Help with LED setup?

If the light is gonna be 2-3 inches from the light, I wouldn't use any lenses. I'm not sure where the 2 watt diodes came from, but I do not recommend 2 watt diodes in any case. I would go with 1 watt diodes if you are making the panel yourself and staying within 2-5 inches from the plant. Any grow area when the plants will be 12+ inches from the light use 3 watt diodes. If you are unaware, a 2 watt diode is two one watt diodes mounted on a single chip driven at 500mA with each diode receiving 250mA. It cost more than a 1 watt diode and produces only 13-21% more photons at the cost of double the power.
 
query: i see many LED configurations that use 380 and 610nm... why? i havent found any research that maintains these spectrums are critical for the development of terrestrial plants... of course, i may have missed the memo and its possible that 380 and 610nm do provide some sort of benefit, but isnt that what spectrum-blending is all about? and yes, UVB dosing (very dangerous) for 'nectar' production, but whats the deal with 380nm?
 
I'll start with the 610nm. 610 is amber or orange-red (depending on the manufacturer). It fills in a few accessory receptors and helps blend or smooth the transition into the large amounts of red that is in most panels.

380 helps with a number of accessory pigments as well. Pterins have a single peak at 380 and are what give plants and animals color as well as smells. Likewise, they also assist in nitrate reduction and respiration processes. There is still a large amount of research that needs done on these photo-receptors, but it is clear that they do make a dramatic difference.

The theory that using only blue and red light to grow plants proved to work. However, we are growing a much more complex plant than most others. Those first few generations of LED panels didn't have the penetration power, grower knowledge, or wide enough spectra to flower properly. There are a large number of internal interactions in the plant with transferring of electrons and chemicals between cell walls then have yet to be discovered. When the plant was made illegal, it blocked the research in nearly all fields. We know less about the internal workings of cannabis than we do about the human brain. Any neurologist will tell you that we know practically nothing in the big scheme of thing on how the brain actually works and we spend billions a year researching it... and have for decades.

I hope that answered your question sufficiently.
 
Hosebomber said:
I'll start with the 610nm. 610 is amber or orange-red (depending on the manufacturer). It fills in a few accessory receptors and helps blend or smooth the transition into the large amounts of red that is in most panels.

380 helps with a number of accessory pigments as well. Pterins have a single peak at 380 and are what give plants and animals color as well as smells. Likewise, they also assist in nitrate reduction and respiration processes. There is still a large amount of research that needs done on these photo-receptors, but it is clear that they do make a dramatic difference.

The theory that using only blue and red light to grow plants proved to work. However, we are growing a much more complex plant than most others. Those first few generations of LED panels didn't have the penetration power, grower knowledge, or wide enough spectra to flower properly. There are a large number of internal interactions in the plant with transferring of electrons and chemicals between cell walls then have yet to be discovered. When the plant was made illegal, it blocked the research in nearly all fields. We know less about the internal workings of cannabis than we do about the human brain. Any neurologist will tell you that we know practically nothing in the big scheme of thing on how the brain actually works and we spend billions a year researching it... and have for decades.

I hope that answered your question sufficiently.
Click to expand...

thank you for your reply... yes fully agree, i have only been engaged in PAR research for few weeks, but it was immediately obvious to me that we do not know enough about individual spectrums... i was not surprised to find that old LED lights with one blue spectrum and one red spectrum resulted horribly stunted growth... thus, the need for spectrum blending until we learn more...

re 380nm: i have seen some LED configurations that include a 14000k or 10000k white light... i have found various sources (unidentified lighting) that exhibit a 14000k and 10000k PAR graph that cross into the near UV... what is your experience with 14000k and 10000k LED lights? do they fill the near UV gap?
 
If you look at a true black body radiator graph, you will notice that nearly all of them stop at 10,000. There are a few that will extend it to 14,000 but not many. I don't believe that the company promoting an LED with a Kelvin rating above 8000K is being honest. White LEDs are based off a blue diode with a phosphor coating to spread the rest of the spectra. The base diode is almost always a 455 royal blue or a 444nm "violet". Therefore, rendering a color below the base on a black body radiator test seems unlikely to me. I do not have access to a high tech radiospectragraph anymore, so I can't say for sure that is the case but again, I highly doubt it.
 
peanut0862 said:
Hosebomber why so down on blackstar?
Click to expand...

There are a number of reasons. The biggest in my eyes is their complete outright lies for the first 3 years they where a company calling their lights 3w diodes when they was using 2 and 3 one watt diodes on a single chip. Their misinformation on wavelengths. The complete lack of testing on their panels. Improper cooling. Cheap drivers that tend to die extremely fast. The list goes on, and it is the same for the large majority of resellers. Don't get me wrong, nearly every company did this in the beginning... they just continue to do it. Some have actually changed their approach or re-worded their marketing.
 
I could not find the right diodes, so this is most close setup:
730 nm - 8 (1W paired)
660 nm - 20 (2W)
625 nm - 10 (2W)
warm white(2700 K) - 4 (2W)
cold white(6500 K) - 2 (2W)
440-450 nm - 5 (2W)
410-420 nm - 10 (1W paired)
 
By paired, I'm assuming you mean two single watt diodes on a single chip? To the best of my knowledge all 2 watt diodes are produced in this fashion. I have never seen a single diode 2 watt led. I'm not saying that some company hasn't made one... I simply haven't seen the datasheet for one.

A multi-diode single chip LED is required to be ran at a lower amperage than a single diode chip due to basic thermal physics. A 1 watt diode is powered at 350mA. A 2 watt diode (two 1 watt diodes on a single chip) is powered at 500mA with each diode receiving 250mA (70%) of the power they would get on their own wafer). In simple terms, you get less output for the amount of power being drawn for the reduced cost of the chip. It is cheaper to place more diodes on a single wafer then making multiple wafers and diodes.
 
Hosebomer was hoping you could shed some light (pun intended) on these numbers

•82 Powerful And Replaceable Individual Lighting LED Chips
•(2) 410nm Violet UV LED
•(30) 630nm Bright Red LED
•(4) 660nm Deep Red LED
•(2) 850nm Infrared (IR) LED
•(14) 6000K Full Light Spectrum
•(30) 12,000K Cold White
 
im interested peanut's spectrum query too:

is 850nm beyond the functional range of the emerson effect?

from what ive seen of 6,000k PAR graphs, it shld provide a blue peak between 450 and 470nm which would cover Chlorophyll B demands and provide some blending from 550 to 700nm, is this correct?

i have also seen some lights that purport to use 10,000 to 14,000k and i am wondering abt the respective PAR peaks assuming that they are truly what they claim to be... regardless, is 8,000 to 10,000k typical of morning light?
 
WAY too much white. Reduce both of those numbers in half. Take the 15 from the 12k and turn them into 2600k or so. The other half make 660nm. Then swap the number of 630's and 660's. So you will have eleven 630's and thirty 660's. 850nm is beyond the usable spectrum of what plants can use. Change those to 730's and up the ratio to about 5-10% of your total red wavelengths.

That's just my thoughts....
 
Thanks Hosebomber that was from a light on ebay. My old dumb self still don't understand all these numbers so thank you very much for helping an old man out
 
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I use LED in my set-up I have two rooms for flower and one room for Veg. I also run a perpetual garden like you want to except I pull 2-3 plants every week. and I am more than happy with my LED lights. I use in both flower and veg. super low heat. If you have any questions ask
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