Home made power LED lights

[Dano2k3]

Hi Techhead,

prices have fallen a lot and I was wondering what you would do now? For example perhaps it might be better to go for 1680Watts of White COB (for ~$1000) -see link 2. Since white cob has higher lumen output per Watt but some of it is in wasted green part of the spectrum. I've read white light COB is simply blue diode with added phosphors to make rest of Spectrum.
Or perhaps go for 4 x "full spectrum" 100 or 200W COBs?

-Of course advantage of your setup is that you can selectively 'turn on and off'. There are chips that can do this but currently they are "Aquarium focused" -not much red, more white and blue leds;
Link1: 2014 Direct Selling Hot Sale Epistar Annular 4pcs/lot free Shipping 100w 5 Channel Multi channel Led Dream Chip with Lens-in LED Bulbs & Tubes from Lights & Lighting on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group


Nick.

Link 2. Free Shipping 8PCS/Lot LED Floodlight Flood Light Outdoor COB Lighting 10W 20W 30W 50W 100W 150W 200W Epistar Chip CE RoHS-in Floodlights from Lights & Lighting on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group

I've been snooping around on the web I came across this post on another web site, seems interesting, I'm just curious how the spectrum line up with what is needed. Seems the site here doesn't like linking to another board, here is the google search to get you "rolling"...


diy-led-grow-lights-with-cree-cxa3070-cobs-and-cpu-coolers.805681 - Google Search

 

[Techhead]

noutram is right about what a white LED is, blue with other components to widen the spectrum so they look white, more or less, sorry for simplifying for you people that get all hung up on specs.
As far as making a grow light out of just whites, I do see some people selling such stuff, to my eyes they look like a waste of money. If you are going to pay to run full spectrum white LED's you should put your money into HPS, or MH, you will get a better spectrum out of those.
As far as what I would do now that I didn't do then, first thing is I would have gone with warm white instead of cool white. At the time I made that decision the internet was full of people trying to figure it out, and there were arguments for both. I went with cool white just because of it's spec sheet. It had a big spike of blue just a little higher than the blues I was using, now everybody is using warm white. I still don't know why they did, but I did have to replace some LED's and put in a few warm whites. They seem just a little brighter, and a little more yellow. It may be that is what they were looking for.
Other than that, I guess I would have spent the time soldering up my own starboards, I would have saved about $5.00 a LED if I did, and you can find a lot more frequencies to work with if you solder your own. A lot had changed in the LED grow light world since I started from the days of all you need is blue and red. Some of the colors I am using now were not even on the market when I started.
One thing to anybody out there looking to buy a system. Led lights are pretty much a straight down type of light, so figure on covering edge to edge when you buy a system. The other thing to look at since they are straight down is lense angle. Don't be fooled, 90 degree is like a shot gun. Why paint the walls with wasted colors get good lenses. If a grow light does not have them that a waist of energy too.

 

[Techhead]

Well it's week six. The girls are looking pretty good. I'm just starting to loose a few leaves on the bottom as they are not getting much light down there, but only a few, and only the originals from when they were cloned. In fact I'm loosing far less than I did under the MH/HPS system I had. I'm getting a lot more sugar on the leaves too. I think that's because I have so much less heat, or it may be because my old lights were just that, OLD. I should have changed them out some time ago, but I saved that money to help with this project. In fact, I should have changed them out twice by now. As for the size, as I have said, I started them just a few days early. I'm not sure, but I don't think I'll be getting the ounce average, but then I still have a couple weeks to let them get fatter, so I'm hoping for the best. It should be close though, and with the extra sugar I'm hoping it's better quality. All the hair is still white with no browning as of yet so I know they are still getting fat inside, and I can even see it from day to day, so like the witch did to Hansel and Gretel I'll keep pushing food at them till they are fat and juicy.:icon_cool

 

[Techhead]

It's week seven, I don't see any sign of things getting ripe, but a lot of sign things are still getting fatter. None of the resin heads are getting amber, and none of the hairs are turning brown, but both are still putting on more. I think the buds are telling me to go one week longer before the final flush. So I think I'll be repeating week seven again before the big push that will now come in week nine. Any body else have to extend the time out a week with LED's? I'm running Sour Diesel. One week is not too much to pay though, it's looking like the time will pay for itself. You know, that point of diminishing return, I don't think I'm there yet.

 

[Techhead]

Ok, week 8, and I do see some red hairs, and some of the fans are starting to take on the look of fall, but I'm still not loosing very many. So, I am not going to run them out to 9 weeks, but just put them into the finish. I gave them the last push of nutes, and the countdown is starting. Only 16 days to cut down. I'll try sneaking some pictures out past the wife, but if she catches me she will make me shut down. I do have to keep her happy, you know, happy wife, happy life. The girls are big, fat, and sticky looking.

 

[Techhead]

 

[Techhead]

I had to turn on the lights so I had to get in and out fast. Sorry but the picture on my mommies did not come out, but the bottom picture is there lights, and a cloning spot, I also clone in the flower space as well so I can get a full bed. There is another bar of 80 watts there I didn't get, it is not on now anyway and is for cloning only. The third picture also does not look like much, that's an old mommie flowering out. There are some nice buds on it, but they are hard to see. I think you all can figure out the rest. this is day 2 of week 8. Only flushing left after this.

 

[Techhead]

I did get the bar, but still it is not on. It's just under the power supply hanging on the top. (the black box)

 

[Techhead]

by the way, that's sour diesel.

 

[Techhead]

Did you notice how the reds are coming right through the leaves, that's called penetration. That's what good lenses do.

 

[Techhead]

Only a week away, all is good, can't wait to tally it up.

 

[zero244]

Nice work your lights are producing some nice product. I didn’t catch the weight of your lights?
Doing a homemade LED occurred to me, but I don’t feel confident enough that I could pull it off and not burn my house down.
Thanks for taking the time to give us the low down. Looking at your lights you can see there is more to LED lighting than we realize.
Looking forward to your final pics.

 

[Techhead]

I guess I never had to weigh the panels, but the power supply is separate so I don't have that to deal with. My best guess would be about 3 pounds for each panel. they are hung on a cable/pulley system so I can raise and lower them as needed.
Almost time to cut them down. they look a lot more sticky than I was getting before, and I took a branch off for a quick dry taste and it's stronger than I was getting, so better quality. If you look back to 2009 you may find my first attempt at building these lights when they were red and blue only. They started out like they were going to do very well, but then in the end they failed badly. It has taken some time, and one other upgrade a few years back with the same kind of results as the first time. As far as getting better quality some of that is because I could not get rid of all the heat from the lights I was using, so I will not put down what a HPS/HP light can do. I know they can do there job well. What I am seeing that may be of some help to those people looking at buying a system, I'm getting a good result with 6 bands of light. Don't get me wrong, because I may still add something in the 415 nM range (UVB) but I have seen them with 11 bands, some I would like to add, some I think are dumb. Point is I'm happy with the results of this simple six bands so far.
Well it will be a couple more weeks till I can tally up a dry weight, so I'll let you know. and LLAP to Lenard

 

[superK20]

Love your setup,
i have had heat issue in my confined room and have been experimenting with leds to help with the issue. i have some smaller led panels to accent and purchased 2 50watt chips with drivers with driver from amazon. I mounted them to heat sinks but am have trouble powering them. it seemed like you know a bit about electrical engineering so i figured maybe you could help.
the spec are as follows:

Part Number DB24302
Item Weight 2.4 ounces
Product Dimensions 1.8 x 1.4 x 6 inches
Size 50W
Color Warm White
Style Electronic
Material Aluminum
Shape Bulb
Power Source AC
Voltage 240 volts
Wattage 50 watts
Item Package Quantity 1
Luminous Flux 4000.00
Special Features Powerchip, High Performance
Batteries Included? No
Batteries Required? No
i purchased one in cool white and one in warm white, i see there set up for 240V which i have but the breaker blows immediatly when i hook them up

 

[Techhead]

Sorry superK20, but you may have wasted your money there. I don't know anything about the lights you bought, so I can't help you out from here on why they are blowing the breaker, but that's not why I say you wasted your money. The reason is that white LED's by themselves do not grow anything, and you would only be adding more heat to your room for no return. White LED's are blue based, and don't have a lot of the reds you really need. I do have some whites in my mix, but less than 10%. I do think the voltage rating may have been misstated, and most likely they were 120V. If that is the case it may already be too late for your LEDs.

 

[jummejum]

hey techhead , will you help me out a little with my own light? i will provide you some more information

 

[jummejum]

Those are all 10w high power leds, different voltage, but current is 900-1050mA

I'd like to buy another 4x red 660nm , will i need another power supply? Do i have all what is needed to construct the light?

 

[Techhead]

there must be more than 1 led on a board correct? That power supply will not go far, you can run 10 lines at 1A each, and if each LED chip has a break over voltage of let's just say 3 volts you can only have 3 in a line and you have to drop the rest of the voltage across a power resistor. If they break over under 3 volts than you may have 4 in a line. Draw up your design first so I can get a look at your thinking on this, and include the diode specs. You know, voltage and current type specs. What are the TO-220 transistors, and what are you using them for? What are the blue capacitors for? What are the 2 black things in the plastic bags? How are those LED chips mounted to a heat sink? Some of these questions I need to help, and some you need to ask yourself. It does look like you are on the right track though.

 

[jummejum]

Cheers, thanks for quick reply

Chips are 10x1w and will be mounted on a 300x300x15 aluminum plate, with 120mm fans.

LM317T TO-220 Voltage Regulator 1.2V To 37V 1.5A

Blue "things"
10PCS 10k(103）Ohm 3296W Potentiometer Trim

220k ohm resistors, and some power ON/OFF switches.

DIODE SPECS:

Yellow 585
-DC Forward Voltage (VF): 6~7Vdc
-DC Forward Current (IF): 900~1050mA
-Wave Length: 585~590nm
-Intensity Luminous (Iv): 600LM


Red 620nm
-DC Forward Voltage (VF): 6~7Vdc
-DC Forward Current (IF): 900~1050mA
-Wave Length: 620~630nm
-Intensity Luminous (Iv): 500LM

Red 660nm
-DC Forward Voltage (VF): 6~7Vdc
-DC Forward Current (IF): 900~1050mA
-Wave Length: 660~670nm
-Intensity Luminous (Iv): 300

White 3500K and 6500K
-DC Forward Voltage (VF): 9.6~10.2Vdc
-DC Forward Current (IF): 900~1050mA
-Viewing Angle: 140 Degree
-Color Temperature: Warm 3000K Natural White 4500K Pure White 6000K Cool White 10000K
-Intensity Luminous (Iv): 900~1000LM


UV 395NM
-DC Forward Voltage (VF): 9.6~10.2Vdc
-DC Forward Current (IF): 900~1050mA
-Wave Length: 360~365nm,395~397nm
-Intensity Luminous (Iv): NO

BLUE 420NM
-DC Forward Voltage (VF): 9~11Vdc
-DC Forward Current (IF): 900~1050mA
-Wave Length: 420~425nm
-Intensity Luminous (Iv): NO

Blue 445nm and 460nm
-DC Forward Voltage (VF): 9.6~10.2Vdc
-DC Forward Current (IF): 900~1050mA
-Wave Length: 445~450nm,460~465nm
-Intensity Luminous (Iv): 500LM

IR CHIP:
* Lens Color : Water Clear
* Viewing Angle: 120-140°
* Wavelength: 730-740nm
* Forward Voltage:4.5V~V6.0
* Forward Current: 1000mA

i might skip one of the blues that are close to each other? like the 460 and 445? what do you recommend?

 

[Techhead]

First thing is the yellow, the whites will cover that spectrum for you, so you can drop them as well as the 360/365nm UV's, that is UV A, if you do use them use them very sparingly. Do go strongest on the red 660. As for your power supply, and all the LED's breaking over at more than 6V you'll only be able to have one LED in each line at 1A each, so only ten on a power supply, and one regulator for each LED, a diode in series to prevent revers voltage, and a small value resistor for each line, and remember to take note of the power of the resistor in the line. The resistor is there to help load the line, once the diodes break over the current will run wild if not loaded with a resistor. Then set the voltage regulators LM317T with the trim pot until the current is correct. So only 10 LED's per power supply. I would look into a power supply with 24 volts so I could drive at least 2 LEDs in a line. You may get 2 of those UV's in a line with a less than 6V break over. You are on the right track though, go for it.