LED lights

[wizgrow]

There are a few things I really LIKE about Mars Hydro:

1. There is no re-seller - buy direct
2. Sara is just straight up top-notch as a rep for a Chinese supplier (And I have dealt Chinese rep's for over 10 years)
3. Warranty "actually" means something
4. They REALLY test their own tech by sponsoring grows here
5. They take constructive criticism/feedback well and then integrate it into "their" R&D

I'm not a "fan-boy" on their thread but they out of all the lighting sponsors here on 420mag have earned my respect the most

 

[wizgrow]

Wizgrow lights has a certain appeal to it , I bet 100 lots are cheap cheap per panel and thousand lots even cheaper.
You could probably get some investors to foot most of the bill , become a sponsor here at and become whats know as a power seller.

There is a old saying from the depression era ( I'm not that old) that goes a fast nickle is better then a slow dime, its a proven business practice that stands true today. McDonald's uses it for instance or did ,I think since they raised their prices the clients have responded by going somewhere more decent to eat but until then they were raking it in now they are waiting for the slow dime , the fools.

Mars hydro uses the technique with great success.

Honestly - you really could; you'd think that the US re-sellers could "at the least" give good customer service and warranty backing considering the cash they are making from the markups!

 

[LEDBud]

I am going to look into it , if i can find some investors ..I would give straight up good deals and do all repairs or send replacement panels or parts myself. If it gets to busy I would bring some family into the business , probably skip bringing friends into it as friends can become enemies if your around them to long..

 

[Graytail]

You should make an offer to David for Intelligent-Gro. He just might consider it, after the unexpected problems he's had over the past year. It isn't as easy as it might sound.

 

[NewBoy420]

i been thinking mars hydro2 every one says good things about them great price. at first i was thinking black dog led but holy crap are they expensive. what does every one else think?

 

[Graytail]

I look at it the same way as Wizgrow. I have a premium, high-cost Intelligent-Gro and also basic, cheap Mars-Hydro, just like he does.

My advice is to approach the decision the same way you do with other products. Do you want the best, or are you more of a bargain guy? Black Dog has been among the best. Mars-Hydro is a company that you can trust. They're both good.

I went with leading-edge stuff with the Intelligent-Gro, but it turns out to be unreliable, while the cheap basic designs seldom fail. I talked to another major LED company about programmable dimming and was told that the current dimming drivers aren't robust enough. It's going to take a little longer to engineer good ones at a price that will work. Several companies are currently offering or developing dimmable channels. It's the future, not just for sunrise/sunset, which I agree is a questionable benefit. But I would really like a system where I can install far more light than I need and dim them down for most of the grow. I just don't understand why we shouldn't be able to completely control the spectrum ourselves. And it should be wifi with a cool app!

So, I'll be keeping my powder dry until then. My next purchase will probably be three 100x3 old model Mars-Hydros.

 

[LEDBud]

I like the dimming feature as well and am currently considering adding some eBay led pwm dimmers to my Mars panels , I was thinking of adding a dimmer for each power supply , to avoid over heating and burning out the cheap dimmers I spotted.

They should add more dimmers to the current dimming LED panels as well to avoid the issues they are having.
Adding a extra dimmer or two would save them a lot of money in warranty claims by the sounds of it, funny when the bean counters shoot themselves in the foot like that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


I imagine being a distributor of LED's has more pitfalls then I can think of or want to think of , it might mean heart burn in the end.

perhaps I could sell them cheap with NO guarantee and save the heart burn... I like the sounds of that ! not sure how the buyers will though , probably not to much at all , soon I might be labelled a thief and the biz will fail just as quick as it started.

 

[LEDBud]

You should make an offer to David for Intelligent-Gro. He just might consider it, after the unexpected problems he's had over the past year. It isn't as easy as it might sound.

i could skip him and go right to the Chinese supplier , call my line something catchy like Wizgro Lights.. steal ya name lol.

 

[wizgrow]

Totally programmable

Even if it ends up adding no real value to quality/Yield ............. LOL - can you imagine all the "speculation" all the peeps on these boards would have over "what programming works best"...... heheheh I can see it going on for years then to eventually come to the conclusion to where NONE OF IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE

Who knows.... but it will be up to us to find out.i'm sure - the lab rats

 

[VonDankenhoek]

Mars grows great for me.

If i had a few extra bucks i would try out a high watt platinum. check out curso and his splendid harvests with those lights.

 

[wizgrow]

Mars grows great for me.

If i had a few extra bucks i would try out a high watt platinum. check out curso and his splendid harvests with those lights.

Or try out an Eshine for close to half the price

 

[VonDankenhoek]

Or try out an Eshine for close to half the price

i had given that some thought. Exact same or super similar?

 

[Graytail]

i had given that some thought. Exact same or super similar?

Not exact - fewer bands in the model you see advertised by E.shine. But you can certainly have them assemble custom panels with your own desired spectrum, like Platinum did.

 

[VonDankenhoek]

gt, i was at eshine and see that their 900 is 11 bands. On amazon the p900 also says 11 bands. It costs close to 2x eshine. Are you thinking that the spectrum is much different?
i
I like the 1200 but i dont think i can get it high enough above the canopy to use it to its' best advantage. In the meantime my old mars hydro is growing sparkly buds just fine.

EDIT. damn i just read through the "Platinum LED Salesperson" thread. Platinum dude sounds like bloated gas bag. His rants have the stench of narrow greed and BS. There is ZERO chance I would buy that brand after reading where P LED is coming from.

 

[Graytail]

gt, i was at eshine and see that their 900 is 11 bands. On amazon the p900 also says 11 bands. It costs close to 2x eshine. Are you thinking that the spectrum is much different?
i
I like the 1200 but i dont think i can get it high enough above the canopy to use it to its' best advantage. In the meantime my old mars hydro is growing sparkly buds just fine.

EDIT. damn i just read through the "Platinum LED Salesperson" thread. Platinum dude sounds like bloated gas bag. His rants have the stench of narrow greed and BS. There is ZERO chance I would buy that brand after reading where P LED is coming from.

I just checked the E.shine site again, and yep, it says 11 bands and lists five of them. I know Platinum dude said that the E.shines magically became 11-band shortly after he started marketing his. The Intelligent-Gros that David sells look the same as the CTLites but both the COB spectrums and the single diodes are different.

Platinum dude honestly isn't bad. At least he's a grower. I've seen other reps that are genuinely cheesy. This idea about ordering a bunch of custom lights from a Chinese company and going into business selling them yourself? ... well, it's not like no one else ever thought of it. It ain' as easy or profitable as a guy might think. And there's nothing stopping the big Chinese factory from stepping all over your toes if you're successful.

 

[VonDankenhoek]

Appreciate your thoughts GT.

Still i found that guy offensive. I dont trust a salesman or any professional who comes across like an arrogant juvenile.

Its not like their 'technology' is exclusive or backed by ongoing university trials. 11 bands is no breakthrough. Ledgrowlightmanufacturer aka Mars Hydro was claiming 11bands at least 2years ago. When im ready for a new light ill post up my research and decision factors.

 

[wizgrow]

i had given that some thought. Exact same or super similar?

Just last week I got a quote from them for 10 bands. Same spec as PLED P300 but replace the UVA with a 660nm then add some UVB on my own....... FYI now is not a good time to order (holiday) but feel assured you will be happy with the quote. Personally - what I really needed was some veg lights......so I ordered 5x48 3w from Sara. I would have loved to try a Sun series but the footprint does not workout!

 

[wizgrow]

gt, i was at eshine and see that their 900 is 11 bands. On amazon the p900 also says 11 bands. It costs close to 2x eshine. Are you thinking that the spectrum is much different?
i
I like the 1200 but i dont think i can get it high enough above the canopy to use it to its' best advantage. In the meantime my old mars hydro is growing sparkly buds just fine.

EDIT. damn i just read through the "Platinum LED Salesperson" thread. Platinum dude sounds like bloated gas bag. His rants have the stench of narrow greed and BS. There is ZERO chance I would buy that brand after reading where P LED is coming from.

Your edit sums up up my feelings on it....... most of the info about PLED has been deleted here so I won't start it back up......but it is still out there if you look.....even on Facebook

 

[wizgrow]

I just checked the E.shine site again, and yep, it says 11 bands and lists five of them. I know Platinum dude said that the E.shines magically became 11-band shortly after he started marketing his. The Intelligent-Gros that David sells look the same as the CTLites but both the COB spectrums and the single diodes are different.

Platinum dude honestly isn't bad. At least he's a grower. I've seen other reps that are genuinely cheesy. This idea about ordering a bunch of custom lights from a Chinese company and going into business selling them yourself? ... well, it's not like no one else ever thought of it. It ain' as easy or profitable as a guy might think. And there's nothing stopping the big Chinese factory from stepping all over your toes if you're successful.

COBs the same.....seems to be a slight change on my LED singles though. I just harvested today and a week until they need to be used agian so I think I am going to swap out my UVA with some 660 they sent me. And here is their led charts:

My little nightmare is over and too much to type out on my tablet.....but all good now and will hopefully stay so!

 

[Graytail]

The charts Icemud posted on Jandre's thread show a difference between the Intelligent-Gro COBs and the 3.0 CTLite COBs ... no? Some blues and reds were different IIRC.

But sheesh, it's not like it makes much difference. I have to snap out of it sometimes and remember that we're talking about efficiency fractions. 2 bands of blue and 2 bands of red take care of almost everything - add a white or two, and Bob's yer uncle. Sure, FR is nice too, but that's only important for a couple hours a day - running it all day is a waste of power. UVB doesn't have much penetration and its advantage is still not clear. So ... bah.