LEC - Light-Emitting Ceramic

dbkick

dbkick

Well-Known Member
Greengenes707 said:
Try this
Click to expand...
Looks good on paper but the one review it got there was pretty bad , although I'm aware some people just don't review things fairly, the part I notice is about the ballast. it says "
  • High frequency design means low harmonic distortion
But I don't get that part, low freq core and coil thd is none to very very low.
That light sure does look good on paper though. at 32 inches umole 1850, 97 cri (although plants don't know what that acronym means according to a well respected light manufacturer. Jesus reading on thru the specs it operates at 100-200khz.
That review though seems legit issues. But then he mentions philips allstarts which this isn't is it?
I realize some companies rebrand so I dunno.
 
hyroot

hyroot

Well-Known Member
the DNA 900 bulb is the allstart 860 rebranded. This was all covered in cococolas thread last year.

if you can find a digi ballast at the right frequency you can run the 860's on it. DNA has that ballast. But they were charging $800 for the bulb and ballast. Im not sure what it costs now.
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
hyroot said:
the DNA 900 bulb is the allstart 860 rebranded. This was all covered in cococolas thread last year.

if you can find a digi ballast at the right frequency you can run the 860's on it. DNA has that ballast. But they were charging $800 for the bulb and ballast. Im not sure what it costs now.
Click to expand...
I also ran 860W CDM lamps, but on magnetic ballasts last year and I wasn't impressed.

I think the Hortilux platinum thouie ballast would run it. Its specs say it runs at 120Hz. What do you think?

Another of its features is that it's a square wave output ballast. This may be as critical a part of the equation as the lamp itself.
 
hyroot

hyroot

Well-Known Member
ttystikk said:
I also ran 860W CDM lamps, but on magnetic ballasts last year and I wasn't impressed.

I think the Hortilux platinum thouie ballast would run it. Its specs say it runs at 120Hz. What do you think?

Another of its features is that it's a square wave output ballast. This may be as critical a part of the equation as the lamp itself.
Click to expand...
I'm not 100% sure. I think the 860's run at 60hz
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
hyroot said:
I'm not 100% sure. I think the 860's run at 60hz
Click to expand...
Having read their specs pretty carefully when I got them, the major concern about using electronic ballasts was high frequencies- the acceptable range if I recall correctly was up to something like 200-250 Hz. The ultra high frequencies of most other electronic ballasts (10,000-250,000 Hz) was physically destructive to the pit and it would destroy itself.

Square wave is another issue, more related to total photon flux; you've seen the dark stripes in shots of people's grows? That's direct evidence of the fact that the sine curve ballast is actually NOT lighting the lamp for a significant fraction of the time. Square wave output solves this- but it's apparently expensive to make ballasts that do it, as all the ones I've seen are substantially more costly.
 
AquariusPanta

AquariusPanta

Well-Known Member
GroErr said:
Yes, they're under one LEC, pushing this run out to ~3.5 x 3.5 and ~3ft. H to see what a decent yielding strain can do under one of these lights. Not seeing any drop off in bud production or penetration from my previous 3x3 runs so far.
Click to expand...
That's about 25W/sq. ft.! That's surprising to me, given the stellar condition and progression of your plants at this point in budding!

How far is the light from the canopy? Have you experimented with determining how close the fixture and bulb can come into contact?
 
GroErr

GroErr

Well-Known Member
AquariusPanta said:
That's about 25W/sq. ft.! That's surprising to me, given the stellar condition and progression of your plants at this point in budding!

How far is the light from the canopy? Have you experimented with determining how close the fixture and bulb can come into contact?
Click to expand...
Yeah, it's awesome :) I've been running them for ~9 months and tried from about 12" to 20" in 2 inch increments. Anything under 18-20" above the canopy and you get some top-level canopy bleaching of the leaves. 18" - 20" seems to be the sweet spot. I was thinking I may have to go a little higher to cover off this footprint but edges are doing just fine so left it at 18"-20".

I also played around with different pot sizes and height of plants in addition to the distance from the canopy. The sweet spot seems to be around 36" height for the plants. I found that shorter plants were really wasting light as they penetrate well. Plant height around 34-38" still provides good coverage and minimal popcorn other than the very bottom, but even that I've noticed is strain dependent. So this run should really push the limits for both footprint and canopy depth.
 
dbkick

dbkick

Well-Known Member
Back to the allstart
hyroot said:
the DNA 900 bulb is the allstart 860 rebranded. This was all covered in cococolas thread last year.

if you can find a digi ballast at the right frequency you can run the 860's on it. DNA has that ballast. But they were charging $800 for the bulb and ballast. Im not sure what it costs now.
Click to expand...
hyroot said:
I'm not 100% sure. I think the 860's run at 60hz
Click to expand...
Was reading somewhere (that I don't remember where ) the 860s run at 174hz.
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
dbkick said:
Back to the allstart


Was reading somewhere (that I don't remember where ) the 860s run at 174hz.
Click to expand...
Maybe the ballast does, the bulb is going to run at whatever the ballast feeds it- good or bad.

My magnetic ballasts ran at 60Hz, bulbs did fine.

Not sure if I mentioned it in this thread, but I think a big part of making these bulbs work best is using a square wave ballast to run them. Hortilux offers their platinum ballast, but it's fucking ridiculously expensive! Does anyone have any ideas about where I could source a proper square wave ballast for less than $550?
 
dbkick

dbkick

Well-Known Member
ttystikk said:
Maybe the ballast does, the bulb is going to run at whatever the ballast feeds it- good or bad.

My magnetic ballasts ran at 60Hz, bulbs did fine.

Not sure if I mentioned it in this thread, but I think a big part of making these bulbs work best is using a square wave ballast to run them. Hortilux offers their platinum ballast, but it's fucking ridiculously expensive! Does anyone have any ideas about where I could source a proper square wave ballast for less than $550?
Click to expand...
I read on the page hyroot posted I think, the 860s are designed to run sine wave. It's all a mystery to me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top