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    DIY LED Lighting + Build

    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.

    Last edited by OkieSmokey; 01-25-2019, 09:37 AM.

    #2
    These are pics I got to upload, still have some refusing to upload, can find those on imgur for now i guess.

    Imgur gallery until i can figure this out, sorry: https://imgur.com/a/ebTZiOf
    Last edited by OkieSmokey; 01-27-2019, 01:54 AM.

    Comment


      #3
      Hey OkieSmokey, great photos more so, a few questions. On your drivers, what is the designation stand for with the last numbers. 2100B ? They look great

      Comment


      • OkieSmokey
        OkieSmokey commented
        Editing a comment
        For the hlg series (what most all builds use) it's hlg-(power rating watts 320 max on that one)-(C if constant curent version)(current rating in milli amp 2100 here)(A for non dimmer type, B for dimmer types). Lookup "the ledg guide to mean well hlg drivers: part 1 by led gardener" on youtube, good video about them. In my build I have three 100w pucks wired in series to each driver
        Last edited by OkieSmokey; 01-25-2019, 09:35 AM.

      • Farmall
        Farmall commented
        Editing a comment
        Terrific... thanks for the kick in the right direction👍

      #4
      Alright all I was able to upload some photos, some still wont upload, not sure why.

      Comment


        #5
        Got it hanging in my tent. Tent is 5x5, light substrate is 4x4. Power cords ran outside of tent to timer strip after this pic taken.

        Comment


          #6
          Hey Smokey my build is mostly the same as yours but I used 2 drivers with 9 pucks wires in parallel and did the canopy hot spot reduction growmau5 recommended. Loving it so far. Only thing I didn't do was the uv/ir booster bars.
          Last edited by Cloud; 02-03-2019, 05:07 PM.
          640 watt hlg quantum board
          320 watt diy chilled pucks x4
          300 watt mars hydro sp3000
          150 watt hlg quantum board
          100 watt spider farmer led x2
          organic soil with earth dust dry amendments
          Water only i don't check ph
          6 pot fabric autopots with GH trio nutes

          Comment


          • OkieSmokey
            OkieSmokey commented
            Editing a comment
            I dont even have the booster bars hooked up yet, my understanding is to only run them last 2-6 hours of day during flower

          #7
          640 watt hlg quantum board
          320 watt diy chilled pucks x4
          300 watt mars hydro sp3000
          150 watt hlg quantum board
          100 watt spider farmer led x2
          organic soil with earth dust dry amendments
          Water only i don't check ph
          6 pot fabric autopots with GH trio nutes

          Comment


          • OkieSmokey
            OkieSmokey commented
            Editing a comment
            looks nice! this is my first time growing so hope it works out well, I spent alot of time looking at lights lol

          • D.A.A.S.69
            D.A.A.S.69 commented
            Editing a comment
            OkieSmokey, love your new light, that's one to be proud of !!
            I'm also sure your gonna do a nice job growing with it too.
            My best friend just retired from the Ms.ForestryCommision. He had it easy. All he had to do was sit in the Fire Towers, an listen to music an smoke MJane, once a month he had to go to elementary schools, with his Smokie the Bear, costume on, he loved that part, lol
            HappyGrowing

          #8
          Originally posted by OkieSmokey View Post
          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.

          https://imgur.com/a/ebTZiOf

          What was your overall cost not including labor?

          Comment


          • OkieSmokey
            OkieSmokey commented
            Editing a comment
            about 1200$ for this setup, you could probably get a 6-8 puck setup on two drivers for 7-800 or so since drivers are 100 each and a puck setup is about 100. So its a little pricy but not bad if you compare it with ready built commercial style lighting of this quality/power, why I chose to build my own.

          #9
          Originally posted by MJTECH View Post


          What was your overall cost not including labor?
          Thank you.

          Comment

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