'Redline's LED - DiY - Build' aka"GROW LIGHT"

Correction on the parts list: Change the Cinch Jones plugs to 3 pin connectors instead of 2.

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Originally Posted by Projman

Red you have such a great handle on all of this. I'm really glad I found this forum.

I have a small discrete growing area ready and this will obviously work much better if I have less heat venting issues. Obviously I need to vent some.

So i'd like to take the plunge and see what comes of it. Use what "the collective" has for best data and go with it. Is there a recommendation for a system for a 2x3 ScrOG?

If there's a thought about using the secondary wavelengths to augment primary, I could go circular and rotate.

Thanks for any thoughts.

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currently I have a 3'x18" cabinet with a procyon 100, 2 85 watt 3000k cfls and 3 10w 660nm spotlight arrays. I have 20 plants Scrog style in the cab. the procyon can't get the full 3' wide since I only have it about 12" above the tops( lack of space). I have the procyon in the center and then 1 cfl on each end. the plants that are the biggest are the ones receiving a good amount of the procyon and the cfls. However, the plants are all doing extremely well and I think I have comparable results to my 400w hps bulb in the same cabinet. they are almost as big as the hps, but they definitely have more trichomes and the buds are extremely dense. however, I don't think I would have the same result from just the procyon. the plants underneath the procyon are doing just as good as under my HPS, but It won't cover the same floor space as a 400w hps, as others have said. I think the procyon would do a 2'x2' cab good. I want to build another LED in the near future for in the cab and get rid of the cfl, but for now it works just fine. I have no air conditioner in my closet so using a HPS was out of the question this summer. therefore, I bought the procyon. if you have the money and understand what your buying I definitely recommend the procyon, but I believe you can build your own LED to work much better. if you have the time and know how.I have about 2-3 weeks left to grow and i'll try to get some pics soon.

also as far a grams/watt/month or whatever he said, I don't see how that is relevant. since it all depends on the type of plant you are working with. I may be wrong, but I thought breed had a lot to do with the size of the final product. at least that is what my experience has been. I think to really judge a hps and LED you need to compare g/w/m with the same breed preferably clones.

You are right, yield can certainly differ from plant to plant and you would need clones to get a true comparison. .5 grams/watt/month is just a benchmark set in the Cervantes book in order to measure the effectiveness of your grow setup.
Also you do need some kind of defined numerical standard to compare experimental results. That is really no other kind of measurement that will work for comparision purposes besides g/w/m.

However, that does bring up a related issue. What kind of plants are going to do the best under LEDs? That's some more work that needs to be done.

Getting coverage with the brick type lamps like Procyn is a problem. You have to have them too far from the plants to get enough area. I personally think even 1 foot for LEDs is too far. That is about a normal distance for an HID light with a cooled hood.
If you can get your LEDs at 3 inches above the plants, Each LED delivers 16 times the power to the top of your plants compared to a 1 foot distance. You can also do away with focusing lenses since you really won't have too much wasted light.
If you can get the LED 1.5 inches above the canopy top, you will have 64 times the light power hitting the leaves. Of course you have to have the LEDs much more spread out.

I believe this is the major advantage of LEDs... getting them right on top of the plants. I seem to be in a minority with this opinion. All the commercial units concentrate their power on a small platform and expect the grower to have them 1 to 1.5 foot above the plants. I am taking some pictures tonight and will have them posted tomorrow.

By the way, don't be in a hurry to dump the CFLs. So far, the LED/CFL combo seems to be working much better then either CFLs or LEDS by themselves. In that configuration, they seem to be on par with a comparable wattage HPS.

Here is first pic of new project. This is the basic layout showing the frame and module placement. Each module will be moveable in the X,Y and Z axis. Some will also have a tilt or angle adjustment.

Redline,
I agree spreading the LEDs out will get much better results than a brick light. also, your light looks awesome and can't wait to see your results. heres some picks from my grow if anyone is curious.

Stup,Were those grown completely with the Procycn? They look really good.

Next step in the construction. Using 1 1/2" wide by 1/8" thick aluminum. I cut 3 long strips. The LED arrays will be attached to the brackets by the threaded adjuster.

Next, I cut two shorter strips. The power jacks will be mounted on these strips.
They will help support the longer mounting strips.

For some reason the forum is not letting me upload latest pics.

Got the pics to upload. 1st one shows the long strips for mounting lights. The second pic shows the shorter support crossbars.

lets try again.

OK, what are we talking about when we say spreading out the light? Are you saying 2x 50w is better than 1x 100w? Depends. You've got 100 watts illuminating one spot on your plant. That spot is getting good light, and other spots are getting marginal light. Now you divide that 100 watts into 2, and put one 50 watter on each side of the plant. Now 2 spots are getting half the light that one spot was getting. Which way will make the plant yield more? I'm betting same same. Kinda like topping makes more bud sites, but they are smaller so the end result is the same.

I could be wrong. It happened once before.