IF you are new to LED and want help choosing what to buy, POST HERE!

Hehehe...

You wont need a schematic as the simple way is constant current driver, hooked up in series with your LED that are on a heatsink. the question, then, is....

What LEDs? - What do plants like, what are the most efficient? Osram, CREE, and arguably Philips also, are the industry leaders, but there are plenty of other quality LED out there
How much cooling do i need? - Active or passive cooling? A rule of thumb that is often used, is 21 square inches per watt for passive, or 10 inches per watt for active (with fans) however this is only a rule of thumb!

Now then grasshopper....the real research begins... This is an "experimental" field, so you need to begin reading journals, build and grow logs, etc, and researching what seems to work best in your opinion. You will save considerable money DIYing a panel, AND have a panel which performs better than a commercial one. But there is some learning to do first.

Check out some of the DIY grows on the first page of this forum. here are some to get you going

https://www.rollitup.org/led-other-lighting/602112-diy-led-grow-lights-experiences.html

https://www.rollitup.org/led-other-lighting/631142-2nd-attempt-40w-homebrew-coco.html

https://www.rollitup.org/led-other-lighting/652747-first-run-diy-xml2-xpe.html

well considering the link you provided was kind enough to give tech specs on angles and such, i dont foresee any problems fabricating one for a tenth of the cost if there is interest i will document the whole process with my costs

Hey been reading posts for about 2 weeks now trying to figure out the best LED for my setup. Have a 2'x2' cupboard with 3 1/2' of height allowance (5' if reconfigured, so 2x2 1/2' levels are also possible). Have 8 plants vegging under cfl's started at the same time but varying in size (one is 3x the others). Want to get an LED that can be used for all the growth stages and produce dense buds. Also not looking to constantly upgrade my lights so looking to buy quality I can stick with for a few grows at least. Bysen and Cidly are the two that I'm leaning towards at the moment, looking to spend $200-$400 ($500 being absolute max). Also i understand that my dimensions are suited to a tall plant which is harder to cover with LEDS, should i consider splitting my grow into two levels and having shorter plants covered by two smaller LEDS? Getting ready to pull the trigger and would appreciate any recommendations from those with experience. Thanks in advance

Draconus87 said:

well considering the link you provided was kind enough to give tech specs on angles and such, i dont foresee any problems fabricating one for a tenth of the cost if there is interest i will document the whole process with my costs

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Except that thread is a year old, and so all those LEDs are obsolete my friend

And what i meant by you need to do research is that, for example, while greensurfer might say those are the best LED for the money (or whatever), mr. X, Y , and Z might all think differently!

If you are absolutely set on just going for it, then you could look into OSLON SSL series (someone can remind me the code for latest version?? cant remember), or CREE XT-E series, or CREE XML-2 series. But like I said, have a look round before you buy anything

edit: infact the 3rd link has very recent LEDs, that would be a good one to use as guide in that way.

Glacius said:

Hey been reading posts for about 2 weeks now trying to figure out the best LED for my setup. Have a 2'x2' cupboard with 3 1/2' of height allowance (5' if reconfigured, so 2x2 1/2' levels are also possible). Have 8 plants vegging under cfl's started at the same time but varying in size (one is 3x the others). Want to get an LED that can be used for all the growth stages and produce dense buds. Also not looking to constantly upgrade my lights so looking to buy quality I can stick with for a few grows at least. Bysen and Cidly are the two that I'm leaning towards at the moment, looking to spend $200-$400 ($500 being absolute max). Also i understand that my dimensions are suited to a tall plant which is harder to cover with LEDS, should i consider splitting my grow into two levels and having shorter plants covered by two smaller LEDS? Getting ready to pull the trigger and would appreciate any recommendations from those with experience. Thanks in advance

Click to expand...

your main limit here is budget. Do a single level and dont use all your height. I cant reccommend retail panels since i don't use them but some of the LED brotherhood will be able to help soon I am sure.

One day i hope the LED growing community get together and agree on a light that they all like and agree that works
hopefully the best light turns out to be Chinese! not sure how the hipsters will deal with that but it will be fun

glad we do not have the same confusion within the HID growing community

peace

PSUAGRO. said:

For $200 bucks the may be the only choice http://www.bsled.com/led-grow-light/h158d-140w.html it should do well in a 2x2, tell them you want a "sample/tester" panel and they should ship it for around two bills......good luck



http://www.bonsaihero.com/ledgrow.html 3-4 panels should rock that space, check the first review and see what these little fuckers can do. This is a heavy red leaning panel.

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After doing more research I'll pass on LEDs.

The lumens I would need in LED are prohibitively expensive.

I'll just use my 15k 200 CFL for vegging and a 150 HPS for flowering, run the lights at night etc. ( Maybe get a flowering CFL bulb )

I like at least 15 to 16 k lumens for each plant.

That's a fortune in LEDs !


Going from a 1200 watt grow to one plant in a hidden corner sucks.

Hopefully they will get cheaper..

I mean LED lumens and HID/ CFL lumens are the same right? A lumen is a lumen?

lumens are not very smart way of measuring light to plants - lumens, are a measurement of "what the human eye sees" which is very different from a plant.

But you are right, LED are way more expensive. I would expect that 140W LED to shit on your 150w HPS, though

Yeah budget is an issue, also it's my first grow so don't wanna drop large $ until I have some experience.

SnotBoogie said:

lumens are not very smart way of measuring light to plants - lumens, are a measurement of "what the human eye sees" which is very different from a plant.

But you are right, LED are way more expensive. I would expect that 140W LED to shit on your 150w HPS, though

Click to expand...

You think so ?

Are your sure ? The lumens seem way low compared to the 16k of a HPS.

I'll go check it out...I'm just interested in a small 2 to 3 ounce plant every 90 days.

But if you say a 140 LED will be better then a 150 HPS and it's true , I'll think I will get one.

I could swing 300.US....just the summer heat issue problem resolved would be worth it.


EDIT Watched several comparisons on spectrum tests.

Just ordered a 140 watt

^^^^you learned quick.
You can get 600wHID power out of a 120w led specially if you are replacing lower wattage hps or only need it to cover a small area.

Basically, "lumens" are like...ok.

so the human eye is better at seeing some colours than others. 555nanometre Green is the color we are best at seeing, and its like a smooth curve downwards as you go away from this wavelength (blue/violet on the left, yellow/red on the right).

Lumens are a way of measuring light which is weighted towards what the human eye likes.

The problem is that this means green wavelengths and other wavelengths nearby, which are less efficiently utilised in this situation (to simplify greatly) are sorta, artifically made more important than the ones further away from 555nm green, like deep reds or to a lesser extent blues. so a lamp might have 1000lumens, but not be as good as one with 500 lumens, because the 1000 lumen lamp has much more green in the spectrum for example.

If you look on wikipedia article for "lumens" its a way better explanation haha. here is the "lumen eye response curve" View attachment 2691411

edit: oh yeah...the point LOL. HPS has a lot of yellow/green, which while it translates into lots of lumens, is not neccessarily more useful to a plant than other spectrums. because it is an exponential curve, the difference between wavelengths of light which are relatively close to each other, can be big!

Yeah it's just going to be a one plant operation from now on.

2 to 3 foot tall max. 2 x 3 area, SoG style.

I'm sitting on enough to last me awhile from my last harvest....but I can't stop growing !

And now I don't have to.

how do you do sog with one plant

hyroot said:

how do you do sog with one plant

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By topping the hell out of it.
It'll have a 2 month veg.

hyroot said:

how do you do sog with one plant

Click to expand...

Correctly.

ogreb said:

By topping the hell out of it.
It'll have a 2 month veg.

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Hahahahaha. Lmfao. Ohh man the things noobs say......

Thats just a big plant not sog. Sea of green. Which is many small plants sitting right next to each other. with no veg or very little veg time and no topping. just lollipopping. Where each plant has 1 single top. Like 4 plants in a square foot or 1 plant per square foot. But it takes several plants to do sog method.


I think you mean having an even canopy. All tops at same height. Main lining and lst and topping can do that. But still not an sog method.




Stay frosty

dolamic said:

I own 2 Kessils, 1 H150 Purple, 1 H350 Magenta. Honestly I think the Purple one outperforms the Magenta.
Just my opinion. I love em both, and you're right the $90 for a Kessil is hard to turn down. If I wasn't unemployed
I would have already gotten 3 or 4 more

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Purple = Veg
Magenta = whatever
Am I wrong?

... I've been real tempted to pick one up for just veg. The SGS-160 is definitely overkill for the first 2-3weeks.

ogreb said:

By topping the hell out of it.
It'll have a 2 month veg.

Click to expand...

I got what you were trying to say. I think you meant to say SCOG which is using less plants to make an even and full canopy by topping/lst/manipulation.
As where SOG is using the higher plant count to make up for veg time.

Still looking around and found a seller on ebay who actually lists all the LED part numbers (believe they're using Epistar 3W for the most part), it's just I don't know enough about the specifics of LED's to know if they're any good. Might just take the chance for the price. 100% feedback so far too. I think they even have a few products claiming to use CREE LED's.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/150W-Led-Grow-Light-Flower-Veg-Switch-Reflector-Increase-Yields-Grow-Lamp-Panel-/151059295429?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item232bd5ecc5