Diamond Series XML - 10W CREE XML grow

[rives]

Vuk,

1k posts......nice.

One thing we all have to remember,
there are many variables in growing, light is just one of them.
Thus the layout of my grow.

We also have to remember that Rives is very very good at growing, better than most of us, me included!

Disregarding and claims of weight, this grow could be considered a success for a first swipe at trying a led light from a fairly inexperienced grower.

I'll bet that this grow from the OP is probably the highest quality that he has done to date and the yield was at least as good or better than his previous attempts.
If so bravo!

I would encourage the OP to continue posting and doing grow journals to allow all of us to follow along and learn and help from his successes and failures.

I appreciate the evaluation, tenthirty, but I don't really think that I'm that good of a grower. I'm a far better electrician than I am a grower!

I didn't intend to discourage the OP, and I hope that isn't how it was taken. I thought that picture might help him understand why he is being questioned about weight. I think that he got a very nice yield, especially for as few watts as that fixture has, and it will only get better. Well, there may be a few bumps in the road!

 

[Arthritis_sucks]

there is an ignore option.....

 

[Siddartha]

NOOOO grow_right don't go! We all want to see what these lights can do!

 

[tenthirty]

It has taken 7 or 8 cycles for me to get where I'm at with leds.

We definitely want to see some more.

 

[vukman]

DUDE!!!!!!!! come on......there are fucking morons and idiots no matter where you go and no matter what you do.

In the grand scheme of things....this fuckwads opinion don't mean shit and especially since this is the internet!! We've all been on the receiving end of trolls and other stupidity.

Please don't let the opinion of one or even a few, if that is the case, deter you from sharing your findings with the majority of us who actually do care about what you're doing.

I have found that the reason people 'troll' is because they have confidence and self-esteem issues......very small and insignificant little people.. Why would you let someone like that stop you from doing or participating in what, I can only think, is something you enjoy doing.

If you really are signing off..........you will be missed..........but I really hope you reconsider..

 

[Socrates]

Me too. Enjoyed your updates and, as your setup is very similar to my own, I was looking forward to comparing notes in the future after I get things set up.

 

[Phychotron]

I'd like to see round 2 with this light

 

[vukman]

Hi all....not to add insults to injury be no means but I have a picture or two of 8 oz. Here they are.. In the baggie it's compressed, in the jars..well, you be the judge..

I still think it blows big donkey cocks that someone doesn't want to post anymore because of an insignificant little nothing......:-(

 

[Mcaugusto]

grow_right >>> I recently bought a Diamond Series XML 350 which has 9 "pods" of LEDs and i wonder if you could give me your impressions of the built quality of your XML 150.
On my XML 350, whenever i shut down the power supply either at the timer or using the ON/OFF switches on the lamp itself, the LEDs on the lamp always keep a lingering AC charge and stay lit continuously at a very/very low level which i would describe as comparable to the light of a full moon, and that really bothers me; In all fairness, that amount of illumination is given off when my lamp is plugged to its timer, although it is still there but slightly less bright when connected directly to the AC wall receptacle.
Also, one of the fans keeps running even after power is shut off and it only stops running if i click twice on the ON/OFF switch for the red/blue LEDs, and that does not seem right to me either.
The other problem i have with my lamp is the fact that the lenses covering those Cree 10W white LEDs look like they are scratched and/or have some type of film/discoloration (it even looks like moisture, but isn't) on their inside surfaces, not outside, and i wonder if your lamp looks the same.
I contacted the company about these issues and the person i spoke with, Kyle H, sales manager (apparently CEO, customer service rep, service rep, phone answerer, jack-of-all-trades, etc) was rather rude and uncooperative, and he told me that the issue with the LEDs is to be expected due to the fact that LEDs hold AC power charge after shut off and that the problem would go away within a couple of weeks, which has not happened; He also stated that the very small amount of light discharged by those LEDs after power is shut down in no way harms the plants when they are supposed to be in the dark, but i am not convinced about that. He also said that those lenses over the Cree LEDs look like that normally, that it has to do with the plastic material used during manufacture.
Other than that, i am very/very impressed with the amount of grow rate of my plants under the XML 350, the fact that illumination reaches all the way down to the lower branches and i love the separate dimmer controls for the red/blue LEDs and for the white LEDs, which i have been using in conjunction with my Apogee PAR meter for proper light exposure measurements, it's just too bad that my lamp seem to have some "issues".
Could you please tell me about your XML 150 and if the issues i mentioned above also applies to your lamp ? Thanks a lot,
Marcos

 

[FunkBomb]

That XML 350 looks super bright from those pictures. That is a cool grow you've got going too, thanks for sharing.

-Funk

 

[rives]

On my XML 350, whenever i shut down the power supply either at the timer or using the ON/OFF switches on the lamp itself, the LEDs on the lamp always keep a lingering AC charge and stay lit continuously at a very/very low level which i would describe as comparable to the light of a full moon, and that really bothers me; In all fairness, that amount of illumination is given off when my lamp is plugged to its timer, although it is still there but slightly less bright when connected directly to the AC wall receptacle.
Also, one of the fans keeps running even after power is shut off and it only stops running if i click twice on the ON/OFF switch for the red/blue LEDs, and that does not seem right to me either.
The other problem i have with my lamp is the fact that the lenses covering those Cree 10W white LEDs look like they are scratched and/or have some type of film/discoloration (it even looks like moisture, but isn't) on their inside surfaces, not outside, and i wonder if your lamp looks the same.
I contacted the company about these issues and the person i spoke with, Kyle H, sales manager (apparently CEO, customer service rep, service rep, phone answerer, jack-of-all-trades, etc) was rather rude and uncooperative, and he told me that the issue with the LEDs is to be expected due to the fact that LEDs hold AC power charge after shut off and that the problem would go away within a couple of weeks, which has not happened; He also stated that the very small amount of light discharged by those LEDs after power is shut down in no way harms the plants when they are supposed to be in the dark, but i am not convinced about that. He also said that those lenses over the Cree LEDs look like that normally, that it has to do with the plastic material used during manufacture.

Mcaugusto - I don't own any model of this equipment, but I am an electrician. Kyle H. is incorrect for all of the reasons that you suspect. LED's do not "store a charge", capacitors do, and they should bleed down in fairly short order. If the LEDs remain lit after more than a minute or two, it sounds to me like they are doing some "soft" power switching with a triac (an electronic "switch", rather than a mechanical one), and they are notorious for leaking current in the off state. As you no doubt are aware, it takes very little light for your plants to hermie. This could also explain your fan problem. Try unplugging the cord and see if the LEDs go out completely - if they do, you can change to a timer with mechanical contacts (it sounds like your timer also utilizes a triac for power switching) and the illumination problem should go away.

The good news is, your plants look beautiful.

 

[vukman]

grow_right >>> I recently bought a Diamond Series XML 350 which has 9 "pods" of LEDs and i wonder if you could give me your impressions of the built quality of your XML 150.
On my XML 350, whenever i shut down the power supply either at the timer or using the ON/OFF switches on the lamp itself, the LEDs on the lamp always keep a lingering AC charge and stay lit continuously at a very/very low level which i would describe as comparable to the light of a full moon, and that really bothers me; In all fairness, that amount of illumination is given off when my lamp is plugged to its timer, although it is still there but slightly less bright when connected directly to the AC wall receptacle.
Also, one of the fans keeps running even after power is shut off and it only stops running if i click twice on the ON/OFF switch for the red/blue LEDs, and that does not seem right to me either.
The other problem i have with my lamp is the fact that the lenses covering those Cree 10W white LEDs look like they are scratched and/or have some type of film/discoloration (it even looks like moisture, but isn't) on their inside surfaces, not outside, and i wonder if your lamp looks the same.
I contacted the company about these issues and the person i spoke with, Kyle H, sales manager (apparently CEO, customer service rep, service rep, phone answerer, jack-of-all-trades, etc) was rather rude and uncooperative, and he told me that the issue with the LEDs is to be expected due to the fact that LEDs hold AC power charge after shut off and that the problem would go away within a couple of weeks, which has not happened; He also stated that the very small amount of light discharged by those LEDs after power is shut down in no way harms the plants when they are supposed to be in the dark, but i am not convinced about that. He also said that those lenses over the Cree LEDs look like that normally, that it has to do with the plastic material used during manufacture.
Other than that, i am very/very impressed with the amount of grow rate of my plants under the XML 350, the fact that illumination reaches all the way down to the lower branches and i love the separate dimmer controls for the red/blue LEDs and for the white LEDs, which i have been using in conjunction with my Apogee PAR meter for proper light exposure measurements, it's just too bad that my lamp seem to have some "issues".
Could you please tell me about your XML 150 and if the issues i mentioned above also applies to your lamp ? Thanks a lot,
Marcos

Wow...sorry to hear that your having such an issue with these morons over there who don't even know how their own product works..

It's not the LED that maintains the charge but rather the driver or to be more precise....the capacitors within the driver. That should bleed itself out very very quickly. If, by what you say, it isn't and hasn't and is still a problem, then there is an issue with the drivers themselves. If it was a DIY project, it could be a number of issues but since it is a "plug and play" retail unit, I would dare to say it's defective.

Now, the issue may be a simple one as the unit not being properly grounded or something but still.....very sorry to hear about the attitude this guy gave you.

I do not know if those units have a manual switch on them but next lights off period, you could try to switch it off and see if you still have that 'residual' leak..

Sorry I couldn't be of more help but your plants look great from what can be seen in the pictures and the state of flowering they are in.....hmm......there just might be a bit of truth to what that bonehead said about the 'residual light' not affecting the girls.. Remember that even in nature under a moonlit sky, there is quite often a fair bit of illumination and plants seem to do just fine......

Good Luck

<add edit>..........aaahahahhaha.. I see rives beat me to this and he's the man when it comes to electrical so just listen to what he said and ignore my advice here!!!!!!! LOL

 

[Mcaugusto]

Thanks rives and vukman for all your suggestions and comments on this matter.
I re-checked the issue with the fan running continuously and it appears that it acts up only when the lamp is connected to the timer, but i'll keep watching that.
As for some of the LEDs staying lit at a very/very low level after power shut off and as i had expected, the problem is still there : of the 9 pods in my XML 350, four go completely dark after power shut off but the other five pods maintain a very low level of illumination when plugged to an AC outlet, with the illumination going up a notch when the lamp is plugged into the timer to a level comparable to a full moon, i would say.
My point of contention with the lamp is the fact that, if four of the pods and some of those Cree LEDs go completely dark after power shut off as they should, then why the other five pods + some LEDs act differently by holding a residual AC charge ?
When i spoke to the manager at Advanced LED Lights he said that the lamp has several power supply units and that some of them are more susceptible to holding a charge than others and that such behavior is to be expected, but that sounded to me like a bunch of bullshit, as if he had all these excuses already planned based on previous conversations with buyers of the same lamp having dimmer issues.
He grudgingly told me that i could always ship the unit back to him and that he would try his best to find power supplies that wouldn't display the same problem, but he couldn't promise the problem would be fully fixed.
I am planning on doing my harvesting this weekend and then i'll deal with him again, as i think i am going to have to ship back a brand new $1,000.00 LED grow lamp for repairs, already !
I had proposed to him to simply ship me another lamp (fully tested), get a clearance and put that same amount of money on hold on my credit card without charging for it and that i would ship the deffective lamp i have back to the company asap (due to the fact that i have an active growing crop i couldn't afford to ship the lamp while waiting for another one to arrive), but he said no, he couldn't even do that.
As i said, and as the picture show, this lamp does a phenomenal job and in fact my buds have increased in girth by another 30% or so since those pictures were taken, so i want to keep the lamp; I just wish their QC was better implemented.

 

[Socrates]

I think you just need to get a different timer (maybe not a digital one). If the timer's working properly, it should shut off the power completely, so that it's like the lamp is unplugged. Someone in another thread had this problem with a different lamp, and that solved it. Easier than sending the light back.

EDIT: I see Rives already mentioned this. Still, that is definitely the first thing to try.

 

[Bongstar420]

What do I win if I got +2g/w for a lamp that cost $0.73/w +17%THC stuff with less than stellar genetics that are not the highest yielding, potency, or flavor? Because, so far I feel like all I am gonna get is high and in jail.

 

[tenthirty]

Don't worry Bongstar, they don't want to throw you in jail, they just want to shoot your dog and take your money.

 

[vukman]

What do I win if I got +2g/w for a lamp that cost $0.73/w +17%THC stuff with less than stellar genetics that are not the highest yielding, potency, or flavor? Because, so far I feel like all I am gonna get is high and in jail.

hmmm, you could write to GP73LPC and send him all the information as to yield and light used and all that.
If everything is up to snuff, he/she will put you into that sticky thread up to there and you will be immortalized...

Don't really understand why you would be given a federally granted vacation..........

 

[Bongstar420]

thks

thks

hmmm, you could write to GP73LPC and send him all the information as to yield and light used and all that.
If everything is up to snuff, he/she will put you into that sticky thread up to there and you will be immortalized...

Don't really understand why you would be given a federally granted vacation..........

Interesting...Ill see how it goes and consider posting something. I suppose I cant have any method that would revolutionize anything and thereby loose my competitive advantage by letting the information loose.

 

[hempfield]

There is now such as 'revolutionary method' . It's just a matter of time until someone discover by accident the 'method'. All things come from mother nature, we just find a way of how to use her endless wisdom.

 

[PetFlora]

~80w Harvest- Wet Weight

~80w Harvest- Wet Weight

Just harvested her this morning. Weight is with primary leaves and main stalk

Unknown Sat dominant strain, but exc saved seeds.

Grown under a combination of a 3 yo UFO 90 ~ 8:2 R/B one-watt diodes +

supplemented with a vanity fixture, with a combination of low watt screw bulb leds- ww/cw/bw (all one watt diodes)

Clones have been in same tent, not getting proper amount of light, or intensity, as they have been sharing the 2 fixtures.

I am guessing I have ~ 80 total watts total

If dry weight is 2 ounces I'm at 0.7 g/w + I pulled a low branch Tuesday that is jared, so maybe 1 more g/w and the heaviest cola is hanging well off the scale, so could be more

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