A Decision Needs To Be Made..

[MidwestToker]

Glues at day 35 since flip.

Loving my led's.

 

[crimsonecho]

Glues at day 35 since flip.
View attachment 847943

Loving my led's.

Looks very cool bro, these are like 275 or something right? Just gotta love the leds :)

 

[MidwestToker]

Yes, think this is the last winter for my HID's.

 

[MIMedGrower]

Yes, think this is the last winter for my HID's.

Did you equal the wattage for the heat?

 

[crimsonecho]

Join us in the future bro :)

Yes, think this is the last winter for my HID's.

 

[MidwestToker]

Did you equal the wattage for the heat?

For this winter I'll run my 750 DE in the other half of the room.

Waiting on PLC to get the new stock of their photo-boost strips to make my next fixture with.

 

[MIMedGrower]

For this winter I'll run my 750 DE in the other half of the room.
View attachment 848088

Waiting on PLC to get the new stock of their photo-boost strips to make my next fixture with.

But if you replace with 500 or 600 watts will there be enough lights on heat?

I wanted to replace my 250 watt t-5’s in the 3x3 veg tent with an hlg 100 or build a 150 equivalent but I don’t think I can get the tent up to even 70 degrees even with the 4” exhaust fan on low.

Same problem in the flower room.

 

[MidwestToker]

But if you replace with 500 or 600 watts will there be enough lights on heat?

I wanted to replace my 250 watt t-5’s in the 3x3 veg tent with an hlg 100 or build a 150 equivalent but I don’t think I can get the tent up to even 70 degrees even with the 4” exhaust fan on low.

Same problem in the flower room.

Keeping my room cool during the warm months is more of a concern for me. 3 months use of a space heater cost me less than running a mini-split for 6 months of the year. My basement is conditioned like the rest of my home and I never had to use the mini-split at all this last summer running 750 watts of LEDs and 400 watts of MH.

 

[MidwestToker]

Glues at day 41 since flip.

 

[Smoking Gun]

Now thats a handy little piece of information there. I havent used the hlg series mainly because they were a little harder to come by but its nice to know they can be overdriven.

Leds are very good man, love ‘em. You should post some pics too when its done :)

Don’t worry. I intend to document the process of building this light and it will be shared here.

Ok as promised I finished the light and documented the process. The unit is 44"x18" with 4 HLG 132 boards running off a Meanwell HLG 240H-C1750B driver. The power draw ranges from 8w up to 240w. The build was pretty simple but took a bit of time to get everything laid out as I wanted it.

The first step in the process was laying out a guide for the tent size and center line to determine how to most efficiently spread the pannels.

The layout that seemed to most effiently be mounted and spread the light evenly.

All the rails cut to size and parts available to be connected.

The outer frame is assembled but the cross bars (that double as heat sinks) are still free floating. The boards are simply placed on to determine real spacing.

Cross bars are attached and once more a center line is determined to ensure a symmetrical light pattern.

Boards are attached.

Wiring of the boards. They were done in series so if there is a failure the whole unit will turn off rather than overpowering the other boards.

Potentiometer attached to driver. I know the connectins are still exposed, I still need to build a small housing for the dimmer. I left those connections exposed incase I want to extend the line so the dimmer itself is outisde of my tent.

Driver is wired to the light. I used a 14 gague cable with a heavy duty plug, which should all be more than sufficient for the power being drawn.

All plugged in and runing great. There is vurtually no heat coming from this unit, I can touch any and all pieces even after running for 17 straight hours.

And finally, babies in their new home.

 

[crimsonecho]

Ok as promised I finished the light and documented the process. The unit is 44"x18" with 4 HLG 132 boards running off a Meanwell HLG 240H-C1750B driver. The power draw ranges from 8w up to 240w. The build was pretty simple but took a bit of time to get everything laid out as I wanted it.View attachment 849481The first step in the process was laying out a guide for the tent size and center line to determine how to most efficiently spread the pannels.

View attachment 849482
The layout that seemed to most effiently be mounted and spread the light evenly.

View attachment 849483
All the rails cut to size and parts available to be connected.

View attachment 849486
The outer frame is assembled but the cross bars (that double as heat sinks) are still free floating. The boards are simply placed on to determine real spacing.

View attachment 849487
Cross bars are attached and once more a center line is determined to ensure a symmetrical light pattern.

View attachment 849488
Boards are attached.

View attachment 849489
Wiring of the boards. They were done in series so if there is a failure the whole unit will turn off rather than overpowering the other boards.

View attachment 849490
Potentiometer attached to driver. I know the connectins are still exposed, I still need to build a small housing for the dimmer. I left those connections exposed incase I want to extend the line so the dimmer itself is outisde of my tent.

View attachment 849491
Driver is wired to the light. I used a 14 gague cable with a heavy duty plug, which should all be more than sufficient for the power being drawn.

View attachment 849493 View attachment 849495
All plugged in and runing great. There is vurtually no heat coming from this unit, I can touch any and all pieces even after running for 17 straight hours.

View attachment 849496
And finally, babies in their new home.

Very nice fixture. Congratulations. Virtually no shady spots and great distribution overall. Qbs and strips are very cool for sure. Tho cobs are cheaper and gets the job done, if i had the budget i would go with qbs too. Waiting to hear about your monster yields now :)

 

[Smoking Gun]

Very nice fixture. Congratulations. Virtually no shady spots and great distribution overall. Qbs and strips are very cool for sure. Tho cobs are cheaper and gets the job done, if i had the budget i would go with qbs too. Waiting to hear about your monster yields now :)

I looked into cobs and it was absolutely cheaper to make this build. With all parts and tools it cost me a little under $300 USD to build this light. In all the places I looked it would have cost me between $60 and $100 more for a cob build of equal wattage. But what really matters is that I am super excited to really get into the grow to see what this light can really do.

 

[jumpincactus]

Glues at day 41 since flip.
View attachment 848232
View attachment 848233

Damn Midwest you are just killing it with your setup. Nice work man.:smoking:

 

[crimsonecho]

I looked into cobs and it was absolutely cheaper to make this build. With all parts and tools it cost me a little under $300 USD to build this light. In all the places I looked it would have cost me between $60 and $100 more for a cob build of equal wattage. But what really matters is that I am super excited to really get into the grow to see what this light can really do.

Yeah thats your situation but with me overseas shipping cost alone builds another fixture :)
Also i think i am getting the components a little cheaper than in the states. This fixture i built cost me only 250 or 300 max. I don’t remember what i paid for some components that i already had.

 

[JWM2]

That’s a rock solid setup bro. I love it!

 

[crimsonecho]

That’s a rock solid setup bro. I love it!

Which one tho @MidwestToker @Smoking Gun or any other :D

I think they’re all great including mine hahah.

 

[JWM2]

Which one tho @MidwestToker @Smoking Gun or any other :D

I think they’re all great including mine hahah.

All of the above :-)

Correction: That’s a rock solid setup bro’s (notice the apostrophe s)

 

[crimsonecho]

I think i should share my latest update. I added fans. The heatsinks were too thin. Even at 700ma they got hot without a constant breeze and its a problem when i open the tent because breeze stops. I was aiming an oscilating fan on it to battle that but it was a little cluttered. So i added 12 fans. 4 per heatsink. Very gentle fans. 8cm 1800rpm. They draw 0.08a at 12v. So all the fans total draw is about 14w. The heatsinks are pretty cool now and literally no noise at all from the fans.

 

[420baby]

Glues at day 35 since flip.
View attachment 847943

Loving my led's.

That looks amazing. Nice work.

 

[Aqua Man]

Useful info here. The idea between option 4 is that i am having some issues with vertical space at the moment with 3000K. I actually completely ran out of space. Besides that there are no real reason to go with the option 4.

I know people prefer higher reds in flowering. But also there are some people who swear by the blues. Now things are inconclusive on my end.

I am growing 2 strains, 4 plants. All from 2 mothers which i have grown in my last grow. Under blurples supplemented with 6000K bulbs.

The inconclusive part about it is this.
NL’s did way better under 6000K and blurple. Frostier with more terpenes and fatter for sure but it as also getting good feedings which it doesn’t get this time cause i am doing an only water grow.

Dinachem’s are doing better under 3000K. Frostier and fatter for sure. But in the first run i fed it a bit much, especially with some enzym teas and stuff so it was stunted in early veg thru early bloom. This time it seems like it loves the only water thing. So thats inconclusive too.

If you run 3k across the board it's basically a flowering light. The challenge is as you say keeping internode length ideal.

I run all 3k and ran into this issue myself but i find it's easily fixed using temp diff for day/night. I usually run more Indica leaning strains so you might want some 4k if you are doing sativa heavy strains but using a diff of 0 my plants will stack leaves almost on top of eachother. I do this for the the first 2 weeks to build a short strong main stem then switch to 5F diff untill stretch them back to 0F for the stretch about 2-3 weeks then switch back to 5F.

I don't know if you have played around with day/night temps diffs but it's really amazing how much you can control node spacing. You can make the plants virtually grow how you want.

This has helped me a ton since I grow scrog.

Of course keeping the light closer and high intensity helps but the diff is an amazing tool. You can even go negative diff for more reduction in node spacing, I personally have not had to yet but it's an option