SeymoreNugget's DIY talk - Building lights - Sharing ideas

[Lost In Nugs]

Hm, i think thats the problem with my soil too more or less. I have to go over another soil or try something more forgiving. I think maybe 1 part light/flushed soil with worm casting and mycorrhizae powder, 1 Part coco well mixed with 1 part perlite and a 2 inch layer of clay pellets on the bottom of a big ass airpot sounds worth a try for my next seedlings. Maybe a lil more or less of each but i like the idea of using these components


Something else, could not hold fingers still. I changed the spectrum of my lil 18x5W Epistar LED panel. I removed 4x440nm blue and added 2x2700-3000K warm white and 2x660nm red.

So this sink has 10x blue, 4x 9000-10000K, 2x 2700-3000K and 2x660nm red on it right now. I am exited how that performs. The basic stuff with a very cold touch.

Once the starboards are placed the diodes are really easy to change after you managed to get the stuff together. A lot more handy than on a big tight board at least.

This is all cheap material, but how we all know these 5W diodes can grow some tight and bushy plants for a while when cooled right, and i have about 150 more of em to build stuff including 5 more drivers like this one that can push 20-80V at 0.7 Amps and has a slot for 12V in the driver. You can open them by hand, pretty cool plug and play style.

You can do the math on your own.
For 5W diodes you can say as a rule of thumb

blue, all whites and bright cool stuff like that use arround 3,6V
Reds use 2,6V
diodes like ~730 are 2,2 or a lil more

I hope you get the picture

i went for a whole lot of new blue diodes because i want to try to control the stretch with such a small area and get a tight noded small plant to fill a 1,7ft scrog for example.

And when i say ok 'flowers please' i can remove most of the blue and cooler whites (3,6V) and add a whole bunch of red (2,6) within minutes soldering them to the mounted starboards. Then they will stretch due to the lack of blue looking for light and then boom, red cola army.

So now thats justbthe lil test unit. I prepared LEDs last week with Arctic MX4 on Starboards and glued them down to a cheap heatsink with cheapest silicone based thermal glue and hotglued an Arctic F12 and the driver on top yesterday. It ran like a charm the whole day sink cool to the touch.

I will test this new nugget spectrum 2.0 on that plant till next week when the new tent is up. maybe keep it going like that until i get my hands on all the parts for my 3 channel COB x 5W hybrid on a 350x350mm/~14x14 inch aluminum plate. 4000K allround COB in the center, switchable veg and flower spectrum arround it. Love the idea. The old 5W LED lower efficieny of course, with a pretty good 4000K COB at 50W the efficiency still be round the Lm/W mark of a good HPS and it will be - > cheap <- to build, flexible, cool enough for a small grow tent and pretty unique too.

Blabla, you want pictures right, well, tried some well sealed and only aired 2 times since early december dry sugartrim, man, that stuff is awesome. Better then the last jar i had out open every day for quite some weeks now...blabla again.

Oops, there they go

.

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[Lost In Nugs]

Ordered a 300x300x3mm aluminum plate and a high value thermal glue to build my light for the 400x400x1250mm tent
So exiting to complete a thing you've been dreaming about for month.

I will mount 4 of the heatsinks i was using on this test-unit and 4xArctic 120mm Fans or 9x80mm.

3x Mars ll 700mA drivers will be powering the light, every driver gets a own power switch.

I guess COB in the center will be a new Vero 29.7 and if it is i will pick the 4000K 69V version. This should be somewhere arround 45W with ~200lumen per watt at 25C. So lots of white light.

Veg channel will be 16-20x 440nm blue, flower channel will be 24x660nm red and 4x730nm far red.

Results for 1,7 sqft:

- allround COB channel at 45W
- veg boost channel 40-50W
- flower boost channel somewhere between 40 and 50W too

So we end somewhere in the mid 50s watt per square foot and can push this light to the direction we want it.

As always i will keep you updated on the progress



Current Grow SeymoreNuggets Flowering Journal - Nebula & Atomical Haze - Soil - 2x3 - 420W DIY COB

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SeymoreNugget's DIY talk - Building lights - Sharing ideas

 

[Buckshot317]

I got lights to work together, the connectors weren't snapped in all the way, so damn small. So I double checked all of them. Now working fine. I'm still trying to figure how to hang it. I might video tape it, it would be a funny video. I have those 4 mars lights to play with,

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[Lost In Nugs]

I got lights to work together, the connectors weren't snapped in all the way, so damn small. So I double checked all of them. Now working fine. I'm still trying to figure how to hang it. I might video tape it, it would be a funny video. I have those 4 mars lights to play with,

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I soldered all the chips. The new vero i'll buy is solderless SE version. Hows your hand doing? Cant you get someone to help you without risking anything?

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[Obi Wan]

Subbed. I have some catching up to do.

 

[Lost In Nugs]

If i solder them myself i could get my hands on 30xOsram Oslon SSL80 630nm for 39euro. Presoldered they would cost me 105e

What do you think about the diodes?

Current Grow SeymoreNuggets Flowering Journal - Nebula & Atomical Haze - Soil - 2x3 - 420W DIY COB

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[Buckshot317]

Those are great diodes, have 2 panels running those, good results. I got it up and running, I rolled it in and ratcheted it up , with just 1 hand lol. You know anything about the alien easyfeed, I just looked at their website. That looks like a cure for me being gone.

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[Buckshot317]

I didn't solder, I bought molex connector harness, only $1 a piece

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[Buckshot317]

Sorry read that wrong, half stoned

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[Buckshot317]

Dude I'm glad I didn't go with 2100ma on these d series veros. I have a 6in clip on fan blowing on 4 cobs, they are 97 degrees F. The other 4 higher, 117 degrees F is highest. Definitely going to put bigger fan across them, and drivers put off lot of heat

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[Lost In Nugs]

Yes that sounds not optimal for the highest possible lumenous flux. As long as your chips dont get over 120C/~250F, with picos the case is limited to 100C afaik. How is the ambient temp to get these sink readings? You used ir thermometer?

I dont like the passive route. heavier, way more expensive, unflexible on its own. Maybe you should buy small fans for each sink too.
The window for an adequate ambient gets smaller and smaller and often the chips might run some degrees warmer compared to a dedicated 2w Fan blowing heat away instantly. I dont care for 20W of extra fans when on the other side i can dim my fans manually and get my cobs cooler. The 4 chips in the corner can run passive at 40W and the sink is mildy warm, but i shut them down only when i change wattage of the lights. After 30 minutes passive at 40W the 1212 is only slightly above ambient right now. This way the underdriven important COB lasts even longer and puts out even more light per watt

Why not grab a simple cpu cooler up to 100W for 5-8 bucks in the first place if you run them at a point passive is not enough without ac. At least for grows smaller 3m3 of tent volume this makes no sense. But even in some bigger passive grows an AC can blow up all your well payed top notch efficiency to dust depending what you pay for a kilowatthour, while some good quality active upward fans and a adecuate extraction fan for the room would be way more efficient, Depending how you power them of course.

I also dont get why almost everyone let the 50°C drivers in there and then start using air conditioning. All about efficiency right? No need to crank up the depending on your location probably needed ac even more when you use cobs. Place the heat from the electronics somewhere else and pull it away from them quicker .

What i can see is that i now can run almost 25% more power to the cobs and still run 5°C cooler over 48 hours with the 2 drivers and the fan power supply removed only 8inch further away on the other side of the wall. I know i run an exeptionally small room volume of ~0,9m3 but you may try that during summer

Before driver removal, ambient 19C/66F, tent up to 32C/almost 90F at 280W when away some time

After driver removal, ambient 66F, tent up to 77F at 350W. WORLDS

Some things dont make sense sometimes. But its 4:30 in the morning, so thats ok


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[skoondawg]

Talking about heat sinks Seymore, what's your opinion on the Arctic Alpine GT 64 Rev 2 (70w) cpu coolers to cool Vero 29 chips running from 0-51w (up to 1400ma). Deciding between that and passive 133mm pin heatsinks

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[Lost In Nugs]

Talking about heat sinks Seymore, what's your opinion on the Arctic Alpine GT 64 Rev 2 (70w) cpu coolers to cool Vero 29 chips running from 0-51w (up to 1400ma). Deciding between that and passive 133mm pin heatsinks

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Hey dawg,
I checked on the GT64 R2 and it could be hard to mount a chip sized vero29. Especially if you f up and a drill breaks for example. I would recommend the 7 buck gt64 for smaller chips like 1212s and such

The Alpine 11 Rev 2 is what i use for 8 bucks. Its fan is connected with rubber pads and pretty silent. I cool 70W with ease with 10V. But the flat surface is small and the holder stands over the edges.

If have some extra bucks and want the best alpine design, cooling and the biggest cooling surface to mount a cob and maybe still have room for some infrared or other diodes go for Alpine 64 plus its even good for 100W and costs 11 bucks at my location. I think its also very easy to mount to a L or squared frame.

Check out a power supply for them, maybe with a switch for 6V, 9V, 12V. At 50W 9V will be plenty with these nice Fans and pretty silent too, just make shure you count at least 400mA for each fan when you pick a cheap power supply to be on the save side and they keep spinnin how many cobs you buy?

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[skoondawg]

Hey dawg,
I checked on the GT64 R2 and it could be hard to mount a chip sized vero29. Especially if you f up and a drill breaks for example. I would recommend the 7 buck gt64 for smaller chips like 1212s and such

The Alpine 11 Rev 2 is what i use for 8 bucks. Its fan is connected with rubber pads and pretty silent. I cool 70W with ease with 10V. But the flat surface is small and the holder stands over the edges.

If have some extra bucks and want the best alpine design, cooling and the biggest cooling surface to mount a cob and maybe still have room for some infrared or other diodes go for Alpine 64 plus its even good for 100W and costs 11 bucks at my location. I think its also very easy to mount to a L or squared frame.

Check out a power supply for them, maybe with a switch for 6V, 9V, 12V. At 50W 9V will be plenty with these nice Fans and pretty silent too, just make shure you count at least 400mA for each fan when you pick a cheap power supply to be on the save side and they keep spinnin how many cobs you buy?

Current Grow Nebula & Atomical Haze - Soil - 2'x3' Flower - 420W DIY COB - SCROG 45W DIY Veg Light

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Thanks for all the info, unfortunately the GT64 R2 is the only version I can get locally, sourcing from overseas I'm looking at over 100 dollars just for shipping 12 of them, plus taxes.

Therefore I may just stick with the passive heat sinks with my order from Kingbrite. Getting the drivers and chips there cheaper than local and shipping is 100 dollars for the lot.

The CxB 3590 chips are 33 dollars compared to 21 of the Veros, so I'm actually looking at maybe paying a bit more for the better and more efficient chips, plus then I can run all 12 chips on 3 HLG185H-C1400B, instead of 12 veros on 2 HLG320H-C1400B. Looking at costs and stuff still before I do any ordering

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[Lost In Nugs]

Sounds like a good plan and price. What BIN and Kelvin is that? I know the pain of living in a place stuff like that ruin the fun of having the choice or blow the bank.

What Veros you had in mind? Afaik running less drivers is more efficient and like said every brick heats up. Mines are 50C surface temp each. But if you can get 3x185 cheaper and put them out of your tent you should be good and more flexible too of course. Thinking of 1 driver with 4 of Crees or veros 4000K or 5000K chips(the colder the more lumen per watt) one with 3500K and one with 2700 or what you can get your hands on. Or any other mix with one colder chip one warmer allround chip and a pure flower chip. That would be awesome.

I was was playing with my 4000K Citis which are noticeable cooler then the Vero 3500K. At the moment i run the 5x 80 cri 4000K on the outer lines at ~37W/sqft each with reflectors, the 1x 90cri without reflector. The 2 Veros with 23W per square foot without reflectors to cover up everything. ~60W sqft.

Here i made a picture with fixed parameters (1/500, ISO80, 4000K) to show you the difference in 224W 4000K citis and ~140W 3500K vero. Of course it looks a lil different in real world but you get the idea how big the difference in the colour temperature can be with different manufacturers and only 500K difference on paper. Vero looks a lilbit like HPS i would like to see 2700K chips from Bridglelux.

Anyway. Think twice if you want mono chips or more flexibility. I should have planned more so i could only run 2x2 with 4 citis and 1 vero for example or chose other light temperatures, this is not possible without soldering at the moment.

But i am glad i chose heatsinks with a larger surface and go active, i can easily place some starboards with Oslon SSL 80 and 150 degree output and add another channel to have even more amber, red and hyperred for example. My goal is a more flexible spectrum because i like to play a bit here and there. And replace some w/sqft with only high quality red for a while instead of 4000K Citi spectrum. The Citis 4K are Great for veg, thats for shure, buf i want more intense reds man. But in the end its up to you of course and if these pin sinks you get are the same fanleaf mentioned you even can mount small fans on top what suck heat up faster or blow it down. Anyway, please me posted about your light, really looling forward what chips you pick.


224W CITI0481212 4000K

140W Vero29.7 D version 3500K

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[skoondawg]

Sounds like a good plan and price. What BIN and Kelvin is that? I know the pain of living in a place stuff like that ruin the fun of having the choice or blow the bank.

What Veros you had in mind? Afaik running less drivers is more efficient and like said every brick heats up. Mines are 50C surface temp each. But if you can get 3x185 cheaper and put them out of your tent you should be good and more flexible too of course. Thinking of 1 driver with 4 of Crees or veros 4000K or 5000K chips(the colder the more lumen per watt) one with 3500K and one with 2700 or what you can get your hands on. Or any other mix with one colder chip one warmer allround chip and a pure flower chip. That would be awesome.

I was was playing with my 4000K Citis which are noticeable cooler then the Vero 3500K. At the moment i run the 5x 80 cri 4000K on the outer lines at ~37W/sqft each with reflectors, the 1x 90cri without reflector. The 2 Veros with 23W per square foot without reflectors to cover up everything. ~60W sqft.

Here i made a picture with fixed parameters (1/500, ISO80, 4000K) to show you the difference in 224W 4000K citis and ~140W 3500K vero. Of course it looks a lil different in real world but you get the idea how big the difference in the colour temperature can be with different manufacturers and only 500K difference on paper. Vero looks a lilbit like HPS i would like to see 2700K chips from Bridglelux.

Anyway. Think twice if you want mono chips or more flexibility. I should have planned more so i could only run 2x2 with 4 citis and 1 vero for example or chose other light temperatures, this is not possible without soldering at the moment.

But i am glad i chose heatsinks with a larger surface and go active, i can easily place some starboards with Oslon SSL 80 and 150 degree output and add another channel to have even more amber, red and hyperred for example. My goal is a more flexible spectrum because i like to play a bit here and there. And replace some w/sqft with only high quality red for a while instead of 4000K Citi spectrum. The Citis 4K are Great for veg, thats for shure, buf i want more intense reds man. But in the end its up to you of course and if these pin sinks you get are the same fanleaf mentioned you even can mount small fans on top what suck heat up faster or blow it down. Anyway, please me posted about your light, really looling forward what chips you pick.


224W CITI0481212 4000K

140W Vero29.7 D version 3500K

Current Grow Nebula & Atomical Haze - Soil - 2'x3' Flower - 420W DIY COB - SCROG 45W DIY Veg Light

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For the Cree's it was any 3590 for $33. Id plan on getting 8x CXB 3590 3500k CD and the middle row of 4 would be 3590 2700k 80CRI for some extra bloom. I wanted to get more red but for now all i cant get is that. Digikey coming out with the 1700k chips here soon, might take a look at 4 of those. Fanleaf also suggested using 4 CLU 1212 2700K 90CRI for the extra flower light but i cant get my hands on those affordably!

The other, original, plan was to have 12 x Vero 29's 4000K D chips. I thought of the cree set up because you can run 4 of them on one HLG185 driver, where as with the Vero's you fall just short of 4, hence me getting 2x HLG320 to power 12 of them. So i thought having three separate light rails with 4 chips each and one driver each would be nice for flexibility. Im still deciding whether its gonna be a flower box, or a start to finish box. Therefore im not certain on the exact kelvin mashup yet. I most certainly will think hard on the set of colour temperatures ill be ordering! I have my current box that has a bunch of CFL and a 250W MH or HPS socket - which should be fine for vegging plants for a bigger tent (80cmx160cm), im just wondering whether they will benefit more from being under the COBs from start to finish?

I did see Fanleaf's fan on the pin heatsink DIY. I could potentially do the same thing if need be for lower temps. (or if i upgrade to higher currents, which i probably wont). Can make any heat sink active if you please really haha

Your plants look so happy again, glad to see it (y) Those COBs are obviously doing a good job, among other things like your love and care When do you expect to harvest? Everytime i look at your canopy i always try imagine how that space is only 2x3, it always seem so much bigger!

 

[Lost In Nugs]

I will answer that in the journal
BTW i just placed order on 1x Vero29 SE 3500K 69V.

I think i will simply add blue and red/far red and no other fancy stuff.

Thrilled how much watts the 1 chip pulls at 700mA and how it will look with the color supplements. I hope its not under 45W. But if i could run it with 1400mA too.

For flower boost i will go to maximum wattage from the driver ~50 to 55W of red, only 1 far red diode, for blue i think i will only push round ~25-30W from 14 blue diodes. So veg is 41-44Wsqft, flower will be ~55-59wsqft. Hope this works out like i thought.

I think i will add some diodes onto the starboards that came with the epistar 5w diodes. if a LED fails it will still be lighting.

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[Buckshot317]

Hey Seymore, on previous post, my 5x5 ambient temps were 82°F

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[Buckshot317]

And yes I used ir temp gun. 117°F was the highest temp, with a small clip on fan nearby on half of rack (4 cobs) was 97°F. 20 degree difference with small amount of air, 6in fan is 2 ft away. It doesn't take much air circulating, easy to cool. I ordered 20 of the sst133's heatsinks from northern, wish I went ahead and ordered 30, save few bucks if buy 30 or more

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[Buckshot317]

Here's a pic of panel I have that uses the osram ssl, it has a controller to adjust spectrum, red,white, and blue. I have 2 of these, work great, I can get lb from each light, each light maxes out at 400w. I got a good deal on 2 thru their grower program, I got 2 lights and controller for $800. I wish I bought more for that price. And they have excellent customer service

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