Ion 8 blackstar

I would look into apache tech or a51 before spending my money on a blackstar. Tha was my first option before I started using leds because of the price but after hearing warranty problems and lights failing I went with a51
 

JavaCo

Well-Known Member
Sounds good , but not enough cree in it for me. It has 40watts of cree and the rest is 3 brands of red. They dont say what brands. IMO it should be the other way around. Should have tons of white cree 2700k and just a few of the red. Really the cree could stand on it own lots of folks getting fat harvests with just white cree LED light.
 

420Hazza

Active Member
Sounds good , but not enough cree in it for me. It has 40watts of cree and the rest is 3 brands of red. They dont say what brands. IMO it should be the other way around. Should have tons of white cree 2700k and just a few of the red. Really the cree could stand on it own lots of folks getting fat harvests with just white cree LED light.
If you go onto the decription and scroll down it says 12000K white that's a shit loads mate also it's from US not china or cheap shit they also come with 3 year warranty these were suggested through my friend from thctalk 1kg pineapple chunk
 

420Hazza

Active Member
Sounds good , but not enough cree in it for me. It has 40watts of cree and the rest is 3 brands of red. They dont say what brands. IMO it should be the other way around. Should have tons of white cree 2700k and just a few of the red. Really the cree could stand on it own lots of folks getting fat harvests with just white cree LED light.
They also come with 6w-10w Cree chips and UVB killing multiple flyes in one go
 

puffenuff

Well-Known Member
We haven't seen many blackstar ion grows around these parts. blackstars were pretty popular back in 2011-2012 but were never considered to be top of the line, more like a one of the better bargain buys, not using name brand chips and having mediocre build quality. After that, they came out with the chrome series, which i heard both positive and negative reviews about, but was still considered an upgrade and improvement over the previous generation blackstars. This is the next evolution of their chrome series. I would like to get confirmation as to what CREEs they are using, asking for model/bin information.

It's just the 10w's they are saying are CREEs. And I'm pretty sure those are the 4 leds spaced between the 4 clusters. The others in the clusters, what they call 6w's, are unconfirmed. That is something I'd want to look into as well before buying.

Other than that, I'm sure it will work just fine. Might require being repaired at some point in the future, but it looks pretty modular so they may even send replacement parts and instructions to do a home-fix which is a good thing. A lot of companies with the cluster layouts do the same thing. It also means it could be upgraded too in the future as better leds are available.

It just comes down to a matter of whether or not you feel like it's a good deal for the money. I'd suggest shopping around a bit, look at other online journals and seeing what they use and their results are, calling some companies up to get a feel for who you are giving your money, and then make your decision as to whether this is the light you want and the people you want getting your money.

Good luck.
 

420Hazza

Active Member
We haven't seen many blackstar ion grows around these parts. blackstars were pretty popular back in 2011-2012 but were never considered to be top of the line, more like a one of the better bargain buys, not using name brand chips and having mediocre build quality. After that, they came out with the chrome series, which i heard both positive and negative reviews about, but was still considered an upgrade and improvement over the previous generation blackstars. This is the next evolution of their chrome series. I would like to get confirmation as to what CREEs they are using, asking for model/bin information.

It's just the 10w's they are saying are CREEs. And I'm pretty sure those are the 4 leds spaced between the 4 clusters. The others in the clusters, what they call 6w's, are unconfirmed. That is something I'd want to look into as well before buying.

Other than that, I'm sure it will work just fine. Might require being repaired at some point in the future, but it looks pretty modular so they may even send replacement parts and instructions to do a home-fix which is a good thing. A lot of companies with the cluster layouts do the same thing. It also means it could be upgraded too in the future as better leds are available.

It just comes down to a matter of whether or not you feel like it's a good deal for the money. I'd suggest shopping around a bit, look at other online journals and seeing what they use and their results are, calling some companies up to get a feel for who you are giving your money, and then make your decision as to whether this is the light you want and the people you want getting your money.

Good luck.
Cheers for that info, am hoping to upgrade to LEDs at some point someone suggested blackstar still not sure, any specific brand you would suggest looking into mate ?
 

1Zigzagman

Well-Known Member
Ok my buddy has a ION 8 "prototype" model he bought from ebay, at 1st glance I thought he overspent, he did not, after we opened her up I see what he paid for,its very similar in appearance to the completed version, with alot of differences in LED placement, his 9 cluster spots push only b/w 8w cree diodes, the other 12 placed leds push only 10w red Epistar, when you push full power it gives that purple light, but its adjustable letting you set your preference, I was really impressed with it, the red got really really red when he turned the blue/white down and the blue was super blue when he turned the red down. I have not seen the finished version in action but the prototype was enough to make me consider shelling out some dough just to see what the finished product can do.
 
Ok my buddy has a ION 8 "prototype" model he bought from ebay, at 1st glance I thought he overspent, he did not, after we opened her up I see what he paid for,its very similar in appearance to the completed version, with alot of differences in LED placement, his 9 cluster spots push only b/w 8w cree diodes, the other 12 placed leds push only 10w red Epistar, when you push full power it gives that purple light, but its adjustable letting you set your preference, I was really impressed with it, the red got really really red when he turned the blue/white down and the blue was super blue when he turned the red down. I have not seen the finished version in action but the prototype was enough to make me consider shelling out some dough just to see what the finished product can do.
That's an awesome light! I have a 16 spot prototype and I love it. So the Reds are 10 watts?
 
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