What led is best value for small grow

Scroga said:

Got my 10w flood bro, and the grow chip should be here Any day... it says the white chip puts out 1000 lumens and the grow chip only 500.. Not sure If I should swap it out out or not?

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I think you will be surprised when you see the grow chip in action, imo i think they are brighter then the white chip. I'm using 4 in my room at the moment while i wait for my new ufo to come (2 floodlights and 2 on sml heatsinks)

Scroga said:

Got my 10w flood bro, and the grow chip should be here Any day... it says the white chip puts out 1000 lumens and the grow chip only 500.. Not sure If I should swap it out out or not?

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Well you can't compare different colors using lumens, at that point you need a better unit like PAR. The white will always put out more lumens, relative to their wattage, because of green content alone. If the Grow Chips have better wavelengths and decent efficacy, they'll kill the whites IMO, lumens be damned .

FranJan said:

Well you can't compare different colors using lumens, at that point you need a better unit like PAR. The white will always put out more lumens, relative to their wattage, because of green content alone. If the Grow Chips have better wavelengths and decent efficacy, they'll kill the whites IMO, lumens be damned .

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Thanks Franjan, thats what i was trying to explain i just didn't know how to put it into words. I think the colour spectrum the chips use are 655-660nm Red and 450-455nm Blue.

jimjim2609 said:

Thanks Franjan, thats what i was trying to explain i just didn't know how to put it into words. I think the colour spectrum the chips use are 655-660nm Red and 450-455nm Blue.

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You leave the glass covers off the floods yeah?

Yeah just leave it off.

Ok, so I got my multimeter and did some exploring. No power coming from the led power supply. I opened the driver box and found a little burn mark on the plastic. I think It might be worth while just getting another driver and giving that a go. Here is a pic of the driver specs, can anyone suggest a driver to suit. It is for 25 x 3w leds in series. I was told the light runs at 50w. Please help

jimjim2609 said:

Ok, so I got my multimeter and did some exploring. No power coming from the led power supply. I opened the driver box and found a little burn mark on the plastic. I think It might be worth while just getting another driver and giving that a go. Here is a pic of the driver specs, can anyone suggest a driver to suit. It is for 25 x 3w leds in series. I was told the light runs at 50w. Please help

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OK, that's a pretty common driver used in China so just get one of those off EBay or am I missing something. Again .

FranJan said:

OK, that's a pretty common driver used in China so just get one of those off EBay or am I missing something. Again .

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Hi FJ. I thought the same thing. I have been looking on ebay for a few days now and haven't been able to find anything. Maybe i'm just looking in the wrong place

Adjust your filters on the search engine?

I can't find it. I either get a bunch of UFO's, or LED drivers that are meant to power 50W COB's which have a much higher current rating and lower voltage. If you guys can find them mind sharing a link?

Yeah they're nowhere to be found on EBay. Sorry JJ, they used to be. Found a thread where some coral grower was looking to replace the one he bought on Ebay and someone said look into Meanwell drivers as a replacement. They're supposed to be made by TaoTronics, but their US site doesn't list them. You could try to talk to them. Alibaba should have them so maybe there's a company on there selling them that does PP. Or you could stop by my place, I only got 4 of them lying around . Hope some of his helps you out.

Thanks for looking FJ. I have found a driver for 75w running 25 x 3w leds in series but it was like $36. I have found another driver for 12-18 x 3w that runs at 54w max for like $15. It looks like i might be better off buying a pcb and having a play around with different colour ratios, maybe even add some warm white to the mix.

You should be able to get a driver similar to that for less than $10.

Shoot me a PM if you can't find anything. I have a decent amount of them similar to what you're looking for.