine a drop of water going into a barrel. This drop of water formed when you scratched the surface ,on the tip of the iceberg.

NeoScott said:

This is a very deep rabbit hole. I noticed in the suggested light above they did use red leds and offer the 550 in both red and non red extra diodes. Just a marketing gimmick you think?

Click to expand...

Well, you have to differentiate yourself somehow, but even if the lowered B:R ratio made no difference the reds would increase efficacy. What's better, who knows. This is better, that is better. WHatever. you could probably grow it hydroponically in tomato soup and still win the high times cup.

There is so much choice and information that you cannot see the forest for the trees. The fact that you theorize abuot and actually researched water cooling is a clue. This is the most ambitious kind of cooling which requires so much additional effort that most here would never even consider reading about it. Virtually no commercial or DIY horticulture led fixture in the world is water cooled. So why should you reinvent the wheel and research these unorthodox methods? In the course of this thread you have just posted 11 questions like they came from a machine gun. Half of them would require a 1000 word essay to scratch the surface. It took me weeks of on-off reading just to be able to build a basic light. This may sound harsh, I'm not trying to antagonize you, you are on the right track with your goals and you have the right ideas. Just be focused and read more.