LED Lab 2009

[Weezard]

How's this?

How's this?

comprende? SI!

So what could one build without too much skill for around $250-300 [in hand price, tax shipping, handling]?

This buggah ran about $200 I think.





4 Deep red 660nm., 15W. --$120
1 blue 460nm. --$26
Couple LM317 current limiters. --$10
Fan and thermal switch --$9
Dimmer module for the blue --$5.
Had the li'l cpu heatsinks on hand, but they are cheap, bout a buck ea.
Cake pan and elbow grease --NC.
Dirt cheap!
But, only covers 4 sq. ft.
Perfect for keeping a mother plant.
It is a good blooming light for 3 small, or one huge, bush.

'bout what you're after?

Aloha,
Weeze

 

[indifferent]

How do you solder your ledengins? I gave up on mine (i bought five 5w 660s) as the solder just would not stick for long, was constantly repairing the joins. I have also used cree, dison, prolight,. luxeon, osram, seoul and kingbright star mounted LEDs and not had the problem with any of them.

 

[Weezard]

I feel yer pain.

I feel yer pain.

How do you solder your ledengins? I gave up on mine (i bought five 5w 660s) as the solder just would not stick for long, was constantly repairing the joins. I have also used cree, dison, prolight,. luxeon, osram, seoul and kingbright star mounted LEDs and not had the problem with any of them.

Aloha Indy.

The 15W. Ledengins are a different form factor.
They have "flying leads" and are very easy to solder.

I know what ya mean 'bout the 5Watt stars though.
Gotta solder them before ya heatsink 'em.
Even then, ya need a higher wattage iron to do it right.

Set them on a low heat transfer surface like wood or cardboard.
Then "tin" the pads, and the wires.
Lay the tinned wire on the pad and clamp it in place.
Then, using a big enough iron. Heat the tinned wire until it sinks into the tinned pad.
Remove the iron and keep the joint absolutely still until it solidifies to prevent "cold solder joints".
Then, mount them on da heatsink, and you are good to go for the next 20 years.

Good luck,
Weeze

 

[indifferent]

Yeah, I figured that was the issue - i mounted them before I soldered em. i need to remove them from my old light to use in the new one, so i will solder them before re-mounting.

 

[whatissixbynine]

.

 

[truthseeker]

can somebody tell me why nobody make ledpanels for cana with only warmwhite+coolwhite leds?

i ve see magnificent results with wwhite and cwhite cfls i cant understand why nobody tries led panels justlike that

i know that specific wavelegths will be more usable by the plant but
white leds (cool+warm) offer extremely more lumens than 650nm or 450 etcetc

so ????

what am i missing?

or im not missing smth???

 

[mrred]

leds have a short bandlength

 

[whatissixbynine]

.

 

[truthseeker]

but because my free time is really not enough for everything(read 60pages)

can somebody tell me if smbd has tried it???

 

[mrred]

because its different technology a warm white cfl isnt the same as a warm white led

 

[BACKCOUNTRY]

Would these work for blooming?

Would these work for blooming?

Size: 5mm

Emitted Colour : blue

Lens Color : Water Clear
Wavelength (nm):460-463-466

Static Sense: Yes

Forward Voltage: 3.2 - 3.4V DC

Maximum Current: 20mA Continuous, 50mA peak for 10% Pulse Width

View Angle: 5 - 25°

Luminous Intensity: 6000mcd -8000mcd

 

[Oldmac]

Sorry but no, BACKCOUNTRY. 5mm LEDs just do not have the power to really accomplish much, plus for blooming you need reds and preferrably deep red at 660nm and lots of that, plus a small amount of blue.

Here's a link to an LED mfg, that has high power LEDs; 3w, 5w,
10w and even some 15w diodes. www.LedEngin.com

BTW the deep red 660nm LEDs of 15w are not going to be made for awhile, but Mouser Electronic dist still has some (48 pcs yesterday).

HTH -Oldmac

 

[indifferent]

I gave up on my LEDengin 5w deep reds, and considering they were three times the prices of the other types I'm using I'm not impressed. So damn difficult to get a solder joint on them that will stay attached so they went in the bin. By way of contrast the cheap 660nm red LEDs I got from Hong Kong solder so easily and stay soldered.

LEDengin need tostart using decent star boards cos the ones they sell now are garbage imho. I mean, I have dozens of Seouls, Luxeons, Prolights,. CREEs, Edisons, and they are all capable of being soldered simply and easily and work great, so why can't LEDengin produce something that works properly?

 

[mrred]

not to much red tho, it prolongs the flowing time

 

[Oldmac]

I gave up on my LEDengin 5w deep reds, and considering they were three times the prices of the other types I'm using I'm not impressed. So damn difficult to get a solder joint on them that will stay attached so they went in the bin. By way of contrast the cheap 660nm red LEDs I got from Hong Kong solder so easily and stay soldered.

LEDengin need tostart using decent star boards cos the ones they sell now are garbage imho. I mean, I have dozens of Seouls, Luxeons, Prolights,. CREEs, Edisons, and they are all capable of being soldered simply and easily and work great, so why can't LEDengin produce something that works properly?

Sorry to hear you had problems with the LedEgins' LEDs, Indifferent. Tho your problem of soldering MCPCB is not that unusual for many, and that is just not the case for LedEngins' but holds true for other mfgs.

I'm not about to believe that a chinese 1 wattt diode tho is some how superior to a high powered diode from an american mfg. In case you have not looked at or seen a 15w deep red from LedEngin the leads are far removed from the emitter, on a flying pcb lead, and are probably the easiest diodes to solder. My only problem with them is the need to use thermal epoxy to set them to a heatsink. Ever since I got screwed by a Shangihai LED company for white diodes a couple of years ago (they provided a spectrum analysis from Luxeon, but delivered something else) I'll have nothing to do with chinese crap.

An older DIY hybred LED/T5 light I built, was based on Red Cree's of 635nm, and has worked out better then anything I've tried since. But I know that a 660nm diode of decent power is the way to go, it works great in the off the shelf lights that I use.

@ mrred, I'm really not sure what you are referring to. Red, especially deep red of 660nm is the cornerstone of photosynthesis. Using a LED light that is very full spectrum, but heavy on deep red, I have seen no prolonging of flowering time, in fact with my aero/fog tray I've trimmed flowering time by at least 5%.

Just my 2 cents. -Oldmac

 

[PetFlora]

High all. I am looking for used, but in great condition assembled lights. I started up a TAG Journal comparing a UFO 90 to CFLs. Unfortunately, the guy responsible to bring me the cool white 105s hasn't yet (been 3 weeks), so it's an unfair test, but really nothing you guys would be interested in light wise. Now grow wise, I think you would. Come by and say hi. I could use 2 lamps at 150-200 watts per. Feel free to PM me with any offers.

 

[knna]

126W light emits 120W of PAR light

Simply false. Clearly using two different concepts trying to appear a different thing than reality.

Probably the statement refers to the 126W lamp consist on 6W of the power supply/driver (or fans, if it have them), and 120W of LEDs.

That mean a 95% efficient power supply/driver, that is possible to get, but not easy (I personally doubt that unit has so efficient driver, but I havent tested it to say for sure). Probably someone did a mistake between a power factor of 95%, very easy to get, with the actual efficiency of the driver. And still it would implies that the unit has not any other consuptions apart of LEDs, as fans. If they do, I can say for sure that a lamp drawing 126W in total not run 120W of LEDs.

But 120W of LED power is very different of 120W of PAR light. It would mean that all the light emited is into the PAR range (easy with LEDs) and a 100% efficiency of LEDs converting electricity to light. Thats simply not possible, and its very far from what LEDs can do actually.

Best state of the art LEDs converts about half of the power burned into light. In average, a lamp with 30% efficiency (0.3 PAR watts emitted from each 1 watt burned) is already pretty good.

If that lamp emits 25 PAR watts, I would consider it good. I bet 20 to 1 against anybody that its below 40 PAR Watts of emission.

 

[growLEDhydro]

you are thinking of H.I.D's from the cars. no they wont work.

I am pretty sure that Audi is using a full LED headlight for thr 2010 model R8.

By the way, come on guys 2 spectrum's seriously? I thought we were supposed to be advancing led's not standing still. Thats just my opinion though.

 

[sx646522]

By the way, come on guys 2 spectrum's seriously? I thought we were supposed to be advancing led's not standing still. Thats just my opinion though.

Better than 11 spectrums many of which have reduced or no effect on the various plant processes.

 

[FreezerBoy]

Let's stick to science. No personal attacks allowed