Buddies, side-light and under-canopy LEDs

Prawn Connery said:

He's not the most diplomatic chap. And that's putting it mildly

But in hindsight, I think even you can agree he was right to call out Scammy and her HGL lights. Teknik was just a bit ahead of his time and of course he's not a grower so he didn't get extra kudos for that. But he knew bullshit when he smelled it and wasn't shy to call it.

I would be the first to try to broker a peace between Teknik and Admin, but I don't think it's going to happen. And even if it did, some egos would need to be kept in check.

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Its funny you say this. I have been a lurker for years, and when he came along I was struck by his principled stance, knowledge and experience. Reading his posts here on rollitup, I firmly believe that this was a man standing up for the consumers/the buyers. Power to the people sort of thing. For the community.

Only just recently made the move from lurking to joining an online forum. And the primary reason was to learn and interact with someone who appeared to be eager to enlighten - Teknik.
Well, very limited interaction with the man left a slightly stunned feeling. Possibly error on my part?
An uneasy feeling that he is happy to be positive or non-committal on subjects concerning well known or established brands, and that caused me to wonder.

Scammie was low hanging fruit. That product was almost knna vintage and outdated.
Will we ever see him pick apart an established or well known Western brand name product that is contract manufactured in China with a glossy brochure that is sparse with independant photometric data?

I think I get it. Hes just a fish trying to swim with the established brands. The mans got to put bread on the table, form and cement bonds and not ruffle the wrong feathers. He just was not who I thought he was. My bad.

Do wish he was back on here, and think he will be coming up with more innovative and useful products, and wish him well. Apologies for the brief diversion. Again, my bad.

Airwalker16 said:

Still curious to whether these or using single end wired 4' T5/8 LED bulbs, just bullet connected to the pins would be better for under and side lighting. With the bulbs, you could slide them literally right In to the middle of your under canopy. Super light, and needing to be wired on only one side, makes it really easy to use. Ballast could be outside tent even.

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These can be mounted to some sort of rail and slid into the canopy, Examination of both the spectra reveals that these are a unique and complementary duo. If they were more competitively priced, I would even mount them above alongside low hanging main light as a supplementary addition.

end_of_the_tunnel said:

These can be mounted to some sort of rail and slid into the canopy, Examination of both the spectra reveals that these are a unique and complementary duo. If they were more competitively priced, I would even mount them above alongside low hanging main light as a supplementary addition.

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You don't think Buddies are competitively priced? I think they're quiet reasonable. Of course I would say that

What are the competition's prices? I haven't actually seen them to compare, so now I'm curious.

Prawn Connery said:

I can't tell you when the production Buddies will be ready, as the Coronavirus has put a damper on everything.

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I don't think they are too far off, as the test run seems to have gone off without a hitch. He's also planning to offer something like 12 different colours eventually, so they will probably be rolled out in stages.

I do know he was hoping to see a few more grows before he officially launches them, and I know a few more people who are using them, but we are living in interesting times so it's hard to say anything with certainty these days. For example, we had a box of heatsinks arrive today but it is only a fraction of the orginial order. The heatsinks have been made, but transport companies can't get them to us fast enough because a lot of freight goes on passenger planes with excess load, and a lot of airlines have stopped flying in and out of China. With flights drastically cut we are seeing quite an impact on freight.

Rocket Soul said:

Props on cool use of them, if i get some spares ill do some intracannopy on alu angle for my buds grow but after were all jailbroken. Take it from someone whos allready eleven days into curfew; be good to yourself and the people around you cause its really challenging, especially when you see no sign of numbers coming down. Im lucky, i married the right person for a thing like this, my wifes a real star.

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your doubling numbers already are coming down, same as ours. from 2.x days to now 4.x. shit takes time

Grow Lights Australia said:

You don't think Buddies are competitively priced? I think they're quiet reasonable. Of course I would say that

What are the competition's prices? I haven't actually seen them to compare, so now I'm curious.

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Competition? There is none. Pretty darn nice tailor made product. Form and factor designed to be in close proximity with diffuse angle of spread.

Guess you can see from my comment in the post you quoted above, I would like to see those diodes mounted alongside top hung generic white where they could fill in what is missing.

I know he's working on a FAR RED version and I think that as a product would be very useful as an add for people at a pretty low entry price
cheers
Mark

Yes, Far Red and near UV will be coming. Prawn mentioned 6500K and I understand there will be other white phosphors available in different temperatures, but the PC Reds, near UV, Far Reds and CRI95 4000K are the ones that should interest growers the most.

We may be getting a limited number of these in the next couple of weeks that will go up online, but unfortunately no-one seems to know what will happen after that. I'm not even sure which colours we will be getting (we'll definitely be getting some 4000K and PC Red) or when there will be a reliable supply. As we all know, we live in interesting times.

Grow Lights Australia said:

Yes, Far Red and near UV will be coming. Prawn mentioned 6500K and I understand there will be other white phosphors available in different temperatures, but the PC Reds, near UV, Far Reds and CRI95 4000K are the ones that should interest growers the most.

We may be getting a limited number of these in the next couple of weeks that will go up online, but unfortunately no-one seems to know what will happen after that. I'm not even sure which colours we will be getting (we'll definitely be getting some 4000K and PC Red) or when there will be a reliable supply. As we all know, we live in interesting times.

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I typically hesitate to indulge in too much hyperbole, but I really think Teknik has come up with one of the most useful and interesting lighting products I've seen in a while. The term "game-changer" comes to mind.

Some more photos. These Haze hybrids will keep stretching. You can see a couple of "Buddie burns" in the bottom right corner leaves. A couple of brown spots. That's about as bad as it gets with the leaves pressed up hard against individual LEDs. Pretty minor really and I suspect because we've had a few days in the high 30s celsius, so it's been pretty hot in there. No aircon or any of that.

Humple said:

I typically hesitate to indulge in too much hyperbole, but I really think Teknik has come up with one of the most useful and interesting lighting products I've seen in a while. The term "game-changer" comes to mind.

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Are you guys serious?
Cob string lights = GameChanger?.
Storefront string lights beefed up .
Sounds like a good idea to have come out with 3-5 yrs ago.
Strips replace those nowadays.
I feel he should work on something used for similiar applications by using today's lego-strip lighting. You can cut these things anywhere from 2" - whatever size you want, has quick connect wire attachments, along with every kind of attachment or corner bracket you can think of.
HE & probably a shit ton less money.
Spray with silicone or whatever sealant n call it a day. Even have strips like cobs that have no diodes you can see. Just a strip of uninterrupted light.

hybridway2 said:

Are you guys serious?
Cob string lights = GameChanger?.
Storefront string lights beefed up .
Sounds like a good idea to have come out with 3-5 yrs ago.
Strips replace those nowadays.
I feel he should work on something used for similiar applications by using today's lego-strip lighting. You can cut these things anywhere from 2" - whatever size you want, has quick connect wire attachments, along with every kind of attachment or corner bracket you can think of.
HE & probably a shit ton less money.
Spray with silicone or whatever sealant n call it a day. Even have strips like cobs that have no diodes you can see. Just a strip of uninterrupted light.

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I gotta agree. You could cover your entire length of 4' tent with one strip and ran soft enough wouldn't burn a damn thing.

hybridway2 said:

Are you guys serious?
Cob string lights = GameChanger?.
Storefront string lights beefed up .
Sounds like a good idea to have come out with 3-5 yrs ago.
Strips replace those nowadays.
I feel he should work on something used for similiar applications by using today's lego-strip lighting. You can cut these things anywhere from 2" - whatever size you want, has quick connect wire attachments, along with every kind of attachment or corner bracket you can think of.
HE & probably a shit ton less money.
Spray with silicone or whatever sealant n call it a day. Even have strips like cobs that have no diodes you can see. Just a strip of uninterrupted light.

Click to expand...

Game-changer because of the convenience and form-factor. Show me an easier way to add any spectrum to your grow, regardless of fixture layout.

Airwalker16 said:

I gotta agree. You could cover your entire length of 4' tent with one strip and ran soft enough wouldn't burn a damn thing.

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Something that wouldn't work for me.

Humple said:

Game-changer because of the convenience and form-factor. Show me an easier way to add any spectrum to your grow, regardless of fixture layout.

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I think I just did... You got 1', 2', & 4' length options.. Not to mention, you can absolutely buy lens covers for nearly every strip available that we use.

Humple said:

Something that wouldn't work for me.

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Why the heck not? Quite inexpensive.

hybridway2 said:

Are you guys serious?
Cob string lights = GameChanger?.
Storefront string lights beefed up .
Sounds like a good idea to have come out with 3-5 yrs ago.
Strips replace those nowadays.
I feel he should work on something used for similiar applications by using today's lego-strip lighting. You can cut these things anywhere from 2" - whatever size you want, has quick connect wire attachments, along with every kind of attachment or corner bracket you can think of.
HE & probably a shit ton less money.
Spray with silicone or whatever sealant n call it a day. Even have strips like cobs that have no diodes you can see. Just a strip of uninterrupted light.

Click to expand...

This is why you are the authority you know everything

if there is a place where water protection is needed its where the buddies are suposed to be used i think.
can also imagine that the use of a propper lense and enclosure make sense in this case and perform better then a sealent you spray on your leds.

hybridway2 said:

Are you guys serious?
Cob string lights = GameChanger?.
Storefront string lights beefed up .
Sounds like a good idea to have come out with 3-5 yrs ago.
Strips replace those nowadays.
I feel he should work on something used for similiar applications by using today's lego-strip lighting. You can cut these things anywhere from 2" - whatever size you want, has quick connect wire attachments, along with every kind of attachment or corner bracket you can think of.
HE & probably a shit ton less money.
Spray with silicone or whatever sealant n call it a day. Even have strips like cobs that have no diodes you can see. Just a strip of uninterrupted light.

Click to expand...

This isn't my thread to take issue with, but Buddies aren't COBs. And I have never seen "storefront" lights in Phosphor-coated Red or CRI95 4000K before. Also, I've never seen a strip that can be bent and twisted into any shape like that. And as far a I'm aware most strips are not water proof and can be cut at any point and still run of a constant voltage driver.

Can you please post up your examples of your waterproof, flexible "Lego" lights and tell us all how much they cost? Because I would love to see them! We might even stock them if they are the right price

Airwalker16 said:

I think I just did... You got 1', 2', & 4' length options.. Not to mention, you can absolutely buy lens covers for nearly every strip available that we use.

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Hi Airwalker, can you show us the lights you are talking about please? Again, we are always interested in flexible, water-proof, low-cost lights in plant-friendly colours. We are especially interested in anything high CRI. Also, Buddies will retail for about US$1 per LED (US$20 per string), so will your lights be able to compete with that? Thanks.