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DIY Custom LED light build

YYCannabis

YYCannabis

New member
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
 

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

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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.
 
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