DIY Custom LED light build

[YYCannabis]

Hi folks

I’ve decided to up my lighting game by making my own LED lights. For anyone that’s interested in following along, you can follow my build over at LEDgardner.

https://ledgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=5083

I’ll be happy to hear feedback and suggestions here on GWE. If you have any questions, you can ask them here or on LEDgardner

Cheers
YYC

[ribbitt]

Thank goodness for the older generation

[Farmall]

This is something I enjoy. I had built a few 2x4’ frames using the pacific light concepts photoboost strips and they performed flawlessly. That dimmer pot is a necessity as these leds are x-ray bright.. when I first powered one up, I was not prepared for the nuclear type white blast of light that filled the room

They are in such high demand, they are usually out of inventory. Will you be posting your complete build here as well? I’m subbed

[YYCannabis]

I certainly will. I think it’s important for people to see that there is more to lighting than what Amazon sells cheap.

As for strips selling out, there are many options on DigiKey in various colors and sizes. My selected strips are not cheap. I could have spent much much less on led strips, but the trade off is quality of light.

[Farmall]

And light is yield !!

[YYCannabis]

Light is more than yield...it’s also linked to to other flavor terpenes. Most strips are an 80CRI, but higher CRI is believed to help bring out better flavor.

[D.A.A.S.69]

Great ,dude, I want to watch all this, it's the way to go for sure,imo.
I ain't no tinkerer, like Farmall but I believe I can figure this out.
I just bought an HLG ,a week or two ago, and it works nicely, with hardly any heat, in a 2x2x4ft. Tent.
I want one for my bigger tent 3x3x6, one that puts out around 4-5hundred watts, with a dimmer switch.
My 315cmh, is history,now, it gets way to got in my tent ,3x3, even with good exaust,

[YYCannabis]

My strips from Cutter will run approx 30w per strip. So I will be around 600w for my 4x4 tent.

[Farmall]

YYCannabis you know you got to post a link to some strips,,,, Im starting to salivate

[Gingerbeard]

D.A.A.S.69 will you shoot me a light to that HLG you got, please? I've been unsure if I'm going to be stuck to LED's because I am also growing in a small tent. I want to get the particulars.

[YYCannabis]

Farmall

Here is a link to the 3000k 90CRI

https://www.cutter.com.au/product/cutter-3030cree-3k90560/

and here is the link to the Optisolis 5000k 97CRI

https://www.cutter.com.au/product/ssk-1560zge-optisolisnic/

My current strips include 10 of each. The 5k for veg and the 3k for flower. Since both of these temps have super sweet spectrum, the plan is to use them proportionally for different stages of growth.

For veg: 100% power to the 5k plus 30% power to the 3k.
For bloom: 100% power to the 3k plus 30% power to the 5k.

this will help balance the spectral needs for each stage of growing/flowering. Now, if you want to go further, the SpARF design allows for simply adding more ribs with strips or mono-color starboards (UV/IR/green/blue/red etc).

If Cutter strips might seem outside of a persons budget, DigiKey sells Bridgelux gen 3 slim strips that are more affordable, but slightly different specifications. Once I priced out the strips from Cutter and calculated the price/LED emitter, their prices are very reasonable.

just as an FYI... my 20 strips were approx CAD$ 650. I could have cut that by 60% by using different strips from Digi-Key. Four LED drivers was another $240 (each driving 5 strips). Aluminum and other sundries amount to another $200. So all-in I’m somewhere close to CAD$1200.

[Farmall]

Thanks @YYCannabis.... I assumed you were up in cost... I have 5 Meanwell hlg320-1400b drivers at around $96.00 each and 40 strips about $28.00 each plus aluminum heat sinks, junction boxes, 10 15foot power leads, adds up quick BUT, I can cut diamonds under these lights and probably cook a turkey !😂. Have you used them yet? I’m running under 800ma or the burn to any plant under it would be likely. As for heat...negligible 78-80 degrees F at the heat sink and with remote mounted led drivers, it keeps their heat away as well. They run about 100 degrees F. The Meanwell units are dimmable with a 100k pot. Works great

[YYCannabis]

Haven’t put any pixies through them yet, but I plan on running them cool at around 700mA and close to the canopy.

[Farmall]

Never got closer than 24" less than that I could see was going to be a problem. I am also a firm believer that the first 3 weeks is done using the 100W 6500K CFLS. I used 6 of them in a splitter to cover a pizza tray sized circle of cups.

[Farmall]

YYCannabis which drivers are you using on the system and do you have it wired in series or parallel?..... what are you planning to do to “mix” the color variation at different stages of the grow? I kinda like that idea.. knowing the limits on drivers and their ability to run only so many strips, makes it tough. I also have bought a few reds for “Emerson effect” and a few blue boosters to mix in as an experiment. Problem being the reds need to be run 3 in parallel and then ok in series after that but the blues are equal to 3 of the red regarding power draw.

[Toker1]

The Emerson effect is only used to extend the daylight hours with out stressing the plant into hermi. This is done by leaving the red, at a very specific wavelength, on for the first hour after the other other spectrums have been shut off.

[Farmall]

Toker1 that is my original plan. Problem is trying to retro fit in the same 2x4’ frames that contain a well filled array. Then, accommodating their power needs and timer using a completely separate led driver component. Biggest problem is getting the free time to screw with it.... on the other hand, nice to have fire suppression if I mess up

[Toker1]

Agreed!

[YYCannabis]

For mixing, I will use two drivers for the 5k and two drivers for the 3k. All drivers are ELG-150-48B (external pot control).
So one driver will run 5 strips @ 46v @ 700mA. So dimming each individual driver will control the 5 strips. With the LEDs I bought from Cutter, they are all 48v rated which means I can mix n match the two different K strips to the same driver. I won’t be able to completely turn any set of strips to 0% power as I will still need the photons, but not al full blast.
I’ll be looking at the individual colors after the new year.

[YYCannabis]

Tonight I tackled the problem of hanging the SpARF. You can follow the update at https://ledgardener.com/forum/viewto...p=20025#p20025 and feel free to comment or ask questions here.

Cheers
YYC

[YYCannabis]

For anybody who’s been following along with my build, I apologize for the long delay on updating. But I finally got around to doing the electrical.

as always, you can follow along at the LEDGardner website and feel free to ask question here 😁

Cheers
YYC

[YYCannabis]

Bad edit

[Farmall]

YYCannabis is that 16 gauge wire?

[YYCannabis]

18ga. Solid core.

[SoOrbudgal]

I salute you grand tinkers of DIY light builds. Excellent

[YYCannabis]

@SoOrBudGal

This build is something that almost anybody could do using a variety of materials.

If you follow the basic design principles (spine and rib), it’s easy to substitute different materials from what I used. The challenge is in selecting light strips, how “hot” (amps) you want to run them, and how to deal with the temps the strips create (heatsinks).

Electrical is fairly straight forward using Wago connectors. No soldering needed for solid connections.

[FlyingDutchPaddy]

hello

tagging along for interest.

I currently have 2x 315W CDMH lights (3200K) in a 5ft x 10ft (1.5mx3.0mx2.2m) tent with air flow of 512cfm (870m3/hr)... temps at the top of buckets reaches 77F (25C) with the light 4ft away.
I know the powerdraw, and want to see if these bulbs are going to perform as advertised (first grow with these, came from LED).

when these are ready, do you plan to do a light intensity / color spectrum analysis?

[YYCannabis]

FlyingDutchPaddy I only have a basic light meter. It’s good for white light, not so good for purple led lights. So I will use that to get a reading. I’m not sure how accurate is it as a tool for growing.

it’s from Amazon
Dr.Meter Digital Light Meter/Lux Meter LX1010B with LCD Display 50,000 Lux Luxmeter https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B004K0A7I6/..._k3kWDbR30DYYZ

light spectrums from Cutter are attached below. You can easily see which image is for the two different lights I purchased.



cheers
YYC

[Gingerbeard]

Would one of you good folk turn me onto some technical manual sort of information for this kind of lighting? It could be something to consider for my little piece.

[Farmall]

You can look up a bunch of links I can send you or just check out this YouTube video... with a little bit of searching, eBay, amazon or several suppliers you’ll find yourself rather creative. This primer gives you a few ideas. Go to the photo boost strips. https://youtu.be/XAFdc6WZF-g

[Farmall]

Another option. Same strips. https://youtu.be/9mrG3d1r-4U

[YYCannabis]

On YouTube, search for Bruce Bugbee. Watch his vids that relate to lighting. It will give you a good primer on light spectrum, PAR, and a bunch of other useful knowledge.

The information can be very overwhelming and exhausting to learn. But the hot takes are:
- Blue light has shown to reduce cell expansion. Therefore small dense leaves and short node spacing becomes noticeable.
- Red light (specially far-red) has shown to help increase cell expansion. Therefore growth seems explosive with rapid stem stretch and faster leaf (size) growth. (Also should apply to rapid bud fattening)
- Using far-red during veg phase can trigger flowering prematurely, so use with caution.
- UV-b has been linked to trichome production during flowering.

If you’ve read the details of my light strips, you will note that I have 2 color temps...5000k and 3000k. The images in the above post show how different the light spectrum for the two temps are.

The 5000k has a ton of strong blue spectrum..well...it has a ton of the full spectrum, but it’s the high blue values that are what I wanted... and the 97CRI. This is going to be my veg light.

the 3000k spectrum is a lot less blue and higher peak in the red. My flowering light.

So...the belief is, use the heavy blue light to help keep plants slightly shorter but beefier through veg using the 5k strips at 100% and have the 3k at 30-40% power. Once the plants move on to flower, a slow transition of light spectrum towards more power to the 3k and less power to the 5k. Most of flower phase will be a near equal balance 50/50 of both combined. Last stage of flowering (when I want buds to bulk up) will lean heavily on the 3k lights and maybe 30% of the 5k. The last week will be full blast of both spectrums for final full terpene stimulation thanks to the high CRI values (still speculative, but some people are starting to taste a difference in bud between the use of 80CRI lights vs the 90+CRI lights.

If done correctly, and at the right times, use of light spectrum can help shape/stimulate the plant to what the grower wants the plant to do at the time.

I plan to purchase some single spectrum lights (far-red aka IR and some UV) for my next grow in the new year.

Cheers
YYC

[Gingerbeard]

Thanks for posting that information, YY. I can talk to you about lines, polylines, splines, 3D splines, and such. The spectra and all that I'll have to get a book for. Time for a library trip.
Assembly seems straight forward if from a kit.