Hi there,
A long time in-the-background reader here that has soaked up most of what I now know about growing indoors through these forums.
I'll be forever grateful for the knowledge shared by everyone - especially @Refno , @Randomblame , @Airwalker16 , @Or_Gro , @diggs99 , @Heisenberg , @klx - plus many more I know I've missed!
Your combined shared knowledge allowed me to grow my own medicine and explore what this plant truly offers. I no longer get 'stoned', I now have access to my own tailored natural medicine that I can use how I need.
Here's a few snaps from my first grow.
A little sad looking. I originally started with small pumps flooming the water but switched to air stones which helped to wake up the leaves.
These were grown using 4 Alibaba 288s (3000k) on a 320 Mean Well driver and I'm sold on the idea of coverage > power. Power usage was ~220w during flower with keeping the lights close.
I'm upgrading to a larger space and want to use this concept of high-coverage lighting to design custom lights. I'm well aware that I'm still at the beginning of a steep learning curve so I wanted to share the idea here and have those that are more experienced share their suggestions.
The plan
Each flowering area is 120cm x 60cm ( 0.72m2 / 7.75 ft2) and I plan to have each light match those dimensions.
I have sourced Samsung LM561c S6 bin LEDs on a 10mm flexible strip without resistors. Each cuttable section of the strip contains 8 LEDs wired in series for a Vf of 23.2.
I plan to power each light with 3 Mean Well HLG-120H-C700b type drivers due to their high voltage flexibility, the ability to dim and control them remotely to help with automation, and the added benefit of powering each end of the light and the middle section independently. This last part is important as one end has a sloping roof, so lighting distances will be different at that end and I plan to compensate with different power levels.
Knowing each 8 LED cuttable section has a forward voltage of 23.2v, I plan to cut them into 'strings' of 9 sections. That would be 208.8 Vf @ 200ma by my calculations based on Samsung's datasheet of 2.9v @ 200ma per diode (9 sections x 8 LEDs = 72 LEDs @ 2.9v = 208.
Each section of the light would have 9 of these 72 LED strips wired in parallel to the HLG-120H-C700b driver. Mean Well's data sheet shows a constant current voltage range of 107V ~ 215V, which should provide almost full access to the power of the driver with 208.8 Vf (too close maybe?). At maximum driver power each LED would receive 77.77ma by my calculations (700ma / 9 strings = 77.77)
Are my calculations correct? What am I overlooking?
I understand that each LED diode can be powered up to 200ma, but based on the success of my first grow using more diodes at lower power, I'm thinking this planned setup will work well for my needs.
If I calculate the per diode usage of my current 288 setup (16s18p x 4 in parallel on a HLG-320h-48b) at 220w I get 4.74137931 amps at @ 46.4 Vf = 1.18 amps per board = 65.85ma per string/diode. 11.92ma less than the planned maximum of the new build.
Open for all feedback!
A long time in-the-background reader here that has soaked up most of what I now know about growing indoors through these forums.
I'll be forever grateful for the knowledge shared by everyone - especially @Refno , @Randomblame , @Airwalker16 , @Or_Gro , @diggs99 , @Heisenberg , @klx - plus many more I know I've missed!
Your combined shared knowledge allowed me to grow my own medicine and explore what this plant truly offers. I no longer get 'stoned', I now have access to my own tailored natural medicine that I can use how I need.
Here's a few snaps from my first grow.
A little sad looking. I originally started with small pumps flooming the water but switched to air stones which helped to wake up the leaves.
These were grown using 4 Alibaba 288s (3000k) on a 320 Mean Well driver and I'm sold on the idea of coverage > power. Power usage was ~220w during flower with keeping the lights close.
I'm upgrading to a larger space and want to use this concept of high-coverage lighting to design custom lights. I'm well aware that I'm still at the beginning of a steep learning curve so I wanted to share the idea here and have those that are more experienced share their suggestions.
The plan
Each flowering area is 120cm x 60cm ( 0.72m2 / 7.75 ft2) and I plan to have each light match those dimensions.
I have sourced Samsung LM561c S6 bin LEDs on a 10mm flexible strip without resistors. Each cuttable section of the strip contains 8 LEDs wired in series for a Vf of 23.2.
I plan to power each light with 3 Mean Well HLG-120H-C700b type drivers due to their high voltage flexibility, the ability to dim and control them remotely to help with automation, and the added benefit of powering each end of the light and the middle section independently. This last part is important as one end has a sloping roof, so lighting distances will be different at that end and I plan to compensate with different power levels.
Knowing each 8 LED cuttable section has a forward voltage of 23.2v, I plan to cut them into 'strings' of 9 sections. That would be 208.8 Vf @ 200ma by my calculations based on Samsung's datasheet of 2.9v @ 200ma per diode (9 sections x 8 LEDs = 72 LEDs @ 2.9v = 208.
Each section of the light would have 9 of these 72 LED strips wired in parallel to the HLG-120H-C700b driver. Mean Well's data sheet shows a constant current voltage range of 107V ~ 215V, which should provide almost full access to the power of the driver with 208.8 Vf (too close maybe?). At maximum driver power each LED would receive 77.77ma by my calculations (700ma / 9 strings = 77.77)
Are my calculations correct? What am I overlooking?
I understand that each LED diode can be powered up to 200ma, but based on the success of my first grow using more diodes at lower power, I'm thinking this planned setup will work well for my needs.
If I calculate the per diode usage of my current 288 setup (16s18p x 4 in parallel on a HLG-320h-48b) at 220w I get 4.74137931 amps at @ 46.4 Vf = 1.18 amps per board = 65.85ma per string/diode. 11.92ma less than the planned maximum of the new build.
Open for all feedback!