The Blackstar's, they work bro, not as efficient as other design's, but can grow good bud's with limited penetration like CFL's. It's the cheapest working brand shipping outta america yes, but you can order direct from the supplier for cheaper. Here is what your looking for. They even state that it only draws 135-145w at the wall, unlike Gotham.
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eBay LED
- Thread starter 1toke
- Start date
The Blackstar's, they work bro, not as efficient as other design's, but can grow good bud's with limited penetration like CFL's. It's the cheapest working brand shipping outta america yes, but you can order direct from the supplier for cheaper. Here is what your looking for. They even state that it only draws 135-145w at the wall, unlike Gotham.
Firebrand
Active member
I stand corrected in my thinking that Blackstar lights were similar to the China lights, and to add to that I also noticed as neekz said that the Blackstar is retailed from inside the USA, this of course is a good thing if you reside in America. After viewing the link neekz provided I think that if and when I buy my next LED it might be a Blackstar.
HenDokuYaku
Member
Gehl Lighting in mainland China says they are the supplier for Blackstar LEDs here. You can find them on Alibaba
Smellyproof
New member
Wow.. 168 bucks and free shipping!
Thanks Neekz!Is it gonna make me yield that much more/better weed to make it worth the dollars? It will be working together with two CFL's (250w +125w). 4 plants in 60cmx60cm. Hempy buckets (10L), pure perlite.
Again, thanks for the help guys!
Wow.. 168 bucks and free shipping!
Is it gonna make me yield that much more/better weed to make it worth the dollars? It will be working together with two CFL's (250w +125w). 4 plants in 60cmx60cm. Hempy buckets (10L), pure perlite.
Again, thanks for the help guys!
It should do all right for a micro style grow (This tech has low canopy penetration.) There have been documented grow's of near the 1g/w mark (Average around 120g's.) using the BS240 solely.
relief
Active member
Well, after one week of cfl lighting, the plant is finally flowering. This is the same amount of flowering I would always get the last 9 years when using HPS, MH, HID, or CFL after one week. Avoid this seller and be cautious of any cheap LED on ebay. However, I just cant see myself slapping down 1000 to 1600 for a lumigrow or another proven LED for my small closet grows. A 300 watt CFL is 17 bucks a piece at home depot and my plant is loving it, and the closet is staying cool.
4 weeks of 12/12 LED light cycle and absolutely no flowering or stretch.
1 week of CFL 12/12 and lots of stretching and flowering.
4 weeks of 12/12 LED light cycle and absolutely no flowering or stretch.
1 week of CFL 12/12 and lots of stretching and flowering.
chileno1978
Member
Great to read that finally your girl is flowering & thanks for posting! now I know that leds SUCK! (for Flo at least) hopefully the ones I have will not follow the same path...
relief
Active member
In veg it worked great, but so do CFLs. I hope your lights dont suck either. I would really like a cheaper alternative to the very expensive LEDS that do work.
Phychotron
Member
From my experience with blackstars the plants tend to stretch and the nuggets don't get as dense and take a week or two longer to finish flowering. I would advise anyone buying a blackstar not to go any larger than the 240 since they don't have a heat sink. I had a 500 that burned out some rows, but it was still under warranty and I swapped it out with two 240's instead. I advise people to not buy it unless they're really on a budget and just need a light. I think my first grow I got around 4 oz with just one 240UV and three 26w CFL's. but the plants were not nearly as optimal as they could have been. The weight came in from the many outer plants that were producing small buds outside the main footprint.
Firebrand
Active member
Not having a lot experience with LED's I have no idea what is what as far brightness. But I gotta tell you that I just swapped out 16 red diodes and replaced them with bright whites, and to my human eyes the whites seem much brighter. Now it could be that bright whites are just brighter than reds and blues as an industry standard, or it could that the China lights come with shitty diodes and that the diodes I bought are of a higher quality, or it could even be the viewing angle that makes the bright whites appear brighter.
I also removed the glass from the unit.
Next I will order the bright blue and bright red and swap out one of each for comparison.
Also, I now have the collimator reflectors in a 90 and 60 degree angle (50 of each), I have yet to install any of these. At issue is the size of these reflectors, they are too large to fit side by side so they must be trimmed, the trimming is something that is going to take a little time. I have trimmed two already and have fit them, I now know how much material must be removed. Trimming the reflectors is a painstaking task so as not to remove too much material, and there are 100 of these to trim total, if and when I finish trimming the reflectors I will be sure to update.
I plan to post a few photos here in this thread in the next few days.
I also removed the glass from the unit.
Next I will order the bright blue and bright red and swap out one of each for comparison.
Also, I now have the collimator reflectors in a 90 and 60 degree angle (50 of each), I have yet to install any of these. At issue is the size of these reflectors, they are too large to fit side by side so they must be trimmed, the trimming is something that is going to take a little time. I have trimmed two already and have fit them, I now know how much material must be removed. Trimming the reflectors is a painstaking task so as not to remove too much material, and there are 100 of these to trim total, if and when I finish trimming the reflectors I will be sure to update.
I plan to post a few photos here in this thread in the next few days.
Oregonism
Active member
You still can't compare 1 shitty Chinese made light to an entire industry.
There are plenty of Lumigrow "grows" on here that yielded big time. rives?
Its the diodes of the lamp. Blue is usually unaffected by heat and voltage spikes and the reds tend to suffer. Your cheap drivers spreading heat wash probably don't help either.
I know you have plenty of experience..... but isn't that the clue that one light, one grow, isn't indicative of an entire industry? come on....
if that is the case, a friend recently had brand new top of the line digital remote ballasts, enough for about 10k of lighting. He went on a trip 1st week and two shorted, caught fire fell onto the hood, which then fell onto his hydro table which also caught fire. Luckily somebody was there watching out and caught it, but you don't see me going around bashing Lumatek's right?
Other than that, yeah, you took a swing and it didn't work. Sucks, but that's how we learn and you are able to show other people maybe, by not going cheap.
...
Firebrand
Active member
Alright, a little photo update and a little bit what I did and how I did it.
The 1st photo is the unit as it now, glass removed and 16 new bright white diodes installed. The 2nd photo is a close look at the a few of the things needed to complete the upgrade. The 3rd photo is the unit with upgrades lit up.
The pencil tip soldering iron that I used came from EBay, as did all other parts, of note, the soldering iron in its stock form does not work well for this application because the point is to small, not enough surface area to evenly heat the solder holding the diodes in place. To remedy this I filed the tip flat, removing the sharp point, I was looking to end up with about an 1/8" square surface area, just the right size for the job.
When heating the solder for removal or for installing a new part it is advised to keep the soldering iron at a 90 degree angle to the circuit board, the reason for this is to avoid brushing the hot iron up against diodes that you are not working on, it doesn't take a lot of heat to burn the plastic lens on a diode, working straight up and down will help to avoid this.
Be sure to order thermal grease when buying parts as you will need this when installing any new diodes, the grease helps in transferring heat from the diode to the circuit board and heat sink, it is a must have.
I also keep a magnifier loop handy so that I can inspect my welds.
As I work further to upgrade this unit I will post to this thread, next in line will be replacing stock reds with aftermarket reds so as to see a side by side comparison, after that collimator reflectors will be experimented with.
For me personally it is nice to know that I can not only upgrade these units but I can also repair them later down the road if diode failure occurs, also, drivers and fans are replaceable, what this means is that as long as the circuit board remains in good working condition the unit is valuable to me.
The 1st photo is the unit as it now, glass removed and 16 new bright white diodes installed. The 2nd photo is a close look at the a few of the things needed to complete the upgrade. The 3rd photo is the unit with upgrades lit up.
The pencil tip soldering iron that I used came from EBay, as did all other parts, of note, the soldering iron in its stock form does not work well for this application because the point is to small, not enough surface area to evenly heat the solder holding the diodes in place. To remedy this I filed the tip flat, removing the sharp point, I was looking to end up with about an 1/8" square surface area, just the right size for the job.
When heating the solder for removal or for installing a new part it is advised to keep the soldering iron at a 90 degree angle to the circuit board, the reason for this is to avoid brushing the hot iron up against diodes that you are not working on, it doesn't take a lot of heat to burn the plastic lens on a diode, working straight up and down will help to avoid this.
Be sure to order thermal grease when buying parts as you will need this when installing any new diodes, the grease helps in transferring heat from the diode to the circuit board and heat sink, it is a must have.
I also keep a magnifier loop handy so that I can inspect my welds.
As I work further to upgrade this unit I will post to this thread, next in line will be replacing stock reds with aftermarket reds so as to see a side by side comparison, after that collimator reflectors will be experimented with.
For me personally it is nice to know that I can not only upgrade these units but I can also repair them later down the road if diode failure occurs, also, drivers and fans are replaceable, what this means is that as long as the circuit board remains in good working condition the unit is valuable to me.
chileno1978
Member
So far so good, I see hairs, the leds are getting better and better
chileno1978
Member
Nice Pimp, can wait to see the results!
Just a head's up, they (Gehl Lighting...) don't have any model's similar to Blackstar's beside's the same housing on aquarium light's. The seller I posted earlier is very reliable, I have ordered before and will soon again from them. Gehl's fixtures seem pretty iffy IMO... They advertise a 5w diode fixture, then say their run at 600mA, with no advertised wall draw and not so flattering PAR reading's (Lol, why brag about a "5w unit" putting out 860uMol at 15cm for $500?). Like I say, take everything with a grain of salt. I can find about 10 "Blackstar" manufacturer's on Ali, only a few of them actually know what their selling and are transparent with spec's. Gehl seems to get good feedback, but I will wait and see how the "Reflector" type panels work out for other's... Their "modular lens" style's look all-right (Their finish and build quality look's a little rough, but if it grow's, it grow's...), but you can still find them cheaper elsewhere.
Nice work Fire btw, all this DIY has me itching to Frankenstein something together...
Firebrand
Active member
Jump right in brother, the water is fine. I was greener than grass 60 days ago as far LED lights went, I knew only the very most basic details. After reading here and interacting with you folks and doing a little research at another couple of forums I'm getting downright comfortable working with LED's. I am fairly confident that I could now easily build my own custom units using Cree stars and hard wiring without a circuit board. Matching string to driver to resistor/safety diode is the key, that and being certain that you have sufficient heat sink and fan to keep it all cool.
Of particular interest to me will be identifying the best components for a build, which LED's give the best light for our desired application, which drivers are most dependable and least likely to surge, which fans will last the longest, which safety diodes and resistors are best, once this knowledge is obtained the rest is ez-peezy. I can envision the day when a total grow is nothing but LED's, from seed/cutting to smoking a juicy bud, without sacrificing quality or quantity.
Firebrand
Active member
Testing will start soon, the only issue is that now I need another unit so that I might continue my experiments.
I wonder if member "relief" would be willing to part with the unit he has? Short of that I may snoop around for a cheaper alternative, if these units (300w) were priced at 100$ or so it would worth the investment just for test/experiment purposes.
The possibilities are endless with these units, I mean I could build one that has 45% bright white and 45% bright blue and 10% bright red and run it veg, who knows what the perfect combination is? It could be that through experimentation a super combination is found that will accelerate veg growth beyond that of CFL's or HID's of similar wattage?
The same scenario could also be applied to flowering too.
relief
Active member
When did I say it was? If you read the original thread starters question, it ask about the specific ebay seller and their lights. I've never said lumigrows wont work, actually I've said the opposite. If you would read all of my postings you would know that and would not be making baseless assumptions. Never have I lumped all LEDS into my criticisms, they have been solely directed to the thread starters question about a specific Ebay seller and their lights. Its called reading comprehension.
