LEDs have got a bad rap for many good reasons:
1. Marketers have over-hyped themm creating unrealistic expectations.
2. Chinese manfacturers cut many quality corners leading to premature failures.
3. The consumer was unaware of exactly what he was getting.
4. The rapid evolution of this fairly new technology (for horticulture) meant many trials and errors.
5. The components have been immmature and are still evolving.
Well, this is truly the year of the LED. Costs for cutting edge technology is still quite high as would be expected, but no longer will they take a back seat.
I am here to say that my 150 watt design will easily surpass a metal halide of similar wattage and probably that of HPS. I am a retired technician, manufacturing manager and hardware engineer with some 30 years experience, much of that up in Silicon Valley back in the halcyon days.
Not that this entailed any EE design as much as tons of research, proper part selection and many less than stellar experiments. I have access to no real equipment anymore nor a workshop, so this protoype is a little rough, but could easily become a production model with a small bit of polishing.
The word of some anonymous poster doesn't mean very much, so my next step will be to see if I can get some PAR readings against top LEDs as well as low wattage HIDs with accompanying photos and/or videos.
Here she is about 85% complete:
And with 2 of the 5 LEDs turned on:
HOLY GAMMA RAY BURST, BATMAN!
Even though those are wide angle and only 60 watts are on, it is near impossible to view directly without eye damage.
She will be putting out about 112 LPW with a nearly photosynthetically balanced spectral curve for a total of 16,800 lumens.
The E26 sockets are there in case I want to add some UV and far red in flower or ordinary CFLs for a bit more light, but are not necessary.
1. Marketers have over-hyped themm creating unrealistic expectations.
2. Chinese manfacturers cut many quality corners leading to premature failures.
3. The consumer was unaware of exactly what he was getting.
4. The rapid evolution of this fairly new technology (for horticulture) meant many trials and errors.
5. The components have been immmature and are still evolving.
Well, this is truly the year of the LED. Costs for cutting edge technology is still quite high as would be expected, but no longer will they take a back seat.
I am here to say that my 150 watt design will easily surpass a metal halide of similar wattage and probably that of HPS. I am a retired technician, manufacturing manager and hardware engineer with some 30 years experience, much of that up in Silicon Valley back in the halcyon days.
Not that this entailed any EE design as much as tons of research, proper part selection and many less than stellar experiments. I have access to no real equipment anymore nor a workshop, so this protoype is a little rough, but could easily become a production model with a small bit of polishing.
The word of some anonymous poster doesn't mean very much, so my next step will be to see if I can get some PAR readings against top LEDs as well as low wattage HIDs with accompanying photos and/or videos.
Here she is about 85% complete:
And with 2 of the 5 LEDs turned on:
HOLY GAMMA RAY BURST, BATMAN!
Even though those are wide angle and only 60 watts are on, it is near impossible to view directly without eye damage.
She will be putting out about 112 LPW with a nearly photosynthetically balanced spectral curve for a total of 16,800 lumens.
The E26 sockets are there in case I want to add some UV and far red in flower or ordinary CFLs for a bit more light, but are not necessary.
