Small LED build advice

raggyb · Jun 12, 2021

Love RIU! I want to get my feet wet with LEDs by building my own small fixture. I would like to build my own. It's only for vegging, and I want to evenly cover a 1 sq ft area from a height of only 2 ft or less, so I think it's total max of only 45w. I want to learn to work with LEDs, so this is a LED question only.

What led bulbs would work best for this? This is for veg small plants. Can I get some broadness to my spectrum and so do I mix and match bulb wavelengths? Since I'm going to try and PWM dim it, I want no more than a 45 watt driver, right? I guess I want small wattage individual bulbs so I can have more bulbs that add up to 40w total? So what brand and models of bulbs should I purchase in this case?

Rocket Soul · Jun 12, 2021

Something like 2:1 or 3:1 of cold to warm white bulbs, if that is why youre going for. You have a really small space so it's going to need some thought in how you control environment and vent it.

Southernontariogrower · Jun 12, 2021

raggyb said:
Love RIU! I want to get my feet wet with LEDs by building my own small fixture. I would like to build my own. It's only for vegging, and I want to evenly cover a 1 sq ft area from a height of only 2 ft or less, so I think it's total max of only 45w. I want to learn to work with LEDs, so this is a LED question only.

What led bulbs would work best for this? This is for veg small plants. Can I get some broadness to my spectrum and so do I mix and match bulb wavelengths? Since I'm going to try and PWM dim it, I want no more than a 45 watt driver, right? I guess I want small wattage individual bulbs so I can have more bulbs that add up to 40w total? So what brand and models of bulbs should I purchase in this case?

Not sure but thinking you can go way lees on wattage for veg, l flower at 37.5w per sq ft. All i know is this will save you cash, higher kelvin values for veg 5500k to 6500k will keep internodal spacing closer. 3000k to 4000k are best all around light spectrum from my understanding. Supposed to be full spectrum. Btw when l vegged l had to dim by 50% or plants freaked out. Hope this helps you in any way possible. Best of luck on build! As an afterthought hlg has small board that is good price and well made. Under 100w lm pretty sure.

MidnightSun72 · Jun 12, 2021

raggyb said:
Love RIU! I want to get my feet wet with LEDs by building my own small fixture. I would like to build my own. It's only for vegging, and I want to evenly cover a 1 sq ft area from a height of only 2 ft or less, so I think it's total max of only 45w. I want to learn to work with LEDs, so this is a LED question only.

What led bulbs would work best for this? This is for veg small plants. Can I get some broadness to my spectrum and so do I mix and match bulb wavelengths? Since I'm going to try and PWM dim it, I want no more than a 45 watt driver, right? I guess I want small wattage individual bulbs so I can have more bulbs that add up to 40w total? So what brand and models of bulbs should I purchase in this case?

In a 1 ft square area you can use less watts especially for veg. That being said if you can build it at 45w and dim it as needed. Most 3500K+ has more than 40% blue which keeps internodes short enough. 4000K is usually a bit more efficient but it's such small watt draw that it kind of doesn't matter.

I'd look at either the Samsung or the Bridgelux 3500K-4000K 1ft 300mm strips.

Digikey and arrow are both great sources. I like Digi-Key for faster deivery. But arrow does a lot of clearance sales.

Budzbuddha · Jun 12, 2021

Why not a simple flouro rig ( 4/6/8 bulb ) , you still can run blended spectrum

raggyb · Jun 12, 2021

Rocket Soul said:
Something like 2:1 or 3:1 of cold to warm white bulbs, if that is why youre going for. You have a really small space so it's going to need some thought in how you control environment and vent it.

I like this ratio suggestion ...

Southernontariogrower said:
Not sure but thinking you can go way lees on wattage for veg, l flower at 37.5w per sq ft. All i know is this will save you cash, higher kelvin values for veg 5500k to 6500k will keep internodal spacing closer. 3000k to 4000k are best all around light spectrum from my understanding. Supposed to be full spectrum. Btw when l vegged l had to dim by 50% or plants freaked out. Hope this helps you in any way possible. Best of luck on build! As an afterthought hlg has small board that is good price and well made. Under 100w lm pretty sure.

...yeah, maybe I go even less watt. Maybe a combo of a couple 3k 4k, and 3x more of the 5.5k 6.5k. Thanks!

MidnightSun72 said:
In a 1 ft square area you can use less watts especially for veg. That being said if you can build it at 45w and dim it as needed. Most 3500K+ has more than 40% blue which keeps internodes short enough. 4000K is usually a bit more efficient but it's such small watt draw that it kind of doesn't matter.

I'd look at either the Samsung or the Bridgelux 3500K-4000K 1ft 300mm strips.

Digikey and arrow are both great sources. I like Digi-Key for faster deivery. But arrow does a lot of clearance sales.

Maybe I should mix a few 3500, 3000 and 4000. Thought of a switch crossed my mind to have separate channels on the same frame to switch between. For the strips, can you split them up? Or do you have to buy individual LEDs? And what is the deal with lenses? Are they necessary? Do the strip lights have lenses?

Budzbuddha said:
Why not a simple flouro rig ( 4/6/8 bulb ) , you still can run blended spectrum

Looks like a good choice but I hope I can take time to learn to build LED lights.

Small LED build advice

raggyb

Well-Known Member

Rocket Soul

Well-Known Member

Southernontariogrower

Well-Known Member

MidnightSun72

Well-Known Member

Budzbuddha

Well-Known Member

raggyb

Well-Known Member