Whats new LED growers

Its been a few years! I got into a bunch of other projects and neglected growing for the most part. I lost most of my cuts from neglect over time but still have a handful of good ones to work with.

My recycled soil got worn out/out of balance so I stopped amending with ferts and left the buckets in the rain for about a year, then cut them with 30% compost and now getting some better results.

But the Cree COBs, passive cooled armada, Meanwell drivers, Sensda fans and recycled carbon filters are still doing their thing so I figured I check in on you growers and see whats the new tech?

These ladies are about 5 weeks in, under CXB3590 3500K passive cooled, 700mA, recycled organic soil, rain water with dolomite. In the back is Cali Connection Grape Kush feminized and in the front is G13 Labs Sour Jack feminized. Only running half of one room so temps down there are WAY too cold, 52-54f at night and 56-60F during lights on. Once I click on a few more rooms it will warm up decently though.

Wow looking great!!

Cool to see you're still ru bing CXB wagon. Great chips. Quantum boards or strips in your future?

One problem I bumped into was the cheap potentiometers going bad. Two problems showed up, either Id notice random flickering in the tents or one set of lights seemed dimmer than it should be. At first I was worried I had a loose connection or a bad driver, but it turned out to be the pots wearing out or failing over the years. I replaced 4 or 5 of them for $5 and problem solved but it is definitely worth mentioning if you use cheap pots to check them with a voltmeter (the ohms setting) to make sure they are reading in the 0-100K range. Ill have to track down some quality 100K pots and replace them all

Airwalker16 said:

Wow looking great!! Cool to see you're still ru bing CXB wagon. Great chips. Quantum boards or strips in your future?

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Thnx man, I have a lot of catching up to do. I probably will stick with the CXB3590s overall but I might make a few experimental lights out of curiosity. I still have a bunch of huge heatsinks and Meanwell drivers sitting around. What are the most efficient lights you guys are working with these days?

I for one, offer a sincere welcome back. A lot of the work you shared, laid the foundation for guys like me to succeed at DIY. I got sucked into this during your hiatus.
I tip my cap to you good sir.

Its awesome to see you back in here.

THNX homies, glad to see you guys are keeping up on the R&D! Reading the data sheets on the Samsung strips now...

SupraSPL said:

Thnx man, I have a lot of catching up to do. I probably will stick with the CXB3590s overall but I might make a few experimental lights out of curiosity. I still have a bunch of huge heatsinks and Meanwell drivers sitting around. What are the most efficient lights you guys are working with these days?

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Welp, that's a loaded question. Haha.
But the most efficient Diode right now for the best price is samsungs LM301B or H.
MOST boards for sale nowadays,even in Amazon , are using them. It's amazing how simple it's gotten compared to 2016's 4' 30lb heatsink drilling and tapping.

Wow 5000K 223lm/W I like the sound of that. Yes the change from 2009 heatsinks to 2016 was a big step forward, sounds like we took another big step if they are really hitting those numbers !

I still have and use these 2009 heatsinks but thankfully times have changed. These original leds were 30% efficient and cost $18/par watt

Even the "shitty" options are kicking ass.
I know, because I have some.

SupraSPL said:

Wow 5000K 223lm/W I like the sound of that

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I haven't seen a lot on those CCT boards honestly. Mostly all 3000k and then they started adding reds.

Oooooooh oooooooh one thing you'll be very interested in is this emerging advancement in UV leds that cutter offers. Have a look at this crazy shit!!


@welight I would love if you'd maybe give some more info or anything you might know now about these? They seem like such an absolutely amazing advancement and this if it is good enough for what it's supposed do, and the powers there needed to do it, the easiest way ever to get that lost part of the spectrum everyone's been without since..... Forever. Thanks, Mark.

Cutter always has some crazy shit! On of the first places we ever found top bins back in the day, thank you Mark! Im guessing they make LED tanning beds with UVA UVB nowadays? Def be careful with UVC germicidal spectrum though, hardcore DNA damage. UVC normally gets filtered out by the atmosphere.

Airwalker16 said:

I haven't seen a lot on those CCT boards honestly. Mostly all 3000k and then they started adding reds.

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Yea not much use for 5000s. I use them in veg but I figure if theyre hitting 223lm/W at 5000K thats probably 210+ on 3500K?

SI-B8U051280US 3500K 197lm/W 12" 5W $7.42 not bad I could retrofit a few onto 16" heatsinks. Might use $7 in thermal paste too tho LOL. Might try hair wax as super cheap thermal paste?

Hair wax eh?.....
With these strip form factors, it's el cheapo brand, double sided thermal tape on aluminum U chanel for most!

Or, if you wanna splurge, good ol' Heatsink USA profiles.

Thermal tape scares me that strips will come loose and fall. I'd say use some kind of fastening down. And at that point, just use thermal grease.

Airwalker16 said:

come loose and fall

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Not one time in 3 years, on dozens of builds....

Chip Green said:

Not one time in 3 years, on dozens of builds....

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With Nmy luck, it'd happen.

Kapton tape has been able to hold the weight of the COBs and the cables against gravity for many years, as long as applied correctly. That said it can be ugly and it was intended for "temporary" installs and it annoys @stardustsailor so next time I might try using UL metal tape. But there is nothing more permanent than a temporary solution. Screws are the way to go but I am glad that I havent drilled any of my heatsink surfaces.

Now I'm talking strips, on aluminum U chanel for the cheapo tape... COBs no chance. The amount of tape across the surface of an entire 560mm strip makes an enormous difference.