Led Users Unite!

Swiftowl11

Active Member
HAHA freewebstore.com I found where Im going to sell my excess china lights to growers for close to cost, it'll go along with my grow journal, thanks for that. Good thing I checked now, right place right time, (THE WEED BE KNOWING) haha.




Has anyone used or seen lights like these?

http://www.lowlightgenetics.com/storepage1950316.aspx

They seem to have the best color penetration that I have ever seen in the online photos on the website and I was interested in getting some.
EDIT* Those lights have a horrible spectrum. Just checked it out.
 

GlowGod

Well-Known Member
The growblu light looks nice, but they don't show it in use and I can already tell by searching it has a FAN on it.

As for hydroponics hut, I have bought those lights in the past when I first joined this forum and I was impressed with him selling 3watt at the time, but those panel type lights seem like a waste, when everyone else is going to a cluster light version.

The Rhino Light seems cool, I havent seen one like that either, its fanless but seems like a small footprint in there online photos of it in use and really doesn't seem as bright. But I like that design.

The Blackstar Chrome are a fan cluster light again, and there are a lot of this style out there, almost like its replacing the panel type LED's. I have a old black star full spectrum flower that I recently repaired from a power surge and his led's are definitely different. Some had reflective lenses in the tip of the LED. I liked that light, but a lot of the LED's blew with the power surge I had, hence the reason for a new light. Attached is a photo of my old grow. I used Floro tubes attached to the wall posts for side lighting and LEDs on top of the canopy:


In regards to spectrum what makes them horrible?

I have seen lights on ebay and other websites that don't seem to be as bright, or have many more LED's to get as bright, they list similar outputs, most have fans instead of heatsinks. Dude fans are noisy after time the bearing go, those lights all seem to use fans from computers and they tend to get loud over time, So what am I missing, why do these lights suck?


When searching for LED grow lights, I rarely see sellers advertising the lights ON, the blackstar guy used to do a lot of comparison videos but I havent seen anything new on that in a while, the standard colors for the Full spectrum flowering lights seem to be:

5 band of red/blue/orange/white with dual reds a deep red and a lighter red I guess. Across the board thats what I find when searching for LED lights to purchase this spring and for the past so many years.

That website lowlightgenetics.com, offers a 5-band but instead of white uses UV. To me when you compare LED's to fluorescent or other grow bulbs, that does seem to be the difference. White light gives off UV radiation. So, he just seemed to eliminate that white or yellow LED offered by other companies and replace with UV.

I dunno, but that doesn't seem like a bad thing to me, and that person also offers the UV in the Blue Clone light, so maybe there is something to UV.

I have also seen more expensive regular LED grow lights that include UV and IR chips.


When I have searched whats out there, I find a lot of this:

Color Spectrum Optimized for Vegetation and Bloom: Balanced Blend of Blue, Deep Red, Red and Warm White, yellow or orange to round out the 5 bands. The higher color bands offer a lot more of the colors but in different wavelengths.

These lights ALL seem to have a fan or multiple fans. Which even in threads on this forum people are switching to heatsinks instead of fans

Below a search of a similar LED Grow light with clusters, similar color wavelengths and no UV but white:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2012-LED-GROW-LIGHT-5-BAND-210w-3-watt-AGROMAX-PRO-lamp-210-hydroponic-240-w-3w-/160683073122?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2569751e62


Blackdog seems to state UVA - IR but does not give wavelengths
once again similar in wavelength but has a fan, I cant believe that its that great. To me these look like a newer version of Chinese
Lights, where the lowlightgenetics website has a metal heatsink and cluster lights. I have also seen more and more of these cluster style lights than the full panel kind, so seems like
the days of hundreds and hundreds of LED's were as bad as an idea as the extra cooling fans in a stealth grow op.

I cant remember who right now, but there was another box design like that a few years ago in a catalog, and the company made a retraction on the watts of the bulbs, they originally claimed 5w, but turned out they were actually 3w.


This one has more colors of red and blue, but do you really need more color of red and blue? Like I said before its just another wavelength of the same color, I mean can it be just something simple like the way colors bleed together? Like how an artist takes red and blue and makes purple. Plus, a lot of purple weed growers say you get a better purple when adding more purple when flowering.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-300w-LED-Grow-Light-For-Indoor-Grow-Green-house-Hot-Sale-Hydroponic-System-/280866568756


The seller may not have a lot of money so I can understand starting with a free website.

So, that doesn't bother me.

I am probably more inclined to help out someone like that with a purchase than a big wholesaler that could care less about what they sell or to who. Maybe its the New England Boutique shopper in me, then again maybe thats just me thou

I dont see the need to be hard on someone attempting to make it in a difficult financial period worldwide, and buying within the US, keeps my name off customs tracking....

So, I hear what everyone is saying. But I think I am going to give it a shot when I get my tax return. I havnt really heard a good argument on why not or why the spectrum sucks.

Not to come off like a total newb but a lot of these post seem like sales pitches rather than any basis on why its a bad investment. I am still interested in what people have to say it will be a few weeks before I can make a purchase and I don't want to waste money if I dont have to.

I want to grow grandaddy purps and plushberry I think, if you have any input on those strains with LED's



Here is the Photos of my Old Grow, I get nice resin production so I am not real new I guess, but I still have a lot to learn

100_2262.jpg100_2263.jpg100_2268.jpg100_2266.jpg100_2261.jpg

:wall:
 

Perro Negro

Member

GlowGod

Well-Known Member
I do and you prove my point. I don't want to waste money power a fan, that's not needed. The majority of the electricity I have been using in black-star, hydro-hut and my diamond line have been to power the cooling fans. The manufactures will tell you that’s where the cost is going.

Purchasing a light with an industrial heat sink limits the electrical use of the light.

I know a lot of you dislike the light i found for sale.
But I think after searching and reading up on it, that I am going to purchase it regardless.

I have learned from prior purchases people say anything to promote their lights.
I have willie nilly spent money going way back to the original peg panel styles to the 1w smd's to the 3w chips.
So investing here on a few lights seems worth it to me.

I have e-mailed the site rep a few times to know that I think this model is better not just because its newer.
For example when repairing my Diamond Line light I had to install a 5amp circuit breaker so another surge will not blow my light.

The manufacturer of the lights I plan to purchase use what they call a protection tube. This keeps the current supplied to the series when a circuit is broken. They sent me the photo below:
ProtectTubes.jpg

Now on the website, I think its a matter of bad photography of the person selling the lights. They made them look like a 10mm LED, when in fact they are true 3 watt chips.
We have been discussing that and the prospect of me getting a deal on the lights for offering to do a grow journal.
 

Perro Negro

Member
I do and you prove my point. I don't want to waste money power a fan, that's not needed. The majority of the electricity I have been using in black-star, hydro-hut and my diamond line have been to power the cooling fans. The manufactures will tell you that’s where the cost is going.

Purchasing a light with an industrial heat sink limits the electrical use of the light.

I know a lot of you dislike the light i found for sale.
But I think after searching and reading up on it, that I am going to purchase it regardless.

I have learned from prior purchases people say anything to promote their lights.
I have willie nilly spent money going way back to the original peg panel styles to the 1w smd's to the 3w chips.
So investing here on a few lights seems worth it to me.

I have e-mailed the site rep a few times to know that I think this model is better not just because its newer.
For example when repairing my Diamond Line light I had to install a 5amp circuit breaker so another surge will not blow my light.

The manufacturer of the lights I plan to purchase use what they call a protection tube. This keeps the current supplied to the series when a circuit is broken. They sent me the photo below:
View attachment 2534942

Now on the website, I think its a matter of bad photography of the person selling the lights. They made them look like a 10mm LED, when in fact they are true 3 watt chips.
We have been discussing that and the prospect of me getting a deal on the lights for offering to do a grow journal.
We have been using those with our lights for years, they are really just resistors that pick up if the LED blows. They are good to have but nothing new to a well designed LED panel.

As for fans, our current Platinum XL-U which runs at 750 watts and has 4 fans. They run DC 12V and 0.25A which would be 3 watts. So for 4 fans that would be 2 watts. Not much to keep 750 watts cool in my opinion.

Definitely keep us posted with a journal when you get those lights, always like to see a good LED grow.
 

GlowGod

Well-Known Member
I agree with your statement:
They are good to have but nothing new to a well designed LED panel.

I thought I was implying that, while the previous statement attempt to show the past lights I have used, were good. I am looking for something different.

I will keep you all posted.

I would consider your lights, but I don't spend that much time in my garden these days to give 5w grows the attention they need.
I thought I read on the website that the 5w should be used by experienced growers due to the tendency to burn. They look nice, I'm just not there yet.
 

astroastro

Active Member
The manufacturer of the lights I plan to purchase use what they call a protection tube. This keeps the current supplied to the series when a circuit is broken. They sent me the photo below:
We have been using those with our lights for years, they are really just resistors that pick up if the LED blows. They are good to have but nothing new to a well designed LED panel.
OK- I have been subscribed to this thread for some time and read new entries every day- I usually keep pretty quiet but I just got to comment on this one- the technical disinformation peddled by these LED companies has to stop somewhere. These 'protection tubes' are NOT resistors- a resistor would not work and anybody knowledgeable about basic electical circuit design would tell you the same thing.

These things are going to be one of the following two things- a zener diode with a zener voltage slightly above the working voltage drop of the LED it is intended to protect, or a application-specific zener diode that has been specifically designed to protect high power LED dies. What is the difference between the two? The specially designed zener device will have a larger, enhanced P-N junction and be capable of handling the current required by the high power LED. A standard zener will be subject to stress failure at these current levels. This means the specially designed part costs more money- if your light is made in China you can be pretty much guranteed that the devices used will be standard zeners, which is better than nothing, but not optimum. I know how those guys work.
 

guod

Well-Known Member
These things are going to be one of the following two things- a zener diode with a zener voltage slightly above the working voltage drop of the LED it is intended to protect, or a application-specific zener diode that has been specifically designed to protect high power LED dies.
what we see here are TVS-Diodes, they work against spikes, ESD, etc.
if these were zeners they would maybe handle the current, but they can not handle the power.
max power for them(SMD related) is about 500 mW, but we have to deal with more then 1,5W

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transient-voltage-suppression_diode
 

Eraserhead

Well-Known Member
I kind of figured it was the missing 1, my old laptop has a lot of messed up buttons, it had everything from vodka and cranberry to weight lifting shakes accidentally spilled in.

Hey Eraserhead, the one at the top of my keyboard sometimes misses and I should have been using the number pad or get around to replacing the keyboard. Obviously it should have been 12, not 2.
 

drew425

Active Member
There are some very good inexpensive lamps to be had even if you don't want to deal with the Chinese directly.
The new Area 51 lights with the discount will be a killer deal.
Also check out;
Pro Grow http://www.hydroponicshut.com/
Growblu http://growblu.com/

I'm going to be guinea pigging some of this company's "veggie bombs" soon; http://www.ebay.com/sch/forwardthinkingproducts/m.html?item=181077288578&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562
That Pro Grow is at the top of my list!
 

drew425

Active Member
The growblu light looks nice, but they don't show it in use and I can already tell by searching it has a FAN on it.

As for hydroponics hut, I have bought those lights in the past when I first joined this forum and I was impressed with him selling 3watt at the time, but those panel type lights seem like a waste, when everyone else is going to a cluster light version.

The Rhino Light seems cool, I havent seen one like that either, its fanless but seems like a small footprint in there online photos of it in use and really doesn't seem as bright. But I like that design.

The Blackstar Chrome are a fan cluster light again, and there are a lot of this style out there, almost like its replacing the panel type LED's. I have a old black star full spectrum flower that I recently repaired from a power surge and his led's are definitely different. Some had reflective lenses in the tip of the LED. I liked that light, but a lot of the LED's blew with the power surge I had, hence the reason for a new light. Attached is a photo of my old grow. I used Floro tubes attached to the wall posts for side lighting and LEDs on top of the canopy:


In regards to spectrum what makes them horrible?

I have seen lights on ebay and other websites that don't seem to be as bright, or have many more LED's to get as bright, they list similar outputs, most have fans instead of heatsinks. Dude fans are noisy after time the bearing go, those lights all seem to use fans from computers and they tend to get loud over time, So what am I missing, why do these lights suck?


When searching for LED grow lights, I rarely see sellers advertising the lights ON, the blackstar guy used to do a lot of comparison videos but I havent seen anything new on that in a while, the standard colors for the Full spectrum flowering lights seem to be:

5 band of red/blue/orange/white with dual reds a deep red and a lighter red I guess. Across the board thats what I find when searching for LED lights to purchase this spring and for the past so many years.

That website lowlightgenetics.com, offers a 5-band but instead of white uses UV. To me when you compare LED's to fluorescent or other grow bulbs, that does seem to be the difference. White light gives off UV radiation. So, he just seemed to eliminate that white or yellow LED offered by other companies and replace with UV.

I dunno, but that doesn't seem like a bad thing to me, and that person also offers the UV in the Blue Clone light, so maybe there is something to UV.

I have also seen more expensive regular LED grow lights that include UV and IR chips.


When I have searched whats out there, I find a lot of this:

Color Spectrum Optimized for Vegetation and Bloom: Balanced Blend of Blue, Deep Red, Red and Warm White, yellow or orange to round out the 5 bands. The higher color bands offer a lot more of the colors but in different wavelengths.

These lights ALL seem to have a fan or multiple fans. Which even in threads on this forum people are switching to heatsinks instead of fans

Below a search of a similar LED Grow light with clusters, similar color wavelengths and no UV but white:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2012-LED-GROW-LIGHT-5-BAND-210w-3-watt-AGROMAX-PRO-lamp-210-hydroponic-240-w-3w-/160683073122?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2569751e62


Blackdog seems to state UVA - IR but does not give wavelengths
once again similar in wavelength but has a fan, I cant believe that its that great. To me these look like a newer version of Chinese
Lights, where the lowlightgenetics website has a metal heatsink and cluster lights. I have also seen more and more of these cluster style lights than the full panel kind, so seems like
the days of hundreds and hundreds of LED's were as bad as an idea as the extra cooling fans in a stealth grow op.

I cant remember who right now, but there was another box design like that a few years ago in a catalog, and the company made a retraction on the watts of the bulbs, they originally claimed 5w, but turned out they were actually 3w.


This one has more colors of red and blue, but do you really need more color of red and blue? Like I said before its just another wavelength of the same color, I mean can it be just something simple like the way colors bleed together? Like how an artist takes red and blue and makes purple. Plus, a lot of purple weed growers say you get a better purple when adding more purple when flowering.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-300w-LED-Grow-Light-For-Indoor-Grow-Green-house-Hot-Sale-Hydroponic-System-/280866568756


The seller may not have a lot of money so I can understand starting with a free website.

So, that doesn't bother me.

I am probably more inclined to help out someone like that with a purchase than a big wholesaler that could care less about what they sell or to who. Maybe its the New England Boutique shopper in me, then again maybe thats just me thou

I dont see the need to be hard on someone attempting to make it in a difficult financial period worldwide, and buying within the US, keeps my name off customs tracking....

So, I hear what everyone is saying. But I think I am going to give it a shot when I get my tax return. I havnt really heard a good argument on why not or why the spectrum sucks.

Not to come off like a total newb but a lot of these post seem like sales pitches rather than any basis on why its a bad investment. I am still interested in what people have to say it will be a few weeks before I can make a purchase and I don't want to waste money if I dont have to.

I want to grow grandaddy purps and plushberry I think, if you have any input on those strains with LED's



Here is the Photos of my Old Grow, I get nice resin production so I am not real new I guess, but I still have a lot to learn

View attachment 2526839View attachment 2526841View attachment 2526842View attachment 2526843View attachment 2526844

:wall:
All this LED info is making my head spin. I too plan on getting one with my tax return. I've got the 240w blackstar right now. I have never finished my plants under that light as im just kind of skeptical from one of my smaller grows under LED. What id like to know is why in veg. do the plants look so beautifully green? My MH/HPS light at 1000w watts didn't put out as good a result for veg as my blackstar did. Im curious to see which light you end up getting as you seem to know a lot more about LED, electricity, and light wavelengths than I do. What id like to get out of a new LED is some good end results and a nice looking plant. Id like get around a 300-500 watt light but don't want to pay $750+. I see some that are only like 180w and they want close to $1000 for them. I mean what can be that much better
 

tenthirty

Well-Known Member
To give you a datum.......
A led luminaire can be built with the best components available for about $2.00 a watt!

Spend your money wisely!
 

stardustsailor

Well-Known Member
Ok ,not that cheap ...
I'd say for double ...
up to 4$/ Watt ...
But ...
With all the components used ,top-quality ...( Built not Sold )...
 

GlowGod

Well-Known Member
These things are going to be one of the following two things- a zener diode with a zener voltage slightly above the working voltage drop of the LED it is intended to protect, or a application-specific zener diode that has been specifically designed to protect high power LED dies. What is the difference between the two? The specially designed zener device will have a larger, enhanced P-N junction and be capable of handling the current required by the high power LED. A standard zener will be subject to stress failure at these current levels. This means the specially designed part costs more money- if your light is made in China you can be pretty much guranteed that the devices used will be standard zeners, which is better than nothing, but not optimum. I know how those guys work.
Thanks! I was wondering what a zener diode is. That makes a lot of sense from the jargon I was told. Now I see that they are one and the same, thanks for the heads up on the different kinds. This was very helpful in understanding how they are made and how they have evolved.
 
Top