Home made power LED lights

jammeja I was thinking about your use of a 12V 10A supply. Once you start a line at 1A you have to use the whole 12V, so you have released 12 watts no matter how you use it, and you don't have a current regulator, just a voltage regulator, so you have to control the current with a resistor. This is not too much of a problem for those LEDs that break over at 10 or more volts. There you could use a 1 Ohm 2 watt resistor, this will drop 1V or even a .47 Ohm 1 watt resistor, this will drop 1/2V for current regulation, and the regulator will drop the rest, remember it will get hot, and should be mounted to a heat sink. If the regulator drops a volt that's 1 watt of heat, if it drops 2 volts that's 2 watts and so on. This is unused, and lost power on each line. So if you want more efficency with the reds breaking at 7 volts you could get some 5 watt LEDs to go in series with the 10 watters. First thing is a 10 watt LED is just 2 of 5 watt LEDs in series to start with. So a 5 watter breaks over at around 3V and with the 7V for the 10's and 1V, (or 1/2V) for the current regulator resistor the voltage regulator does not have to drop too much wasted energy. More things to think about, and sorry but more money to spend. Start out small, just make one with that power supply, see how it works before going into production making a large system. Think about how you can use all the voltage in each line of current with the least amount of waist. Have fun with it and good luck.
 
Well tally is in. Just as I thought I came up short, but shorter than I was expecting. I only got 13 OZ. A lot of the buds didn't get very firm, but some did. I wonder why some did, and some did not. One thing I noticed was the roots, they didn't fill the tubes like with the HPS lights. Up until now I have never used a root enhancer, but I will start now. I don't think there was as much demand for water in the plant, so no need for the plants to grow better roots. One thing is more potency, I do believe it's more smelly, and sticky, and it smokes well, and I believe is more stoney.
Well I already started again, the babies are cut and in the rocks just trying to push out there new roots. This time I will let them get a little bigger before tripping them over to 12/12. Over all I am happy enough, and will not be going back to the old hot lights of the past. Just need to fine tune how things grow with the LED's. One thing is I do think I should have gone out to 9 weeks, that may be why some of the buds didn't get dense the way they should have. At least I should try it that way once. Of course I have been saying from the start I didn't let them get tall enough. 4 inches per plant would be about 1/4 OZ more or less I would think.
 
RE roots, I let my plants dry out completely and they have great root growth. I noticed transpiration rates were much lower under LED so watering frequency had to be reduced a lot compared to HID

Up until now I have never used a root enhancer, but I will start now. I don't think there was as much demand for water in the plant, so no need for the plants to grow better roots. One thing is more potency, I do believe it's more smelly, and sticky, and it smokes well, and I believe is more stoney.
 
I have a home made eb and flow system, so they are watered twice a day, once at light on, one about 8 hours later. The plants are in 4" net cups, and the tubes they are in are full of clay rocks as well. I have thought about going to once a day for watering, but I like to draw in some air to the roots twice a day. The plants never seemed to mind. This is two less waterings than I had with the HPS/MH lights.
 
3 weeks into my second run, this time they are just a bit bigger, but next time I'm going to give them 5 more days of vegging. I think that will be just about perfect. Everything is running good, and my temps never get much more than 87 deg. So far so good.
 
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