Cheap LED is great for Veg and plants love it but way underpowered - How to beef up?

Colo MMJ

Well-Known Member
A biz partner bought me a few
14W 225 LED Hydroponic Plant Grow Light Panel Full Spectrum Indoor Growing Lamp

http://www.ebay.com/itm/14W-225-LED-Hydroponic-Plant-Grow-Light-Panel-Full-Spectrum-Indoor-Growing-Lamp-/322019288864?hash=item4af9d86720:g:4qQAAOSwZ8ZW8LSy I think he paid like $17.

At first I thought it was a joke. I am trying to migrate away from 1000 W HPS. I hung the 14 W LEDs up for vegging small plants out of the clone box and also hung it in the bigger plants in veg getting ready to move to flower.

The weird thing is the plants really dig the light. 14 watts is so weak that it cannot really hurt the delicate post clone babies. I am running a dual light T8 (6500 K) with the little lights for small vegs babies and the combo has worked pretty well.

In the larger room with 5 bigger vegging girls, they liked the little light too. I was running that with 1000 W Hydrofarm HPS and a 600 watt Mars Hydro LED. Towards the end of veg I threw in a 5000K CFL from home depot on clearance for $2.33 120 watt CFL at 5000 K. They loved that light too. The Mars Hydro was probably the worst of the bunch. The plants closest to Mars LED got bushy but did not grow too much vertically. I am pretty much done with Chinese LED lights.

I really think the plants like the red and blue small LEDs.
I might try this 45 watt version:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/45W-225-LED-Hydroponic-Plant-Grow-Light-Panel-Full-Spectrum-Indoor-Growing-Lamp-/401028168301?hash=item5d5f243a6d:g:YMsAAOSwiylXA3m4

I know GrowMau5 added red and blue LEDs to his gorgeous red COB DIY death star set up.


His red colored DIY COB set up is amazing and looks amazing. I may "try" to make one or
go to Timber for their kit or the Aussie company that sells growMau5's kit.

Just trying to get some ideas for big veg and flower. I am considering 1 HPS and one DIY COB (4 COBs - could be DIY) on a robot track to maximize a 10 x 14 room. So instead of running 6 1000 watt HPS for 8 big girls running the two lights or one HPS and two DIY COBs.

Any suggestions? Sorry I am all over the place. I kind of just started a month ago with minimal training and I am hanging in there. My partner is a pretty cheap and getting him to go in for a $399 Timber COB kit is a a real struggle.
 

BamaBoyBeRolling

Well-Known Member
Take a look at these

COB+DRIVER
http://www.ebay.com/itm/LED-SMD-Chip-Bulb-10W-20W-30W-50W-100W-LED-Driver-Power-Supply-Waterproof-/161781862858?var=&hash=item25aaf351ca:m:mMC-QduD7u5tzYCm_ZrbPoQ
You can you a regular pc cpu heatsink with a fan on it to cool -50w

heatsinks
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=100w+heatsink+&_sacat=0

And use flat aluminum trim to put them together
This should get you on your way with a cheap way to build a good light.

EDIT: the search term that gives the best results on ebay for COB's is led chip
 
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Colo MMJ

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the tip. Super stuff! Roll Tide or roll another one. Or War Eagle in case you are an Auburn fan. The people on these forums are awesome!

Many thanks.

8-)
 

BamaBoyBeRolling

Well-Known Member
Roll tide roll, actually never got crazy over football just a good excuse to get drunk.This forum is a rich source for information on everything about this great plant.

Happy growing.
 

Colo MMJ

Well-Known Member
Yeah SEC football and most college football is like a crazy religion.

How do I connect a power cord to those drivers? I guess I can search around. Thanks for all the help.
 

BamaBoyBeRolling

Well-Known Member
woops read that wrong just buy some thin wire and hook it to the correct polarity. If you are going to wire it in a chain it would go like this hook positive to the positive connector on the first COB then hook that COBs negative to the positive of the next one don't hook 2 positive together in a chain (vise versa) for it wont do right and have the negative from the driver hooked up to the negative at the end of the chain.
 
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