Any thoughts on 50w and 100w led chips ?

Ok so I got thinking the other day about leds

My current set up`s use either 2w 3w or 5w leds

They use a mix of colour bands but honestly I`ve seen decent plants flowered with just red and blue

So my long term plan is to make a light that is red and blue at a 5/1 ratio for flowering I`ll stick with a cool blue 105w cfl to for veg I have a few led panels that veg fine too (I have a few that flower well too just the penetration sucks)

Anyway bear with me on this one it might take a while to explain this from my point of view

A 1000w hps can throw good light how far ? I took a stab at 2m maybe more

A 1w led can chuck it something like 6 to 8 inches

A 3w led is probably going to around 12 to 16 maybe 18 inch`s ?

So in a set up with an 80cm plant my guess was that around a 50w led chip would get the light all the way to the soil ?

I wanted to go with 100w chips but 50`s were around 1/4 of the price and worked out better then 10w ones

So for my prototype I have ordered 2 x 50w red leds 620-630nm and 30 - 130 degree lens`s.

I have a heat sink and power supplies and everything else I need to rig up the 2 leds I should be able to drive them at 45w (hopefully they still last a decent amount of time)

If I can get this light working and it puts out anything close the amount of light I`d hope then I`ll work on adding some blue

At the moment I use cfl`s with my led`s to get uv onto my plants and to fill out the spectrum and so that I can see them properly.

What mix would people on here think was best and does anyone else agree that the loss of efficiency I will get from using the bigger chips will be worth it as I should gain yield lower down on my plants ?

After the 1st light my next plan is to build a light that will use 4 x 50w 630nm`s 1 x 50w 66nm (deep red) and 1 x 50w 450nm (blue)

That should give me a light around the 270w mark

Any thoughts ? Should I even bother ?

After I ordered the parts to make this 2 x 50w prototype I cam across an led light made by "budzilla" they claim to use 120w mixed spectrum led chips in their lights but they are really expensive the 480w model was around £1000 maybe a bit more I can`t remember

I can make the 270w myself for no more then £200 each I may end up going with the 100w reds it really depends on the cost`s of power supplies or drivers and the chips at the time as I maybe able to save money getting a driver for the bigger leds it really depends.

The reason I`m going with just red 1st is that blue led`s use are a higher voltage and I did not want the electronics to start getting too complex as its been a while since I built anything like this.

My other idea was to just build 100w red led "spot guns" using 2 x 50w red leds with lens`s and then making separate blue "flood guns" out of 50w un-lens`d 140 degree chips

So in a 1.2m x .80m tent I was thinking use 4 or 6 of the red light`s set up at the very top of the tent over where each plant will be I normally run 6 when flowering in that space and then make say 2 or 3 blue lights with just 1 x 50w chip in them mounted right up the top of the tent too.

Then maybe use a few cfl`s if I get any deficiency `s or the plants are not producing really nice crystal buds.

Well that`s me done blabbing looking forward to hearing replies.

Cheers

Kon

Jesus. Just buy a freaking 1000 watt HPS bulb and be done with it.

Don't buy the 1k. If your going HPS get a 600, 2 600s if you care to talk more about that I will tell you.
I'll stick to LED cause that's what I use. 3w chips, 135w blackstar LED UFOs. Got 9 of them. Smaller lights are better than one big one. Don't get anything below 2 watt chips cause the penetration BLOWS GOATS and won't do anything. 2 watts are fine, just keep em close.


I went with LED because of the heat thing. And the money saved on electricity. I got a friend who has 2 mother-ships.. Those 2 ships cost 3 grand a piece. BUT! They replaced 3 1k HPS, and he's Savin over 75 bucks a month on electricity. The first harvest paid for the lights.... Go with LED

I as expecting someone to scream hps at me

I`ve been trying to champion leds for many years along with cfl`s and induction tubes as replacements for halogen and other incandescent lights so there`s no way I could be seen running a hps lamp.

Really cost of electricity is not a problem for me, heat is a bit of an issue but I can deal with that

I was just thinking why run 1000w of hps when I can run 1000w of led ? hell I might even get away with 2000w of led and no need for extra extraction.

Ganjapussy said:

Don't buy the 1k. If your going HPS get a 600, 2 600s if you care to talk more about that I will tell you.
I'll stick to LED cause that's what I use. 3w chips, 135w blackstar LED UFOs. Got 9 of them. Smaller lights are better than one big one. Don't get anything below 2 watt chips cause the penetration BLOWS GOATS and won't do anything. 2 watts are fine, just keep em close.


I went with LED because of the heat thing. And the money saved on electricity. I got a friend who has 2 mother-ships.. Those 2 ships cost 3 grand a piece. BUT! They replaced 3 1k HPS, and he's Savin over 75 bucks a month on electricity. The first harvest paid for the lights.... Go with LED

Click to expand...

I already use led man

I`m asking for peoples thoughts on using 50w and or 100w chips to build my own light as like you say penetration sucks on the 1w`s and the 3w and 5w are just about practical I want something that will penetrate around 80cm and so it seams my options are buy a budzilla 480w or build my own

LED wise at the moment I have

2 x 300w panels that use 2w leds (red, deep red, blue, white and some amber in there I think)

1 x 180w panel it`s either 2w or 3w leds has a mix of colours but is blue heavy it veg`s up plants well for the low draw (not put a tester on it but my guess is its only drawing around 120w)

and last but not least I have

3 x 500w blackstar light house`s (3w chips)

I don`t really need advice on what to buy I have enough lights if I`m not using them then other people borrow them I was hoping that some other people on here may have built there own lights maybe with 10w leds or bigger and might have some advice.

See I like to build things and I`ll never have 1000`s to spend on lights also it seams that the people that make these lights are just slowly using bigger and bigger chips anyway so I thought I could skip waiting around 5 or 10 years and just make my own lights with 50w chips.

I gotchu... Yeah I didn't really read your post I just assumed. You talk alot..... Anyways, I've heard of people making there own, I would do it, but let's just say I'm no electrician kinda guy. You'd save money, if you wanna do it man go for it... What else needs to be said? But a push...

true I was just hoping to find some one that`s built their own lights that might be able to offer some advice but thanks for the push I hope the water is not too cold when I land lol

Well what kinda advise are you looking for? Weather you should go with 50s or 100s? Or putting it together in general?

Weather I should even bother and what colour leds to use and stuff

I`m not sure there must be a few things I`ve not thought of I don`t know guess I just wanted some general advice I have a friend that used to grow large scale a few years back they used hps and sometimes some cfl`s

He`s been an led hater but after seeing some of the bud I grew he`s coming around to it I spoke about it with him and he seams to think that it`s a solid idea in theory but that`s all I`ve had and I always find people are keen to urge others to do things that they don`t want to take a risk on.

I mean if I do this then at some point I`ll have to set up a grow using mostly lights I`ve made and that seams like a risk but I guess if I use a few clones it should be ok, I mean if its too red heavy I`ll just get a few deficiencies I guess.

tricky getting top binned LEDs of the right wavelength for a fair price. Also hard to get efficient and affordable constant currendrivers. Finally we have a hard time finding an easy method for mounting the LEDs that also allows for very high thermal transfer without electrical conductivity. If you can get all that sorted LEDs can really kick ass for vegging and for blooming I have seen yields of 3 grams/watt very impressive!

This will answer your questions, and give you the advise to do this DIY LED grow light.

http://buymarijuanaseeds.com/community/threads/how-to-build-your-diy-led-array.117772/



Good luck man. Lemme know what's crackin

Thanks man

Well I have a 120mm heatsink and some thermal paste and a fan it if needed

The power supplies I have ordered should power up the leds exactly to 45w so as long as I test there output and its correct no need for any resistors that should cut down a bunch of heat.

Just hope the leds I got arent junk they cost me around £14 each I`ll admit I went for cheaper ones but I did not want to go blowing £30 to £50 on an led that I might just blow up lol

Is there a grow journal for this 3G/watt grow? I would love to invest in LEDs but unfortunately there is so much bullshit to sort through. The other side of the coin is I'm growing in a medical state which means plant number limits. The penetration on LEDs, well, it's awe full.

i know which website you are talking about the budzilla... i am actually getting the 288w pretty soon... will tell you how it goes

Cool man thanks let me know how the 288w unit works out in fact as its the 288w one not the bigger one the chips will only be 100w leds driven at around 70w each that`s very close to my 50w chips being driven at 45w that I`m going to make I would think that as the 50`s are a single spectrum they may have more penetration but that would have to be tested

@LegallyFlying if you can`t run many plants and need lots of MJ then skip 3w leds as you`d want 3 of the 500w black stars to flower 6 to 10 plants remember the real draw on them is only around 300w I`d look at budmaster and deep impact`s ranges if you can afford them but if you want something that can give you 2000par @ 2m then you need the 480w budzilla you could grow 4 to 8 monsters under that it will match a 1000w hps for how far it can chuck its light I just have not seen a full flower done under them as there pretty new

The other issue is I can`t afford them Crazymanny must be rich or shopping online while on too many meds I hate it when you wake up and your bank account is empty and all you have is left over take away food and tons of paypal bills for stuff you really wanted but could not afford. lol

https://www.rollitup.org/led-other-lighting/529386-fero-336x3w-more-perpetual-12-a-15.html


After I looked at this thread. I kinda got bummed I bought so many UFOs from blackstar... I'm now saving up for the AF-600.... Area-51s are the best LEDs out on the market...

I did some more ebay`ing and I think I found what I`m looking for

Shame that I spent around £50 to £60 on parts already to make the red lights (like $100 in usd to you guys) but if I get the red`s working I use them in another grow or give them to a mate to boost a hps grow`s red spectrum.

Anyway I found 50w red and uv with blue for around £50 with a driver and 100w red and uv there around £100 each with a driver seams like my best bet I can set up 6 50w or 6 100w lights (one for each plant I run) my ppw (pound per watt) will be around £1 the budzillers are working out costing around £2.5 per watt to buy the 480w model so I can get 600w and still save £400 over a the 480w budzilla and still not being making much heat or drawing anything near what I run power wise on my 2w and 3w led units so I could run some cfl`s, say 200w or so.

Also if I build it myself I can have one power supply per led and store them out side of my tent to save on heat I can also run 6 x 120mm silent pc fans from a 12v lighting transformer.

I`ll mount each light on a 120mm or 180mm heat sink with either an 80mm or 120mm fan and then I may mount them into a baking tray or reflective metal bucket.

Here`s the lights I found

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/220978818129?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649 48w red and uv led with driver £48

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271051126732?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649 100w red and uv led chip only £68

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/220800357100?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649 100w led driver with dimmer £33

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/260837825495?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649 100w led driver no dimmer £23


These look like a good lens option

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5set-10W-...303?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cc8b2da7f £24 for 5

heatsink wise 2 options

option one (I might change the fan)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Alumi...190?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43af09d5ce £10.50 each

Option 2 aka overkill option

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Heat-...726?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3379cc3b2e £24 each

I have 12v supply`s I can use for the fans, all I`d really have to do it put plugs on everything and maybe mount them in some kind of casing

Like I said before I can leave all the power supply`s out of my tent so heat will be reduced and them £24 heat sinks look better then anything I`ve seen anyone else use in any light in a price range I can afford

Max`d out 100w dimmable units with the super heat sink = £130 each so thats £1.30 per watt around half the price of the budzilla`s but I have the build them myself probably would cost around £150 if I had to buy a driver for the fans and plugs and heat paste and all that stuff.

non dimmable 100w lights would be £120

50w`s with the normal heat sink = £50 each

50w`s with super heat sinks = £60 - £70`ish each.

Looks like I have to save myself up £800 for 6 of the 100`s or £300 to £400 to make 6 of the 50`s

I`ll have to sell one set of my led lights to even have enough to make the 50`s let alone the 100`s but they should kick ass I`d still use a few cfl`s to balance up light on the sides of the plants but you should start getting hps levels of penetration all the way to the end of flowering

Around 80cm of penetration with the 50`s and I`d say 2m of very good light out of the 100`s

I have a clone station under my main flowering area so I can only go to about 80cm high now as I needed room for my aeroponic propagator and clone veg area so I might be smart for once and save money and build the 50`s its just 300w of led for 6 50 to 80cm plants seams a bit low to me I`d rather build the 100`s and have 600w of led on them with around 200w of cfl

I guess I could build 6 of the 50`s and run around 400w of cfl too say 2 x 2400k 105w`s and 2 x 5600k cfl`s for sides the penetration on cfl`s suck so bad but they do have a really nice light mix if you can get them close enough and not get a blanket of heat cos of them.

Also I can buy 105w cfl`s for £10 each and already have about 6 of them sitting around so that saves me £400 if I build up 50`s instead of 100`s

I guess that in reality 300w of led and 200w of cfl should be killing a 600w hps and that`s the level of power I should be using I always seam to be trying to get 1000w or more onto any grow I`m doing lol



Sorry for the long ass post I type loads when I`ve been vaping and hopefully someone finds it usefully or interesting.

Ganjapussy said:

https://www.rollitup.org/led-other-lighting/529386-fero-336x3w-more-perpetual-12-a-15.html


After I looked at this thread. I kinda got bummed I bought so many UFOs from blackstar... I'm now saving up for the AF-600.... Area-51s are the best LEDs out on the market...

Click to expand...

Dude the area 51`s use 3w leds they may use 5w`s on their newest biggest model so they would still be for SOG grows as your looking at 30cm of penetration on them so you might get a decent finish on a 50cm plant but you won`t be growing any 1m plus monsters.

The budzilla`s look like more of a hps style light for people that just want to have a light up high and a 1m to 2m plant growing up to it, my guess is the 51`s must be real good at growing auto`s and short to medium indica`s.

I`d go with 2 of the budzilla`s if I had that kinda cash to spend.

Anyway bear with me on this one it might take a while to explain this from my point of view

A 1000w hps can throw good light how far ? I took a stab at 2m maybe more

A 1w led can chuck it something like 6 to 8 inches

A 3w led is probably going to around 12 to 16 maybe 18 inch`s ?

So in a set up with an 80cm plant my guess was that around a 50w led chip would get the light all the way to the soil ?

Click to expand...

100cm 3W Diodes
some pics of penetration, Leds of course
the whole plant driven by 50W
https://www.rollitup.org/led-other-lighting/547085-diy-modular-led-light-7.html#post8057318

Action at Ground Zero
https://www.rollitup.org/led-other-lighting/547085-diy-modular-led-light-6.html#post8049971
https://www.rollitup.org/led-other-lighting/547085-diy-modular-led-light-9.html#post8077187
https://www.rollitup.org/led-other-lighting/547085-diy-modular-led-light-10.html#post8157777

not enough? go for the chillies at 60W
https://www.rollitup.org/led-other-lighting/547085-diy-modular-led-light-9.html#post8098658

Check out my LED grow which used 2 85W LED chips. It was also a DIY set up, and worked out pretty damn well. I used white LEDs though. They're pretty good in my view. I don't subscribe to the Red and Blue only philosophy.

THE KONASSURE said:

true I was just hoping to find some one that`s built their own lights that might be able to offer some advice but thanks for the push I hope the water is not too cold when I land lol

Click to expand...

Bridgelux is a good place to start in my view...

My second bit of advice is to not underestimate how much heat LEDs put out. My heatsinks were passive, so were huge, but still really worked best with a fan on them.