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Kingbrite W55 Bar Light Test

ledtime

ledtime

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flylowgethigh said:
I have a 680W 8 bar light in a tent like yours, and am keeping the light 23-30", or higher. This is late in veg on my first run. LEDs make photons for sure. Those plants are 600-650 umoles at the tops.

To avoid the center hot spot, I did this. We'll see how the SCROG goes, for the wind burn. There is SIP control box (5 gal bucket) under the fan, and for now I can rotate the bags 180* to even the light.:

filedata/fetch?id=17815108&d=1616605964

BTW, sorry to jack the thread, and I am not really shilling, but...

In the pic above, the left side has a lower light level that can be seen in the leaf color. The tent/light were bought 2 months ago. A warrantee is only as good as the people behind it, and the logistical chain to support it. The ROI e680 in that tent developed a bad bar that stays on at 20% regardless, on a Friday evening. I emailed Growers House, next morning Sat get a call (missed the call back), and called Monday, new one arrives Friday. I will put the bad light in the box, and send it back on their dime. I will end up with a new one, with free shipping both ways. I had to pay for the replacement, and will be refunded when the bad one returns. Fair enough. Consider that when you buy a light from alibaba.
Click to expand...

Right now I have a layout like that without the fan in the center. I'm in early veg and hitting them with 400umols and I'm 32" above at about 280W. The center is a concern but it's really just a small part of the footprint. The avg ppfd across the canopy is in range for my setup.

I agree on warranty help. Hopefully I never need it. If I did it would definitely be on the diode board. I've never seen a meanwell driver give up. Every single thing I had done with KB was fast and accurate. They answered every single question. The bench tested things for me. I was impressed. shipping to/from China would be slow. Absolutely. Hopefully what I've got lasts without the need for that exercise. So good so far.

I have a gorilla tent that it setup with 8' in height. I could mount a fan above the light and have it oscillate and still move the air under the light. Good old 12" hurricane fans!

This light was my first dabble back into LED since 2010. The price was right for me to pull the trigger. Here we are a year later and you can get something comparable stateside for slightly more money.

For now I'm happy until I'm not. :)
 
f-e

f-e

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Hopefully they figure out the center is the best place for a driver not LED's and that together the light is difficult to use and ages prematurely. My own tests found a square tent with a grid of 9 lights was much better with the middle one removed. No repositioning. Just no middle light. That position gets the over-spill from the other 8 which adds up to an entire light.
 
Koondense

Koondense

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ledtime said:
I guess the number of bars would be solely dependent on the number of diodes and their spacing on the board, no? I can't really understand how you could relate wattage to number of bars as something linear. That would be like me saying all 600W QB's should be 11" wide. That's not really the case, is it? Just sayin'.
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It's about passive heating. More bars at lower temperature compared to fewer hotter bars generally mean the diodes will last longer.

Cheers
 
f-e

f-e

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If you take a diode from 20c to 85c every day, you won't get much more than a year.
 
ledtime

ledtime

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f-e said:
Hopefully they figure out the center is the best place for a driver not LED's and that together the light is difficult to use and ages prematurely. My own tests found a square tent with a grid of 9 lights was much better with the middle one removed. No repositioning. Just no middle light. That position gets the over-spill from the other 8 which adds up to an entire light.
Click to expand...

This is why I'm fascinated by the Fohse Aries light. Have you seen it? https://www.fohse.com/pages/aries

I'm all in.
 
f-e

f-e

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ledtime That's an interesting concept, but the longer I look the more little niggles I''m finding (I had an entire pie while I stewed over the pics)
The idea of rotating panels is something I have tried. While it did help with even canopy illumination, I lost light on the walls, cast higher than the lights themselves. The packaging was nice but I had to do better. I'm also unsure about the LED packages used. They look like high power rather than lots of mid power like the usual choices. Mid power is where the efficiency to inching ahead, and I struggle to find what high power led could produce 3.4umol in a high IP fitting, or any other. Just bar stool math, but 300 lumens per watt LEDs would be needed, which I have not seen in any packaging. Though maybe I'm just not looking hard enough. Their other feature seems to be tailoring spectrum, but that's never really caught on with us. Some lights do have red&blue switches etc etc but have little value.

I don't know. I'm just gonna fold my arms and sit back. After you Sir.
 
ledtime

ledtime

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f-e said:
ledtime That's an interesting concept, but the longer I look the more little niggles I''m finding (I had an entire pie while I stewed over the pics)
The idea of rotating panels is something I have tried. While it did help with even canopy illumination, I lost light on the walls, cast higher than the lights themselves. The packaging was nice but I had to do better. I'm also unsure about the LED packages used. They look like high power rather than lots of mid power like the usual choices. Mid power is where the efficiency to inching ahead, and I struggle to find what high power led could produce 3.4umol in a high IP fitting, or any other. Just bar stool math, but 300 lumens per watt LEDs would be needed, which I have not seen in any packaging. Though maybe I'm just not looking hard enough. Their other feature seems to be tailoring spectrum, but that's never really caught on with us. Some lights do have red&blue switches etc etc but have little value.

I don't know. I'm just gonna fold my arms and sit back. After you Sir.
Click to expand...

It's a nice build. If you look I think they are using groups of mid power diodes under a 100 degree lens. The PCB is done so that the controller varies the voltage to each color to create the different spectrums. The articulating bars can be useful if you can't keep an even canopy or if you are growing multiple strains with different light needs.

I do need to see it in person to play with, but it could be a fun light to have if the spectrums are as functional as they are indicating. Some gimmick in it, but some genius too.
 
ozzieAI

ozzieAI

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ledtime said:
May I recommend that you skip the UV? It's only needed a certain time in flower. I think it would be a waste of your energy and space on the board for diodes that could help you grow more productive plants. If you want UV, get a reptile UVB bulb. Better use of your money.
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cheers for that but the light will only be used for flowering so the constant uv will be fine i feel
 
ledtime

ledtime

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ozzieAI said:
cheers for that but the light will only be used for flowering so the constant uv will be fine i feel
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Well, UV can cause issues if on full time. It will stress the plant. That's the point in it. Using at the right time will increase trichome production. But too much UVB will disrupt cellular structure. There are guys on here that know way more than I do on the topic. I personally would rather control my UVB with a $60 T8 bulb and let my light build monster colas. More white diodes will deliver more of the light the plants can use to build.
 
ledtime

ledtime

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ozzieAI said:
cheers for that but the light will only be used for flowering so the constant uv will be fine i feel
Click to expand...

I posted before I finished my thought and this new board won't let me edit?? Anyways, I hardly know it all. Just relaying what I've found in my research. I never want to come off like a guy that can't be taught something new. I see it as we are all in this together trying to find the most efficient way to grow beautiful things. :)
 
f-e

f-e

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The latest work points to pulsing the UV at like day intervals. Stopping the plant building immunity. It usually limited to the last couple of weeks to not limit yield too much. As it is just hurting them.

With this in mind, having them in a light all the time might not be wasteful, It could actually be bad.


That Fohse is quite trick then. I should stop eating pies and read more. I'm still not feeling to rotating parts but it's certainly a marvel
 
ledtime

ledtime

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f-e said:
The latest work points to pulsing the UV at like day intervals. Stopping the plant building immunity. It usually limited to the last couple of weeks to not limit yield too much. As it is just hurting them.

With this in mind, having them in a light all the time might not be wasteful, It could actually be bad.


That Fohse is quite trick then. I should stop eating pies and read more. I'm still not feeling to rotating parts but it's certainly a marvel
Click to expand...

The real question is...what kind of pie? LOL The rotating bars are only there if you feel you have a need. Insurance so to speak. I really don't personally have the need for them. It's really just the adjustability of the spectrum and the sun up/sun down modes that are intriguing. I've seen the blurple with the potentiometer on it to change ratio. This is that on a whole new level.

As for the UV, yeah I can't find any studies that show that it's any good for the plant outside of a few hours per day in three weeks during late flower.
 
ozzieAI

ozzieAI

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f-e said:
The latest work points to pulsing the UV at like day intervals. Stopping the plant building immunity. It usually limited to the last couple of weeks to not limit yield too much. As it is just hurting them.

With this in mind, having them in a light all the time might not be wasteful, It could actually be bad.
Click to expand...

what about outdoor plants that get uv all the time?
 
ledtime

ledtime

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ozzieAI said:
what about outdoor plants that get uv all the time?
Click to expand...

They do get UV all of the time outdoors. And even though they grow into massive trees, that is a result of the intense light of the sun. If there were no uv in sunlight they would grow to be even bigger. Plants use energy to form a "sunscreen" so to speak when uv is present. That sunscreen is trichomes. Before flowering when the plant isn't making trichomes, the UV light is just stunting growth. They're is no protection from it on the plant.

Indoor growing gives us the opportunity to create that perfect environment. That means only introducing uv at the right time to trigger the plant to pack on more trichomes. Best explanation I have. LOL
 
f-e

f-e

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I'm speculating here..
They are finding thicker leaves through exposure, as a protective response. That's not been quantified in weight as yet, but could reduce light capture. We may of seen this sort of response from hot lights in the past. Seen as heavy dark green leaves that don't fully expand. The pulsing of UV reduces this thickening based protection, so when the UV is on, it can reach deeper into the tissue. This has been triggering a wide range of interesting responses. A 25% flavour enhancement in some herbs has been seen. This is so new that while aware of it, Bruce hasn't yet had chance to try himself. It's literally this years work.

The UV in LED's isn't UVB anyway. It's just UV because we asked for it. UVB LEDs are £50 and very inefficient. They just don't exist in our field. They are for medical use. You may get UVA but it's many fold less effective. Making the amount present of little use, if any. It really is a waste of space.

Have a look for UV lights aimed at fancy fish tanks and reptiles. If they say LED look at the pictures as there will be a flo hidden in the middle. People want it, so they will sell it as that if possible. The tech just isn't here.
 
Koondense

Koondense

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I got a T8 UVB tube for reptiles, 30W 90cm, cost around 20€. Looks like a decent option for some experimenting.
Will measure the spectrums of cobs only, T8 only and combined. Thinking of using it 1-2 hours at "noon" from week 5 to week 8 of flowering.
The declared spectrum
Exo_Terra_Reptile_Light_Tube_UB200_36W_120cm_detail.jpg


Cheers
 
ledtime

ledtime

Member
Koondense said:
I got a T8 UVB tube for reptiles, 30W 90cm, cost around 20€. Looks like a decent option for some experimenting.
Will measure the spectrums of cobs only, T8 only and combined. Thinking of using it 1-2 hours at "noon" from week 5 to week 8 of flowering.
The declared spectrum


Cheers
Click to expand...

I have done the same, though I'm in early veg on a grow. I have a T8 reptile UVB bulb. As f-e stated, the UV diodes are not efficient. They will burn out first and take up space on a PCB that a white diode could take for more useful power in the light.

I'm definitely going to give my UVB T8 a go in mid day for a few hours during the last three weeks of flower. If it yields some extra punch in terpenes and trichomes....great!
 
ozzieAI

ozzieAI

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thanks for your feedback guys, might have to change my order and just stick with far red...

my personal preference is 3500k
 
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