Diy LED Grow Light Build

[Serapium]

Heya all. Thought I'd put this here in case anyone was interested. Having a go at building my own large format LED grow light. Will end up being 640W true at the wall in lightsaber mode. Overall dimensions 46" x 40", dual meanwell drivers. I'm using the photo boost light strips from Pacific Lighting Concepts. Each board has 96 301b's and 4 Cree XP-E photo red HE diodes. Total of 16 photo boost strips. I'm basically following the PLC YouTube tutorial but doubling it in size.

[Serapium]

Few more pics of the build so far.

[Camk]

what kind of price factor you looking at
interested!

[Serapium]

Camk total build cost $890.41 for all the parts including shipping. Should be equivalent to or better than something like the Spydr or Gavita large format LED fixtures that are almost double in cost.

[9fingerleafs]

Nice. I saw the greengenes gardens video about it. I think He works at PLC. I’m stoked to see how it turns out and how much you’ll spend in parts.

[Serapium]

Farmall total cost, not including labor for assembly (approx 2 hours) was $890.41 inuding shipping and taxes.

[Farmall]

Serapium, I applaud your amazing efforts. To replicate this commercially....wow. I may need to find your source of parts. I used those $150.00 Amazon units...4 of them
I did discover that the cost of 30 day operation for 4 300watt units was just under $17.00. Based on one of the kill-a-watt plug in meters.

[Serapium]

Farmall I live in a location where electricity is unusually cheap at 7.9 cents per killowatt hour. Running this fixture for 18 hours a day will cost just over $0.90 per day. Given the light output I am reasonably confident that I can flower an entire 5x5 area with this single fixture.

[Serapium]

HOLY MOTHER OF GOD. I've got some pretty bright lights from assorted vendors. Forevergreen, HLG, Cali Lightworks 1100, Scynce Raging Kush, etc. This thing is brighter than all of them. The picture does not do justice to the raging heart of the sun that explodes from it when plugged in. Once I have it hanging I'll take some ppfd measurements and update.

[Serapium]

Update on the light. This thing is the bomb diggity. Got it installed and took some measurements. It is delivering a very evenly spread 800 ppfd over an entire 5' x5' area at 18 inches from the plant canopy and is producing very, very little heat.

I have some rearranging of plants to do.

[Farmall]

So that is a 4’ square ....light assembly?

[Serapium]

Farmall it's just shy of being 4 foot square, but is covering very close to an entire 5 foot square with evenly distributed light. The fixture itself fills most of one quadrant of a 10 x 10 tent.

[Rwise]

Very nice! Ever think of selling these? Just a thought,,,

[Serapium]

Rwise, indeed. There are some design factors that I would modify for future iterations, and I want to run the fixture through an entire veg/flower cycle before I'm willing to put our name on an assembly.... but yes, the idea had occurred to me.

[Rwise]

At this time my thought is there is more money in this type of venture.
I myself just like to build my own stuff, and have some ideas on layout.

[Serapium]

Update on the light build. Have had it over plants for a few days now, and gotta say they love it. These four ladies were struggling under a budget COB fixture from Amazon. I put this light over them just five days ago and they have all four sprung to life. Buds that were loose and airy are now filling in and trichomes are starting to pack on. Pretty impressed so far.

[Farmall]

Sonnyhad I haven’t heard much from Serapium since this post but I have built 8 of these 2x4’ Photoboost frames and in the last 9 moths they have proven to be outstanding, outstanding and outstanding. How’s that?

[Sonnyhad]

Hey Farmall, that's a pretty good fixture then. I'm running Lec's I am thinking of seeing how they like theses instead? Any thoughts?

[Farmall]

Sonnyhad Yes, my other lights are 315LEC... I am running one right now for my lemon and lime trees until the weather allows me to bring them outdoors. The biggest difference besides their spectral output is heat. I really love those LED’s but they were in use so I setup the 315 and the lemons BLOSSOMED ! Never expected that from juveniles

[Gjohnstone]

Great looking light. I am new to this and looking to build something simular. Do you worry about the light temperatures ie 3500k when selecting a light strip or more that it is full spectrum? Thansk for your help

[Serapium]

Gjohnstone I didn't really do any searching at all based on the spectrum. I just purchased LED strips from Pacific Lighting Concepts that are designed to be used throughout the grow. These have 301b diodes with a few CREE XP-E reds in the mix. Rwise is in the process of experimenting with some other LED boards, he may have some insight into your question.

[OkieSmokey]

New grower here but I'm into led tech/ lights and projects and I just built something similar to this with parts from rapid led. I will post pics of my build later if anyone interested in building a light its not that hard.

[Farmall]

I’m in

[Serapium]

OkieSmokey definitely interested! Keep us posted.

[OkieSmokey]

Made a post of my build, having trouble with uploading pics atm through. I posted imgur gallery atleast

[Farmall]

So it’s reasonable to say that there are several here that are into this light thing....😉

is it realistic to pool a few thoughts, ideas and sources for materials or would that violate any forum rules. All of the suppliers I’ve dealt with have been exceptional is response and parts.

[Serapium]

I can't see how sharing knowledge would be frowned upon.

[Farmall]

While I agree, I thought posting a list of suppliers webpages might be looked on as ‘selling’ for someone else?
Id have never found the parts I needed by a search, the guidance I’d gotten from you has been tremendous in reducing the effort to find the right pathways. Combined with some extravagant technical skill (ha-ha) and some refined searches, it seems to be working out ...but damn, I’m anxiously seeking improvement everywhere.

I’d would not want to jeopardize my abilities to participate in and enjoy the forum. I don’t speed either 😇

[Farmall]

Not that this is building from parts but is anyone familiar with this company. Check it out at scynceled. com. I thought it presented a bunch if information at least I was unaware of

[Serapium]

I have both their Dragon XL600 and a demo pre-production beta unit of the upcoming Raging Kush fixture. Gotta say the optics blow me away. The Dragon XL600 at about 2 feet long and 8 inches wide actually makes MORE light at the edge of a 4x4 than directly under the light. The RK fixture delivers a more even light spread across a 4x4 area.

I really like their software, and the ability to control more than one light from my smartphone. Cool products, and plants seem to love them. Pricey though.