love your idea and will be tracking this... i have a connection that can get me top quality US leds cheap and would like to make one like yourself, can you share with me a digram of how you make this (wiring, power source and anything you used in making this )?

Here is the schematic drawing for how I wired the LEDs as asked. Its not rocket science and anyone who has some electrons background already knows this. I am posting this so that maybe I can inspire someone to get into this.

As you see the groups of different color LEDs, I just grouped them together. So lets say you look at the red group of 5 LEDs, well if you wanted to add another 5, you connect them the same way as above. You can use as much LEDs as your power supply can handle.

For now, I got some cheap AC to DC converters off ebay. If you go here: DIY cheap LED array This is where I made my LED array version 1. I am doing my version two. As for the converters (power supply), I had modified them. They were origionally made for car adaptors, but I dismantaled it and added some wires.

As for a power supply, theres a cheap way to make one. If you have an old power supply (PSU) from an old computer, you can modify it to power your LEDs. I found this site very helpful:
http://www.magicratproductions.com/m....php?f=5&t=131

I will be making one myself to power my LEDs. The benifit with these power supplies is that it will have high current capacity.

My current power supplys are 1A. There is two of them. If your LEDs are suposed to draw about 20 mA of current, idealy you will need about 50 groups of LEDs (those 5 red LEDs after the resistor is what I call a group.)

With a cheap power supply, depending on the specs, you can run anywhere from 600 to over 1000 led groups. If its all red, thats about 3000 - 5000 LEDs.

I also used a 12v DC power supply. You can use a 24, and have 10 leds in one group instead of 5 with one resistor.

Something to keep in mind is this formula: Voltage(V) = Current (I) x Resistance (R)

Lets say I have a red LED. It drops about 1.8v to 2.2v (check your specs sheet). This means that if I have 1 LED and 1 Resistor, My LED will have about 2.2v across it, and the resistor will have 9.8v across it.

With that being said, we know the voltage across the resistor, and we know what is the optimal current for the LED (20 mA ... the little m means that it is 0.02 A, if you are not familiar with engineering notation)

Now we can find out what resistor we can use. 9.8v = (0.02)R
R = 490 ohms. So we look for a 490 ohm resistor.

Now we look for a resistor with that value. Radio shack and Ebay sell these. The resistors will have color bands on them to indicate their value. Here is a website to decode the color bands:
http://www.dannyg.com/examples/res2/resistor.htm

When buying resistors for the project, I used 1/4 watt resistors.

With that being said, we can optimize to have the maximum number of LEDs in series (in a row connected positive to negative leads). We know that the red ones drop about 1.8 to 2.2v. If we use 6, the maximum that our LEDs will drop is 13.2v. Our power supply cant handle that. If we connect 6 or more LEDs, they wont turn on. It will be like an open circuit.

If we use 5, we will be dropping 11v. This will leave 1v across our resistor. With the formula above, you can calculate which resistor you need.
V = 1V
I = 20mA or 0.02A
R = ?

If you look at my DIY array thread, you will see in real how I wired them. Soldering is key, and with my Version 2 array, I hot glued the LEDs together.

It is pretty simple and anyone can do it. LEDs are cheap. My plant is only a few weaks old but it looks like it has more then enough light.

The heat produced by the LEDs is about 40c. When I touch it, its no warmer then my body. They are on all day and that is all the heat that they produce.

I will connect a wattage measurement tool (kill-a-watt) thing to see how much wattage im drawing.

I will post the wiring for my PSU driver for my LEDs, and my completed LED array V2. Its going to be huge.


Also, theres an error in the picture that I just realized. The LEDs above the red should say amber.

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Also been following your thread man, I would love to see the LEDs get better and better. I saw this today and thought I would post it up for you (not sure

water cooled led
http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/15/e...ed-light-bulb/
http://www.eternaleds.com/News-a/134.htm
http://www.earthled.com/evolux-led-light-bulb.html
Dunno what ur spec's are....

* Light Engine: CREE® XRE LED Light engine
* Power Consumption: 13 Watts Max (12 Watts Typical)
* Input Voltage: 90~277 V AC (Worldwide Capable)
* Luminous Flux: 1075 (Cool White), 1000 (Warm White)
* Color Temperature: 3000 K (Warm), 6000 K (Cool)
* CRI: 75 - Cool , 80 - Warm
* Beam Angle – 180 degrees overall
* Operating Temperature Range:
* -4°~113° F (-20°~45° C)
* Operating Humidity Range: 20%~90%
* Lifespan: > 50,000 Hours (MTBF)
* Construction: Flame Retardant Plastic
* Aluminum Heatsink, Shatterproof Lens

Thanks, thats really cool. I cant wait to replace my micky mouse LEDs with this nice looking bulb. It took me way too long to make 150 LED array. This would save a lot of time for me and will give the UFO system a run for its money. That thing is WAYYY too overpriced. My huge array is still in planning mode, but so far, about $60 for almost 1000 LEDs. That beats the $200-400 price tag.

I would love to use one of those and see what its like. Thanks again for posting that up. No worries about getting water on the lense and having it shatter like the other lighting systems. And no worries about temprature increases since it looks like it doesnt heat up past 40c.

Many advantages to this along with little to no energy fingerprint.

Day 26

So everything looks good so far. Going to upgrade my lighting soon to accommodate my little plant. My lighting is about 6 inches from the tip of the plant. Check the pictures.

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Speaking of LED lights, I found this on the net.

http://www.lck-led.com/p478/Extreme-...duct_info.html

its a 100w white light array capable of producing 4000-6000 lumens. They have warm light (2700-3300K) and white light (6000K to 7000K) for $100. For the price of those UFO systems, you can put 1 white, 1 red and 1 blue and produce 12 000 lumens of light that your plant uses. ORRR even better, screw the white, just red (620-635nm), yellow(580-595nm) and blue(460-470 nm).

Now im thinking of getting these for my future clones and see what happens.

I know this isnt a journal post, but for the ones who are interested in growing with LEDs, this is some good stuff.

Nice find, and nice journal.

I have spent too much time today researching leds. It looks to me like that 100w panel also needs a low volt power supply. Am I thinking correctly that to operate the red array that you would need a 24vdc regulated 4amp power supply and for the blue array a 36vdc regulated 3amp power supply?

Even then for 600 bucks you could have a similar array to those 1400 dollar super grow led arrays.

It seems that from what I have read only the red and the blue are necessary for plant development.

I really want to get one of these panels and try it out supplementally.

You can modify a computer power supply and tap in to the 12 v. Step it up to 24v. Mind you if you connect it to +12v and -12v you can still get 24v but usually in these power supplies -12v can only handle like .6A like mine.

I'm not too sure but I think this one can run from 90vac to 240vac which is a good thing.

Day 29

A few more leaves sprouted. So far I have no problems with LEDs, just growth seems a bit slow, but what do I know, im a virgin.

Maybe another 1/2 month to a month and Ill get a better LED array.

Going to start nutes the next time I water. Got my TDS meter.

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So, I have been reading a lot about deficiency in our plants and found something that caught my eye.

It said that calcium deficiency causes leaf tips to twist. I remembered seeing mine like that but just thought it was just my eyes playing tricks on me.

I turned on a white light on my plant to make sure and snapped some pictures. Now im asking the experts, is this a calcium deficiency or is this just genetics?

On to the update. I mixed a 400-406 ppm mixture of 24-8-6 miracle gro. I used tap water that I dechlorinated by leaving it to evaporate overnight. I didnt check the initial ppm, but I think she will be fine.

I connected a small submersible pump to a drip system that I made. The pump was free from a broken fountain, the 1/2 inch to 1/4 tubing adapter was about $4, the tubing was like $10 (but it was WAYYYYYY more then I need), and the drip tips (2gph) ran me about $3 for 4 of em. Then a timer for less then $10 (sale on a digital timer), and now its set to water every second day for 10 mins. Hopefully Im not overwatering.

I also made a CO2 "generator" (I dont know what to call it). I got some yiest, sugar and warm water. Poked a hole in the top of the 2L bottle, put in my 1/4inch tubing, sealed it, and on the other end of the tubing, I put another drip end.

I noticed that whenever I blow really hard through the drip end, no matter how hard, the air that came out was always at the same pressure. So its kind of a cheap pressure regulator. I shook up hte bottle and it became as hard as a rock. I heard the CO2 comming out of the other end.

So yeah here are some pix with the lights on, not good ones cuz my camera is messed up. It zooms quite a bit for no reason and takes blurry pictures. its old anyways.

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