What Lights in your veg room?

PadawanWarrior said:

So a clone of a clone, lol. The sf4000 is a clone of HLG lights.

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Got the light for free has Samsung diodes and meanwell drivers so I figured it would work for veg

Exoticsonly25 said:

Got the light for free has Samsung diodes and meanwell drivers so I figured it would work for veg

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Oh ya, it'll work. I'm just saying they stole the design from HLG. They're not allowed to call them quantum boards either since it's trademarked by HLG. Nothing wrong with it, especially for free,

Bullmark said:

Question on the HLG r-spec…..what height do you run that during flower??

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I go by light intensity, not inches. Personally I use the Photone app on my iPhone to measure the light intensity and for flower I keep it between 1300 - 1800 ppfd depending on genetics. As George Cervantes put it back in the 70's, "lumens are for humans." Our eyes suck at determining light intensity, I prefer to let computers do the math.

The height I put the light at depends on the temperature and humidity of the room. In the S. US it's mostly hot and wet year round, so I tend to keep the lights as far away as I can while keeping the intensity up, that way the heat burns off some of the humidity and the moisture is under control; as long as my temps stay in check. During the 2-3 low humidity months I might drop the light more and lower the intensity if environmental numbers are going well.

Bullmark said:

And do you increase intensity as you get further into flower??

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I usually give the plants a 3 day - 1 week adjustment period to being put into flower. Then I blast them with the max PPFD they can take until the last week of flower. So if it' s a 9 week flower strain, week 1 will be at "veg" intensity of about 800 - 1000 ppfd, then the middle 7 weeks as high as the plants will take, and then half a week to week back at around 900 ppfd.

Bullmark said:

I was hoping someone with basically the same light could give me some pointers.

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That's what I do, your mileage may vary. I've seen some LED model lights that simply cannot burn the plants, where people have grown straight into the diodes. A few years ago I found a Youtube kid who put 1 QB288 on a 600 watt driver and pushed it at full power until the diodes start popping. Even with 3 boards on a 330w driver, they're slightly overpowered even if they could take more electricity before blowing diodes out.

It took me about a year to a get the system tuned, the best advice I can give you is to meter your light with a measurement device of some kind. A $30 par meter from Lowes, a $20 phone app, or a $600 quantum sensor; it doesn't really matter as long as it gives you the same number on Monday and Friday if you have the sensor and lights exactly the same. Get a benchmark that is consistent and then check against your plants if it's too much or too little. There is no single number for a light or a genetic. I've run 5 different genetics under this light and every one has liked slightly different intensities.

With dimming and LED's, IMO distance means nothing. I can turn my veg driver down to 30% and get 200 ppfd at 6", or I can move them up to 42" and turn the electricity up to where it matches the intensity where it was at 3", but it's a waste of electricity and creates too much heat. It's a balance of power usage, heat, and intensity. Light distance and dimming amounts are just adjustments to control those parameters.

RetiredToker76 said:

I go by light intensity, not inches. Personally I use the Photone app on my iPhone to measure the light intensity and for flower I keep it between 1300 - 1800 ppfd depending on genetics. As George Cervantes put it back in the 70's, "lumens are for humans." Our eyes suck at determining light intensity, I prefer to let computers do the math.

The height I put the light at depends on the temperature and humidity of the room. In the S. US it's mostly hot and wet year round, so I tend to keep the lights as far away as I can while keeping the intensity up, that way the heat burns off some of the humidity and the moisture is under control; as long as my temps stay in check. During the 2-3 low humidity months I might drop the light more and lower the intensity if environmental numbers are going well.



I usually give the plants a 3 day - 1 week adjustment period to being put into flower. Then I blast them with the max PPFD they can take until the last week of flower. So if it' s a 9 week flower strain, week 1 will be at "veg" intensity of about 800 - 1000 ppfd, then the middle 7 weeks as high as the plants will take, and then half a week to week back at around 900 ppfd.



That's what I do, your mileage may vary. I've seen some LED model lights that simply cannot burn the plants, where people have grown straight into the diodes. A few years ago I found a Youtube kid who put 1 QB288 on a 600 watt driver and pushed it at full power until the diodes start popping. Even with 3 boards on a 330w driver, they're slightly overpowered even if they could take more electricity before blowing diodes out.

It took me about a year to a get the system tuned, the best advice I can give you is to meter your light with a measurement device of some kind. A $30 par meter from Lowes, a $20 phone app, or a $600 quantum sensor; it doesn't really matter as long as it gives you the same number on Monday and Friday if you have the sensor and lights exactly the same. Get a benchmark that is consistent and then check against your plants if it's too much or too little. There is no single number for a light or a genetic. I've run 5 different genetics under this light and every one has liked slightly different intensities.

With dimming and LED's, IMO distance means nothing. I can turn my veg driver down to 30% and get 200 ppfd at 6", or I can move them up to 42" and turn the electricity up to where it matches the intensity where it was at 3", but it's a waste of electricity and creates too much heat. It's a balance of power usage, heat, and intensity. Light distance and dimming amounts are just adjustments to control those parameters.

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I use the Photone app as well…..I found that the numbers were really skewed when I switched I-phones. And depending on the particular piece of paper I use for a diffuser the readings can be high or low. But, like you said, as long as you can get the same readings consistently you can determine what’s what.
I have the intensity turned down a good bit right now and it’s been 5 days since I flipped to 12/12, so I think I’ll turn it up a notch and see how they react. My only complaint about the HLG 320 is the dimmer has no dial or any other way to know how far you’ve adjusted. The manual says it goes from 100w to 340w, but you have to guess at where you are in the middle.
Thanks for your input….it really helps me moving forward.

Bullmark said:

I found that the numbers were really skewed when I switched I-phones. And depending on the particular piece of paper I use for a diffuser the readings can be high or low.

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When I switched from my iPhone6 to a new iPhone12 the new numbers didn't match the old numbers, however using the 12 has been relatively consistent. For the difuser paper, I use a piece of flash difuser paper that came with my SLR speed flash, it fits perfectly over the camera and doesn't block the phone screen. It hasn't been easy hanging on to the exact same piece of paper for 3 years now but it has allowed me consistency of the readings when using the same phone.

RetiredToker76 said:

When I switched from my iPhone6 to a new iPhone12 the new numbers didn't match the old numbers, however using the 12 has been relatively consistent. For the difuser paper, I use a piece of flash difuser paper that came with my SLR speed flash, it fits perfectly over the camera and doesn't block the phone screen. It hasn't been easy hanging on to the exact same piece of paper for 3 years now but it has allowed me consistency of the readings when using the same phone.

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Just tested photone on an iPhone 7 & a Samsung Galaxy 7. S7 said 160-175 p0fd, iPhone 7 said 250-275ppfd. That's a pretty big % difference, like 40'ish %. Crazy.