Need help understanding COB-LED vs normal LED

D

dooxy

New Member
Hi

I have been growing for about 4 month, I dived in to the deep end. Without knowing how to swim. I started right away with DWC and LED led. Lets just say the learning curve have been awesome! mostly thanks to the awesome community here. :thanks:

I grow in a 2x4x6 tent, I have a Mars Pro II Epistar 160 LED grow light, That I think is a tiny bit under-powered for my grow space. According to mars hydro it is designed for a 2x3 tent. So at first i was thinking on just getting a smaller panel. But then some one said "COB-LED" dude, and i was like, whats that? :)

So i google... and now am confused and i need guidance. What would you do? would you just at a small
"full- spectrum" led-panel, or would you buy a COB LED for around 100$, Or would you spend enormous about of time luring more about COB LED. And build one that matches your grow space.

I have time at the moment i just don't have the finances to fork out another 340$ light for my tent. :grinjoint:
 
So i google... and now am confused and i need guidance. What would you do? would you just at a small
"full- spectrum" led-panel, or would you buy a COB LED for around 100$, Or would you spend enormous about of time luring more about COB LED. And build one that matches your grow space.
Click to expand...

What I would do is what I did. I bought a 4 COB system pre- designed for my 3' by 3' tent. They don't have an add on this site so I can't mention the company. I love the lights. They can put out 400 + watts but I now have them dimmed down to just 130 watts because they were burning and stunting my plants. The are deceptive as they put out no heat, so you tend to crank them up to high. I've learned to use a PAR meter only. In flower you turn them up to a reading of 700-800 PAR. And for veg you have them turned down to about half. Like 350 watts. This is going to save me money, especially during summer.

It's only money. Get what you want. It might cost more to build the COB system yourself. And you will probably not like them as much.

What I most like about COB's: They are full spectrum "not blurple". You can save energy by having them closer but dimmed down to get the same intensity as full power further away. (They are more efficient) 2 micro moles per watt. You can point the COBS where every you need the light. Regular LED's are fixed into one position and have too strong PAR in the center and drop off like a rock as you move out. COB's cover an area more evenly.

2 or 3 COBS would cover a 2' by 4' area easily.
 
Stunned said:
are you serious? If a manufacturer doesn't pay for an ad on this site, you can't mention the company's name?
Click to expand...

Yes you can only talk about sponsorship items, they pay to be on here so it's for respect for them
 
So LED wise it's Perfect sun,mars Hydro, Growant Led and I think that's it
 
The perfect sun mini would be perfect for your room I own the Goliath and it's killer
 
Let's just stop the bullshit, guys. There are lots of good lights out there and there is no prohibition about talking about them just because they aren't a 420Magazine forum sponsor. You can't actively promote them but if you're using a product from XYZ then share your thoughts and experiences with that light. This forum is all about helping each other, not about touting the benefits of a small group of sponsors.

That said, LEDs come in many shapes and sizes. COB is an acronym for chip on board, but has largely become synonymous with the closely grouped LEDs in a circular configuration. LED strips and Quantum boards are all "chip on board" designs as well but are usually referenced by their specific layouts as strips or boards. And then you have the blurple lights that seem to be the norm with the Chinese light designs as well as a few US companies, and the white light leds that many prefer. It all boils down to what you want and what your budget is capable of purchasing.

There's no panacea. You need to educate yourself and make a determination based on your own needs and budget. There's an overwhelming amount of info just on this forum alone. It's not easy, but if you're willing to invest the time and effort to educate yourself you'll be way ahead of the game. Feel free to ask questions! It's the only way you'll get answers.
 
Stunned said:
are you serious? If a manufacturer doesn't pay for an ad on this site, you can't mention the company's name?
Click to expand...

I have total power dimmed down to only 100 watts with the COBS 14" away from 4 plants! :circle-of-love: This species of plant (amnesia haze auto Nirvana) likes less light and grows faster. I'm using the MIGRO 400 :Namaste:
 
Grassmaster is running 100W and I'm running 1600W actual of Cree and Samsung leds in a 7x11 room. It all comes down to knowing your plants and giving them what they need. Tons of killer bud has been grown under both inexpensive blurple lights and white lights that are pushing the envelope. There's no one "right" way which makes our individual journeys so much fun. We all have a destination in mind but we get there by so many different paths.
 
420-magazine-mobile1830269485.jpg


COBs > blurple crap China LEDs. If you have questions PM me. You likely will find two types of growers here. Ones that are stuck in the past believing everything they read here, or people like me and Rider509 trying to grow the dankest of weed.
 
Rider509 said:
Grassmaster is running 100W and I'm running 1600W actual of Cree and Samsung leds in a 7x11 room. It all comes down to knowing your plants and giving them what they need. Tons of killer bud has been grown under both inexpensive blurple lights and white lights that are pushing the envelope. There's no one "right" way which makes our individual journeys so much fun. We all have a destination in mind but we get there by so many different paths.
Click to expand...

They are still vegging. I'll eventually double the PAR output when they are in flower. Right now they are at 300 PAR or slightly less. If the plant is reaching for light turn it up. If the plant is shielding itself wilted down decrease the light. You have to tune the lights in to what the plant requires to achieve it's genetic potential.
 
Thanks everyone for the feedback, I have spent a bit of time on this not enough start to pick out parts.
But i have have slowly started to understand a bit.

So i need a driver let say it has a 200w output with a 1400 Amp output, i could "budget" 4pcs of 48w COB LEDS. And that is my amount of LED i can fit for that specific Driver. But then we have variables i don't understand 100%. Like amp"current" the higher the number the more power, it will punches to the LED, and the LED can only handle so much before it burns up. So i understand need to "min/max" efficiency. because a chuck also go's to heat. Then we have cooling like with a heatsink in place that can be passive or active.

Yeah so what i need to learn is more about this ^ also how i figure out what LED's and what driver i need to cover a 2x5x6 tent.

I found a lot of useful information i just need it to be explained in simpler terms. Since am not English by native, and i have dyslexia.
So reading in English is making it 20x harder haha. :)

Thanks for all the support.
 
Stunned said:
are you serious? If a manufacturer doesn't pay for an ad on this site, you can't mention the company's name?
Click to expand...

1. Forums are suppose to be just simple places to post (share information) to help solve problems. Get Ideas from others saving time and money.

2. If you except money from advertisers you can make money or at least get something for the work and expense of running the forum. Now it has evolved into sites created from the beginning, solely to create an advertisement income.

3. If anyone can just post any product on the forum the advertisers will just do the same and no longer pay to advertise. You'll have countless shills claiming to have bought a product they are happy with. When in fact they are the MFGR.
 
They just don't want people promoting non sponsors... you can by all means mention other products. They don't want people posting links to non sponsored affiliates.

It makes sense to me. If anyone could come here and advertise for free it would clog the servers up with junk. As it already does for live stream and Indian love doctors....
 
TheMadDabber said:
They just don't want people promoting non sponsors... you can by all means mention other products. They don't want people posting links to non sponsored affiliates.

It makes sense to me. If anyone could come here and advertise for free it would clog the servers up with junk. As it already does for live stream and Indian love doctors....
Click to expand...

They are little more strict than that. I must say that this policy is one of the worst I've seen on a forum. I understand the not allowing promotions, but I can't even speak of where I bought my items in any of my threads. I've been PMed for including where I bought all of my cob equipment. In a topic like this for example if you say anything but mars hydro or one of the forum brands you'll get your stuff deleted and a warning.
 
Weird. That's only happened to me once when I posted a link to the [h=3]Fluence SPYDRx Plus 685W LED Grow Light. :cheesygrinsmiley:[/h]
There have been tons of good discussions here on DIY lights and where to buy the components as well as on non-sponsor lighting equipment. It's how we learn!
 
TheMadDabber said:
They just don't want people promoting non sponsors... you can by all means mention other products. They don't want people posting links to non sponsored affiliates.

It makes sense to me. If anyone could come here and advertise for free it would clog the servers up with junk. As it already does for live stream and Indian love doctors....
Click to expand...

ok, that explanation makes more sense to me. I couldn't believe you'd actually get in trouble for mentioning or asking for opinions about non sponsored manufacturers
 
My thread just got hijacking! No but i see your guys point. Anyways any tips on where to start? Like how do i figure out how many COBS i need for a 4x2x5. And how to pick the right cob? I did see some youtube guy sad that around 1400 amp is the sweep spot to be in. But then you work your diver around. How many COB's you will have. Okey.... well how many cobs do i need then. LUL :D

Also how do i figure out to get the most light spectrum and light penetration for my bucks? I Grow for personal use but my space is small. So i want to maximize yield.

I have also seen that you can convert your existing LED to something better. But that just sounds like impossible at this point. :p
 

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