LED questions

S

serrated

Well-Known Member
Does anyone know much about LED flowering.
My plan is to build a box that is 2x2x4 and the upper 3 feet of the walls on all 4 sides will have a double wall (one inside and one outside) I have 400 unwired high intensity LEDs (7000 mcd) (total cost with shipping $17.84) and have already test wired 20 of them and it is brighter than my HPS light. I plan to have 100 LEDs on each wall 75 red and 25 blue per wall. The goal is to have the light coming from all angles so the bottom branchs will also get light. I have researched the color and they are the correct for grow lights. I was planning on supplimenting a 250w HPS in the top (which I have) but I would like to see how the leds work with out the HPS. I want to see if I can pull off a led fower without spending $300 on more lights (I have a 250w HPS and a 400w hps already and this is a hobby for me).

My questions are:
Does anyone know if this will be enough light for flowering ? (I still see red and blue dots from 20 min ago so I think the brighness will be ok)

Has anyone attempted anything like this that can give me tips?

If it works I should be able to run a grow start to finish off 2 deep cycle marine batteries (one on, one charging) how cool would that be?

Thank you
 
battosai

battosai

Well-Known Member
serrated said:
Does anyone know much about LED flowering.
My plan is to build a box that is 2x2x4 and the upper 3 feet of the walls on all 4 sides will have a double wall (one inside and one outside) I have 400 unwired high intensity LEDs (7000 mcd) (total cost with shipping $17.84) and have already test wired 20 of them and it is brighter than my HPS light. I plan to have 100 LEDs on each wall 75 red and 25 blue per wall. The goal is to have the light coming from all angles so the bottom branchs will also get light. I have researched the color and they are the correct for grow lights. I was planning on supplimenting a 250w HPS in the top (which I have) but I would like to see how the leds work with out the HPS. I want to see if I can pull off a led fower without spending $300 on more lights (I have a 250w HPS and a 400w hps already and this is a hobby for me).

My questions are:
Does anyone know if this will be enough light for flowering ? (I still see red and blue dots from 20 min ago so I think the brighness will be ok)

Has anyone attempted anything like this that can give me tips?

If it works I should be able to run a grow start to finish off 2 deep cycle marine batteries (one on, one charging) how cool would that be?

Thank you
Click to expand...
i dont think your 100 leds will illuminate that much space for each wall. maybe if u used some 20 degree 25000 mcd reds from besthongkong and angled it right. if u want a head start of the led project im planning go to futurecb.com and look at their 350mA 455 royal blues and 630 nm reds. u can find dialight led drivers that will run 9 350mA led per driver, you'll need to build an aluminum head sink to mount them on...they get hot. i'm planning on making 9led disks to position over lamps.

i bet u could keep a mom vegging out clones with those 400 leds. u could also grow healthy clones with that. do u know how your going to supply power / what resistors you'll need? keep us updated i'll help u as much as i can.

btw what is the wavelength (nm) of the leds you ordered. if u can get 430nm blue and 660nm red, that would be best.. 470nm blue is common and so are 630nm reds. they are brighter to human eyes but u still need more of them.
 
northerntights

northerntights

Well-Known Member
You seem to have it all put together, I did extensive research into this a while back and I simply didn't have the resources or electrical skill to pull it off but shit, sounds like you have a working setup. You want to make sure the ratio of red to blue is correct though, red LED's are usually less efficient then blue (blue being the first color LED created and the simplest to manufacture). Also, most people think LED's run cool, that is actually not the case and their light output can be directly dependent on ambient temperature. Their heat output individually may seem nonexistent but when you have a lot of them the heat can effect light output and burn them out. It's a little known effect that usually only effects special high intensity LED's and large-scale traditional LED panels, of which this is. Having a gap between the wall of the grow room and the LED panels usually allows for enough air flow to compensate for heat buildup. I would also recommend rigging up switches so you can vary the levels of blue and red light with the flip of a switch, one for grow (half blue half red in terms of intensity) and bloom. Experimenting is the only way to determine the correct levels for you.

If you have enough light to screw with your vision I have only one thing to say... post everything! Detailed if posable because I have yet to find a detailed construction guide for this (on a large scale like yours) and I have wanted to do LED's for a long time! Do you use an LED ballast or just run the current directly off the battery? Most do require some sort of "ballast" to operate large scale LED panels efficiently and without burning them out, but they are inexpensive and it sounds like you know your electrical engineering. Keep us updated!
 
battosai

battosai

Well-Known Member
northerntights said:
You seem to have it all put together, I did extensive research into this a while back and I simply didn't have the resources or electrical skill to pull it off but shit, sounds like you have a working setup. You want to make sure the ratio of red to blue is correct though, red LED's are usually less efficient then blue (blue being the first color LED created and the simplest to manufacture). Also, most people think LED's run cool, that is actually not the case and their light output can be directly dependent on ambient temperature. Their heat output individually may seem nonexistent but when you have a lot of them the heat can effect light output and burn them out. It's a little known effect that usually only effects special high intensity LED's and large-scale traditional LED panels, of which this is. Having a gap between the wall of the grow room and the LED panels usually allows for enough air flow to compensate for heat buildup. I would also recommend rigging up switches so you can vary the levels of blue and red light with the flip of a switch, one for grow (half blue half red in terms of intensity) and bloom. Experimenting is the only way to determine the correct levels for you.

If you have enough light to screw with your vision I have only one thing to say... post everything! Detailed if posable because I have yet to find a detailed construction guide for this (on a large scale like yours) and I have wanted to do LED's for a long time! Do you use an LED ballast or just run the current directly off the battery? Most do require some sort of "ballast" to operate large scale LED panels efficiently and without burning them out, but they are inexpensive and it sounds like you know your electrical engineering. Keep us updated!
Click to expand...
i think u have that backwards about the blue leds being the easiest to create. maybe i'm wrong. small leds wont put off much heat, even with a large panel but the resistors may get hot. hi power leds that use 1 or more watts a piece put off a lot of heat.
 
TillthedayiDIE420

TillthedayiDIE420

Well-Known Member
Yeah even 1000 led lights will not put out half the Heat as a 250w or even a 50w HPS.... You want blue lights with the red LED's to stop WILD vine like growth the blue's used with reds to keep the plants from wanting to stretch up up and away!
 
S

serrated

Well-Known Member
I am figuring that a 1amp project power supply with adjustable voltage (tattoo power supply type) will power all of the leds (radio shack $12.99), I can do battery power but at $75 per batt I want to make sure it works 1st. the LEDs will run 10milamps each so I am figuing .0010 x 400= .4 amps. the 12 volt fan will be run off a seperate power supply. I am am also figuring that I can run 3 volts off the power supply wich will run the blue LEDs with out a resistor then I can run the red which need 2.2 volts with a 390ish ohm resistor. I am figuring that I should use one resistior per 10 reds in seires.

I will post the construction which starts today.

Again any input is welcome
 
Garden Knowm

Garden Knowm

The Love Doctor
Hello Serrated..

can you post a picture or a link to the lights?

I am stoked to hear more about your experiment!

lovelovelove
 
G

Godkas

Well-Known Member
I'm interested in this as well I've been too sort on funds to try an LED setup but I am confident in its potential. I was leaning toward using industrial LED traffic signs 630nm red and some blue led spotlights.
 
V

verbalexost

New Member
So obviously you know how to connect led lights to a power supply. Do you know of any websites or videos that give good step by step instructions on that, because I am really interested in doing something like that. I just don't know how to connect them.
 
MightyBuddha

MightyBuddha

Well-Known Member
You can't mount the LEDs to the wall because you need to them to be close to the plants... one of the major benefits is no heat so you can do that.
 
S

serrated

Well-Known Member
I have seen several setups that the LEDs were more than 18" away from the plants. in the set up I am working on the plants will never be more than 12" from the LEDs I will post the build this weekend when it is done.
 
battosai

battosai

Well-Known Member
serrated said:
I have seen several setups that the LEDs were more than 18" away from the plants. in the set up I am working on the plants will never be more than 12" from the LEDs I will post the build this weekend when it is done.
Click to expand...


there is about 30 leds on this bread board. they're about the specs u mentioned 4k mcd maybe a bit more or less. its enough to spread even light (somewhat intense) over the top of one 6" plant from 1 inch away. tho the two i put under it were scraggling, they came back. maybe the leds helped. who knows
 
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