F-series strips, side lighting build.

J232

J232

Well-Known Member
Alright, I been dicking around collecting materials and info, here’s what I cooked up. 4 x 5 strip racks on 4 drivers, 20 strips total.

Cost, $2 a strip, $12 a driver, $75 in materials. SI-B8T521560WW 4K strips, delta LNE-48V150WAAA drivers.

Built one for now, need to assemble the other 3, haven’t checked the amps, running at 45 volts on my first rack built. Will grab a watt meter on my next amazon order. I shit canned any connectors and went with center splice and solder, heat shrink. Used abrasion tape to secure the wiring. XT-60 connectors to plug in each rack.

32” tall, 23” wide, 1” thick, can unbolt individual strips if I find or decide to change in some 3k 3500s.. can also bolt all racks together to make a overhead fixture, these racks will also swing up and peg the wall to go over head... all 4 fixtures move up the wall independently.. here’s some pics. Will update the thread when all 4 are lit up.

Simple frame, 1.5” flatbar, 1.5” x 3/4” U chan.

A4EC869D-8085-4D11-AD06-95945A96415F.jpeg

Countersunk screws, taped strips on.

D8439E4D-5A66-4197-BFA8-D144A6C77985.jpeg

Wired up and testing.

CD220955-1108-40D1-AD7A-6A93716930C8.jpegA39C28E0-F522-4DDE-B3F1-4083815CCC3F.jpeg

Can see the rope for the back side light, each plant will have one. Paired with my 1700w of de and se hids overhead. Don’t mind the mess, I’m upside down with “improvements”. Cracking beans very soon...

DF33BDDB-D000-4759-9376-6C8D07DA7692.png
 
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PadawanWarrior

PadawanWarrior

Well-Known Member
J232 said:
Alright, I been dicking around collecting materials and info, here’s what I cooked up. 4 x 5 strip racks on 4 drivers, 20 strips total.

Cost, $2 a strip, $12 a driver, $75 in materials. SI-B8T521560WW 4K strips, delta LNE-48V150WAAA drivers.

Built one for now, need to assemble the other 3, haven’t checked the amps, running at 45 volts on my first rack built. Will grab a watt meter on my next amazon order. I shit canned any connectors and went with center splice and solder, heat shrink. Used abrasion tape to secure the wiring. XT-60 connectors to plug in each rack.

32” tall, 23” wide, 1” thick, can unbolt individual strips if I find or decide to change in some 3k 3500s.. can also bolt all racks together to make a overhead fixture, these racks will also swing up and peg the wall to go over head... all 4 fixtures move up the wall independently.. here’s some pics. Will update the thread when all 4 are lit up.

Simple frame, 1.5” flatbar, 1.5” x 3/4” U chan.

View attachment 4725342

Countersunk screws, taped strips on.

View attachment 4725343

Wired up and testing.

View attachment 4725345View attachment 4725346

Can see the rope for the back side light, each plant will have one. Paired with my 1700w of de and se hids overhead. Don’t mind the mess, I’m upside down with “improvements”. Cracking beans very soon...

View attachment 4725347
Click to expand...
Nice. Where'd you buy the aluminum?
 
Moflow

Moflow

Well-Known Member
Nice clean build.
That's a powerful light you have there @J232
How far away from the sides of plants will your lights be?

For curiosity I threw together 4 of the strips with no heatsinks on a temporary wire frame with a cheapo Chinese driver to see how much light they produce.
The light size was 11" × 22" - 280mm x 560mm.
56.6 watts over the 4 x strips or ~ 14 watts per strip.
Quite a lot of photons.
Warmest temperature at back of bare strips was 31.9°C - 89°F Cool to touch.
I took some PAR readings with Apogee PAR meter and was surprised at how powerful it was.
Centre PAR reading of fixture
At 12" - 300mm away - 400 umols/s/m2
At 8" - 200mm away - 600 umols
At 6" - 150mm away - 750 umols
At 4" - 100mm away - 845 umols
20201022_170518.jpg
 
J232

J232

Well-Known Member
PadawanWarrior said:
Nice. Where'd you buy the aluminum?
Click to expand...
Thank you, grabbed the alloy from a local hardware store, looks like I will need more flat bar yet.

Moflow said:
Nice clean build.
That's a powerful light you have there @J232
How far away from the sides of plants will your lights be?

For curiosity I threw together 4 of the strips with no heatsinks on a temporary wire frame with a cheapo Chinese driver to see how much light they produce.
The light size was 11" × 22" - 280mm x 560mm.
56.6 watts over the 4 x strips or ~ 14 watts per strip.
Quite a lot of photons.
Warmest temperature at back of bare strips was 31.9°C - 89°F Cool to touch.
I took some PAR readings with Apogee PAR meter and was surprised at how powerful it was.
Centre PAR reading of fixture
At 12" - 300mm away - 400 umols/s/m2
At 8" - 200mm away - 600 umols
At 6" - 150mm away - 750 umols
At 4" - 100mm away - 845 umols
View attachment 4725522
Click to expand...
Thanks moflow, yeah I figured they might be a bit strong, they will be 12” or less. Think the driver is rated for 3.2 amps so I was shooting for 50% of nominal. Will have to measure it yet but full output should be around 650mA. My temp gun needs a battery but I ran the one rack for a couple hours and I would guess it’s in the 30s for temps. Will play around with the trim this week. Also ordered some led glasses, things are intense pointing off the wall :D
 
PadawanWarrior

PadawanWarrior

Well-Known Member
J232 said:
Thank you, grabbed the alloy from a local hardware store, looks like I will need more flat bar yet.



Thanks moflow, yeah I figured they might be a bit strong, they will be 12” or less. Think the driver is rated for 3.2 amps so I was shooting for 50% of nominal. Will have to measure it yet but full output should be around 650mA. My temp gun needs a battery but I ran the one rack for a couple hours and I would guess it’s in the 30s for temps. Will play around with the trim this week. Also ordered some led glasses, things are intense pointing off the wall :D
Click to expand...
How big's your tent?
 
J232

J232

Well-Known Member
Whipped up this harness to plug inline with the racks for easy voltage and current adjustment, all my connections are sealed so thought it was a good idea.

AFCC320F-F682-4550-B383-EB5C6E5A0BEB.jpeg
 
J232

J232

Well-Known Member
Right on the money, drivers rated for 48 volts, 3.2 amps. I didn’t touch the pots and this is what it is out of the box. Strips are rated for 46 volts @ 1.2 amps nominal. Have not checked the other drivers. My test harness works perfect as well. I accounted for about .1 volt drop per connection, I’m not going to bother measuring the voltage drop. 640mA per strip. I have no light meter, just the phone apps.




0593D49F-00D4-4AB2-8223-D13B9F793D1C.jpeg
B05C64C5-7774-49C3-87E2-F2422FE2512D.jpeg
0FEADC1A-0508-41F4-9466-74CA2A62D649.jpeg
 
calvin.m16

calvin.m16

Well-Known Member
You're going to want to place the plants two or three times further away from the wall than normal. Thank me later.

Any chance you have a infared thermometer you could test your LST (Leaf Surface Temp) with? I'd be interested to see how side lighting effects this. Normally my lower canopy gets a bit chilly especially in the Winter in Michigan. I was thinking about doing some LED bars along my walls, the kind that click together and see how that works... lol
 
J232

J232

Well-Known Member
calvin.m16 said:
You're going to want to place the plants two or three times further away from the wall than normal. Thank me later.

Any chance you have a infared thermometer you could test your LST (Leaf Surface Temp) with? I'd be interested to see how side lighting effects this.
Click to expand...
I’m anticipating having to dim, plants are usually touching the walls, going to wing that part. I do have a IR thermometer but my main lamp is a 1k de so it won’t really be accurate. Nothing on the go just yet either.
 
calvin.m16

calvin.m16

Well-Known Member
J232 said:
I’m anticipating having to dim, plants are usually touching the walls, going to wing that part. I do have a IR thermometer but my main lamp is a 1k de so it won’t really be accurate. Nothing on the go just yet either.
Click to expand...
I'll stay in the queue hopefully we see some epic results.
 
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