LED Retailers...

[oneshot]

well, people do 30w/psqft with hps too, and its still in most cases not 'recommended'.

Anyway. got my LED today from CLW - solarstorm 400w

So met george while I was down there, and he gave me some more detailed 'presentation' information about the CLW lights, it seems to fill in nicely where i've not seen some of these details before. His figures compare very favorably to a 600w hps.

George is the man!

I also decided to make a list of what LEDs I have laying around now. LOL.

Lumigrow ES330
California Lightworks 800W Solarstorm
California Lightworks 200W Solarflare Bloombooster
BlackdogLED Platinum XL-U
Radiant LED El Foray
2x Growblu 120x3w
Growblu Super UFO
2x Kessil H150
eShine 220x3w

 

[babelfish]

George is the man!

I also decided to make a list of what LEDs I have laying around now. LOL.

Lumigrow ES330
California Lightworks 800W Solarstorm
California Lightworks 200W Solarflare Bloombooster
BlackdogLED Platinum XL-U
Radiant LED El Foray
2x Growblu 120x3w
Growblu Super UFO
2x Kessil H150
eShine 220x3w

heh, do you run all of em all the time? i still really liked those growblu's too, beautiful looking lamp/lights. I came SO close to going with lumi, but I figured I had to give george's spectrum a shot.

 

[oneshot]

Nope, most are just sitting around now. What you see on here/youtube is all I am running at the time

 

[GP73LPC]

congrats bablefish

 

[positivity]

Yah babelfish...good choice!
Shoulda went that route...they got the best all around biz I think

I can't recommend china lights at this point, probably ever. Their follow up to problems sucked, the language barrier sucked, etc...

I'm almost thinking of building a light around cree xmls, but even that could turn into a unsatisfactory money pit

 

[babelfish]

well you need tools to measure the light output and such, but i'm willing to bet that for 2k you could build some pretty penultimate LED setup

 

[jcmjrt]

I'm almost thinking of building a light around cree xmls, but even that could turn into a unsatisfactory money pit

I sincerely doubt it. I'm growing with two diy fixtures now and the plants love them. I have a third which will be finished soon...and that will probably be about it for a while.

 

[positivity]

Thanks for the input guys
That was the little bit of motivation I was looking for
I'll start something in a more appropriate thread... throw around some ideas and see if I could pull it off

 

[Sativa Dragon]

Yah babelfish...good choice!
Shoulda went that route...they got the best all around biz I think

I can't recommend china lights at this point, probably ever. Their follow up to problems sucked, the language barrier sucked, etc...

I'm almost thinking of building a light around cree xmls, but even that could turn into a unsatisfactory money pit

Hey Man!

I am exploring LED cautiously, I have invested in a 1k fixture from china and I am succeeding with it. No t at a high level but I am growing some acceptable numbers. Technique tends to be the thing. Gotta alter the Tech going from HID to LED, I am pretty sure I have it managed. Yields are on PAR now with the approach I took.

peace

 

[The Hummus Monk]

LEDhydroponics UK

Can anyone knowledgeable check out their products for me..? They seem good...

Reasonable pricing with good warranty.

 

[The Hummus Monk]

Are these like HGL Sol lights? :

http://www.ledhydroponics.co.uk/OnlineShop/tabid/88/CatID/8/Helios.aspx

 

[babelfish]

i think the individual diodes are still only 1w on those... (multiple diodes on one big die - COB)

 

[The Hummus Monk]

Babefish was that an answer to me?

 

[babelfish]

it was a remark about the device, not an answer to the actual question you posed.. ;')

 

[Neekz]

Yes, most integrated chips, are a series of smaller 1w emitters on a single die... I think they somewhat defeat the positives of led, like efficiently spreading the light over a given area, where as the Sol type light's are kind of trying to mimic HID in a way, using a high intensity single point of light. They will grow plant's, but efficiently (The name of the L.E.D. game...), I don't think they are... Honestly Monk, I would go through Aliexpress... You are ordering them the same way retailer's like ledhydroponics.co.uk do, and saving a boat load. Not all the manufacturer's on there are the same, but there are a couple highly regarded storefront's that have pretty darn good customer service! Aliexpress also is very good at regulating against scam's (They act as an Escrow service, holding your money till your product arrives, and even giving a half-refund if products are not as described...). I am currently waitin on a 300w (17-185W actual) unit with lens's and a custom spectrum for under $250 shipped Fedex... Should be getting shipped any-day now. Oh and if product doesn't arrive in 30-days, automatic full refund. I viewed it as worth a shot, you can clearly see model's that are being re-branded and asking 1.5-2x the price. I would take most of these companies warranties with a grain of salt aswell... Unless their like some of the bigger re-brander's (Blackstar,GrowBlu, HGL...) then they probably won't have a large back stock of replacement unit's, let alone the parts in shop. In the case of a defect you would probably have to end up waiting longer than you'd like anyway. Id be wary of un-professional appearing site's as they may even just be having them drop-shipped to your location directly from china... I have so many document's on my computer from pricing and calculating many, many, versions of D.I.Y. Panel's, and for a moderate sized 100 diode panel, I am getting number's from as low as $1.50/W up to $3.50/W , without a thermal solution, just bare emitter's and driver's... Not saying don't D.I.Y. , but if your just getting started and wanna jump in, I would go straight to china and get a decent panel for the price most re-seller's charge for their little "U.F.O." or 1ft/2 panel's ... If you wanna DIY, I say go full force and make a Solarflare, or Lumigrow knock-off (Cree's, solid thermal management, dimmable spectrums...)! Long story short, my point is, the cost efficiency of making a "cheaper" D.I.Y. array, or any of the entry level reputable retailer's unit's (>$300), is very very slim compared to ordering factory direct. Now assembling a LG325PRO D.I.Y. would be way more efficient in term's of cost saving's...

 

[The Hummus Monk]

Wow. Great reply!

Any Aliexpress companies you recommend?

 

[Neekz]

I am ordering from a company called Mayer Grow light, have seen them on Ali, and DHgate... So far all of their feedback is extremely positive. Only 1 bad response from a guy who ordered an extra light hanger and was expecting a light lol (I mean come on dude, $5.80 for a fixture LMAO)... All their feedback has been good, aside from a few shipping delay's that got solved the min. said customer brought it to light to them through messaging. I was stoked that Ali has a 30 day money back guarantee on no-arrival's, meaning they hustle their ass off and ship fedex 5-7 day shipping...

 

[The Hummus Monk]

Could one of you fine people cast an eye or two over this unit:

http://m.aliexpress.com/item/617437197.html

I'm thinking a couple of those should equal a 400hps or so?

Does anyone have experience with these units or ones like these?

Many thanks in advance.

H

 

[Neekz]

I am waiting on a simmilar unit, but the red square 300w (17-185W real power) one with the lenses. They sent it out in 5 day's, 1 later then they had said, but then again they are half-way around the world, and I ordered a custom spectrum/ratio. Those are simmilar to what I see alotta ppl use (Re-branded for sure though...), they basically are the PowerLED panels you see Jacky_Brown n Addicted2Grow using. I was spying the same unit's, but after seeing the penetration improvement's with lens's, I opted for this http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/New-9Band-Led-Grow-Light-300W-with-100pcs-3W-leds-built-with-optical-lens-best-for/410257_726899063.html. If your feeling wary brother, my panel will be in by monday, and I can comment on build then. I honestly see no way in going wrong here, people have said the prices are nowhere profitable and they must not be using real 3w chips, but you gotta realize, the emitters are probably made less than hour's away. Then factor in little to no shipping cost for the manufacturer's, probably fewer taxes/tariffs along the way, dirt cheap labor, free marketing/promotion, and the cheap price seems on point, maybe even steep lol (I know they arent paying $3USD per chip lol!)... If I could afford a unit big enough at the time, I would have got a few apollo style unit's, basically like Oneshot's GrowBlu's...

 

[Neekz]

So I got my panel in today from China, rather quick might I add. Quality is there. Fan's a bit noisy, but she does have 100 diodes in her to cool. Heat-sink ain't too bad (finned aluminum about 2 cm tall.). From peering through the side, the unit appears to be modular built, with easily removable connectors. Its got 2 switches, one for the middle third row (Mostly the odd spectrum's, blues, and whites), and the other for the outside 2 thirds (Mostly reds and deep reds, and the odd oranges.), aswell as 2 indicator lights above them (IDK what they indicate, guessing which switch is on...). Spectrum I chose custom, just a bit different from the standard for the model. It is as follow's, Infrared 850nm/730nm x 2, Red 660nm x 16, Red 630nm x 52, Orange 610nm x 8,Cyan 500nm x 2, White 6400K x 4, Blue 460nm x 14, and Violet 410nm/380nm x 2. Phone sorta crapped out on me before I could get pics of it on, but I will get some tomorrow when we finish up the flower room (Gonna be full of the outdoor to finish em off, then a fresh round of clones ;P !). Here's how she look's (Basically a stubby https://357magled.3dcartstores.com/357_magnum_LED.html)...