The Perfect Led Grow Light / Lite

  • Thread starter JWM2
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Does the perfect LED grow light already exist?


  • Total voters
    39
UncleRomulus

UncleRomulus

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What’s interesting to me is that if say some new lighting tech comes along, and everyone switches up, you can still throw your led rigs upside down on your roof. The diodes supposedly act as little solar panels and generate voltage. Not as well as solar panels pretty sure, but hey keep it in mind after the apocalypse. Grab that old led rig and wire it to a battery. Then wire up a few bulbs and you got light bayyybeh. Wait.. I think I wandered off topic. My bad
 
F

FutureGrower

606
93
What’s interesting to me is that if say some new lighting tech comes along, and everyone switches up, you can still throw your led rigs upside down on your roof. The diodes supposedly act as little solar panels and generate voltage. Not as well as solar panels pretty sure, but hey keep it in mind after the apocalypse. Grab that old led rig and wire it to a battery. Then wire up a few bulbs and you got light bayyybeh. Wait.. I think I wandered off topic. My bad

Any links to this? Purely out of curiosity I wont be throwing my LEDs for solar panels anytime soon lol!
 
New school

New school

122
43
What’s interesting to me is that if say some new lighting tech comes along, and everyone switches up, you can still throw your led rigs upside down on your roof. The diodes supposedly act as little solar panels and generate voltage. Not as well as solar panels pretty sure, but hey keep it in mind after the apocalypse. Grab that old led rig and wire it to a battery. Then wire up a few bulbs and you got light bayyybeh. Wait.. I think I wandered off topic. My bad
Or you can signal the mothership and get a ride home.. Lol
 
UncleRomulus

UncleRomulus

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263
No I didnt mean you were crazy just was saying I'm not putting 600$ on my roof. Still wanted to know and thank you for the link man

I think he was talking about my post. It's the Romulans Captain. Lol.. A little Star Trek humor...
No feelings hurt over thisaway brethren. Just messing about. Again this is post apocalyptic use only cause if you want a solar panel they might be cheaper seeing the price of good leds right now haha. Was just trying to out-nerd you LED smart asses one time.. just let yer ol uncle win one time.. damn booklearnin led enthusiasts.. no respect
 
New school

New school

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No feelings hurt over thisaway brethren. Just messing about. Again this is post apocalyptic use only cause if you want a solar panel they might be cheaper seeing the price of good leds right now haha. Was just trying to out-nerd you LED smart asses one time.. just let yer ol uncle win one time.. damn booklearnin led enthusiasts.. no respect

I honestly didn't know about the solar power thing. I was a little baked and just thinking of 800w+ signaling spaceships from a roof. Lol. I've lots of respect and enjoyed your logs.
 
UncleRomulus

UncleRomulus

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263
I honestly didn't know about the solar power thing. I was a little baked and just thinking of 800w+ signaling spaceships from a roof. Lol. I've lots of respect and enjoyed your logs.
Haha right on man. Next time my power goes out I’ll see how good it works haha
 
TerpyTyrone

TerpyTyrone

692
143
Not sure there is a perfect light out there. But my build(not finished yet waiting on parts).
4-3000k 90cri cxm22
4-3500k 90cri cxm22
2-10w xpe-4 385mn
4-10w xpe-4 450mn
4-10w xpe-4 625mn
6-10w xpe-4 660mn
6-10w xpe-4 730mn
2-10w xpe-4 3000k
2-10w xpe-4 4000k
1 15w reptile uvb 18" florescent
All individually controlled by spectrum.
Where did u learn how to do that?
 
New school

New school

122
43
Where did u learn how to do that?

My wife has Fibro she has her card. I just started to grow two year ago for her. My first grow was indoor hydro with blurples and t5ho side lights. I harvested just over 6 oz dry in a 2 × 4 steel cabinet. I'm running 2 cabinets 2 × 4 × 78". Perpetual grow. Followed by 5 more plentiful harvests. Took a break for a couple months. Then decided to build and add. Okay time to play. Lol.. Added a 1/10 hp chiller and build some lights. I used the trim to make butter. Now I'm looking at the Extractcraft Source Turbo. So many options what you can make. Growing and building leds is an addictive hobby. The amount of hours reading just to get where I am now. None of my acquaintances grow. I love search bars. Lol
 
Jimster

Jimster

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I bought a bunch of different frequency LEDs...about 8 to cover the individual frequencies and a full spectrum + hard white LED COB. They worked well after getting the heat sinks configured. The cobs were either 30 watt or 50 watt with integrated drivers. The results were impressive, but I used it as supplemental to HIDs. I think this multi frequency approach is great, but the full spectrum chips are pretty good as well by themselves. I love how fast the technology advances!
 
JWM2

JWM2

Premium Member
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I bought a bunch of different frequency LEDs...about 8 to cover the individual frequencies and a full spectrum + hard white LED COB. They worked well after getting the heat sinks configured. The cobs were either 30 watt or 50 watt with integrated drivers. The results were impressive, but I used it as supplemental to HIDs. I think this multi frequency approach is great, but the full spectrum chips are pretty good as well by themselves. I love how fast the technology advances!

As someone who has experimented with spectrums in the past I can appreciate the results I’m getting now with full spectrum leds more so than I might had I not seen the differences with my own eyes and lungs. I do still think better results can be achieved with a slightly bluer spectrum. Say 3200-3500k vs 2700-3000k but that’s my opinion. I did see increased resin production with a slightly bluer spectrum in my testing. Can’t say potency went up as there was not any sort of reasonable thc testing at the time. But it seemed like potency was a little higher as well as overall terp production.
 
MidwestToker

MidwestToker

1,228
263
As someone who has experimented with spectrums in the past I can appreciate the results I’m getting now with full spectrum leds more so than I might had I not seen the differences with my own eyes and lungs. I do still think better results can be achieved with a slightly bluer spectrum. Say 3200-3500k vs 2700-3000k but that’s my opinion. I did see increased resin production with a slightly bluer spectrum in my testing. Can’t say potency went up as there was not any sort of reasonable thc testing at the time. But it seemed like potency was a little higher as well as overall terp production.
Just shows the difference from one grower to anothers perspective as I notice most improvement with heavy red supplementation for flower. Of the 75 watts of supplemental diodes I run 25% is in the blue/UV spectrum with the rest made up of red-orange, photo-reds,far-reds and IR. The strips are a either all 3K or a mix of 3k and 3.5k.
 
oldskol4evr

oldskol4evr

12,306
438
In the past as growers we have been stuck with what’s available to us on the open market. That’s mostly controlled by the lighting manufacturers and we simply either buy it or don’t.

But what if we COULD design the perfect LED light? What if we could design and create the next LED grow light?

So lets design the perfect LED Grow Light. If you could design the best LED grow light what would you do? Design / Footprint, Specs, Color Temp (Can be multiple or just one), Price, etc.

This is just to let our imaginations run wild. It’s a break from the normal “what deficiency is this?” or “why is my plant doing that?”. Something to get our minds moving and maybe help evolve the industry we all love. Now I know one size doesn’t fit all and that’s ok.

What would be ideal for you?
my idea would be a one size fits all,right,like tent size and what is the equal point of all difrent areas that we live,right impossible,i do know by difrent regions there is a difrence in your bud,i visit colorado at times and when i go there my weed taste much difrent than at home,so im thinking diffrent altitudes reflect back to taste buds,leads me to believe there really isnt a climate myth of course desert and tropical areas would be ,that said i would be on board for a light that not only focus down but also side angles,as you lift the light foot print does change but dont get them sides if you dig,another thing would be easiness of controls,not all us damn hippys can remeber things hahahah,the heat is rediculiouse on these led lights,with my hid lighting i can at least vent threw a hood,with my led light it the whole hog in that tent,in a 2x4x5 tent humidifers and such just dont kick it dig,so less heat,easy operations a must for old folk hahahah
 
JWM2

JWM2

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Supporter
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Actually heat on burples and cobs id agree can be a bit much. But my quantum boards and driver pushing put out practically nothing. I have to use an external heat source to keep temps up in a confined space inside a bedroom of my home. Right now I’m running a T5 light down below to put off some extra heat. In the spring I’ll go back to my led as this room won’t get the AC turned on like the rest of the house. With leds you want to run a little warmer than with HIDs. It helps them metabolize as the leaf temps are lower with leds bs HID lights.

But I fully agree an easy to setup rig with alternating led mounts so more of the light goes in each angular direction would be ideal. Imo you could then run the lights closer, get better canopy penetration, build better buds on the perimeter and turn the drivers down some so there’s less wasted light. The amount of light lost at 1 or 2 inches below the fixture compared to at plant height when running them 12-18” away is incredible. That’s just wasted energy. So for sure more work has yet to be done to realize a truely perfect setup but I think we are as close now as ever.
 
MIMedGrower

MIMedGrower

17,190
438
Actually heat on burples and cobs id agree can be a bit much. But my quantum boards and driver pushing put out practically nothing. I have to use an external heat source to keep temps up in a confined space inside a bedroom of my home. Right now I’m running a T5 light down below to put off some extra heat. In the spring I’ll go back to my led as this room won’t get the AC turned on like the rest of the house. With leds you want to run a little warmer than with HIDs. It helps them metabolize as the leaf temps are lower with leds bs HID lights.

But I fully agree an easy to setup rig with alternating led mounts so more of the light goes in each angular direction would be ideal. Imo you could then run the lights closer, get better canopy penetration, build better buds on the perimeter and turn the drivers down some so there’s less wasted light. The amount of light lost at 1 or 2 inches below the fixture compared to at plant height when running them 12-18” away is incredible. That’s just wasted energy. So for sure more work has yet to be done to realize a truely perfect setup but I think we are as close now as ever.


“I think we are as close now as ever.”

Lol. We sure are. It all improves next month as usual. (According to the advertisers)

And i thought new snow sport gear every year was unneeded. :-)
 
Smoking Gun

Smoking Gun

2,235
263
@JWM2 & @oldskol4evr, I hear what you guys are saying about side lighting but I really don' see how its possible to have a single unit that does the top and side lighting effectively. However, this is where the QB's have a serious advantage over most other fixtures; they are thin and cool to the touch so could easily be suspended at the outer edges of a tent only millimeters from the sides providing as much side lighting as you want. T-5 strips could also be used, but they will protrude just a bit further into the canopy area.

For larger areas check out photo bio, they have a very cool side light intended for the bloom phase of growth.
 
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