First Grow - Custom Led's

[Mr Corealis]

Hey All, I'm doing my first grow right now, currently in week 4 of flower, and I'm super excited about it. I wanted to post some pictures and show my progress to the community. Even though I just signed up today, I've been reading the forums a ton these past few months, and I appreciate all the help from everyone on here. I hope you all like it.

The other thing I'm excited about are my lights. See, I'm an electronics hobbyist, and over a year ago I started tinkering around with these high power LED modules. Initially I considered making a SAD lamp with them, and was developing a circuit for that when it occurred to me they might be useful as grow lights. I changed gears, and started prototyping grow lights. By the end of Summer 2015 I had a few prototypes working, so I decided to put them to the test.

I built my grow room in a 4' x 10' section of my basement, I sectioned off 6 feet for flower leaving the other 4 feet for veg. I installed a RO filtration system, acquired the supplies for a drip system, picked up some nutrients ( Botanicare Pure Blend Pro, Fox Farm Big Bloom, off brand mycorrhiza ), and obtained various metering equipment including digital EC and PH meters.

I finally sprouted seeds in early November, and switched them to Bloom on the first of January.

All the lights combined are running on around 1200 Watts. The large heat sinks offer enough passive cooling as long as the environment has decent circulation.

These 300 Watt switching power supplies, (bottom left), each run two light ballasts. There are two 250 Watt supplies, (middle and not in focus), running a single ballast early prototype as well.

This is what the lights look like when not in use, (they aren't wired up yet either).

Results so far...

Well, that's about it. Let me know what you think.

 

[Wee Zard]

Love it!

Yer a man after me own heart.

I'm pullin' up a chair.

Aloha,
Wee 'zard

 

[indicabush]

Howdy and welcome to the farm; very, very nice! I can see a lot of thought went in to the design and construction of those lights. All white grows are becoming real popular I see. Curious about the combination of white light; white, warm, and cool in your set-up. Are you using or planning to use a lens with these LED's to enable capturing the light in a controlled way? Also what about the thermal efficiency of this system?

 

[GrammaHydro]

Absolutely awesome! I love to see people use their own resources for creativity ! :D Welcome.

 

[Mr Corealis]

Curious about the combination of white light; white, warm, and cool in your set-up. Are you using or planning to use a lens with these LED's to enable capturing the light in a controlled way?

For the first prototypes I unscientifically decided to use half cool white and half warm white modules. I came to this decision after looking at the spectrum of each compared with that of natural light.

Now I prefer to just use warm white modules, but this is also not based on any kind of rigorous science. I just started to notice that the full spectrum LED grow lights being produced commercially are using all warm white lights. (The ones I've seen anyway).

I don't intend to add lenses to the system yet. I want the UV spectrum included with the visible light in the output. Many of the polymer based lenses filter UV out, and the kinds of lenses that don't filter UV are expensive. I decided to not use them at all, and it seems to be working well.

Also what about the thermal efficiency of this system?

I can't answer this question with any specifics. I was just as unscientific about efficiency metrics as I was about the spectrum decision; I haven't investigated or measured it at all. I just assumed the lights would perform somewhere around average or below average for LED COB packages, ~110 lm/W, ( Probably efficiency would be better if I used better components like those manufactured by Cree ). The switching power supplies stay warm too, but I imagine they are around or better than 85% efficient.

Each ballast stays warm to the touch, and they do warm the grow room somewhat. I don't have ventilation in the room, and the temperature peaks at 89 degrees F. Two weeks ago I added another 400 watts of lights to the room, and that's when I began to see max temperatures of 89 degrees. Prior to that the maximum recorded temperature was 85 degrees. I think I will add a small exhaust fan in the near future though; from what I understand 90 degrees F is the upper limit of the acceptable temperatures to grow in.

 

[embaks]

keep up the good shit.. those lights look killer....

 

[indicabush]

Pardon the questions, but I have been considering DIY all white system. Picking minds that are having success with their prototypes. So I just put down my calculator and based on some the info of ......
1200 watts... COB w/pkgs ~110lm/W ... your luminous flux result in lumens would be 132000 lm. Have you measured this and obtained these results.

 

[Mr Corealis]

I just put down my calculator and based on some the info of ......
1200 watts... COB w/pkgs ~110lm/W ... your luminous flux result in lumens would be 132000 lm. Have you measured this and obtained these results.

So, here are some explanatory calculations:

For the 4 large ballasts:

LED package rated luminous flux: 5000 LM
LED packages per ballast: 5
Potential light emitted per ballast: 5000 LM * 5 = 25,000 LM
4 Ballasts * 25,000 LM / Ballast = 100,000 LM

I estimate that the ballasts run at around 60% of their rated capacity:
100,000 * .6 = 60,000 ​

For the 2 Shorter Ballasts:

LED package rated luminous flux: 5000 LM
LED package power rating: 50W
LED packages per ballast: 3
Potential light emitted per ballast: 5000 LM * 3 = 15,000 LM

I estimate that the ballasts run at 80% of their rated capacity:
30,000 * .8 = 24,000 LM
​

For the one rectified AC Ballast:

LED package rated luminous flux: 800 LM
LED package power rating: 5W
LED packages per ballast: 16
Potential light emitted per ballast: 800 LM * 16 = 12,800 LM

I estimate that this ballast runs at 60% of its rated capacity:
12,800 * .6 = 7,600 LM
12,800 * .6 = 7,600 LM

​

For the one, initial prototype wide ballast:

LED package rated luminous flux: 800 LM
LED package power rating: 5W
LED packages per ballast: 36
Potential light emitted per ballast: 800 LM * 36 = 28,800 LM
I estimate that this ballast runs at close to 60% of its rated capacity:
28,800 LM * .6 = 17,200 LM​

A ball park figure for the total luminous flux of the system is:

17,200 LM + 7,600 LM + 24,000 LM + 60,000 LM = 108,800 LM​

This taken in conjunction with my earlier estimate of power usage, 1200 Watts, suggests I am actually getting something like:

108,800 LM / 1,200 W = 90.66 LM/W​

This is the first time I actually did any math at all on the topic though, and I suppose 90 LM/Watt is a reasonable value for a DIY project. And anyway, there are too many estimates to consider this anything more than ballpark figure.

I do have a lux meter, and at one point I did tests and compared the values to data I found online. I don't remember any specific values, but I was satisfied that, in the right position, the lights would be strong enough to avoid problems with stretching.

At this point I'm not all that worried about exactly how much light I'm getting. I figure, the components are cheap enough that I'm paying less up front than I would for an HID light, I can throw these things together pretty quickly now, they seem to be reasonably efficient, and they should theoretically run for a long time. If it turns out they aren't maximally efficient that's okay, I can just build a few more and dangle them wherever I need the light.

…if I had the resources I would make some that hang on end and slowly rotate. That way you could dangle them in between plants and bath the lower branches evenly in smooth full spectrum light. Kaboom!

 

[indicabush]

Thank you really appreciate the depth of your explanatory calculations.

 

[Mr Corealis]

Hey All,

Here are a couple pictures from this week.

 

[Mr Corealis]

Hey Guys, so I have another update with some photos of the progress, and I need a little advice from a more experienced grower too.

I need some advice about when I should begin flushing the plants. I read that the color of the pistils can be a good indicator, start flushing when about half of them have turned orange yeah? So, one of my plants has quite a few more orange pistils than the others, what do you do if one plant matures faster than the others? I can't imagine people flush their plants in stages, so how does one decide when to begin when one plant is nearing maturity faster than the others?

Anyway, I took photos and labelled them according to what plant they came from. Maybe one of you guys can help me estimate a tentative timeline for starting flushing based on the photos.

I am growing 3 "Chronic" strain plants, ( a fourth became my mother ), and I also have one "Carmelicious" strain growing too. The Carmelicious is quite a bit shorter and bushier than the Chronic; this coupled with the conditions of my over-cramped grow space made life hard for the little Carmelicious bush because it was pretty much always farther from the lights, and it was also frequently shaded by the larger plants. Hopefully it doesn't become popcorn...

To the Pictures:

Chronic #1 (Right Rear):

Chronic #2 (Left Rear):

Chronic #3 (Left Front):

Little Carmelicious that Could (Right Front):

 

[akstoner]

Welcome to the Farm!! I would like to know how well these work out i may do the same thing if you dont mind explaining what ingredients i need to make them.....

 

[Mr Corealis]

Welcome to the Farm!! I would like to know how well these work out i may do the same thing if you dont mind explaining what ingredients i need to make them.....

Sure. I'm happy to share my design.

My initial design, the one most of my lights are based on, is DC powered with current regulation handled by a pretty simple BJT current-mirror circuit. I am investigating a new design now that runs on rectified AC, and this one is both simpler and cheaper to make. I started testing the first prototype of this new design in early January, so far with acceptable results.

Anyway, I'll try to do a write up at some point documenting this stuff. I've been crazy busy lately with work, only building these lights and doing the grow on the side and in spurts. My design and documentation materials for the project consists of a few pages of rough notes and some pencil sketches in a lab notebook. I will try to get it all organized into something useful.

 

[Mr Corealis]

Hey everybody, I hope you're all doing well. Me and my plants have had had a rough week this week, but overall everything is okay.

The first problem happened early in the week. On Tuesday night I adjusted the positions of my lights a little bit, but somehow I didn't realize that one of the 50 Watt LED modules was basically resting on a nice top bud. It was early afternoon on Wednesday by the time I noticed, and the damage was already done. This is what it looks like:

So sad...

I found more trouble when I went to water the plants on Sunday morning. I found the plant in the front left had collapsed under its own weight; its stem just bent over about halfway up the plant. When I got there it was flopped over and dangling. The plant behind it was apparently using it for support too, because that plant was suddenly sagging very low.

In order to get them back upright, I tied a few lengths of hemp twine to each of the plants just below a few of their largest buds, and then I secured the the other ends of the twine to the ceiling - pulling them just tight enough to reduce the load on the plants.

I then tried my best to deal with the bent spot in the stem. Where it was bent there were some vertical cracking of the epidermis where it had burst open slightly, but overall the stem appeared to be mostly intact. I wrapped the place of the break with electrical tape to seal it, and then I used a piece of bamboo and more electrical tape to splint the stem above and below the break.

So far the plant seems to be doing alright...

When I was fixing the supports for the girls, I noticed a number of buds that have been developing below the main canopy. They are a lot paler looking, probably because they aren't getting much light. Does anyone know if or the extent to which cannabinoid production is affected?

Anyway, here are a few more images to show the progress.

Later.

 

[chillywilly]

Looks good mang, I'm in my second year of LED, but I got a supergrowled full spectrum...these are my own breed c99 x rox...
Peace...
cw

 

[Mr Corealis]

Looks good mang, I'm in my second year of LED, but I got a supergrowled full spectrum...these are my own breed c99 x rox...
Peace...
cwView attachment 575169 View attachment 575171 View attachment 575178

Nice! That bud looks sick!

 

[Mr Corealis]

Hey Folks, sorry about the late report. It's been a hectic couple weeks for me, with plenty of ups and downs. Overall, things are looking good.

A week and a day ago, on Friday, my Caramelicious plant snapped it's stalk and collapsed. The stalk looked pretty damaged, and I assumed it couldn't be saved; in hindsight, I wish I had tried. Either way, I cut the stalk and hung it up to dry. It was the least developed of all the plants, and I only ended up with a couple decent buds out of it...

This week I went out of town for two days. Well, I can't imagine many threads on THC farmer start with that sentence and end up well; this one is no exception. My watering pump clogged, but the person I asked to do the watering never noticed that water wasn't flowing. When I got home two days ago the plants looked terrible. Two were collapsed and all were withering. The coco in their pots was dried hard and crisp. I ran pure RO through all of them, and tried propping the two fallen plants up, but by the end of the day yesterday the two collapsed plants were just looking worse. The one that hadn't collapsed was looking sickly, but improved. I decided to cut my losses, chop down the two dying plants, and now have only the one plant still hanging on.

Nonetheless, I think I was only a week or so away from harvest, and the harvested plants look pretty okay. I'll have them tested for potency when they've fully cured, but they don't look too bad.

Here are some pictures.

Caramelicious:

Final Surviving Chronic:

Early Harvest:

Until Next time.

-Corealis

 

[Mr Corealis]

Final Harvest/Aftermath:

I harvest the last plant two days ago, and it's hanging up to dry now. I'm satisfied with the results. Here are some pics:

This is my Bonsai Mom:

Here are the dried roots of the two chronic plants harvested last week:

Here is the beginning of my second grow, signalling the end of this first grow:

(What a relief to have some space again!)



Ciao,

Corealis

 

[Mr Corealis]

If you're interested in these lights, check out this guy's website. He has a good method of making them.

 

[Nomadic]

If you're interested in these lights, check out this guy's website. He has a good method of making them.

You should probably change that last sentence to "He has a cheap, very dangerous method of making them.

There are some excellent tutorials on this forum for producing nice, safe, commercial grade LED COB lights that are still relatively inexpensive compared to retail sources.