[rives]

Thanks for the comments, everyone.

Bonsai, I've been building panels & gear for more decades than I care to admit, and even I'm not old enough to have done any cable lacing! I might have to give it a shot after all of the inevitable modifications are done.

Woody, I haven't found reflectors for the Golden Dragons. That was one of the big unknowns in building this the way that was done. I wanted to try and roughly match the penetration characteristics of the PL-L lamps, and while the wide lenses of the GD+'s probably go too far the other way, I was concerned about tightening up the beam and burning the plants. My Lumigrow will do ugly things if you get it too close.

I have no idea as to the benefit of the UV LED's. This attempt was made to fill out the spectrum of the PL-L's, and while there seems to be great benefit to using wide spectrum lighting for plants, I'm not convinced that using many different types of LED's is the best way to achieve it. There are a number of types of lighting that are nearly as efficient, and far cheaper to implement. The PL-L portion of this luminaire accounted for about 7% of the overall cost.

blimblom, take a look at the attached pictures. The way that things are currently set up, it pulls 375-380 watts. The drivers are set at 500ma, I wanted to start conservatively and see both how the plants reacted and how warm things would run. The air coming off of the heatsinks is about 10 degrees (F) above ambient, so I think there is plenty of capacity to turn the drivers up, and the drivers are barely warm to the touch. This fixture is being used in a Growlab GL80, which is about 30" x 30".

Rjstoner - there is approximately $1800 in material cost in this unit (without considering freight, which was pretty steep for the aluminum - they rape you for "over-sized" packages), and a bunch of labor.

I took the following pictures this morning. Although the luminaire was built to run over a scrog, I was starting some plants from seed this time (Sweet Tooth #4 from SOTF420), so by the time the plants were large enough to sex and pull some clones from, it (there was only one female out of the three I started) was too large to scrog. It seems to be working just fine, though. I don't think that I have ever seen a plant flower this quickly - this is 8 days from flipping to 12/12. I don't know if that is a characteristic of the plant, or the LED's. I know that 660nm light is supposed to accelerate flowering, so perhaps that is a factor.

[Woody]

Thanks for the reply rives. You've been a great help to my own direction and I am sure 12 months from now when I finally get myself into gear (and have moved house) I will post up some pictures of a hacked up pathetic excuse for an LED fixture. You've set a high standard.

[GP73LPC]

outstanding !!!!!

Well done sir !!!!

[Azeotrope]

Where is the Pontiac Stamp on this one????

[Azeotrope]

rives - I am a die hard DIYer and rarely buy much stuff. I buy parts...... However, after looking at the LEDs at mouser, it seems that this is not cheap. The time I can afford, as I will just take my time and build in phases..... I suppose that I might have to buy pieces that way as well.

If I missed it, where did you buy the heat sinks? Thanks!

P.S. To those that know I am not a LED believer, but a hybrid seems really reasonable for heat control.. I have the ability (and am set-up) to refrigerate my area and actually to obtain complete temp control at any desired temp, but the idea of reducing KW consumption is really tempting....... Still a CMH fan, but maybe a 150 4k on a digi with a bunch of 660nm and some 455 - 465 along with it.

[rives]

Azeotrope, the heatsinks came from HeatsinkUSA (link follows). I had them cut the 8.46 extrusion in half - they did a very smooth, accurate job and charge a flat $5 fee per order for any number of custom cuts. The anodizing was done by Aluminum Coating Technologies in Sacramento, and they coated (4) 4" x 23" heatsinks for their minimum charge of $75.

I think that a CMH/LED fixture would work great if you could somehow balance the penetration levels. I don't know how close you can get a 150w CMH lamp to the plants, but I suspect it is a bit further than the PL-L's. I'm currently running this fixture about 4" above the canopy, and the girls seem to be pleased with it. If you haven't seen the LuxStrip, check out the last link. You can get various LED's, lenses, and current levels, and the price isn't unreasonable.


https://www.heatsinkusa.com/

https://www.ledsupply.com/luxstripII.php

[GP73LPC]

for more people to see this great craftsmanship...

[autojuice]

Originally Posted by rives

Dude,are you growing pineapples? Good job mister

[FunkBomb]

That's a badass hybrid light you've constructed. Great work.

-Funk

[Azeotrope]

rives - Thanks for the info.