Which LED strips would you buy?

Diggs, another way of phrasing this question is what combination of strips will be the best, you allready tried a 80-90cri combo.

Id figure out what you want for main light whites and then what you need apart from that.

My current thinking for flower is to use 2700k 90 cri. I find it much better and cost effective to add some blue/uv or high K white to that than adding expensive high spec reds. The reds seem to be much worse in handling heat than blues so any red i can get out of a white chip (which is based un blue) the better.

For the extras (uv/660/730) the solstrips are very good, although they suffer a bit from the mono channel having slightly low spec and efficiency.

So my best guess would be some bridgelux gen3 strips for main lighting if you can get your hands on high cri strips. And then complete with solstrips: either crees or nichias depending on how much dollar you wanna spend.

Airwalker16 said:

Cutter can do custom boards so they are realistically the best option. If you sent the time to find out exactly what wattage would be needed for the highest lumen per watt available, and built your strips from that and ran them to hit that, that would technically be the best available.

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Oh cool, i wasnt aware you could customize, only really looked at the sol strips and the nichias over at cutter. Thanks bud

cobshopgrow said:

well, think eb3 slim are a option.
pack as many you can above your canopy drive em at 500 or below and youll have a nice efficient base light.
cant imagine how to get more leds in the space.

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Ya this sounds like the plan, many strips ran soft. Do you know whos stocking the Gen3s? i tried searching Digikey but no results for gen 3s

Rocket Soul said:

Diggs, another way of phrasing this question is what combination of strips will be the best, you allready tried a 80-90cri combo.

Id figure out what you want for main light whites and then what you need apart from that.

My current thinking for flower is to use 2700k 90 cri. I find it much better and cost effective to add some blue/uv or high K white to that than adding expensive high spec reds. The reds seem to be much worse in handling heat than blues so any red i can get out of a white chip (which is based un blue) the better.

For the extras (uv/660/730) the solstrips are very good, although they suffer a bit from the mono channel having slightly low spec and efficiency.

So my best guess would be some bridgelux gen3 strips for main lighting if you can get your hands on high cri strips. And then complete with solstrips: either crees or nichias depending on how much dollar you wanna spend.

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Ya i like this idea, low k white base with some added blue/uv....I think im swaying more towards trying the Nichias over the crees this time around. Ive heard nothing but good stuff about Nichia.

Whos stocking the bxeb gen 3s?

for gen 3 just the slim are avaiable, as far i know.

but have to say, you can fit more leds in the space with slims then you can with regular ones and all nice n cool at 500mA
just one option, so much to play with nowadays.

cobshopgrow said:

for gen 3 just the slim are avaiable, as far i know.

EB Series™ Slim Gen 3 - Bridgelux - LED Modules | Online Catalog | DigiKey Electronics

Browse DigiKey's inventory of EB Series™ Slim Gen 3LED Modules. Features, Specifications, Alternative Product, Product Training Modules, and Datasheets are all available.

www.digikey.com

but have to say, you can fit more leds in the space with slims then you can with regular ones and all nice n cool at 500mA
just one option, so much to play with nowadays.

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Thanks bud,

They have 82 in stock @ $12.40 cdn each...price drops to 8.27 @ 100....i was actually surprised that they were so cheap.

What are we looking at for spacing between the slim strips? 2"?

ill probably build the fixtures either 2x2 or 2x4(tables will be 2x4) , being powered by 185w or 320w drivers.

Yes blux, led strips for "the people"..... . I have high expectations (2700k), would run then myself if possible.

Release the mofos already

np man, glad i could help.
i also bought more then 100, for 2 lamps, made it quite economical.

spacing,
i did it a bit logarithmic to get rid of some hotspot.
so its not equal overall.
mostly i have 14mm spacing in between due to the fact that my selfmade strips are 14mm, but thats really just me.

depends really on what fixture size you like the most i would say.
draw/calc that maybe and you will see what amount of strips will make sense.
even if overdone a bit, as long you not restrict the airflow too much we could say you only benefit using more lightsources driven low.
given the cheap price of the eb3 slim, it cost not much to overdo there.

my thinking roughly.

14mm allow also some cutter strips fits in between if i am right, and if you use screws (for 500mA thermals are easy peasy) you can mount 2 strips with one screw... each side blabla of course.

Hi Diggs
Based on your journals and 3 grows under J series,

you certainly seem to have the spectrum dialed in nicely. Im not sure more lights are required in terms of spread as filling the room reduces your ability to space light, your grows highlight several of the features of strips, your ability to place light where you want it and your ability to have low hang height and not all strains grow the same under one spectrum. We are currently testing optisolis 5k with far red as Im really interested in Bugbee's team's work on Far Red re leave penetration and cell expansion, so I would up the efficacy with Nichia H series on the strips, add far red(judicious use in veg re stretch) and then for emerson to speed flower and also some 660 to help on bud density, but your grows are impressive so Im talking tweaks to improve finish time and gr/watt
Cheers
Mark

welight said:

Hi Diggs
Based on your journals and 3 grows under J series,

you certainly seem to have the spectrum dialed in nicely. Im not sure more lights are required in terms of spread as filling the room reduces your ability to space light, your grows highlight several of the features of strips, your ability to place light where you want it and your ability to have low hang height and not all strains grow the same under one spectrum. We are currently testing optisolis 5k with far red as Im really interested in Bugbee's team's work on Far Red re leave penetration and cell expansion, so I would up the efficacy with Nichia H series on the strips, add far red(judicious use in veg re stretch) and then for emerson to speed flower and also some 660 to help on bud density, but your grows are impressive so Im talking tweaks to improve finish time and gr/watt
Cheers
Mark

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Thanks for the kind words Mark.

I have nothing but love for my Jseries, they have preformed very well. I will be keeping them running in the room they are currently in. The new lights will be for a new room. I considered buying more Jseries to fill the new room but wanted to look into the higher end stuff, see if they are worth the extra $$.

Those Nichias look real good.

Are you going to be stocking any of the bxeb slim gen 3s?

diggs99 said:

Thanks for the kind words Mark.

I have nothing but love for my Jseries, they have preformed very well. I will be keeping them running in the room they are currently in. The new lights will be for a new room. I considered buying more Jseries to fill the new room but wanted to look into the higher end stuff, see if they are worth the extra $$.

Those Nichias look real good.

Are you going to be stocking any of the bxeb slim gen 3s?

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Whats your time frame on the build? Cree will release shortly some super eff 2835 leds like the EB3, but in 220LPW. I dont like FR4 boards and dont like the connectors on the boards, largest AWG is only 20AWG, so will be waiting on the new Cree and will build new strips using these at expected lower cost also
Cheers
Mark

welight said:

Whats your time frame on the build? Cree will release shortly some super eff 2835 leds like the EB3, but in 220LPW. I dont like FR4 boards and dont like the connectors on the boards, largest AWG is only 20AWG, so will be waiting on the new Cree and will build new strips using these at expected lower cost also
Cheers
Mark

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Im not in any huge hurry, some time in the new year, when are you expecting the new cree? When do you think they would be ready for sale?

Hey guys, good thread. FWIW, Teknik and I believe @diyled made negative comments about efficacy of EB strips, you might want to inquire. I asked Teknik about it but he didn't reply.

diggs99 said:

Im not in any huge hurry, some time in the new year, when are you expecting the new cree? When do you think they would be ready for sale?

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Looks like samples before end of Dec, certainly should be ready in Jan 2020
Cheers
Mark

F series

1212ham said:

Hey guys, good thread. FWIW, Teknik and I believe @diyled made negative comments about efficacy of EB strips, you might want to inquire. I asked Teknik about it but he didn't reply.

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I cant speak for the performance of the chips on EB3, but I dont build any linear strips in fibreglass, mid power leds are plastic packages, I don t want plastic on plastic. The efficacy of leds is directly related to junction temp, if you cant escape the heat quick time it impacts efficacy, grm/watt is an outcome of efficacy
Cheers
Mark

I'm just going to say that after personally running in succession 4000k/660 & 1750k that the even distribution with phosphor layer is better than added monos.....imo

Gen3 2700k, 90ra strips ticks most of my boxes for a flowering light from the years growing with LEDs. Simple, efficient, even red leaning output, cheap, effective ? Don't know yet, but wouldn't be far reaching from what we experienced already from similar spds....

Some apparently aren't happy for an affordable alternative..... Rightly so but Without actual real world product testing , pcb opinions have no merit. Gen 1&2 have no issues that I'm aware of from years of use in here. Btw you know who designs a real shitty pcb? cree, they had their t8 retrofit bulbs recalled TWICE in a row, embarrassing.

Photoboost

The photoboost do look great, i like GGs work, my only issue with them is availability, it seems they are always on back order and if im not mistaken they still dont ship to Canada

My buddy got a quote from digikey for (eb,gen3) 3k , 90cri, 8.80$ per strip, minimium order is 100 strips. He ended up not going through with it. He got super busy with his full time job, and didnt have time for diy.
Id love to see someone run them.

Warpedpassage said:

My buddy got a quote from digikey for (eb,gen3) 3k , 90cri, 8.80$ per strip, minimium order is 100 strips. He ended up not going through with it. He got super busy with his full time job, and didnt have time for diy.
Id love to see someone run them.

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yep , i priced them last evening, only 82 in stock @ $12.41 per......as you said, 100 strips and the price drops real nice @ $8.80 per