LED Help - Please don't hate me ;-)

giantsfan24

giantsfan24

Well-Known Member
Ok so here's the thing...

I've been lurking in this DYI LED forum, and others, for what seems like months getting a little information here and there about building my own light.

The reason I'm thinking about building my own light is because my space is small and I could custom make it to fit the box out of top quality materials.

I'm not an inexperienced grower but have only grown with HID. I want to switch over to LED because I believe I could potentially get more than one grow cycle in per year as heat would not be an issue for me with LED's like it has been with HPS.

Here's what I think I need:

1) To replace the production of a 400w HID system. My grow space is 2.5' x 2.5' x 4.5' custom built cabinet for the purpose of growing/drying/curing. My last grow yielded 15oz of flowers. While I'm not married to that amount, I'd like to come close.

2) A list of what I need. Here's what I think I need. Please correct me if I'm leading myself astray (it happens! lol):

a. CREE or VERO COB's - I don't want the old school, or what I consider so, colored LED panels. I'd like full spectrum, 3500K or a Kelvin that I can veg/flower with.
b. Mean Well drivers
c. Arctic cpu coolers
d. I have the tools already
e. a schematic of how to put it together.
f. a list of the ancillary items I'll need to get to facilitate the build. (thermal paste, wire, etc)

My budget isn't limited for this project. That said, I don't see this costing more than $600. Am I wrong?

What I'm finding is useless to me at this point:

a. What ma everything runs at. While I have a technical background, wiring and electricity are somewhat foreign to me.

I am handy and love to build my own stuff. Essentially what I need is for someone in the know to say "hey stupid, here's a link for what you're looking for". I won't be offended, I promise. My brain is swimming in technical details about this and while I will continue to watch the same video over and over and over to grasp the concepts, I'd like to get started.

Any resources that could be shared would be much appreciated!

I'm an LED noob...so sue me. :-) Thanks!
 
a mongo frog

a mongo frog

Well-Known Member
giantsfan24 said:
Ok so here's the thing...

I've been lurking in this DYI LED forum, and others, for what seems like months getting a little information here and there about building my own light.

The reason I'm thinking about building my own light is because my space is small and I could custom make it to fit the box out of top quality materials.

I'm not an inexperienced grower but have only grown with HID. I want to switch over to LED because I believe I could potentially get more than one grow cycle in per year as heat would not be an issue for me with LED's like it has been with HPS.

Here's what I think I need:

1) To replace the production of a 400w HID system. My grow space is 2.5' x 2.5' x 4.5' custom built cabinet for the purpose of growing/drying/curing. My last grow yielded 15oz of flowers. While I'm not married to that amount, I'd like to come close.

2) A list of what I need. Here's what I think I need. Please correct me if I'm leading myself astray (it happens! lol):

a. CREE or VERO COB's - I don't want the old school, or what I consider so, colored LED panels. I'd like full spectrum, 3500K or a Kelvin that I can veg/flower with.
b. Mean Well drivers
c. Arctic cpu coolers
d. I have the tools already
e. a schematic of how to put it together.
f. a list of the ancillary items I'll need to get to facilitate the build. (thermal paste, wire, etc)

My budget isn't limited for this project. That said, I don't see this costing more than $600. Am I wrong?

What I'm finding is useless to me at this point:

a. What ma everything runs at. While I have a technical background, wiring and electricity are somewhat foreign to me.

I am handy and love to build my own stuff. Essentially what I need is for someone in the know to say "hey stupid, here's a link for what you're looking for". I won't be offended, I promise. My brain is swimming in technical details about this and while I will continue to watch the same video over and over and over to grasp the concepts, I'd like to get started.

Any resources that could be shared would be much appreciated!

I'm an LED noob...so sue me. :-) Thanks!
Click to expand...
Im not seeing whats wrong with almost a pound off a 400 watt hps. Wouldn't that be considered efficient as fuck?
 
Atulip

Atulip

Well-Known Member
4-5 cxb3590's ran at 1.4A should pump out the same amount of light as a 400w HPS. 200-250w of Cobs gets the same ppfd if not more. 150w drop of electricity is $12(@$.12/kWh) electrical savings per 8 week flowering, or $21 per 12 week cycle(4 week 18/6 veg). Yield may increase but that's already a massive amount for that space. I'm happy to pull half that in the same space(80cmx80cm tent), but I'm less experienced.
 
a mongo frog

a mongo frog

Well-Known Member
Atulip said:
4-5 cxb3590's ran at 1.4A should pump out the same amount of light as a 400w HPS. 200-250w of Cobs gets the same ppfd if not more. 150w drop of electricity is $12(@$.12/kWh) electrical savings per 8 week flowering, or $21 per 12 week cycle(4 week 18/6 veg). Yield may increase but that's already a massive amount for that space. I'm happy to pull half that in the same space(80cmx80cm tent), but I'm less experienced.
Click to expand...
Yea butt dude did it out of a 2 foot box like 5 feet tall i believe. You gotta be impressed?
 
C

churchhaze

Well-Known Member
a mongo frog said:
Yea butt dude did it out of a 2 foot box like 5 feet tall i believe. You gotta be impressed?
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I can't understand it. It seems like there will always be a large percentage of the population who are afraid of change, and threatened by dreams and visions of improvement.
 
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Atulip

Atulip

Well-Known Member
Yeah it's definitely impressive. But I also just read he's only getting one cycle per year because of heat. I missed that earlier.

So yeah, 250w of top bin crees should get more light output and allow you to grow all year.
 
a mongo frog

a mongo frog

Well-Known Member
churchhaze said:
I personally can't understand it. It seems like there will always be a large percentage of the population who are afraid of change, and threatened by dreams and visions of improvement.
Click to expand...
And yes super afraid of change. If your talking to me personally. Totally accurate. Could i afford to do it with 1 and see and not be afraid? Yes. But would that be enough? So Change fully over? To afraid yes.
 
a mongo frog

a mongo frog

Well-Known Member
churchhaze said:
It just doesn't seem that way from the context.
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I was the very first na sayers of cob and I'm pretty sure i was one of the first to change his mind about how dope they are, how well they perform. Even ask your boy, his last med grow was the best bud ever posted on this site. And i keep pointing that out to people when i get that chance. And he was one of the first cob builders. Truthfully i was in the wrong right here right now. I didn't see the op say 1 crop a year.
 
C

churchhaze

Well-Known Member
a mongo frog said:
And yes super afraid of change. If your talking to me personally. Totally accurate. Could i afford to do it with 1 and see and not be afraid? Yes. But would that be enough? So Change fully over? To afraid yes.
Click to expand...
I never said I think you should switch over to anything. My problem is the argument that nobody should try to improve on current convention. And no, It's not just you, or people on this forum... It's everywhere and about everything. Many people seem to get offended just from listening to others talk about software development. I'm also not talking about people who argue that something would be a step in the wrong direction, just people who get offended by the idea of improvement.

Sorry for derailing this thread ...
 
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Atulip

Atulip

Well-Known Member
I changed because 4 cobs looks better than purple led. And they're bright as #@!&. But I definitely understand heat. My 600w hps gets cut to 75% and sometimes 50% during summer to keep temps at 85℉.

4 x crees @ 50w each. 2 5000k, 2 3000k in the same space. (2'7"x2'7"x4'11)
IMAG1164.jpg
 
Atulip

Atulip

Well-Known Member
In my other space I have the 600w HPS. A 2'7"x4'11", going for 8 cobs in it at 50w each, pending the wife approves the budget. But yeah, if you've can swing the funds, cob conversions definitely seem to be the way to go.

I want to repurpose the HPS for a vert grow, maybe in the center of a 4x4 with a few overhead cobs added in. But that's a much harder budget to approve lol.
 
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