If humidity is a problem for your LED you need to get a dehumidifier/moveoutoftropics or return your defective unit
I meant in the context of taking off the glass, eventually it would take its toll on the diodes. Plants give off a lot of moisture that essentially rises upwards, assuming then the diodes would get some of it at least. I too see no point in taking the glass off.
Since the diodes are of different spectrums, spreading them further apart may not give you the optimal spectrum mix in all areas of the plant. At least, that's my guess.
But then by grouping the various diodes of different spectrums into clusters and then in turn placing those clusters along the lines of a grid on the board you might be able to create effective light mixing. If this worked you could build up exponentially, it may also decrease heat within the sink as the clusters would have plenty heatsink at a lower tempreture surrounding them to absorb the heat thus reducing heat overall. Fans could be placed directly over clusters assisting this. What are your thoughts?
I'm no engineer, but the cluster idea makes sense. You combine all the different wavelength diodes into these clusters, figure out how much a single cluster covers on its own at a certain canopy distance. That will allow you to figure out how far to spread them on the panel. I am not sure I agree on the heat management point, though. I think the heat will be more difficult to manage than evenly spread diodes across the panel. Fans over clusters would help, you're right.
My understanding of heat transfer is that the more material mass to pass and spread the heat to the quicker it's dissipation. I may be wrong. I think clusters are a great idea, it would help coverage issues a lot and still potentially address penetration and light blending, in fact i see no reason why it would not work, the current placement of diodes seems to work so you are using existing tech to solve that.
I think Cammie has been pushing a cluster of sorts but i don't know if it is a full spectrum cluster or just the 3 diodes under a single lens type of thing. I have also seen a revolutionary lens that he purported to have on his website but have not seen much about it.
Each cluster would have to be balanced in terms of spectrum blend, intensity and core saturation, after that then the process of duplicating clusters over a spacing becomes easier, by getting the cluster right you are going to ensure the light spread is even no matter how many clusters providing they are equally spaced and the spacing takes into consideration overlapping of core coverage. I would also like to see cluster in a square shape which is better then circular, every grow room I have ever seen had corners....Are you talking about something like this:
This is a Blackstar but I I would guess that spreading the diode's out would be the way to go because your not actually even spreading them to begin with if you follow me. Say a 180W panel has a 8" X 17" section of diodes now notice how the next model up that has a higher wattage is only slightly larger at say 9" X 18" so rather then maintain the pattern and placement of the the 180W, they just end up tightening up the pattern by throwing more diode's in. So if the 180W has all the spectrums in the right place your not actually spreading anything further if you maintained the same diode pattern and placement.
In a nutshell: your not spreading your maintaining.
Cluster as in the ratios of red, blue, white, uv etc...in a pattern or cluster, not the usual 3 diodes under a single lens..
It has also been reported to be noticeably dimmer then the previous 500W model.The newest version of that 500 watt Blackstar has the lights arranged differently.