Build Your Own LED Grow Light

Thanks for the very thorough explanation purple. Unfortunately I'm still very new to this so I'm still confused with all the numbers lol. I currently do NOT have a potentiometer hooked up and I'm using the 3500k cobs. Maybe a better question would be on paper do you think that my 3 light setup is enough to veg a 2x2 tent sufficiently? Not planning on flowering in there but if I did would it work ok? Thanks for the patience all.
 
Get a potentiometer so you can dim the output ;)



More than plenty for vegging 2x2, if you space the COBs further apart it would be fine for vegging 2x4.

The potentiometer will come in handy for vegging since you don't need full power for that.

You can easily flower a shitload of top shelf bud under those ~230w in a 2x2 tent :)
 
Again thanks alot for your help. I'm planning to get a potentiometer i just didn't have time to grab one yet. I think I'm just so used to the hid noise/heat that the LEDs just seem unimpressive (in a good way) at first. Looking forward to seeing the results and possibly building a large led flower tent in the near future. Another question i have is the reason I went led in the veg tent was mostly I didnt want to have a whole exhaust setup and all that. As I'm planning to go from 4x4 to a 4x8 flower tent solely for the purpose of having more working room I'm going to need to redo my light's. Obviously LEDs for a 4x8 setup is very costly compared to hid. Do you all think its worth it? I'm in Canada so my grow is 100% legal so power draw isn't really a concern from that angle. I already have a 600 and 1000hid setup so I could easily / cheaply get another matching hid but do feel led is the future. I use a rdwc 4 site setup in the 4x4 tent but after about the 5th week there's no chance in getting near the rear sites as my current tent is side doorless. Drives me crazy lol so I'm gonna have to either get a 4x4 with side doors or the 4x8. So many choices lol
 
blazinlow said:
Again thanks alot for your help. I'm planning to get a potentiometer i just didn't have time to grab one yet. I think I'm just so used to the hid noise/heat that the LEDs just seem unimpressive (in a good way) at first. Looking forward to seeing the results and possibly building a large led flower tent in the near future. Another question i have is the reason I went led in the veg tent was mostly I didnt want to have a whole exhaust setup and all that. As I'm planning to go from 4x4 to a 4x8 flower tent solely for the purpose of having more working room I'm going to need to redo my light's. Obviously LEDs for a 4x8 setup is very costly compared to hid. Do you all think its worth it? I'm in Canada so my grow is 100% legal so power draw isn't really a concern from that angle. I already have a 600 and 1000hid setup so I could easily / cheaply get another matching hid but do feel led is the future. I use a rdwc 4 site setup in the 4x4 tent but after about the 5th week there's no chance in getting near the rear sites as my current tent is side doorless. Drives me crazy lol so I'm gonna have to either get a 4x4 with side doors or the 4x8. So many choices lol
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You need some air exchange in the tent no matter what to get the plants CO2 during the day and O2 during the night.

It's worth it in the long run, but since you already own working lights it takes longer since your savings have to cover the cost of those as well as the cost of the new light.

When expanding the space beyond the coverage of the lighting you already have it makes economical sense to buy high end LED.

You have the luxury of time since you're already up and running, so no reason to make a hasty decision ;)
 
blazinlow said:
Thanks for your reply. I'm happy to stick with the 3 as that was my first plan it was literally at checkout I noticed the shipping was the same price as getting the 4th assembly and buying the 4th assembly made the shipping free. Again thanks for your advice.
Click to expand...
There is nothing wrong with having a spare. I find life to be less stressful if I have parts on hand when the inevitable happens. :green_heart:
 
Are the Samsung lm561c the newer and are more efficient than the lm301b?
 
Yes

PGR has them as 531c at the beginning of the thread- I’m thinking that’s maybe a typo? Lm561c s6 are the latest ones I’m pretty sure :thumb:
 
Ordering kit off Ali and had two diff types.. I'll pay the extra $17 for the 561 240w kit then..
 
try mouser or digi-key
 
Ok so I need to figure out a light for new 4x4 tent grow. $500 max budget. Can I build a high quality light to rock this tent or run a pair of 400watt hps I have access to?
 
So I was thinking 12x 3000K 288 lm301b board with Meanwell HLG-H600B as a power source? Cooled with 6 Cooler Master 120mm silent CO fans (Red circles) whilst the boards would be mounted on three 300x1000mm heatsinks held together on aluminium frame (Orange boxes and black box). I was thinking about glass pane mounted on the frame in front of the QB units and T5. Then the outer body being made from metal of some kind, preferably stainless steel, but that is too pricey at the start, so I will probably end up using some kind of sheet metal, kinda like old mars lights were. I was also thinking about some kind of plastic as a material too as it would be easy to cut air vents through to manage airflow (Arrows) . I'm also considering adding two 85cm 39W T5 UVB lights for that mountain sun supplement running 5 hours a day in the middle of the day (Blue boxes). That's my plan, it should work out nice right?
New light.jpg
 

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