My HOI e680 LED powered, 7'11" 4x4 tents

I calculated how much through-put of bud I need, and 60-90+ days between batches dictates about 500gr per run. That meant a 4x4 veg tent and a 4x4 flower tent. I think I want to try 4ea 2x2 individual scrogs, in both tents. The veg tent has to be 8' high because of the vent design.

These lights I have chosen do not get discussed here, but I like the open bar design for the open airflow... and possible enhancement with additional light. These lights can be daisy chained.

Their controller has two side-by-side channels, and can be mounted remotely. It has pretty cool features like fade in and out. I got the ROI 2 channel controller from bees lighting site for $300.

Growers Choice Brand ROI-e680

https://www.ledgrowlightsdepot.com/products/growers-choice-roi-680-led

680W power draw
2.6 umol/j efficacy
1770 umol/s total light output
4'x4' to 5'x5' coverage area
GC-3k Full Spectrum with 660nm deep red (Osram diodes)
Onboard dimming function (100%, 80%, 60%, 40%)
Compatible with Grower's Choice Master Lighting controller
Even light distribution
Fanless Design
IP65 Waterproof
ETL, CE certification
3 Year warranty

Running full blast, they only burn 6 amps of 110 volt juice, and I think I can run them at a fraction of the rating. So I have one of these going to each tent. The tents have 8' ceilings, so with 6" filters the lights can be pretty high above the ground, if needed.

I hope these lights work OK. $1920 delivered, for two 1700 / 2.6 umol 44 x 44 bar lights and a controller, seemed like a good deal to me. I like doing business with places that answer the phone and honor returns. The sales people claim these have been out over a year, sell like hotcakes, and they aren't coming back (BTW, you send them to their shop and they deal with the warrantee).

I will show them when I get these tents up and running. I think I want a light meter that I can use a stick to measure the tops back in the corners, so I can adjust the light for height and power. These plants deserve the best chance my stoned newbie azz can give them.

That begs the question of how much light?? There will be a CO2 data logger. I'll worry about that when the time comes.


I called the order today and have tracking info already. Well... They are here, and they put out a lot of light. Holding my hand less than an inch away at full power, it barely feels warm. They came with 4 hanging ratchets.

Stop reading now unless you wanna hear about how I got them.

I am gonna risk hell being called a shill, but I am just some retail schmoe who is figuring this out as I go. Found the lights on the webs, they had the lowest price, so I called. The phone answered.

The random sales guy working from home with the kids in the background snagged me a killer deal on these, but I think they would sell anyone them at a tad over $800, and NO TAX! They also have the 8' tents at $325, no tax also. Guess where the tents coming from too? I called after making 4 separate orders, and they returned the call, and have their computer shit together. It was just a smooth transaction.

Shill, out.

...shill back, with a new handicam. This is the light. There is a power cord running from one end, and that is all it takes to fire this bad boy up. A small control wire can also be ran from a remote controller. Nothing blocking airflow, very slim design, no hot board or power supplies. I just had to choose this bar design, over a flat board design.

So a Photobio Advanced Quantum PAR meter showed up today. I donned my green glasses, and...

propped the light up 14" (T6 fan box): note the baseline reading 4 from fluorescents

Using the manual power control rotary switch on the light

100% center: reading 1161

80% center (another spot was 938): reading 947

80% edge: reading 728

60% center: reading 687

So at 80% power I can run the PAR up as far as I dare (let's see the CO2), and the lights are still 14" away. The display on my Sony handicam gets warmer than the bar the LEDs are on, so making temp may be a challenge with 70* tent make-up air.

I have the remote light controller also. This PAR meter also has a pretty long wire to run from the sensor to the test unit, so checking and adjusting the lights from the remote control closet will be practical. Just mount the sensor on a cross-bar in the tent, that can be adjusted upward with the tops, as they grow. Now I really want a way to raise the light remotely from the closet.

As point of reference, the fluorescent lights over my pool table only read 4 umoles... the LEDs in the kitchen 10. Yeah, wear the green glasses.

Let's put those numbers in perspective, and see what the sun reads. 1/28 at noon - 1750.

Now I want a temp scanner for the leafs. Remote readout please... Should be part of the light controller, with the sensor on the light, looking down at the leafs.

That is a powerful light. Hope to see what it can do to your crops.

You don't need co2 to get 18 out of 1.44 meters.
You don't need co2 to get 18 out of 1 meter. You have ~50% more space than that.
You don't need co2

co2 is for light levels you can't reach.
You can't use co2. It will just bring you it's own set of problems.

co2 is a greenhouse gas. Using it pointlessly isn't cool

Tents are up, I up-potted the 5 best plants I have into7 gal fabric pots, and put them in.

Lesson #1: I had the light way up, and ran the power up to get the umoles at the little plants (300 target). The fan could not keep up with the heat, even with a S6 booster fan running the inlet. Lowering the lights to a couple feet above the leafs, and turning down the power fixed it. Without plants to absorb the energy, the tent gets hot.

Lesson #2: The "high CFM" bars are handy as hell to add a bar for hanging wet tee shirts, instrumentation, etc.

Lesson #3: Setting up the lights would be a guess without a meter. I will probably get one per tent, and have the readout unit in the control closet, and the sensor mounted on a cross bar at the height I want. Tweak everything without having to go back and forth, opening the tent, etc...

Lesson #4: The main zipper is a real pain to start, and will probably be the failure point of the tent.



The open bar design allows you t reach through the light to get to the electrical plugs, tinker with the vent system, and adjust the light height. It is also nice to be able to look down through the bars when the light is low.

I had to tinker with the vent fan system. It was easy, because all I had to do was remove the front two strap hangers, and the light moves out of the way. You want the light up high enough to be able to do this.

flylowgethigh said:

.........
Lesson #4: The main zipper is a real pain to start, and will probably be the failure point of the tent.

Click to expand...

Very nice set-up flgh, I'm kicking myself right now 'cause I meant to give you a beginner, personal experience tip about the zipper problem on indoor tents.

The hollow metal tubes holding up the tent need to be joined together and then hit hard with a mallet hammer, especially the horizontal tubes, otherwise the zipper will be hard to close or come apart because of the strain.

........ maybe you can do this from the outside, now?

Thanks for the compliment Ms Giggles, but I think you been smoking too much catnip if you think I am gonna hammer on my new tents. I am trying hard to check the redneck at the lung room door, thus the lack of Miracle Grow in there. Besides, these GGTs have snap-in ends that can only go together so far. Hammering would hurt them.

The problem is I need to be more careful with the lower part of the zipper. It works fine, but is not designed to be handled by a cookied-up gorilla. Obvious case of false and misleading advertising.

I have bought a bunch of extra bars from Gorilla, which I use on the sides and where I need them. The CFM kit makes very handy bars for hanging things like wet tee shirts and fans and instrumentation and scrog screens. Extra top cross bars likewise. Tent parts are good to have.

The bar light design is really handy because you can see and reach through it. I can't see having a board light, but that's just me. One thing I want is a electric motor powered light raise / lower device which raises all 4 hanging ropes together. This would be so easy to do if a person knew electric motors. I believe they would sell like crazy, be pretty cheap, and with the right control interface could be part of a REAL light controller. If I was making them they would be called...

wait for it...

Fly Low/Get High. Exactly what the lights could easily do. I mean really, a 4 x 4 tent that you can only access from the front needs this. One of you light companies contact me, and we'll make this happen. Very simple design.

Seems the strip design light was loved by most of growers in 2021.

3/19 Friday afternoon..The lights are nice, until one strip decides it does not want to shut off, either by the controller or by the manual knob. Pulling the power plug is desperate choice, so I cover the strip with alum foil at night. The plants under the strip will suffer a bit.



Now we see how good their Warrantee support is. I expect to pay for another light, and get credit back when this one is returned.

3/22 Monday...Man Growers House is busy. They said these stimilis checks are flowing in, as well as legalization, and they are selling. When I finally got through, they are selling me another light, sending a label to return the one I have in the packaging, and I will get a full refund when it gets there. Perfect. They said something about me replacing the strip, but that's a big negatori with me.

The bar can be taken down separately to be replaced?

Mars Hydro Led said:

The bar can be taken down separately to be replaced?

Click to expand...

That's an excellent question. Is just the bar waterproof or the casing on the ends too? To get one bar out you would need to break the silicone seal on the casing if the casing is sealed too. Just coat my boards without any housing and call it a day IMO.

f-e said:

You don't need co2 to get 18 out of 1.44 meters.
You don't need co2 to get 18 out of 1 meter. You have ~50% more space than that.
You don't need co2

co2 is for light levels you can't reach.
You can't use co2. It will just bring you it's own set of problems.

co2 is a greenhouse gas. Using it pointlessly isn't cool

Click to expand...

Agreed. I pulled 24oz dried in a 4x4 SOG with my light. No CO2 and had some hermies in there late in flower. I have no desire to start fussing with CO2 supplementation. Not needed. Lock in that VPD, drain to waste, and keep the PPFD on point for the stage of growth and away you go.

Mars Hydro Led said:

The bar can be taken down separately to be replaced?

Click to expand...

They talked about that, but Homie don't fix his own new light when it is warrantied. In 3 years, maybe. Replacing a bar is supposed to be easy, they say.

flylowgethigh said:

They talked about that, but Homie don't fix his own new light when it is warrantied. In 3 years, maybe. Replacing a bar is supposed to be easy, they say.

Click to expand...

Right on. Good customer service there.

ledtime said:

That's an excellent question. Is just the bar waterproof or the casing on the ends too? To get one bar out you would need to break the silicone seal on the casing if the casing is sealed too. Just coat my boards without any housing and call it a day IMO.

Click to expand...

There will be a new design that the bars could be replaced separately soon.

The bad bar was kinda flickering like there was a short, and I am an electrical hack. No way am I going to disassemble this thing to fix it.

New light was stuck in Nashville, arrived today, and is lighting the tent. This would have been a much harder job to do (by myself), if I didn't have the SIP/SWICK where I can take the plants out. Once again, I unhooked the front hangers, which made access to the rear ones easy as the light was hanging vertically on them.

They'll send me a shipping tag, I put the old light in the packaging the new one came in, and I drop it off at a shipping store... done. As good of service as I could expect, IMO. Just like amazon, except it ain't fuckin amazon.

And now the plants are happy again. Light is 25-30" above the tops, at 87%, and putting 720 umoles to the nearest tops.

Growers House emailed the tag, I forwarded that to the shipping store (to see that it was OK), took the box all nicely packaged like it came, and the same day I have my refund via Paypal. Hope I don't have to deal with it again. The way LEDs are going, in 3 years I will want a new light anyways. Some kind of OLED that has a bright spot go from one horizon to the other...

GrowerHouse kinda rocks.I don't mind buying stuff from them at all.