I have built some crazy leds

[cleanreid]

The flower room with the old bulbs( 6-8 ) crops, need to swap them out but there still doing ok, yesterday I took the plants out of the veg room and it filled about 1m x 50cm of one end of the flower room, I will remove the old plants in flower next Friday, and space the new plants out they should more than double in size.

View attachment 1993890

Yessir!

 

[BudgetGrower]

I think I will stick with the crazy lights, the plants are loving the light, could be one my best crops, some of the plants are over 2ft high, very even spread of main shoots, good air flow, temps etc

 

[BudgetGrower]

I am running out of space between the canopy and the lights, but the plants have been in flower for 2 weeks, so the stretch is nearly over and I am happy with the node spacing, looks about 1.5-2cm on most the shoots, the room is full but there is some airflow between the plants, the lights is geting deep in the canopy, good air flow in the canopy, the temps and humidity have been really good, I will top dress them next weekend, as they must be running low on food.

 

[BudgetGrower]

Temperature and humidity over the last 24 hours

 

[BudgetGrower]

Last week I brought a microscope(4k wifi) reduced from £50 down to £30, in general I would go by the pistils and a quick look at the trichomes

This time around loads of pitils are white but most the trichomes look cloudy and the odd one Amber,

Just wondering should I chop tonight or next weekend?

What would you do?
There 9 weeks in flower tomorrow

 

[Captspaulding]

Last week I brought a microscope(4k wifi) reduced from £50 down to £30, in general I would go by the pistils and a quick look at the trichomes

This time around loads of pitils are white but most the trichomes look cloudy and the odd one Amber,
View attachment 1994938View attachment 1994939View attachment 1994940View attachment 1994941

Just wondering should I chop tonight or next weekend?

What would you do?
There 9 weeks in flower tomorrow
View attachment 1994943

Hey man! Happy Father’s Day weekend btw homie! In my honest opinion, I know your gonna hate it, but I say next week,

 

[BudgetGrower]

Thanks mate, hope you have a good father's day too, I am luck my kids are going to spend the day with me, girl left school 2 years ago and my son got a year left, thank for your opinion, I was thinking the same thing tbh, so I will be chopping next Friday

8 of my clones have roots, nice surprise(14 days) just waiting for the rest, short video of me potting up

 

[Captspaulding]

Thanks mate, hope you have a good father's day too, I am luck my kids are going to spend the day with me, girl left school 2 years ago and my son got a year left, thank for your opinion, I was thinking the same thing tbh, so I will be chopping next Friday

8 of my clones have roots, nice surprise(14 days) just waiting for the rest, short video of me potting up
View attachment 1994959

Nice! Glad your kids are gonna be there on your day! I’m lucking out too, my son came home from North Carolina for two weeks, so I get both my kids this weekend too. You got some hearty roots there on that one.

 

[PopPop67]

That is a good question and the answer is no, you don't need the right light spectrum.
have you seen the light spectrum from the old magnetic HPS, you could still pull a crop from them, same with MH and the red blue leds, same again, light spectrum not great but you can grow bud, there very few bulbs you can buy that will not grow bud as long as you have enough(over 500 umol/s)

 

[PopPop67]

If it was me I would cut the top buds and let the rest go for a week to ten days. I rarely cut the whole plant I try to get the buds that are ripe and cut the rest as they get ready. You will notice every time you take buds off the remaining buds will speed up you end up with every bud being cut at its prime PopPop

 

[Harpua88]

Hey man! Happy Father’s Day weekend btw homie! In my honest opinion, I know your gonna hate it, but I say next week,

What The Capt. said.........then add another 3 days. ;)

 

[BudgetGrower]

I found this video and I am loving it

I tried it and I can knock a 13.3 w bulb down to 5.5w and it becomes 22% more efficient
Going to cost me double for the bulbs but if they last double the time and safe 22% on the electrics it's all good

 

[Harpua88]

I found this video and I am loving it

I tried it and I can knock a 13.3 w bulb down to 5.5w and it becomes 22% more efficient
Going to cost me double for the bulbs but if they last double the time and safe 22% on the electrics it's all good

How does this happen? Not the procedure, but how is this a thing?

 

[BudgetGrower]

How does this happen? Not the procedure, but how is th8s a thing?

Not sure what you mean, someone has shown in great detail a way to reduce the wattage of a led bulb, These bulbs are probably produced in the Millions, there going to be very stable and there designed to pull A high current so the bulbs last about 2 years, there designed to run very hot in a lamp shade (90c) and this will also reduce the life span, I have heat guns, lux meters, plugs that display the watts being pulled etc.

In effect your dimming the bulbs down 60% and then you can remove the light from the bulb holder and screw it to aluminium, this should keep the led room temperature, because the heat difference of 60c(on vs off) must damage the light over time.

In theory i could make the system 25-30% more effective vs led bulbs(13.3) but its going to cost me 3x more, might be worth it.

​

 

[Harpua88]

Not sure what you mean, someone has shown in great detail a way to reduce the wattage of a led bulb, These bulbs are probably produced in the Millions, there going to be very stable and there designed to pull A high current so the bulbs last about 2 years, there designed to run very hot in a lamp shade (90c) and this will also reduce the life span, I have heat guns, lux meters, plugs that display the watts being pulled etc.

In effect your dimming the bulbs down 60% and then you can remove the light from the bulb holder and screw it to aluminium, this should keep the led room temperature, because the heat difference of 60c(on vs off) must damage the light over time.

In theory i could make the system 25-30% more effective vs led bulbs(13.3) but its going to cost me 3x more, might be worth it.

​

So you're modifying an led bulb? Are you reducing the power in order to extend the life? What about it costs so much? I always thought the allure of LEDs is that they use much less electricity and already burn cooler....?

 

[BudgetGrower]

I screwed a bulb holder on some wood, so it was hanging, fixed the lux meter in place, used the power meter plug to take the watts pulled from the wall
This was a basic test.

first bulb in the bulb holder 5.5w, lux reading was 339 (x100)
second bulb in the bulb holder 13.3w, lux reading 670 (x100)
back to the first bulb in the bulb holder 341(x 100) check readings are still good

670 lux / 13.3w = 50.3 lux per watt
339 lux / 5.5w = 61.63 lux per watt

100% / 50.3 = 19.88
1.988 x 61.63 = 122.5%

There was a fan cooling the bulbs because I didn't want the temps to have any impact on the bulbs.

 

[Captspaulding]

I screwed a bulb holder on some wood, so it was hanging, fixed the lux meter in place, used the power meter plug to take the watts pulled from the wall
This was a basic test.

first bulb in the bulb holder 5.5w, lux reading was 339 (x100)
second bulb in the bulb holder 13.3w, lux reading 670 (x100)
back to the first bulb in the bulb holder 341(x 100) check readings are still good

670 lux / 13.3w = 50.3 lux per watt
339 lux / 5.5w = 61.63 lux per watt

100% / 50.3 = 19.88
1.988 x 61.63 = 122.5%

There was a fan cooling the bulbs because I didn't want the temps to have any impact on the bulbs.

I truly believe if you bought a couple of 3d printers, and you started to make encasements for some of your arrays, you would have some folks willing to try your gear homie, I know you are very budget minded though, so you can throw a tomato at me anytime. You really do have good ideas man.

 

[memnoch]

absolutely love it!!1 great job man

 

[BudgetGrower]

So you're modifying an led bulb? Are you reducing the power in order to extend the life? What about it costs so much? I always thought the allure of LEDs is that they use much less electricity and already burn cooler....?

Yes that's right, by reducing the wattage down from 13.3w to 5.5w in will need more double the bulbs to have the same wattage
5.5w x 19(bulbs) = 104w
13.3w x 8(bulbs) = 106w

In the summer when my bedroom hits 30c my bulbs have hit 90c, there a thermal control built in, so it can reduce the wattage if the bulb gets too hot, they want the bulbs hot guessing between 70c and 80c

my bulb is getting there after 5mins

 

[Harpua88]

Yes that's right, by reducing the wattage down from 13.3w to 5.5w in will need more double the bulbs to have the same wattage
5.5w x 19(bulbs) = 104w
13.3w x 8(bulbs) = 106w

In the summer when my bedroom hits 30c my bulbs have hit 90c, there a thermal control built in, so it can reduce the wattage if the bulb gets too hot, they want the bulbs hot guessing between 70c and 80c

my bulb is getting there after 5mins View attachment 1996453

Ok so are you talking grow LEDs or for general light? Why not just buy lower wattage LEDs? Or.....why would you want lower wattage for growing? Isn't twice as many at half the wattage the same thing?