Custom DIY 240 watt 6 bar LED grow light!!

MidnightSun72

Well-Known Member
If you wanted to add red diodes I would do
2X this strip

and do only 14 eb Gen 3 strips and I would use the 4000K for a touch more efficiency and the blue spike, plus the two red strips. That would give a forward voltage of 167V with a corresponding amperage of 1.43a. Or 0.72a per strip again they will be running very efficiently.

rhat would be roughly $128 for everything plus shipping where applicable.
 

grotbags

Well-Known Member
Dont worry, your v2 solstrip build still rules supreme...
:oops:... seriously though what you got cookin?...

im starting to think about building something new to replace my older light, i want to simplify it down to 3 channels (warm white diodes channel, blue boost channel-pc blue/monos and far red channel) and tweak the spectrum a bit.

really considering getting a custom pcb made up, anyone know any good reading material on led pcb design?.
 

Rocket Soul

Well-Known Member
:oops:... seriously though what you got cookin?...

im starting to think about building something new to replace my older light, i want to simplify it down to 3 channels (warm white diodes channel, blue boost channel-pc blue/monos and far red channel) and tweak the spectrum a bit.

really considering getting a custom pcb made up, anyone know any good reading material on led pcb design?.
Im in need of the same thing:mrgreen:
Midnight has done a good job of getting a low cost build, saw it and had nothing to add really, very cool for how much hes putting into it.
 

ImpulsiveGrower

Well-Known Member
:oops:... seriously though what you got cookin?...

im starting to think about building something new to replace my older light, i want to simplify it down to 3 channels (warm white diodes channel, blue boost channel-pc blue/monos and far red channel) and tweak the spectrum a bit.

really considering getting a custom pcb made up, anyone know any good reading material on led pcb design?.
The ledgardener has some good info about wiring and all things DIY LED and if you want custom pcb made check out Alibaba.com. You will find plenty of suppliers that will custom make you any diode layout you want. I hope this helps and I’m here to answer any other questions. Im the original poster and love my custom build and think everyone would get even more satisfaction seeing the buds produced under a fixture you built yourself!
 

ImpulsiveGrower

Well-Known Member
thw grow daddy strips look interesting but he doesn't post any efficiency data. Makes it hard to asses their worth.
I just pay attention to the diodes they use but I’m sure they will give you more info if you reach out. They will even help you with a wiring diagram if you need it. I didn’t need it but I seen on the website that they will walk you thru what you need to get you going with a DIY build.
 

amneziaHaze

Well-Known Member
[

You have 6.88 sqft so let's say 7 sqft. Light it with 35w per square foot gives you 245W. So a meanwell 240W would fit well.

i would go for a meanwell XLG 240 M AB. Can be had all day for 50USD or less.

Along with either these strips or some Samsung. But let's say eb Gen 3 2 foot strips. $111usd for 20 of them 19.1V by 700

then together I would put two parallel sets of 8 strips in series. You will have four strips left over. You can order from other supplier that let you get multiples of 1 strip if you like.

Your total Vf will be 153V which has a corresponding amperage of 1.56a. Split it over the two led strings and you got 0.75ma to each strip which is barely above nominal. It should give you about 160lm/w at the board.

after driver losses you are looking at a light that does 240W of light at 0.925x160= 148lm/w which corresponds to roughly 2.82umol/j based on the waveform lighting calculator because it's 3000K 90CRI. So the uMol is a bit higher vs the lumens. If you are running autos you can dim it to accommodate the higher DLI of running longer hours.

anyway total cost for the light would be around $160 + whatever aluminum wires and thermal adhesive you buy.


Lol gas monkey so I can grow them gorilla arm colas.
How much cooling do they need?
 

amneziaHaze

Well-Known Member
[

You have 6.88 sqft so let's say 7 sqft. Light it with 35w per square foot gives you 245W. So a meanwell 240W would fit well.

i would go for a meanwell XLG 240 M AB. Can be had all day for 50USD or less.

Along with either these strips or some Samsung. But let's say eb Gen 3 2 foot strips. $111usd for 20 of them 19.1V by 700

then together I would put two parallel sets of 8 strips in series. You will have four strips left over. You can order from other supplier that let you get multiples of 1 strip if you like.

Your total Vf will be 153V which has a corresponding amperage of 1.56a. Split it over the two led strings and you got 0.75ma to each strip which is barely above nominal. It should give you about 160lm/w at the board.

after driver losses you are looking at a light that does 240W of light at 0.925x160= 148lm/w which corresponds to roughly 2.82umol/j based on the waveform lighting calculator because it's 3000K 90CRI. So the uMol is a bit higher vs the lumens. If you are running autos you can dim it to accommodate the higher DLI of running longer hours.

anyway total cost for the light would be around $160 + whatever aluminum wires and thermal adhesive you buy.


Lol gas monkey so I can grow them gorilla arm colas.
can you recommend me some termal adhesive?does that mean i just stick it on the bar and its done or do i need to use screws?
soo the lamps and driver will cost me 150euros and i found a company that will cut and drill 18 U bars of aluminium for 170 euros. all together around 350 dollars i think its not a bad deal

decided with the U bars to have more surface to cool if it gets hot. you said it wont but a few extra euros wont kill me if the lamp will give me 2.82
i am just gonna flip the 2 ends that hold 16 bars and it will screw in with no problems3.png
 
Last edited:

MidnightSun72

Well-Known Member
can you recommend me some termal adhesive?does that mean i just stick it on the bar and its done or do i need to use screws?
soo the lamps and driver will cost me 150euros and i found a company that will cut and drill 18 U bars of aluminium for 170 euros. all together around 350 dollars i think its not a bad deal

decided with the U bars to have more surface to cool if it gets hot. you said it wont but a few extra euros wont kill me if the lamp will give me 2.82
i am just gonna flip the 2 ends that hold 16 bars and it will screw in with no problemsView attachment 5108258
Ya I think having the u bars will pay off in durability and reliability.

This is the real world test results done by led teknik for that strip. So 2.67umol/j measured on photogoniosphere. You will be running your strips at almost the exact same wattage. 13.3 vs 12.9w.
Nice red peak and measures 92Cri. Plus people report good growing with those strips.

link to post made by @Rocket Soul
CA89AAF3-E85D-45B7-BAA7-A5D6EA3E3257.png
 

Rocket Soul

Well-Known Member
Ya I think having the u bars will pay off in durability and reliability.

This is the real world test results done by led teknik for that strip. So 2.67umol/j measured on photogoniosphere. You will be running your strips at almost the exact same wattage. 13.3 vs 12.9w.
Nice red peak and measures 92Cri. Plus people report good growing with those strips.

link to post made by @Rocket Soul
View attachment 5108280
This spectrum can be a bit extreme, very flowery. Nice to have some extra blue of some sort for veg or when you have lower intensity to push transpiration w bit. Also: the vesta gen1 is the same spectrum but a little less efficient, but not by far: at 12w vesta gen1 is bout 2.5ppf/w which is not far away from gen3. I also see one thing in the report qhich is slightly off; these tests were the gen3 slims, 590mm not the regs at 560mm. I personally didnt like the slims, shitty connectors and all around fragile.
 

Rocket Soul

Well-Known Member
can you recommend me some termal adhesive?does that mean i just stick it on the bar and its done or do i need to use screws?
soo the lamps and driver will cost me 150euros and i found a company that will cut and drill 18 U bars of aluminium for 170 euros. all together around 350 dollars i think its not a bad deal

decided with the U bars to have more surface to cool if it gets hot. you said it wont but a few extra euros wont kill me if the lamp will give me 2.82
i am just gonna flip the 2 ends that hold 16 bars and it will screw in with no problemsView attachment 5108258
Look further for alu, that should come out less expensive afaik. Check the yellow pages or where local contrctors go, online is a trap for these things.
 

MidnightSun72

Well-Known Member
This spectrum can be a bit extreme, very flowery. Nice to have some extra blue of some sort for veg or when you have lower intensity to push transpiration w bit. Also: the vesta gen1 is the same spectrum but a little less efficient, but not by far: at 12w vesta gen1 is bout 2.5ppf/w which is not far away from gen3. I also see one thing in the report qhich is slightly off; these tests were the gen3 slims, 590mm not the regs at 560mm. I personally didnt like the slims, shitty connectors and all around fragile.
I didn't love working with the slims either. Broke a few connectors when I was tinning ends. but eith solid core no broken connectors. The broken ones I Soldered which went fine. But value per $$ blux gen 3 slim is insane. Very efficient and cheap. And have been super reliable for me. I have some slims that have been running for over a year without ever turning off. And they are good form factor to pack a lot of diodes on a single bar.
 
Top