led strips - any good ?

[woogille]

hey yall
im planning to build a PCG case soon and not so long ago i've seen someone do it with thoes led strips,
wanted to ask - are they good enough to grow with them or should i go for the regular cfl [hps mh no option] ?
im talking about thoes kind of things
has anyone had experiences with them ?


if they're good so im planning to stick them all around the pc, up above and on the sides.
so what i basically wanna know is -
what kind of lights should i use [ in terms of - any suggestion for manufactory,
in terms of - thoes numbers - 3528, 5050 and colors - which what and why]
how many watts etc
and if they are better than the regular cfl

im a real big noob when it comes to lights
so im sorry in advence for the mass of info i ask

much appriciated :]

 

[WeedIsGod]

I believe LED strips produce quite a bit of heat, there are resistors in between groups of five, I think. CFL could work. So could Philips CDM. They sell 70W G12's and RX7s bulbs which could be an easy solution.

Or, if you could get one long aluminum heat sink up at the top of the chassis and somehow mount a fan to just constantly blow air across the entire heat sink you could mount three to five 10W LED multichips. I'd say at least one Red+Blue combo might be nice, and some Warm White? I also think I've seen like a 50W Red+Blue Cree multichip on eBay. Idk, lots of options if you can cool a big heat sink in there somehow, or if the PC just has really nice flow, in case of CFL/CMH/LED strip. You could even glue a bunch of star-mounted LED's (high efficiency, name-brand) onto the heat sink, maybe add lenses. Think squished Hans panel.

 

[woogille]

i thought led lights doesnt produce much heat at all [ comparing to clf for example which is not that hot ]
so - led stips are no good ?
lets say i have solved the heat problem,
are they any good at all in terms of good lights for grow ?

 

[woogille]

and how about these at the end of the page

http://www.mrgrowpro.net/store.htm

are they good enough ?
they also has this cool feature that they magnetize
anyway how good are they, and where else can i find thoes not from this seller ? [damn expensive]

 

[WeedIsGod]

Idk what those are. Very little info, tiny pics.

LED strips aren't very efficient, the packaging doesn't allow heat to dissipate away from the chip as quickly as other types of packages and there are resistors between clusters of 5 LED's or so that just burn energy needlessly.

I reccomend:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/30W-Cree-XL...263?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c35ae242f

http://www.ebay.com/itm/30W-CREE-XP...t=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item565d6f466a

One of each (one R+B, one WW+NW), two drivers, mount them to a fat aluminum heat sink (or two small CPU coolers) mounted in the top of the case. Create a shroud for PC fan(s) to actively cool the heat sink(s) yet exhaust outside the case. Should keep temps pretty reasonable inside the box.

I recommend that light combo to keep stretch down (critical in your situation), yet provide plenty of Red light for ample flowering. You could run two 30W WW+NW LED's if you wanted, too, I suppose. Better for your eyes than the Pink stuff.

GL.

 

[woogille]

thanks

any more opinions ?

 

[woogille]

more opinions on thoes strips plus
any suggestions for 'plug&light' [a ready to use] leds that fits nicely inside the pc case and not expensive [actually im looking for the lowest price possible]

thanks

 

[WeedIsGod]

For ducting on a 20W NW spot light I made I cut up pieces of plastic from the recycling bin. Anything that was thin, flexible, could be cut with scissors and was perfectly flat at least for portions. Cut the pieces I needed and taped them together into this:

I later glued the seams together with Plasti-Dip as a more permanent solution to the tape. Still working today.

I recommend making ducting like this yourself for virtually free. You can mount a PC fan to the duct work which will blow air across the heat sink while lights are on. You can get an Aluminum heat sink from eBay or HeatsinkUSA for pretty cheap usually. Just double check all the measurements to make sure it'll fit. You could even buy two small passive heat sinks like the one pictured and create ducting between the two units. The little cooler pictured cools 35W. This heat sink here cools a 50W. It can cool over 100W (I've tested this heat sink at 120W).

I think making the duct yourself could keep temps down and also take up less space than CPU coolers. This will get your lights that much closer to the ceiling and give your plants that much more room to grow.

 

[woogille]

the problem is that all this setup takes quite a lot of space,
and im wanting to be inside a pc case, so ill need all the space possible
thats why i thought about thoes led strips, they thinner than your fingers and u can stick em to straight to the panels and all around

 

[woogille]

im thinking now about assambling my own,
any suggestions for where to get these parts at high quality & low prices [+ shipping to israel]
[more or less]



this is copied from ufo led specifications, and now that i see there are all the parts as individuals i thought maybe to assmble one, so i found a lot on ebay but i still need directions, in terms of lumens and such..
Deep Red 660nm 6x 5w
Red 630nm x 65w [basically it was 13x 5w]
Orange 610nm 1x 3w
Blue 460nm 3x 5w
White 15000-20000k 3x 5w
UV 430nm 1x 3w
IR 740nm 1x 3w

 

[WeedIsGod]

http://www.ebay.com/sch/merryday168/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=

She has a large selection of LED wavelengths/CCT's and mcpcb's. She'll solder LED's to mcpcb's for you, and she will advise on drivers to use. Ships globally from China, relatively good prices. The only downside is her source for 1W and 3W LED's are generic Chinese brand. I've used them, they work, but no, they are not the most efficient chips/packages out there.

GL grower.

 

[hold_your_stash]

Im a little bit late to chime in here, but thought i would throw in my 2cents.

I believe in these lights. DO NOT USE THEM as primary lighting. but they work great for side lighting especially in a pc case or small grow spaces. They produce very very little heat with a pretty good bang of light.

DO NOT BUY the 3450SMD's... you want to buy 5050smd... they are way more efficient and have a higher output. if you can combine 2 strips 6500k and blue for veg... then take them out and replace with red and 2700k for veg. and at only $20 a 5 meter strip they are pretty sweet. again stear away from 3450smd go for 5050smd...

Double density is your friend... when buying strips look for ones that have 300led's not 150.

One of my first grows i used the combinations that i recommended in a 1.5x1.5x3 grow box and yielded close to 48grams. my main light source was a true 200watt cfl.

 

[hold_your_stash]

if you can combine 2 strips 6500k and blue for veg... then take them out and replace with red and 2700k for veg

sorry i ment to say red and 2700k for flower...