Originally Posted by Fake Plastic Trees

Any links to these articles would be kewl I am really interested in this lighting method. I have been trawling and haven't seen anything negative myself yet.

Originally Posted by drewhahaha

Good morning to all,

i hope you all are having a wonderful and safe halloween.

well let first talk about rosie. she is a caluis plant. mabey not the best for research but she is sill alive and growing. i learned that she doesnt need much light to survive she now is planted outside my office.

cost and building the arrays:

the most important thing i have learned in my research is that the light are the most expensive and demanding part of the grow system. the start-up cost, cost of running them, heat and ventalation, are all factors that most be looked at while building or buying lights. BUT WE ALL KNOW THIS.
and me, being poor and not one to concede to the main steam of life, had to come up with a cost effective method of lighting, which is L.E.Ds

the build is simple low tech stuff here! need some basic knowledge of circuits, how to use a sodering iron and time. need a lot of time.
(pic one, two 30 bulb arrays)
there are a few thing that you most know while building the array. you must have knowledge of how the L.E.D work. which is pretty simple. you need to now the lead-in voltage(which is usaully 1.5 to 3.8dcv)this will dictate how many bulbs can be used with one resistor. ie., you are using a 12dcv power supply(aka, ps) and the draw current is 2.0 then you can have 6 L.E.Ds(2/12=6) on one resistor. and if you have a 24dcv ps @ 2.0, then you can run 12 bulbs to one resistor.(2/24=12).

a L.E.D must have a resistor on the circuit or you will blow the bulb. the resistor can control the millamps that the bulb will draw. more millamps more light intensity. but there is a max that this can go, one if to much amp applied then you burn out the bulb. plus, there comes a piont when putting more millamps in will get you no more light. there is a website that caculates this for you. LED series parallel array wizard USE IT!!! it will tell all.

the build is simple you use a protoboard(a prepunched circuit board), a resistor and bulbs. you aline them in parallel( this is hard to describe so if you use the wizard above it will show you how the circuiit must run).
easier to do then tell lol!!
the neat thing is that you are limited to only the amps that you draw. everything else stays the same. and i have yet to get to one amp. so this means you can run 300+ bulbs off one ps, as long as you set them up correctly( side note one mistake on amps and resistor and youll blow the whole array)
(pic 2 seeding of LJ. the other did not make it.)

there are many things that yo will want to learn here, but they are simple and easy to do. the results are worth the time. i will also answer specific question if you have them about the arrays.

Cost:

this is the cool part.

i will line each part with a desciption, cost and a website where the part can be obtained.

L.E.Ds: this is very interesting i started with a bulb that didnot fall in the wavelength that they said to use.(pics 3 , pic 3 two days under the lights) the bulb used are 640nm (red) and 450 (blue) and them seem to be doing fine. the cost of these @ 0.8ea. vs. ones that are in the wavelegth @.48ea. for blues and .18ea for reds.( i just recieved a shippment of the right wavelegth, going to find out what happens).
you can find the ones that i used first at Buy LEDs OnLine for .08ea
the 430nm and the 660nm can be found at Buy LEDs OnLine

resistor: there are many types and sizes of resistors. they can be bought at radio shack for a dallor for five. make sure that you get help from the wizard to find out what one you will need!!!

protoboard: this is the board that you will use to attach your L.E.Ds to. this can be found at https://shop.vetcosurplus.com for about five dollars ea.

these are the main components to the array.

next is the power supply. i am using a lead off of my cumputer's power supply. im running 300bulbs off of it. you can use an old ps from a computer or there are ps that you can buy. thay can be found at Power Supply, Power Supplies, AC DC Power Supplies, DC/DC Converter, Power Supplies by Cosel USA, Phihong, Meanwell, Mean Well, IPD, Integrated Power, Integrated Power Designs - Reliability - Stock.

there is alot more to this but this will get you started.
you will answer any question that you might have.lease write them down.
have a great day
drew
BOO