I am currently looking to source the diodes that are being used on some of the better panels as it would be a simple matter to create a panel from pre-copper stripped veroboard (for the old 2 legged type) and i'm sure with a few strategically placed drill holes the cheap PCB's will also fit higher wattage (and a much larger diameter diode) I managed to find some 5Watt Blue last night, but even at trade they were quite expensive. So i'll keep looking as i'm sure it won't cost what these guys are asking.....Also I thought i'd better point out that as usual there are some unscrupulous ***** out there as I keep seeing LED Grow panels for sale with the usual bumf, some are even being so cheeky as to name them 'UFO' but not seen them for 4 weeks now - The reason i mention it is because the LED's in that particular one looked bog standard and I 'suspect' that it's a rip off from far east. But I keep checking and it's been removed from e-bay...But as far as I can gather it would do next to nothing as I imagine the LED's are just Red and Blue, not high intensity or tuned to a specific bandwidth as the proper ones are...I have done electronics all my life, been out of touch for a few years now but these panels should be simple to make up if I can source diodes cheaply enough.
I used to work in the Photolithography part of the semiconductor fab, so I'm used to 'wierd equipment' - i'm looking forward to this.....
Ow last bit sorry - i'm also wanting to make a Hydroponic unit for my small to medium cuttings.......I was reading an article about fill/drain which seems simple enough to fabricate, but after that I saw that one other way was to use a fogger/mister head (ive woked on ultrasonic baths and stuff at Fab but i'd never seen one of those mister heads, I imagine its same principle different frequency) but until I searched through electronic components last night
If anyone is also interested please PM me, especially so as i'm not in USA so i'm thinking you may stand a better chance of locating a source for the diodes than can do over here, but no worries my last job was as Engineer in a semiconductor Fab so I may have to try and call on old aquantances to try and find out what companies make them. I was looking at Fairchild ones last night, they are still a dollar or so each for a high intensity one 1Watt I seem to remember but they went up as far as 5 Watts, but so did the price.....I think they are more than a 'fad' or fashion, the idea is technically sound, just use what bandwidth you need and no more, negligible heat loss, a very high life-time compared with Mh - I suspect from what bits ive read that the panels are suffering slightly with not having sufficient intesity to penetrate lower leaves, but the more diodes they sell the cheaper the LED's get, then maybe it would be cost effective to have another panel down below...... But basically i'm up for having a go if I can source the diodes and say buy 500 of each....May have to sell a couple of panels to make enough dosh to build our own, but i'd like to have a stab at it, make enquiries about prices of LED's I doubt anything else will be a problem...Make a Power Supply up, in fact tonight i'll try get pictures of as many diff types and makes as i can...Then i'll get the data from the UFO site as there is graph on there shows how much plans req
