Old skool here, need help finding right information on led ! Please help !

Original StinkyG

Well-Known Member
you are correct. nobody would know the difference between lm301 and lm561c. They are way too close to the same to actually see the difference. Your looking for about 25-40 watts a sq/ft. no matter how big the space or how many diodes being used.

That being said. You would want less power to each strip to make them cooler and last forever.
If a strip is 30 watts max then run about 10-20 watts through um so they stay cool. (no heat sink needed) View attachment 4897929
this is 768 diodes (lm561c) on a 200 watt driver. .26 watts to each diode. Turned up to full blast is still nice and cool. This is a bit too bright for veg so i only run about 120 watts to it at the most.
EDIT: it covers about a 3'x4' for veg. or 2x4 for flower.
Thanks, lots of usable information which I will be putting to good use. Running them cooler is the way to go. More diodes, don't need the heatsink so extra diodes paid for in that respect ! Leds only become less efficient when run hot anyway, the numbers from manufacturers say it all. I've noticed some interesting things when looking at high end lights and not worth the money ! I've been looking at drivers too and the return numbers or failure numbers and you don't get what you pay for.meanwell seem to have sky rocketed in price in a decade and can't see why ? Most big pricey manufacturers use cheaper but as reliable if not more so drivers and put them in some aluminium recess ! They use the same aluminium to make it ip68 and heatsink. Cost effective solution ! Looks good I admit. I like your rig, simple but effective. Won't win a beauty contest but it's that bright you can't see it anyway ! Lol
 

getogrow

Well-Known Member
D

Did not mean it like that, results were where we were going with it. Of course the diodes are different shapes in this case.
If your a diy head like me then store that info he gave you in your melon. It can be useful in the future. Im sure you can find rectangle 301b's on amazon or wish. They plain dont care about ripping people off.... im pretty sure the 301's are 3mmx3mm and the 561c's are 3mmx5mm or something like that but they are clearly rectangle and not square.

But for sure , there is no way you can tell the difference and im pretty sure the plant cant tell either.
 

getogrow

Well-Known Member
Arrow.com has some crazy deals on random drivers here and there. they used to GIVE strips away until someone informed them that their computer pricing was fucking up. I picked up a lot of 48 diode 561c's for 69cents each , i got a lot of older models for dirt cheap too....now its 10 bucks a strip.

I built a 3x8' veg light with 1600 ish diodes and 660 watts of power for way less then 100 bucks.
 

Original StinkyG

Well-Known Member
Arrow.com has some crazy deals on random drivers here and there. they used to GIVE strips away until someone informed them that their computer pricing was fucking up. I picked up a lot of 48 diode 561c's for 69cents each , i got a lot of older models for dirt cheap too....now its 10 bucks a strip.

I built a 3x8' veg light with 1600 ish diodes and 660 watts of power for way less then 100 bucks.
I'm in the UK so it's a little harder to obtain some parts. Some are easier from China or from the US ! Been searching high and low for strips and diodes ! It's maddening the prices I'm finding, the lm301h are only about 15% higher in cost where I'm looking at. Most places I've used links for will not ship when it comes to the US companies !
if anyone can help me out with this dilemma I'd much appreciate it. Drivers are everywhere but the strips are like rocking horse shit and diodes just tape or on there own are rare too in UK from what I'm seeing.
 

kingjackpot23

Well-Known Member
you are correct. nobody would know the difference between lm301 and lm561c. They are way too close to the same to actually see the difference. Your looking for about 25-40 watts a sq/ft. no matter how big the space or how many diodes being used.

That being said. You would want less power to each strip to make them cooler and last forever.
If a strip is 30 watts max then run about 10-20 watts through um so they stay cool. (no heat sink needed) View attachment 4897929
this is 768 diodes (lm561c) on a 200 watt driver. .26 watts to each diode. Turned up to full blast is still nice and cool. This is a bit too bright for veg so i only run about 120 watts to it at the most.
EDIT: it covers about a 3'x4' for veg. or 2x4 for flower.
How much were the strips?
 

Original StinkyG

Well-Known Member
same here....these are lm301a which are less efficient then the 561c's but they work great.... price is just too high for me..
Getogrow, have you seen any other places I could check out ? Putting a link isn't necessary just point me in the right direction if you have. I've seen some great looking parts from germany, bit pricey but real good looking, the diode choice seems endless ! Arrow seems banging if the price is right which it is on lots of stuff ! What was shipping price wise ? I noticed it was free if you spend about 500 USD I think it was ! Wasn't planning on spending so much from them though, at 10 bucks a strip even, it's 50 feckin strips. Import duty will run about 20% of entire cost shipping included if I remember correctly ! Might be more actually ! I am not buying ready made lights at ridiculous prices so gotta make them even if it's just putting a few components together !
 

grotbags

Well-Known Member
digikey is free shiping over £33 and duty paid to the uk so the price you pay is all in duty included, maybe see if theres anything on there you fancy...

was the german place led tech?, they sell some nice stuff...
 

Original StinkyG

Well-Known Member
digikey is free shiping over £33 and duty paid to the uk so the price you pay is all in duty included, maybe see if theres anything on there you fancy...

was the german place led tech?, they sell some nice stuff...
That's the one ledtech,de or something ! Very nice stuff ! Touch pricey compared to arrow. Digikey, I've looked but cannot seem to find what I'm after ! Expensive for some stuff too in comparison to arrow anyway ! If you have seen stuff I've missed please let me know !!
the German stuff is expensive but looking about at similar stuff it's not too bad. In the aluminium they look nice. I think it's 23 Euro per 50w strip run max in aluminium and that's any diode they do ! When it's like that one may as well go with lm301b/h. Do like the thought of running more strips cooler which hikes the price up. Decisions,decisions eh !?!??
 

getogrow

Well-Known Member
Getogrow, have you seen any other places I could check out ? Putting a link isn't necessary just point me in the right direction if you have. I've seen some great looking parts from germany, bit pricey but real good looking, the diode choice seems endless ! Arrow seems banging if the price is right which it is on lots of stuff ! What was shipping price wise ? I noticed it was free if you spend about 500 USD I think it was ! Wasn't planning on spending so much from them though, at 10 bucks a strip even, it's 50 feckin strips. Import duty will run about 20% of entire cost shipping included if I remember correctly ! Might be more actually ! I am not buying ready made lights at ridiculous prices so gotta make them even if it's just putting a few components together !
Shipping was either free or cheap. import fees were HORRIBLE. the strips were .69 cents each and the duty was like .59 cents each so very close to 100% duty fee but that wasnt a big deal when they were that cheap. Now i have no clue what they would charge on regular price stuff , it cant be no 90% , it has to be closer to 20%.

23 euros for a strip WITH a heatsink is a decent deal. maybe even a great deal. I have heatsink on my prebuilts i bought from alibaba. They actually need the heatsink because they are ran hard from the factory. Well i guess i wouldnt call it "hard" .....just nominal to above nominal. I believe they are a couple thousand diodes ran at 600 watts.

When arrow is not blowing them out for cheap , im assuming alibaba is the only place to get a good led cheap. Brand name drivers do not matter so much. Meanwell is just another name with a great rep. My 5 dollar blowouts from arrow are working great, with great efficiency. (delta drivers)
Inventronics drivers are good. samsung has some too...
 

bk78

Well-Known Member
Dude, this thread was created by an HID user looking into LED options. Again, why are you even posting here.

I know that you know your shit when it comes to growing, but ffs dude, seriously, your broken record is broken. Let it go. If you wanna stick with old tech, then cool - nobody is hating on you. But again, why are you even even in this sub forum?
Come back @Johnny Lawrence
 

Prawn Connery

Well-Known Member
The experiment gets more interesting if you put a plant in both.

All unused photons bounce off the plant and become heat energy, some exits the plant through transpiration in water droplets. Only the photons that actually drive photosynthesis and get stored as sugars are removed, and of those only the difference in total plant mass between the HPS and LED counts when considering the difference in heat between the two (not much). At the end of the day 600w is 600w
This is mostly correct (unused photons can also increase leaf temps – which is the heat that is evaporated away due to transpiration). But you shouldn't have laughed at @Hugo Phurst because he was right – burning plant material releases stored energy as heat. That stored energy originally came from light. The difference between LED and HPS is that LED produces more usable photons than HPS for the same power draw – which means more of those watts are stored in the plant and do not go directly (or even indirectly) into the air and surrounding surface areas of the closed system. So there will be less heat build-up whilst growing.

In that respect, 600W of LED is "cooler" than 600W of HPS.

LED: more energy (than HPS) goes into producing PAR (photosynthetically active radiation)

HPS: more energy (than LED) goes into producing infra-red radiation.

Bottom line: Plants photosynthesise PAR but not IR (although IR can help speed up other chemical processes that grow plants by imparting energy into water molecules that interact with IR more efficiently than other wavelengths).

Whilst there is the same amount of total energy in the room, it's how that energy is converted that makes the difference. All energy is eventually converted to heat. But in the case of plants, that energy is only released as heat once the plant dies and decomposes or is burnt. (Heat is just a measure of energy transfer.)

In the mean time, less energy is required to grow a plant to the same size when using LED (compared to HPS) because it produces more usable (photosynthetic) photons.

Imagine two 44 gallon drums each with a 5 gallon plastic bucket inside. You squirt 5 gallons of water into one of the buckets using a hose (LED). You then spray 5 gallons of water into the other bucket with a large shower head (HPS) that spills lots of water as you spray. When you have finished squirting/spraying, there will be 5 gallons of water inside both barrels, but more of the water inside the LED barrel will be in the 5 gallon bucket compared to the HPS bucket – which has been spilled as you sprayed it and ended up in the bottom of the barrel.

If you then take the 5 gallon buckets out of each barrel, more water (heat) will be left inside the HPS barrel than the LED barrel. Same amount of water (heat) inside each barrel, but one barrel is wetter (hotter) than the other because the 5 gallon buckets inside capture and store different amounts of water (heat) based on how you sprayed them (converted still water to sprayed water – just like converting electricity to photons).

Targetted photons are like a targetted stream of water – they go where they are supposed to go (into the plant) and don't end up where you don't want them (into the atmosphere and surrounding surface areas).
 

Prawn Connery

Well-Known Member
For the record, Nichia NF2W757HT-F1 are more efficient than Samsung LM301B/H.

Top bin for top bin, Nichia beats Samsung. It is no secret in the industry that Samsung is also known for inflating their figures.

However, the real problem arises when every Chinese LED company and their dog claims to have "top bin Samsung LM301B/H" when this is clearly not true. An LED is only as good as the bins you can buy.
 

Millo

Well-Known Member
This is mostly correct (unused photons can also increase leaf temps – which is the heat that is evaporated away due to transpiration). But you shouldn't have laughed at @Hugo Phurst because he was right – burning plant material releases stored energy as heat. That stored energy originally came from light. The difference between LED and HPS is that LED produces more usable photons than HPS for the same power draw – which means more of those watts are stored in the plant and do not go directly (or even indirectly) into the air and surrounding surface areas of the closed system. So there will be less heat build-up whilst growing.

In that respect, 600W of LED is "cooler" than 600W of HPS.

LED: more energy (than HPS) goes into producing PAR (photosynthetically active radiation)

HPS: more energy (than LED) goes into producing infra-red radiation.

Bottom line: Plants photosynthesise PAR but not IR (although IR can help speed up other chemical processes that grow plants by imparting energy into water molecules that interact with IR more efficiently than other wavelengths).

Whilst there is the same amount of total energy in the room, it's how that energy is converted that makes the difference. All energy is eventually converted to heat. But in the case of plants, that energy is only released as heat once the plant dies and decomposes or is burnt. (Heat is just a measure of energy transfer.)

In the mean time, less energy is required to grow a plant to the same size when using LED (compared to HPS) because it produces more usable (photosynthetic) photons.

Imagine two 44 gallon drums each with a 5 gallon plastic bucket inside. You squirt 5 gallons of water into one of the buckets using a hose (LED). You then spray 5 gallons of water into the other bucket with a large shower head (HPS) that spills lots of water as you spray. When you have finished squirting/spraying, there will be 5 gallons of water inside both barrels, but more of the water inside the LED barrel will be in the 5 gallon bucket compared to the HPS bucket – which has been spilled as you sprayed it and ended up in the bottom of the barrel.

If you then take the 5 gallon buckets out of each barrel, more water (heat) will be left inside the HPS barrel than the LED barrel. Same amount of water (heat) inside each barrel, but one barrel is wetter (hotter) than the other because the 5 gallon buckets inside capture and store different amounts of water (heat) based on how you sprayed them (converted still water to sprayed water – just like converting electricity to photons).

Targetted photons are like a targetted stream of water – they go where they are supposed to go (into the plant) and don't end up where you don't want them (into the atmosphere and surrounding surface areas).
For the record, Nichia NF2W757HT-F1 are more efficient than Samsung LM301B/H.

Top bin for top bin, Nichia beats Samsung. It is no secret in the industry that Samsung is also known for inflating their figures.

However, the real problem arises when every Chinese LED company and their dog claims to have "top bin Samsung LM301B/H" when this is clearly not true. An LED is only as good as the bins you can buy.
This has been a very interesting and informative read. Thank you Sir.
 

PSUAGRO.

Well-Known Member
For the record, Nichia NF2W757HT-F1 are more efficient than Samsung LM301B/H.

Top bin for top bin, Nichia beats Samsung. It is no secret in the industry that Samsung is also known for inflating their figures.

However, the real problem arises when every Chinese LED company and their dog claims to have "top bin Samsung LM301B/H" when this is clearly not true. An LED is only as good as the bins you can buy.

Samsung isn't the only one slightly fudging...... Nichia "white" is top dog ......Pun intended friend


How is grumpy ledtechnik doing?
 
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