Shiggity Goes Mad Scientist: Paving The Yellowbrix Road With DIY Adventures!

[Graytail]

The panels in front? They are from my original DIY light "the beast" 4K sunboards from the Photon Phantom. They are being run at 75W each (600W total) and have 240 Samsung Lm561c diodes s6 bin. I really like the sunboard checkerboard arrangement. It sheds heat for each diode better with all that space. The sunboards are 10 x 14" with less diodes. No heatsink needed at 75W or under so these are being run without.

I have the 66W of Cree xpe photo reds on that light as well. I obviously won't turn them on until flowering.


The new boards are on the light in back. They are being run at about 85W each. Six boards total for @520W.

All the lights are about 2.5' above the plants right now. I will probably keep them there and let the plants stretch upwards towards them. I will raise them if I see leaf curl or yellowing.

Thanks Shiggity. I like the checkerboard pattern better too.

I think I'll run mine as close to the ceiling as possible. I'll have enough photons available to bleach chit.

 

[Buckshot317]

That new panel looks hair brighter than sunboards. Probably where the diodes are closer together.
I'm thinking sunboards for my veg, I can use all the 240-c1400b drivers I have, have 6 leftover.

 

[Buckshot317]

Your going to be very happy with the boards greytail. Very nice tech, best at the moment

 

[Arctic Bowl]

Heya Shiggs and gang, hope your weekend has been great. Got the new lights up in the tent and we're liking them so far, bright as all get out for sure. Lighter than the low cost LED lights we had been running and we have high hopes these will do the trick for us. It was a kit from HLG mostly because we don't know how to figure out what parts we needed. Great service from them as well. Want to order more but they are out of stock at the moment anyway.

Blessed Buds our friend and be well

 

[ShiggityFlip]

That setup with driver is exactly what I am making except 3 boards. Same total power. 2 setups per 4x4. Looking good! My next lights I'm hopefully finishing Monday have the same color heatsinks. Just individual. Here is a light that may or may not be headed to stage.

 

[JustMeds]

I got 4 boards in a 4x4 and you need to put sun screen on the plants.

 

[Graytail]

I got 4 boards in a 4x4 and you need to put sun screen on the plants.

Ima be running 12 boards ... Kinda skeery ...

I keep lowering my estimate for driver power. From what I hear from you guys, 650 watts is going be pretty bright in a 4x4.

 

[ShiggityFlip]

Ima be running 12 boards ... Kinda skeery ...

I keep lowering my estimate for driver power. From what I hear from you guys, 650 watts is going be pretty bright in a 4x4.

Bright enough to be dimmed 20% and still require Co2. Honestly I am so impressed by CMH lights but when in a room with Samsung boards the CMH looks like it is a T5. No exaggeration. Here the CMH is lighting the foreground scrog 2 weeks ago and the beast is over the scrog in back. I swear the CMH is on lmao! And look no light is directly over the pineapple fields on the right. That is all from the beast light. The pineapple fields is getting more light from the beast to the side than the foreground scrog is getting from the CMH directly over it. Now imagine the effect of four overlapping lights!

 

[TheGreenYeti]

Damn the beast really does make it look like the cmh isnt even running! That is crazy Shiggs!

 

[Buckshot317]

You'll have plenty of fire power greytail, your gonna love your new lights .

 

[PlantWrestler]

How does the beast go vs hps ?
Do these lights give out radiant heat ( the radiant heat hps gives out is a similar feeling on your skin as the sun do these diy LEDs have that effect ?
Sorry for the beginner level Q's like I said I've been growing with great success using hps but I do believe in LED just it will be a big switch over for me one that I'm easing in to and one that I must nail spot on .
I want to go led but don't know enough about it.

 

[Buckshot317]

Idk know yet on boards but cobs do put out some radiant heat, I think boards are even less heat. My cobs put out more heat than I thought, but considerably less than hps

 

[AvidLerner]

Idk know yet on boards but cobs do put out some radiant heat, I think boards are even less heat. My cobs put out more heat than I thought, but considerably less than hps

Heat was why I went with Samsung diodes less heat. At 100w I don't make heat at 200w I make some heat not near as much as 200w of cxb3590. I retired a dozen cobs for all Samsung pcbs now lot cooler

 

[TheGreenYeti]

From what I have seen you can get cobs to run up to about 60+% efficient where as HPS runs something like 40% efficient. What these mean is that 60% of your draw is usable light with the rest being heat for the COBs vs 40% of your draw being usable with the rest heat with HPS. My figures may not be exactly right but it is close enough to give you an idea of the differences.

 

[ShiggityFlip]

In the end all of the wattage of a light is converted to heat. The 60% efficiency of high efficiency white LED means 40% heat right away at the source. For an hps it is about 60% heat at the source (40% efficiency or less)

Now eventually all light will convert to heat (except the light that is directly converted to excited electrons for the manufacture of sugar.)

The difference is that the heat from the converted light is extremely diffuse. It is absorbed into walls, floor, ceiling, plants, soil,etc. every time a photon bounces it loses a little heat to whatever surface it reflects off of. For example if panda film is 85% efficient then a photon loses 15% of its energy to heat when it bounces off of panda. The total number of photons remains the same. But the photon losing energy goes from say Blue to green to yellow to red to far red to IR and out of the visible spectrum. Otherwise you would turn off a light and the room would stay lit!!

The heat from an hps is seen more directly at canopy level.

The difference in the end of total heat is that a lower wattage led can provide the same quantity of photons with less watts. So for 500-600W of white HIGH EFFICIENCY light (cobs, Samsung and nichia diodes etc.) it will match the output of a single ended HPS.

So in my 8x8 with about 2200W of light it would take about 3800-4000W of single ended hps to match the photon output. That means I am only producing about half the total heat of an HPS grow and half the electrical bill. (Actually less than half when you consider it will make about half the cooling load if you use enough to need an AC.)
For me I am less limited on space and highly limited on amps. I have self limited my electrical bill to a certain cost. So if I want to expand my grow I have to become more efficient! It's a nice self imposed rule to keep me from being ridiculous!

Now at full power I was able to finish the last grow with the beast only at 6-8" above the plants. That is because so little heat is produced directly compared to hps. Does that make sense Plantwrestler?

 

[Buckshot317]

Great explanation .

 

[Coloradokid19]

Shiggs those SCROGs are looking great my man! Keep it up

 

[ShiggityFlip]

Speaking of scrogs...
Huck kush and sourbub up front, Pineapple Fields in back.

Here is a shot closer of the PF scrog

She's still a little yellow but she is much better now that the lights are higher.

Here are the bamboo scrogs. Very nice I think. Sour bubble left and Gorilladosha right. I may make a reuseable PVC equivalent in the future. These scrogs move nicely with the plant.

Here's Megafauna, I need to tie her back a bit and thin her out. TOO MUCH BUSH!!!

If you remember a reservation of mine was whether the constant moisture in the SIP would prevent full rooting. Fears are gone now. This is the canopy of the megafauna. I think besides the buds that will come these three pictures coming will convince people to try SIPs

 

[AvidLerner]

From what I have seen you can get cobs to run up to about 60+% efficient where as HPS runs something like 40% efficient. What these mean is that 60% of your draw is usable light with the rest being heat for the COBs vs 40% of your draw being usable with the rest heat with HPS. My figures may not be exactly right but it is close enough to give you an idea of the differences.

Heat causes stress. For cobs you could use the same rectangular dryer duct except with holes drilled to insert cobs to remove excess heat from pinsinks

 

[AvidLerner]

Speaking of scrogs...
Huck kush and sourbub up front, Pineapple Fields in back.

Here is a shot closer of the PF scrog

She's still a little yellow but she is much better now that the lights are higher.

Here are the bamboo scrogs. Very nice I think. Sour bubble left and Gorilladosha right. I may make a reuseable PVC equivalent in the future. These scrogs move nicely with the plant.

Here's Megafauna, I need to tie her back a bit and thin her out. TOO MUCH BUSH!!!

If you remember a reservation of mine was whether the constant moisture in the SIP would prevent full rooting. Fears are gone now. This is the canopy of the megafauna. I think besides the buds that will come these three pictures coming will convince people to try SIPs

If you get a SB with that lemony taste keeper. Love BOG my onlyggenetics supplier. Gonna do some SS next like yours got some SG germinating right now along with some Lifestar