Mars-Hydro LED Grow Light Discussion

[Mars Hydro]

I know there are many people is talking about the draw power here these days, I have talked with boss and engineers. I will try to explain things clearly.
1, draw power =voltage* current/ efficiency of driver
2, our driver efficiency is 95%~98% now. higher index means better quality driver.
3, Specs of chip. Red is 2.2~2.4V, blue,white is 3.2~3.4V. fixed, we can not change. and current we can use is 500~750mA . but the final voltage will depend on the heat of the light. the tempreture of LED chip should under 135Degree, or the light will weak very soon. now the 5watt, current is range from 690~740mA, and this morning I were told that voltage of chip is lower now. they said" for the improvement of LED technology, they want to more energy, so they are increasing lumens and decreasing voltage per chip. " I think this is understandable. so I forward this message to all of you. hope this problem has been solved now.

Any more questions you have, just post here, I will reply ASAP.

I put my Mars II 140x5w on the Killawatt meter last night. I'll check it again today when I'm a bit more capable, but it registered a 298w draw. The website states its power consumption at 325w-335w, so there definitely IS room to get that slight performance boost at the cost of more heat. Albeit, still theoretically much less than an HPS lighting solution. I'm just not sure how much.

 

[Mars Hydro]

thanks for your questions Crawdaaddy,

1, here we are forbidden to growing . last month our alibaba account was dangerous to be closed for we post words mj there. Actually, I really want to test ourself, and we can know the details. when our office is in factory 2011, we grew different vegetables to find the right spectrum.but it seems mj is different from other plants. so the spectrums we are using is from our customers. they test for us and give us suggestions.

2As to the COB, it is with others other. a,we use machine to solder different color on PCB board. some color we only need 1chip, if the machine is not right, it will make mistake. the main problem is we can not make white on the board, becuase white needs fluorescent power , other color do not need it. and board is very very small, so make white color on the same board with other color is impossible. so we are finding some other way to solve this problem. if you have some suggestions to solve problems, we will be very appreciate. thank you .

Sara,

Curiosity question, what are the laws like in china for growing? I would bet they pretty harsh. Thinking about Jon's less then stellar results with the COB light, what if you all started your own test grows for testing out different spectrums?

And I would suspect it be pretty easy to add different spectrum diodes to the COB array of diodes, why not just use same ratio as other manufacturers or same ratio as your MARS lights?

 

[Mars Hydro]

Hi Jon, yes, I agree with you, maybe the COB lack of some other specturms plants need, so we are considering how to solve this problem. maybe that light is not right. COB's board solder by machine, while other lights's PCB soder by hand. it is different. so it needs more time I think. I will communicate with you for more idea I have.

the light is missing spectrums, I ran 4 timewreck under the COB and 3 more in my big room, all the same size all in supersoil,one plant in the big room is under one of my Area 51 panels and another is under a 1000w hps. During veg within 10 days the plants under my lights were twice the size of the ones under the COB, at that point the light was around 34 inches from the canopy, my panels were 4 feet from the canopy. all the plants under the COB turned out to be males so I took one of the 3 fems that were all pretty much identical in size and structure and put it under the COB to flower, the COB is now 16 inches from the canopy and again 11 days later the plant under the COB is half the size of the one under the hps and the one under my panels which are still 32 inches from the canopy. Red and Blue isnt enough spectrums, its that simple.

The plant on the left is the one under the COB, 11 days ago these plants were all the same size.Same pot, same soil, same enviroment, different lights,the 2 under the hps and my big panels are still pretty much the same size.

 

[Mars Hydro]

a customer of mine told me that LED get different flower than HPS,. smaller size but taste better. so maybe we use different spectrum and we get different result, taste different? just thinking about it, I did not grow and smoke it, so I do not know.

Honestly guys I dont have enough knowledge to answer that question, Im partial to my area 51 lights so I would probably go with something simillar to they're spectrums but depending on who you ask the spectrums can be very different, Hosebomber really knows his stuff but he doesnt agree with Area 51's spectrums, all I know is the Timewreck thats under my led panel is the same size as the one under the 1000w hps and both of those are twice the size of the Timewreck under the COB panel, theres definetly something missing, if all it took to grow good mmj was 2 spectrums them all the led companies would be using 2 spectrums right?

 

[Mars Hydro]

I think power is one of reason.

I must be missing something here. You're comparing growth under a 1000w HID with growth under a 200w LED. I would attribute the difference to the power used rather than anything to do with spectrums used. You seem to be getting half the result with 1/5 the power.

 

[aquapon]

Sara is it possible for example in a COB light ( I bought a 6 part CAB) that you make maybe 4 of the parts mixed red and blue and the other two parts white--would
that help? Maybe I will get some all white leds to help my six part COB.

 

[Crawdaddy]

thanks for your questions Crawdaaddy,

1, here we are forbidden to growing . last month our alibaba account was dangerous to be closed for we post words mj there. Actually, I really want to test ourself, and we can know the details. when our office is in factory 2011, we grew different vegetables to find the right spectrum.but it seems mj is different from other plants. so the spectrums we are using is from our customers. they test for us and give us suggestions.

2As to the COB, it is with others other. a,we use machine to solder different color on PCB board. some color we only need 1chip, if the machine is not right, it will make mistake. the main problem is we can not make white on the board, becuase white needs fluorescent power , other color do not need it. and board is very very small, so make white color on the same board with other color is impossible. so we are finding some other way to solve this problem. if you have some suggestions to solve problems, we will be very appreciate. thank you .

I understand what you saying. I was assumming the diodes would be the same size just have different wavelength output, seems like bad assumption. So therefore not be able to machine solder. It would be nice to find way to add more spectrum to COB light, because I like idea of having more diodes closer together as one light source then one big reflector. Instead of many little lenses/reflectors.

Just an idea, how about programming solder machine to have different patterns. Then you could have some COB modules with different mixes. And mix multiple COB unit types in one light unit for different applications or if got real fancy to customer order. That would be a cool product. Say have 5 different COB module types, and customer could mix and match in one unit.

 

[Mars Hydro]

I will ship a UFO with only blue and white for you FREE to mix grow with COB. All customer who ordered COB, we will send a UFO with blue and white FREE to mix grow with COB. I am not ready to ship the light now. as soon as I am ready, I will email you. thank u

Sara is it possible for example in a COB light ( I bought a 6 part CAB) that you make maybe 4 of the parts mixed red and blue and the other two parts white--would
that help? Maybe I will get some all white leds to help my six part COB.

 

[aquapon]

Thank you very much Sara for the offer to send a extra light.
Jon705s trial run was with only one plant. We need more trials to find out how the COB lights really work.
I will let you know how mine works when I get it and start growing.

 

[jon705]

Hi Sara, did you get my last message?

 

[Crawdaddy]

I have started my new journal with the COB light...

Crawdaddy's Fall 2013 TopLED COB Grow

On a different note with regard to spectrum, I have done a ton of research around the internet, Like LED Acolyte, and come to the conclusions that to find the right spectrum what needs to be done is MANY controlled tests. The basics are easy, need red and blue to match absorption spectrum of Chlorophyll A and B. But beyond that testing needs to be done with same plant/clones side by side under lights with different spectrum combos. The only way to do this would be to have a light company that could supply a person with much grow space/plant count to spend on the experiment. I would love to do it, but no space/plant count to do a controlled experiment.

I am thinking 8 plants in a room with light baffles and 8 different spectrum combos of otherwise equal lights. and then refine results after a few runs, would take time and $$$$. More or less make spectrum combo the only variable.

Or just go with what works for other growers and do it in a less controlled fashion.

If I ever get a legal commercial grow going here in WA state, then might be able to do a proper experiment. But till then do not have space/time/money/plant count.

 

[Mars Hydro]

hmmm,420, if you remove posts under my topic, can you tell me why? if you want to protect us or something, please tell me in advance. or people will think it is me to remove their post and we want to hide something. but the truth is I do nothing. thank you very mcuh.

 

[jon705]

Good morning Sara, or evening for you

 

[aquapon]

Just got my 6 part COB. Looks well built and should do what I want it to do.
Thank you very much Sara. Everybody have a great day.

 

[Mars Hydro]

Hi Jon, good evening., I am sorry I did not contact with you these days for I am really very busy, I saw your message on FB. I will get on there to talk with you later. thank you very much.

Good morning Sara, or evening for you

 

[Mars Hydro]

Thank you Aquapon.keep in touch.

Just got my 6 part COB. Looks well built and should do what I want it to do.
Thank you very much Sara. Everybody have a great day.

 

[Crawdaddy]

Thank you Aquapon.keep in touch.

Hey Sara,

Hope doing well. What is going on with getting the free UFO light if bought a COB? I could use the extra added spectrum.

Thanks!

 

[Mars Hydro]

I am arranging it. it is special light, I need to ask our factory make first. thank you .

Hey Sara,

Hope doing well. What is going on with getting the free UFO light if bought a COB? I could use the extra added spectrum.

Thanks!

 

[jon705]

Good morning/evening Sara

 

[SpaceCroc]

Hi Sara,

I’ve been reading this thread as I’m interested at getting a LED panel from you.

I’m a bit confused with the draw power issue.
I understand that the draw power of some Mars panels wasn’t as expected and customer got less light output than stated on specs.
It seems that it was a factory error.

Now, is this error fixed and all panels have as much output as expected?
Or is it something that each customer need to specify when ordering?

Thanks!