Hi everyone, 
Welcome to my new LED test thread, In the right corner we have the challenger (LED Mayweather), weighting in at 205w but looks mighty tuff, In the left corner we have the current heavy weight champion (HID Powerhouse), weighing in at 400w and been laying nugs down for years now, No buds been able to touch that belt since the champ recieved it (so many years ago). The challenger is a young gunner early in his career, but he's fearless and strong and has a very colorful style.
Ok ok hmm, nuff with the games time to get serious!
I was recently picked by LEDGirl & Company (HYDRO-GRO) to do a comparison grow using there 205w penetrator light. I am not affiliated with LEDGirl or HYDRO-GRO in any other form, Simply testing a new product against an age old product. I was not paid to perform some rigged test, I am not growing a certain style to please anyone. I am gonna do what I do best, That's grow some killer nugs
!
This test will be a properly executed fair trial, I pick no sides and favor no product, I am simply testing, comparing, and documenting nothing more nothing less.
I recieved my 205w Penetrator LED light sometime last week, Upon getting back from picking it up, I unboxed it and first impression was (I like the packaging method) it arrived nicely packaged completely protected by a foam insulator. Upon opening the packing an revealing the actual unit I was impressed, it has a nice polished finish, It's heavy and quality in appearance. Great design LEDGirl two thumbs up on that!
Excited and anxious to plug it in and test it out, I take it over plug it into the nearest outlet, 1st thing I noticed was 2 of the arrays were not lit. Below is a couple pictures of the light when I plugged it in for the 1st time.
At this point I'm kinda upset, not mad, I was thinking "Just my luck, I get the broken unit", So I get on icmag and send LEDGirl a pm informing her of the problem, She quickly replied "It's a bad power supply", If I wanted she could send a replacement power supply out immediatly, and I could install it myself or I could take the longer route and send the unit back for repair/replacement. I chose to have the new supply shipped.
Couple hrs go by and I decide I'm gonna box the light back up and await the new power supply, I go get the light and just as I am starting to box it back up, I said to myself "what the hell might as well plug it in once more". So I took it back out and plugged it in again, this time all of the arrays lit up. I hopped back on icmag and sent another pm to LEDGirl and informed her that I plugged the unit back in and all the arrays lit up, She quickly replied again the new power supply has already been shipped out, I thought (dam it's only been 3-4 hrs) she said I guess if it's working you got yourself a backup power supply, It's on its way so just keep it.
Happy that the lights working, I take it down in my lab and mount it up and plug it back in (wanted to see the footprint and just marvel at it's appeal, I guess) upon plugging it in I find the same 2 arrays are now no longer lighting again. I decided what the hell I'll take this sucker down void the warranty and bust it open and pull this bad power supply out. So I take it apart remove the bad power supply, Verify that its bad by plugging one of the other 4 power supply's into the array that was having problems. Instantly the 2 arrays lit up. At this point I'm thinking "LEDGirl was spot on with the problem", I started to take the bad power supply to the trash when I heard a rattling noise, now I'm curious what's sliding around inside this power supply.
So I remove the screws and soon as I take the casing off I notice 2 things, 1st the PCB (Printed Circuit Board) was just losely placed into the housing, wasn't mounted like it's supposed to be, 2nd I noticed that the negative lead wire had broken loose from the PCB you can see this in the pictures below.
I quickly went downstairs to my workspace and grabbed my soldering iron some solder, and hot glue. I resoldered the negative lead line back to the PCB as shown in the picture below.
I also realized why this had happened, The reason why this unit showed up with 2 arrays not working, Is because the PCB is just loosely placed into the housing, then its wired tightly with just a little wiggle room, This wiggle room causes the PCB to slide around inside the housing as the lights carried and moved around, putting pressure on the delicate solder joints that bond the lines in and out to the PCB, the pressure causes the delicate solder joints to break/crack and the outcome is a faulty power supply, which causes the arrays connected to it, to no longer function.
Realizing this I pulled all 5 power supplies out of the unit and removed the cases and mounted the PCB, to the housing, (used a little hotglue on each side of the pcb gotta be careful hot glue can damage fragile components on the board) then I put all the power supplies back into the unit and hooked them back up, screwed the case back together and plugged it back in, Now all the arrays are working and the problem is resolved. Now I have a backup power supply coming and a fully functional 205w penetrator LED light.
Pictured below is the unit after the repairs. Fully functional!
I decided to get back on icmag and send another pm to LEDGirl and inform her of the problem I encountered and noticed during the repair, she quickly replied and informed me that she was aware of the issue and is working to get her supplier to fix the problem, Or replace the supplier all together. I wanted to post my experience and findings with you guys, I guess product review so to say.
As this is a trial grow its also my product review, new product, why not review it? I'm sharing my findings, so others who may encounter this error with units produced while this problem persist will know what needs done to prevent this from accuring.
Now that we got that out the way, Let's begin with the growroom/design/build.
The growroom is gonna be 2 tents both measuring 32"x40"x5'6" W/L/H the way its gonna be setup is as follows. Tent #1 will house the 205w LED light, Tent #2 will house the 400w HID light. Inside tent #1 will be a 120cfm exhaust fan pulling air out of the tent near the bottom of the tent, Tent #1 will be linked to tent #2 at the top of the tents, via a 6x10" vent. Tent #2 will also have a 6x10" vent which will allow fresh air in. So the idea is tent #2 will have a fresh air via passive intake active exhaust. Cooler air will come in at the ground level in tent #2 it will then be pulled up past the HID light and into tent #1 the led light, This will make use of the heat from the hid and keep temps stable through-out both tents, 2 seperate tents 1 single climate.
I will be growing, Purple Urkle, Or Katsu bubba, Or East Coast Sour Diesel, I have not decided on the strain but those are the 3 I have in mind, I will pick one to run soon enough, I will be growing them in the usual soil mix, The plant numbers will vary depending on the strain chosen. I still have to finish the tents and growbox up, I have to put the doors up and also run the ventilation system before it's up and running.
Here are some pics of the tents as it stands still quite a bit to be done yet.
Notice
I want to make one thing clear to all the non believers. This is a real comparison grow, No money will pursuade the outcome, If you think all these LED TEST THREADS are paid for etc your sadly mistaken, I have no affiliation with LEDGirl Or HYDRO-GROW other then performing this test grow, I am gonna provide everyone with a fair comparison thread, I signed up for this to test LED's out nothing more nothing less. So please do not come into my thread with negitivity I will not be bothered with false accusations. Other then that enjoy the thread.
Alright everyone, Until next time be safe and take care!
Welcome to my new LED test thread, In the right corner we have the challenger (LED Mayweather), weighting in at 205w but looks mighty tuff, In the left corner we have the current heavy weight champion (HID Powerhouse), weighing in at 400w and been laying nugs down for years now, No buds been able to touch that belt since the champ recieved it (so many years ago). The challenger is a young gunner early in his career, but he's fearless and strong and has a very colorful style.
Ok ok hmm, nuff with the games time to get serious!I was recently picked by LEDGirl & Company (HYDRO-GRO) to do a comparison grow using there 205w penetrator light. I am not affiliated with LEDGirl or HYDRO-GRO in any other form, Simply testing a new product against an age old product. I was not paid to perform some rigged test, I am not growing a certain style to please anyone. I am gonna do what I do best, That's grow some killer nugs
!This test will be a properly executed fair trial, I pick no sides and favor no product, I am simply testing, comparing, and documenting nothing more nothing less.
I recieved my 205w Penetrator LED light sometime last week, Upon getting back from picking it up, I unboxed it and first impression was (I like the packaging method) it arrived nicely packaged completely protected by a foam insulator. Upon opening the packing an revealing the actual unit I was impressed, it has a nice polished finish, It's heavy and quality in appearance. Great design LEDGirl two thumbs up on that!
Excited and anxious to plug it in and test it out, I take it over plug it into the nearest outlet, 1st thing I noticed was 2 of the arrays were not lit. Below is a couple pictures of the light when I plugged it in for the 1st time.
At this point I'm kinda upset, not mad, I was thinking "Just my luck, I get the broken unit", So I get on icmag and send LEDGirl a pm informing her of the problem, She quickly replied "It's a bad power supply", If I wanted she could send a replacement power supply out immediatly, and I could install it myself or I could take the longer route and send the unit back for repair/replacement. I chose to have the new supply shipped.
Couple hrs go by and I decide I'm gonna box the light back up and await the new power supply, I go get the light and just as I am starting to box it back up, I said to myself "what the hell might as well plug it in once more". So I took it back out and plugged it in again, this time all of the arrays lit up. I hopped back on icmag and sent another pm to LEDGirl and informed her that I plugged the unit back in and all the arrays lit up, She quickly replied again the new power supply has already been shipped out, I thought (dam it's only been 3-4 hrs) she said I guess if it's working you got yourself a backup power supply, It's on its way so just keep it.
Happy that the lights working, I take it down in my lab and mount it up and plug it back in (wanted to see the footprint and just marvel at it's appeal, I guess) upon plugging it in I find the same 2 arrays are now no longer lighting again. I decided what the hell I'll take this sucker down void the warranty and bust it open and pull this bad power supply out. So I take it apart remove the bad power supply, Verify that its bad by plugging one of the other 4 power supply's into the array that was having problems. Instantly the 2 arrays lit up. At this point I'm thinking "LEDGirl was spot on with the problem", I started to take the bad power supply to the trash when I heard a rattling noise, now I'm curious what's sliding around inside this power supply.
So I remove the screws and soon as I take the casing off I notice 2 things, 1st the PCB (Printed Circuit Board) was just losely placed into the housing, wasn't mounted like it's supposed to be, 2nd I noticed that the negative lead wire had broken loose from the PCB you can see this in the pictures below.
I quickly went downstairs to my workspace and grabbed my soldering iron some solder, and hot glue. I resoldered the negative lead line back to the PCB as shown in the picture below.
I also realized why this had happened, The reason why this unit showed up with 2 arrays not working, Is because the PCB is just loosely placed into the housing, then its wired tightly with just a little wiggle room, This wiggle room causes the PCB to slide around inside the housing as the lights carried and moved around, putting pressure on the delicate solder joints that bond the lines in and out to the PCB, the pressure causes the delicate solder joints to break/crack and the outcome is a faulty power supply, which causes the arrays connected to it, to no longer function.
Realizing this I pulled all 5 power supplies out of the unit and removed the cases and mounted the PCB, to the housing, (used a little hotglue on each side of the pcb gotta be careful hot glue can damage fragile components on the board) then I put all the power supplies back into the unit and hooked them back up, screwed the case back together and plugged it back in, Now all the arrays are working and the problem is resolved. Now I have a backup power supply coming and a fully functional 205w penetrator LED light.
Pictured below is the unit after the repairs. Fully functional!
I decided to get back on icmag and send another pm to LEDGirl and inform her of the problem I encountered and noticed during the repair, she quickly replied and informed me that she was aware of the issue and is working to get her supplier to fix the problem, Or replace the supplier all together. I wanted to post my experience and findings with you guys, I guess product review so to say.
As this is a trial grow its also my product review, new product, why not review it? I'm sharing my findings, so others who may encounter this error with units produced while this problem persist will know what needs done to prevent this from accuring.
Now that we got that out the way, Let's begin with the growroom/design/build.
The growroom is gonna be 2 tents both measuring 32"x40"x5'6" W/L/H the way its gonna be setup is as follows. Tent #1 will house the 205w LED light, Tent #2 will house the 400w HID light. Inside tent #1 will be a 120cfm exhaust fan pulling air out of the tent near the bottom of the tent, Tent #1 will be linked to tent #2 at the top of the tents, via a 6x10" vent. Tent #2 will also have a 6x10" vent which will allow fresh air in. So the idea is tent #2 will have a fresh air via passive intake active exhaust. Cooler air will come in at the ground level in tent #2 it will then be pulled up past the HID light and into tent #1 the led light, This will make use of the heat from the hid and keep temps stable through-out both tents, 2 seperate tents 1 single climate.
I will be growing, Purple Urkle, Or Katsu bubba, Or East Coast Sour Diesel, I have not decided on the strain but those are the 3 I have in mind, I will pick one to run soon enough, I will be growing them in the usual soil mix, The plant numbers will vary depending on the strain chosen. I still have to finish the tents and growbox up, I have to put the doors up and also run the ventilation system before it's up and running.
Here are some pics of the tents as it stands still quite a bit to be done yet.
Notice
I want to make one thing clear to all the non believers. This is a real comparison grow, No money will pursuade the outcome, If you think all these LED TEST THREADS are paid for etc your sadly mistaken, I have no affiliation with LEDGirl Or HYDRO-GROW other then performing this test grow, I am gonna provide everyone with a fair comparison thread, I signed up for this to test LED's out nothing more nothing less. So please do not come into my thread with negitivity I will not be bothered with false accusations. Other then that enjoy the thread.
Alright everyone, Until next time be safe and take care!
.....subbed
