Discussion about HPS To LED Conversions

[Mars Hydro Led]

That doesn't make LED look very good. However, they lied. The world is full of people that have to tell a slightly bigger lie than the liar before them. 2g/w is the point they started to call each-other out on it.

HID is used at 600w per meter, like an industry standard (1000w over a 4x4 in the states). Seeds are rated as production per meter with that expectation. Good breeder catalogues top out about 650g per meter (1.1g/w) with 500-600 being the usual commercially viable cash cropping strains. Some catalogues are full of 800-1000g claims, and should be ignored. I have done a few, and it's straw.
This situation is evolving. Driven by LEDs making higher yields possible. The catalogue number are probably creeping up. The yields under HID are about 1g/w if you take some care with higher yielding plants. Many home growers are not getting 0.5g/w using boutique strains that can barely manage 0.66g in the right hands.

Gram per Watt isn't a commercial measure. Using it commercially isn't viable. Look in these seed catalogues. It's not there.
I know Mars like many other LED sellers are using Gram/W in sales brochures. It tells a commercial grower, that Mars are in the lighting industry, and can offer no horticultural support.

We do heard some commercial guys to tell us they can get that number. Maybe they use the best seeds and some Co2 to boost the yield.

 

[Mars Hydro Led]

My main flower room is mixed CMH/LED. There is a very noticeable color difference between the CMH plants and the LED plant. The CMH plants are super vibrant green plants. The LEDs all have a yellowish color, like they are missing something. I've tried adding cal/mag, no help. I'm still trying to figure out how to fix this without the need to feed the led plants differently. Other than the color they are still up praying just like the CMH plants do.

1370W led
1630w CMH

LED grow do need more cal/mag because of higher light efficiency. Are the strains same?

 

[f-e]

We do heard some commercial guys to tell us they can get that number. Maybe they use the best seeds and some Co2 to boost the yield.

They would quit growing weed and sell seeds off the back of their crop photo's.

 

[Hammerhead]

LED grow do need more cal/mag because of higher light efficiency. Are the strains same?

No, all different varieties. I've tried adding Cal/mag I didn't see any improvements. It's a bit difficult to troubleshoot with CMH running next to them. Those plants do not need cal/mag. I think it would help me by doing a test with a more powerful LED by itself to figure out what is needed to get them looking the same as CMH. I have tested smaller LEDs and saw no issues.. The higher wattage LED is where I'm seeing this issue pop up..

 

[Three Berries]

No, all different varieties. I've tried adding Cal/mag I didn't see any improvements. It's a bit difficult to troubleshoot with CMH running next to them. Those plants do not need cal/mag. I think it would help me by doing a test with a more powerful LED by itself to figure out what is needed to get them looking the same as CMH. I have tested smaller LEDs and saw no issues.. The higher wattage LED is where I'm seeing this issue pop up..

I have the same issue. It looks like potassium deficiency caused by the LED lighting but I have had little luck.

 

[exploziv]

I had a lot of issues with high intensity leds at first. I still have some, but I am getting better. Just don't treat them as a HID, learn to use them as a diferent tech. I'm continously improving my feeding regimen by looking at the plants and tweaking the elements, but it will take a while till I can be sure of a fix for led problems. What I am trying to say it's .. not an easy task switching to led, but it will get better, and once you manage to run them half way to glory you'll already be happy with the results, which will be better, with less hassle and energy input.

 

[ButterflyEffect]

To connect an arduino uno or mega wirelessly you can make it talk to a uno wifi or whatever copy that has an esp chip. Its not a shield. Its 2 way serial communication, which is like a lesson in any tutorial I seen till now. Maybe I am not enaugh code iterate to tell you this in script kiddie vocabulary, but dunno I would expect a guy that played with arduinos to have done things with serial communication already. Its the easiest form of communication and used even for simplest code when talking to the pc.

You and me both are aspiring script kiddies!

From what I read on the arduino forums it's not as easy as that. I'll have to go pick up a few of them for testing. I have to get photocell sensors anyway so I can run a different routine in the dark period so I'll let you know what I discover. The fun part after that will be taking the data dumps and getting a useful front-end out of it.

 

[exploziv]

Yeah, we're getting there. Its not easy as 10 min research but I do remember getring my arduinos online with some esp8266 board copy within hours, on the day I got that copy delivered. Honestly, most of the time was spent figuring out which copy I got so to get the proper network protocols example sketch that will work with the board and go from there. If I had bought a brand arduino wifi, my bet is I would have found that example sketch within minutes.
Altrough at first I was big on getting my grow controller online, after more thinking I decided it's better to make a nice local interface, rather than have the possibility of remote setting it up. I may leave the wifi part for checking the growroom parameters easier without going to the growroom, but I don't need it to do anything more. I am now working on logging data and menu/ options for it as well.
Once I finish this one I will tackle my watering controller.
Anyway, good luck with your project!

 

[Mars Hydro Led]

I had a lot of issues with high intensity leds at first. I still have some, but I am getting better. Just don't treat them as a HID, learn to use them as a diferent tech. I'm continously improving my feeding regimen by looking at the plants and tweaking the elements, but it will take a while till I can be sure of a fix for led problems. What I am trying to say it's .. not an easy task switching to led, but it will get better, and once you manage to run them half way to glory you'll already be happy with the results, which will be better, with less hassle and energy input.

Yes, they are different tech that need different growing methods.

 

[Mars Hydro Led]

They would quit growing weed and sell seeds off the back of their crop photo's.

 

[ButterflyEffect]

Yeah, we're getting there. Its not easy as 10 min research but I do remember getring my arduinos online with some esp8266 board copy within hours, on the day I got that copy delivered. Honestly, most of the time was spent figuring out which copy I got so to get the proper network protocols example sketch that will work with the board and go from there. If I had bought a brand arduino wifi, my bet is I would have found that example sketch within minutes.
Altrough at first I was big on getting my grow controller online, after more thinking I decided it's better to make a nice local interface, rather than have the possibility of remote setting it up. I may leave the wifi part for checking the growroom parameters easier without going to the growroom, but I don't need it to do anything more. I am now working on logging data and menu/ options for it as well.
Once I finish this one I will tackle my watering controller.
Anyway, good luck with your project!

I've been posting on the arduino board for answers to problems I can't figure out. I think I'll be able to get the wifi working. Neat thing is, I can not only monitor everything but I can control it, as well. Sadly, my latest issue is I just changed temp/humidity sensor from a DHT22(which always had humidity drift issues over time) to an SHT30 for better reliability. Unfortunately, it keeps freezing, whether it's the arduino or the sensor I do not know.

Thanks again for the kind words!

 

[exploziv]

Maybe you are reading the sensor too fast? Maybe it needs a delay to process something?
Most things that fuck my code are not code things, but other things you only see after you research it a bit. Like sensor reading timings, sometimes those are critical. Also, optimisation takes most to me. It usually takes hours (with a lot of puffs, unless I am working on AC mains powered components) to get a concept that is working, but then it takes days (I mean many hours over many days) to tweak it to work better, reduce size of code, reduce processing time and useless delays ect.

 

[ButterflyEffect]

Maybe you are reading the sensor too fast? Maybe it needs a delay to process something?
Most things that fuck my code are not code things, but other things you only see after you research it a bit. Like sensor reading timings, sometimes those are critical. Also, optimisation takes most to me. It usually takes hours (with a lot of puffs, unless I am working on AC mains powered components) to get a concept that is working, but then it takes days (I mean many hours over many days) to tweak it to work better, reduce size of code, reduce processing time and useless delays ect.

I still don't exactly know why the sensor was freezing up. I put the DHT sensor back in for now. I built another controller using an uno to control a dehumidifier in a storage area and its working fine. I think there may be interference where the room controller is. The problem is, the I2C bus is very sensitive to cross-talk and noise. I'm going to redo all of the controllers and put them in boxes and make them 'cleaner', so to speak soon. That should help. Thankfully, this room is on during the day, so I was able to watch all day long. You're spot on about the hours over days thing! Next up, I ordered ESP12 modules to hopefully connect these guys to the internet and read/control them with Blynk. Fingers crossed!

 

[skunk numba one]

I've only grown with LED's. 2016 I built a small COB LED light.

 

[Mars Hydro Led]

I've only grown with LED's. 2016 I built a small COB LED light.

yeah, COB was very hot in 2016 as well as the purple LED. How long have you used LED?

 

[Three Berries]

I made my own 100w cobs running off 32v power supplies. Had three of them and used them for four years. Not even full spectrum.

 

[Mars Hydro Led]

I made my own 100w cobs running off 32v power supplies. Had three of them and used them for four years. Not even full spectrum.

sounds cool. are you happy with the performance or yield? What is the average GPW

 

[Three Berries]

sounds cool. are you happy with the performance or yield? What is the average GPW

At the time I was happy. Better than the T8s I was using. In 2018 I went to HPS and retail 50 W FS LED cobs.

I was just glad to have some stash.

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

15 years with HIDs, paying for mass a/c to cool things back down, infra red vaping off terps, big heavy ballasts and lamps...

I grow at <70F and <30RH for massive terpiness and maximum trichome density, LED's are a dream come true.

 

[DARKSIDER]

15 years with HIDs, paying for mass a/c to cool things back down, infra red vaping off terps, big heavy ballasts and lamps...

I grow at <70F and <30RH for massive terpiness and maximum trichome density, LED's are a dream come true.

Totally Agree Douglas.Curtis LED's are the way forward i would never go back to anything else..
Ps and i dont even own any mars lights just for the record..