LED SETUP - Do It Yourself - Better for less

Hi All

As this is my 1st post/thread i would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone on here for your posted information!!!


Some of the info has been a MASSIVE help to millions all over the world and i would like to offer the little knowledge i have about LED lights & making CO2.


To start you need to know some basic stuff. please read or skim over the following links in order.


http://www.citruscollege.edu/apps/pub.asp?Q=810

Now check this site out.


http://www.gizmology.net/LEDs.htm


As I dont want to get in trouble for posting links to make money off sales; go to ebay and search for "LED grow lights".


DO NOT BUY THESE! YOU CAN MAKE BETTER ONES YOUSELF.


I found a site that has all the stuff WAY CHEAP... IF anyone knows a cheaper supplier please let us all know about it.


http://www.besthongkong.com/index.php?cPath=75


Instructions to come if people are still interested?


Cheers

PS. I have been making alcohol for years and will post another thread about CO2 and not wasting your money in the next few days

Awesome post, you got me wanting to make one. Im a mechanic and a gardener so that would be like my two favorite things in one. + rep to you fine sir.

Cheers buddy. =)

would you recommend using a few different blue and red wavelengths. Or do you think it would be better to go all one wavelength of blue and same for red. Also how do you feel about the 5 watt warm whites, they seem alot more expensive per watt, but are much more intense.

To tell you the truth im still in trialing stages myself.
LED lighting works when used to grow plants we all know that.

The real question we all want to know is which combination of LED's works best?

I am in the process of setting up new lights!
I am going to have a completly different LED combo for flowering and growth.

Below is the light we want to be targeting

LED colors are often given in "nm", or nanometers, which is the wavelength of the light. The wavelength given is the wavelength of the peak output - LEDs are not perfectly monochromatic, but rather produce wavelengths over a small region of the spectrum.

A typical green LED - the peak is at about 565 nm, but it is emitting light over a range of about 520 nm to 610 nm. Spectral line half-width is the width of this curve at 50% intensity (0.5 on the Y-axis) - for this LED, it is about 30 nm - and is a measure of the "purity" (monochromaticity) of the color.

Keeping all this in mind plants need the light shown in the graph above.
We should supply this light need as a minimum!

So to answer your question, yes i would use a few different blues and reds.
A couple of warm whites will never hurt! With LEDS we dont really have to worry about heat or using too much power!
We can supply what the plants want and MORE without effecting them in any negitive way!
Plus the leds cost less then a $1 each and last about 100,000 hours!

I have some white lights so i can see what im doing in my dark grow room!

CANT FUCKING WAIT. I really would like to hear some of your led combos, im gonna make one too. So im curious what leds your going to use. I however am going to do a full spectrum sheet; a few different types of blues, a few reds, and some white in there. Also i will definitely be including UVb. As uvb is what is used by the trichrome in order to produce thc. Lamp.

LED technology really intrigues me. Can't wait a few years for people to really get it mastered.. may it start here with us.

we are on the same wavelength lampshade!!

I found this...

(5)"Pate (1983) indicated that in areas of high ultraviolet radiation exposure​

or the intensity as expressed in ​

(a)Examples of an environment where the UVB photon would be missing
from the light stream include all indoor cultivation illuminated by mercury or
sodium lamps and in glass​

(b)"The maximum UVB irradiance near the equator (solar elevation angle
<25 deg​

maximum between 270 and 280 nm in the ultraviolet region."

Just thought id pass it on.

LHC said:

we are on the same wavelength lampshade!!

I found this...

(5)"Pate (1983) indicated that in areas of high ultraviolet radiation exposure​

, the
UVB (280-320 nm) absorption properties of THC may have conferred an
evolutionary advantage to Cannabis capable of greater production of this
compound from biogenetic precursor CBD. The extent to which this production
is also influenced by environmental UVB has also been experimentally
determined by Lydon et al. (1987)." The author's own experience allow for a
more specific conclusion: If the UVB photon is missing from the light stream(a),​

or the intensity as expressed in ​

&#956;W/cm2 falls below a certain level(b), the
phytochemical process will not be completely energized with only UVA photons
which are more penetrating but less energetic, and the harvested resin spheres
will have mostly precursor compounds and not fully realized THC(c).​

(a)Examples of an environment where the UVB photon would be missing
from the light stream include all indoor cultivation illuminated by mercury or
sodium lamps and in glass​

, polyethelene or fiberglass covered greenhouses.​

(b)"The maximum UVB irradiance near the equator (solar elevation angle
<25 deg​

.) under clear, sunny skies is about 250 (&#956;W/cm2). It was observed that
the daily solar UVB in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (24.4 deg. N) decreased from
September to December by about 40% (Hannan et al. 1984). The further a
person is from the tropics, the less UV radiation there is: the average annual
exposure of a person living in Hawaii is approximately four times that of
someone living in northern Europe."
(c)Cannabinoid pathway: Anywhere in this pathway UVB does a better job
than UVA in enegizing a photochemical reaction that will produce more fully
realized THC, because "all cannabinolic compounds show an absorption​

maximum between 270 and 280 nm in the ultraviolet region."

Just thought id pass it on.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. Also if this goes over anyone head and they want it in laymen terms, or if your just stoned and want to watch a cool vid go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPcpt3Be28o

Welcome to RIU LHC, I've been very interested in your subject matter for quite some time, but wont pay hundreds of $'s for UFO lighting when you can build them yourself way cheaper.
Subscribed and + rep.