Nextlight Quantum Boards

[s62]

I’m considering picking up a Nextlight Core quantum board. It veges 4x4 and flowers 3x3. They retail for 600 but I found a site with a promotion going that gets them down to $450. Anyone have any experience with these? Are they worth the cost? Do they produce excellent buds? My only experience is with an LEC.

[D.A.A.S.69]

I like my 315, but my next light is gonna be a Core, I was thinking about the Mega, but can't afford that price, 15-1600bucks, plus my states illegal and I'd hate like hell for the cops to get it,if something bad happened.
My tent ain't that big, and that Core would be perfect, my 315 puts out alot of heat,
I think you can even get them pretty close to your plants too, 10-12inches,that's sure a great price.
Cant wait to see some buds from someone that's got one.

[az2000]

Can the Core driver (ballast) be remotely mounted outside the tent? If heat's a concern, it seems like you'd want a remote driver. I've seem some fixtures with that. But, they might have been DIY fixtures. Farmall said something abut using Pacific Light Concept strips with a remote driver. The heatsinks inside the tent were 77F. The driver outside the tent was 110F. (Something like that. Suggesting the driver is a significant source of heat, like the LECs ballast is. Not sure how many total watts were being run. The LEC 315 pulls about 340w from the wall, counting the ballast.).

Do you have a remote-mount ballast LEC hood? I do, and my LEC 315 doesn't seem that hot in my tent. My impression is that the ballast is half the heat. I didn't get into LEC until remote-mount hoods were available. Whenever I went to the hydro store, I'd put my hands around different parts of the original LEC 315 hood, and the area housing the ballast felt like the greatest source of heat. That's why I could never reach a point of buying one. 3-4 years later remote-mount hoods arrived. Seems like a world of difference to me.

They have air-cooled hoods too. I was thinking about using one of those, but without the front glass. Just intake air from hood (general bulb area) and put the carbon filter outside the tent (at the end of the exhaust line). But, I'd have to put a dust filter somewhere in that ducting. When I use my carbon filter the normal way (on the intake end), the fabric filter covering the outside of the carbon filter gets very dirty by the end of the grow. I wouldn't want to push dirty air like that from the inside out. That would probably shorten the life of the carbon filter. (Pushing air into the filter might also create odor leaks to.).

I've never done that because the LEC doesn't seem that hot to me (with the ballast outside the tent).

[Farmall]

The 315LEC I’ve used has a remote mounted power pack so I kept it outside the tent. D.A.A.S.69 told me about the Phillips bulb so I used it in the glass shielded hood. In a 40x40” 7’ space, it benefits from an exhaust fan and it is typically 76 inside when I check it daily. Those PLC strips run 2 strips on a 46” heat sink and 4 heat sinks to a frame. Each frame is powered by a Meanwell driver but they have a 10’ power cord from the light frame to the driver so it can be easily mounted outside the space and an additional 10’ ac power cord plugs into the wall. A 2x4’ frame runs full power at around 330w at the wall. I had used 4 frames in a 4x8x7 tent. These are diy but not cheap. They run about $450 per frame by the time all of the components are gathered. Forum member Serapium turned me on to this .... when I finished the first one, it was like the flash from the nuclear bomb test site movie reels.... thank goodness they are dimmable . For any actual building....and it is so well shown and described even a caveman can do it....go to YouTube and watch the 45 minute complete build but look up “photoboost led strip diy build” by GreenGenes garden...if you have and drive and motivation for a successful diy project of very fine quality, you will not be disappointed.

my stats were measured by non-contact thermometer all along the aluminum heatsinks, cabling,drivers etc. In the video, Gene shows all,of the parts of the build start to finish and you are not left in the dark. In actual use, the need to stay about 24-30”from the plant canopy so indoor training techniques are a must to get the shape and growth pattern to get the maximum yields form the lighting. My result was remarkably successful. Beat the 315LEC which beats and HPS I have used and any Burple I had used. Additionally, due to the flat table top style grow training, once the levels reached 30-34”, the light never needed to be raised. Had load of room around the carbon filter due to the low low profile of the light.

[s62]

Can you post a pic or two of what you’re talking about? Thanks for the info!

[Farmall]

https://youtu.be/XAFdc6WZF-g

this is the YouTube video I had seen. there are several high end commercially available lights in this area and building it yourself may not be everyone’s cup of tea. But this will fill you in on any details you may need to consider it. You will need to add the 100k pots for dimming as running full power will cause light burn. I ran about 60% and I had light burn on a few tips but it was towards the last weeks so I just dimmed it a bit more and it disappeared within 2 -3 days. I am wondering if building up the CO2 levels to really jack up the photosynthesis could be a benefit

[az2000]

The 315LEC I’ve used has a remote mounted power pack so I kept it outside the tent. D.A.A.S.69 told me about the Phillips bulb so I used it in the glass shielded hood. In a 40x40” 7’ space, it benefits from an exhaust fan and it is typically 76 inside when I check it daily.

Off-hand, how do you think the CMH sealed air-cooled hood compared to an open hood? How much cooler do you think it kept the tent (compared to the ballast being kept outside the tent). Do you think the glass front reduced the light's performance much?

Also what does the Phillips bulb have to do with your use of a sealed hood?

A 2x4’ frame runs full power at around 330w at the wall. I had used 4 frames in a 4x8x7 tent. These are diy but not cheap.

That's 200w per frame. You used four frames (800w) in a 4x8 tent (32 sq ft). That's 25w/sq ft. That's good. The LEC 315 runs about 38w/sq ft (counting the ballast. Which isn't bad considering T5HO typically runs 40w/sq ft. HPS runs 60-70w/sq ft.).

I haven't looked at LED for 5 years. I just use ordinary household LED lightbulbs (for sidelight, or growing 1-2 small plants. I do that around 25-30w/sq ft.). One thing that would concern me is lumen deprecation. When I used LED a few years ago, it felt like they didn't grow as well after 2-3 grows. I didn't have a PAR meter then to check their deprecation. But, I felt like they'd lost some punch. Compared to the cost of replacing the entire fixture (or, the diodes if it's DIY), I liked the idea of replacing a screw-in CMH bulb for $50. Or, T5HO tubes for $8 ea.

I wish the LED grow-light industry would be more standardized that way. That's one reason I like growing with LED lightbulbs. I can replace bulbs for $1 each, 15-cents per watt. (But, I can't put the driver outside the tent. Each bulb has it's own little heat factory within it.). It's a tradeoff that way.

[Farmall]

The multi use of the sealed hood was there as a pass thru from the carbon filter... it was in the path so it got connected. There naturally was a cooling effect on the bulb and it exhausted the heat that might have been stored in the hood and radiated around the immediate zone. On the other hand, without speculating, I did have a 6” hose without a clamp on the hood that came off and my tent temps went to 86 during the 12 -14 hour time frame. If needed, I could have cranked the output up to meet those same 315CMH specs but I did not ... too much and it created light burn leaf tips and the height would be a limitation. Lowering the output gave the the flexibility to keep the lights at about a 72” height thru the last stages.

Apparantly, and I would pose that question to D.A.A.S.69, the Phillips bulb has the best spectral output. It was maybe $79.00? The performance of that setup produced a very excellent grow in both size and quality. As a tinkerer and experimenter, I’ll try a bunch of different stuff to see the outcomes and I would have gladly repeated the process except I found that video on a referral and had a decent discussion with one of the members here. It took me 5 months to acquire the strips based on the outrageous demand and they are sold out again.

for starting, I used 100w CFL’s for about 3 weeks and that starts them so nicely and keeps them squat and not stretchy and lanky. That part is tried and true so I have no reason to experiment there as I couldn’t be more satisfied. I have no time frame regarding degradation of quality but I understand this is not an issue for the first 5-7 grow cycles and of course I will keep statistics on it but it is too early to tell other than from Samsung data sheets.

you should really look at the video. You have a good grasp on the concepts and you may discover something that will be an advantage. I did recently order a PAR meter and I am in the process of building an ammeter for each driver to determine the draw of each frame to equalize the light out put visually. The dimmer works perfectly but reference is a stripe on a plastic knob. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve burnt my fingers grabbing an LED light bulb by the base