Leds with supplemental hps drop light

Aj struhar

Active Member
I'm about to set up my room and I have four black dog phytomax2 800 leds and was thinking about doing a 600w hps drop light in the middle of all four black dogs... any insight or suggestions? I would love to hear if anybody else has done this and how it worked for you. Thanks for taking the time to read my post new member here
 

Aj struhar

Active Member
shelve the black dogs, skip the hid. Cobs or quantum boards are the way to go. Welcome to riu.
I'm an electrician and have wanted to build my own board for awhile now. You really think I can build a better light? How are theses boards and diodes better then black dog?
 

CobKits

Well-Known Member

Aj struhar

Active Member
100%


cheaper and more efficient. if youre handy you can build something that will outperform the blackdog for ~$600.

Thanks for the info. A lot of that was another language to me. I understand some... I guess it's time to start researching how to build my own and what spectrum to use and how much of each one. I can build it no problem. It's the knowing what spectrum diods to use, placement and how many. Any suggestions where to start?
 

NinjaShamen

Well-Known Member
^^^ What cobkits said.... there's an abundance of knowledge on cobs here at riu. Quite a few using quantum boards now too. Look around a bit, read through some forums. @sixstring2112 grow journal is a pretty good demonstration of what cobs, and now quantum boards too can do. Riu members sold me on cobs, I bought my kits from timbergrowlights.com and love them. I bought junk led at first before i found cobs. So I feel your pain on the wasted money. But if you invest in cobs you won't regret it
 

NinjaShamen

Well-Known Member
Just search diy cob on riu should be a good place to get started. 4000k for veg, 3500k for full grow, and 3000k for flower seem to be popular numbers. And with cobs and quantum boards we're stepping away from individual diodes, at least at the diy level. They still have them, just much smaller and that part has already been assembled
 

Hybridway

Well-Known Member
I'm about to set up my room and I have four black dog phytomax2 800 leds and was thinking about doing a 600w hps drop light in the middle of all four black dogs... any insight or suggestions? I would love to hear if anybody else has done this and how it worked for you. Thanks for taking the time to read my post new member here
Run that, you'll kill it!
 

Aj struhar

Active Member
100%


cheaper and more efficient. if youre handy you can build something that will outperform the blackdog for ~$600.

blackdogs are less efficient than an HPS


So being the tech-savvy guy that I am... I stayed up late last night researching Quantum boards and builds. Do you think 6 Quantum boards with a mixture of red and blue hundred-watt diodes would be better than the 800 watt black dog? Also for efficiency reasons if I wanted something in the range of 800 to a thousand Watts would I want to up the overall wattage to 1,500 and run it lower?
 

Ray Kudronic

Active Member
@CobKits
In that link you posted, I am curious as to why they used the old model for the test? It says that the test was issued around march 2017, the phytomax 2 was definitely out by then. Which they claim is more efficient.
 

Ray Kudronic

Active Member
I'm about to set up my room and I have four black dog phytomax2 800 leds and was thinking about doing a 600w hps drop light in the middle of all four black dogs... any insight or suggestions? I would love to hear if anybody else has done this and how it worked for you. Thanks for taking the time to read my post new member here
If you already have 4 phytomax's 800's I would stick with those for a while considering how much they probably costed you. Maybe you loose some efficiency to COB's but you'll be able to grow just as high quality and quantity of product, and isn't that really the whole point anyways?
 

CobKits

Well-Known Member
@CobKits
In that link you posted, I am curious as to why they used the old model for the test? It says that the test was issued around march 2017, the phytomax 2 was definitely out by then. Which they claim is more efficient.
you'd have to ask vitale at chilled, not my test
 

Hybridway

Well-Known Member
If you already have 4 phytomax's 800's I would stick with those for a while considering how much they probably costed you. Maybe you loose some efficiency to COB's but you'll be able to grow just as high quality and quantity of product, and isn't that really the whole point anyways?
No doubt he'll be happy w/ that config. Any LEDs can be efficient. Cheap ones or good ones. Just gotta run them w/ less power.
Basically, efficiency = light output per watt = more yield by means of light to the plants. Coupled w/ a good spectrum, the plant will be more photosynthetically efficient @ what it does.
Those are the primary reasons for using led. To be more efficient then HPS.
So, while he will do decent, he can do better, allowing more space to be used or less watts to do the same or more.
 
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Aj struhar

Active Member
If you already have 4 phytomax's 800's I would stick with those for a while considering how much they probably costed you. Maybe you loose some efficiency to COB's but you'll be able to grow just as high quality and quantity of product, and isn't that really the whole point anyways?
Still going to build a light. I already started ordering parts lol plus I'm an electrician and I do a lot of lighting control systems and ansul system's for restaurants. I love the technical things in life. Glad to hear some positive news on my setup
 
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