Some people seem to be interested in DIY lighting builds so I thought I would share my build so far and some insight I have gained on the subject.
I'm new to growing weed, I have never been able to do it before (legally) so yay for laws changing! However, I'm a nerd and like to tinker with computers and lights and things so naturally I choose to start with what lights to get as my first endeavor lol.
I knew I wanted LEDs and wanted to aim for high efficiency. However, When I started taking a look at what was available in LED grow lights and watching alot of youtube videos pertaining to led grow lights I was not very satisfied with the pre-made products on the market, many of the more 'affordable' lights on amazon completely lie about actual light outputs and/or power use. The other issue I see with many of these is that they try to be 'full spectrum' but are really just using 3-10 specific wavelength colored leds in red,royal blue etc, this does not really provide all of the other colors in the spectrum, white light LEDs are far better at this. These lights also tend use a series of computer fans to actively cool the leds(more power used, less efficient, more parts to break) instead of using more metal or better boards(cost) to have a passive cooling solution. So I was not happy with what I saw in many of these made in china amazon lights from various companies, however when I started to look into various 'high end' commercial led companies products that looked to be closer to what I wanted I was shocked with the price tag.
So being the nerd that I am naturally the next step was 'well why not just build one?' So I started researching that subject (mostly on youtube, some great channels out there with hours of deep diving led tech, I recommend growmau5, led gardener and MIGRO channels as a start point)
Now when you get into this subject of doing it yourself there are quite a few options..
Some popular things:
-Quantum board builds(flat boards with many spread out small white led chips)
-Single chip series builds on heatsink boards/bars (if you really want to get custom with spectrum and like soldering etc)
-COB led builds (Large white LED arrays packed on a small square, many options here and many premade commercial options though building your own is cheaper)
-Various other emerging custom made boards, pucks, bars etc using white and somethings a few other colored leds in the mix(typically far reds or IR/UV or blues for veg)
-Extruded aluminum heat sinks and rail bars and other parts to build substrates/frames, passive cooling with (a few bigger suppliers out there for this kind of stuff in custom lengths, some of it can be found on amazon but often not precut for you.)
I eventually decided on buying a substrate/frame kit from rapidled (other suppliers of these kinds of parts I heard alot were ledsuppy and chilledtech) - I dont want to break any rules, is listing these names ok? I'm not associated with any of them.
My build/kit is as follows:
5'x5' area substrate frame + 3 rail sets (actual frame is 48x48")
3x MeanWell HLG-320H-C2100B drivers
3x potentiometers(for dimming the drivers/lights)
3x 3 prong power cords
9x chilled logic 100w pucks(216) samsung 301b chips mix 3-4k+ (4) 660 nm deep red per board
9x 140mm passive pin heatsinks
2x Rapidled IR/UV booster bars 30w each (9) UVA + (9) IR per board.
1x DC power supply with DC barrel plug splitter for booster bars.
other small stuff:
18 gauge insulated solid core wire in red and black for wiring the lights
Wago 221 wire connectors or other wire splice connectors if you don't want/have ability to solder and shink wrap things.
Zip ties + Black Wiring tape
Tools: Wire stripper, Screwdrivers, a small wrench/ratchet set or something to hold onto small nuts.
For the numbers nerds: metered 7.4 amps 888 watts actual at the plug @100% power + .6 amp 67 watt actual if booster bars on. The pucks have an efficiency of 2.35 umol/J paired with this driver at 100%. 2.4-2.5 could be reached running them at 75% with right driver
First pics are laying out the parts of kit and tools and inspecting what was in there.
Will add some more pics and descriptions of whats going on in the build soon.
(something broke on pics, gimi few to try to figure out
ok i cant figure out why the pics are not uploading, says cant create directory? or has broken pic)
Here is imgur gallery link until I can figure out how to post pic thumbnails with proper descriptions, sorry I'm having issues uploading.
I'm new to growing weed, I have never been able to do it before (legally) so yay for laws changing! However, I'm a nerd and like to tinker with computers and lights and things so naturally I choose to start with what lights to get as my first endeavor lol.
I knew I wanted LEDs and wanted to aim for high efficiency. However, When I started taking a look at what was available in LED grow lights and watching alot of youtube videos pertaining to led grow lights I was not very satisfied with the pre-made products on the market, many of the more 'affordable' lights on amazon completely lie about actual light outputs and/or power use. The other issue I see with many of these is that they try to be 'full spectrum' but are really just using 3-10 specific wavelength colored leds in red,royal blue etc, this does not really provide all of the other colors in the spectrum, white light LEDs are far better at this. These lights also tend use a series of computer fans to actively cool the leds(more power used, less efficient, more parts to break) instead of using more metal or better boards(cost) to have a passive cooling solution. So I was not happy with what I saw in many of these made in china amazon lights from various companies, however when I started to look into various 'high end' commercial led companies products that looked to be closer to what I wanted I was shocked with the price tag.
So being the nerd that I am naturally the next step was 'well why not just build one?' So I started researching that subject (mostly on youtube, some great channels out there with hours of deep diving led tech, I recommend growmau5, led gardener and MIGRO channels as a start point)
Now when you get into this subject of doing it yourself there are quite a few options..
Some popular things:
-Quantum board builds(flat boards with many spread out small white led chips)
-Single chip series builds on heatsink boards/bars (if you really want to get custom with spectrum and like soldering etc)
-COB led builds (Large white LED arrays packed on a small square, many options here and many premade commercial options though building your own is cheaper)
-Various other emerging custom made boards, pucks, bars etc using white and somethings a few other colored leds in the mix(typically far reds or IR/UV or blues for veg)
-Extruded aluminum heat sinks and rail bars and other parts to build substrates/frames, passive cooling with (a few bigger suppliers out there for this kind of stuff in custom lengths, some of it can be found on amazon but often not precut for you.)
I eventually decided on buying a substrate/frame kit from rapidled (other suppliers of these kinds of parts I heard alot were ledsuppy and chilledtech) - I dont want to break any rules, is listing these names ok? I'm not associated with any of them.
My build/kit is as follows:
5'x5' area substrate frame + 3 rail sets (actual frame is 48x48")
3x MeanWell HLG-320H-C2100B drivers
3x potentiometers(for dimming the drivers/lights)
3x 3 prong power cords
9x chilled logic 100w pucks(216) samsung 301b chips mix 3-4k+ (4) 660 nm deep red per board
9x 140mm passive pin heatsinks
2x Rapidled IR/UV booster bars 30w each (9) UVA + (9) IR per board.
1x DC power supply with DC barrel plug splitter for booster bars.
other small stuff:
18 gauge insulated solid core wire in red and black for wiring the lights
Wago 221 wire connectors or other wire splice connectors if you don't want/have ability to solder and shink wrap things.
Zip ties + Black Wiring tape
Tools: Wire stripper, Screwdrivers, a small wrench/ratchet set or something to hold onto small nuts.
For the numbers nerds: metered 7.4 amps 888 watts actual at the plug @100% power + .6 amp 67 watt actual if booster bars on. The pucks have an efficiency of 2.35 umol/J paired with this driver at 100%. 2.4-2.5 could be reached running them at 75% with right driver
First pics are laying out the parts of kit and tools and inspecting what was in there.
Will add some more pics and descriptions of whats going on in the build soon.
(something broke on pics, gimi few to try to figure out
ok i cant figure out why the pics are not uploading, says cant create directory? or has broken pic)
Here is imgur gallery link until I can figure out how to post pic thumbnails with proper descriptions, sorry I'm having issues uploading.
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