Quote Originally Posted by pop123
hi all, first off, i like to say that after reading all the post about the leds im going to attempt to build one. I read thour all post and im still debating or should i say unsure of what to use? LedEgin or Cree,5mm,10mm and so on.....

what i was thinking is using the LedEgin led. but the prices kinda high... the 15w red, blue are about 29-33 USD. but the 5w are only about 7-10. which is better?

this is only to veg my cough "tomato plants ". if u can plz, give a detail of the
Schematics, how many Leds to buy (red,Blue). Every items that i will need. thx! oh and i like to match a 600mh/hps light at veg.

Thx Much in adv.
Pop!:rastasmoke:
When I first considered growing I was playing with LEDs. I have built many little projects around here with them and really thought that I could build a nice light out of 5mm LEDs. I almost went with the 1 watt ones but didn't follow through because they were so expensive. The 3 and 5 watt ones were really crazy and I had problems finding them in the view angles and exact light frequency that I wanted. I think you will find as I did that the larger LEDs tend to be slightly out of the optimum red and blue areas and the smaller 3 and 5mm LEDs are available right exactly where you want them to be.

Then I started figuring out lumens/$$ along with my requirements of low heat and low electricity. I weighed that in with the time and effort it would take to build a 20,000 lumen LED light and realized that it would be a lot easier to go with a high output florescent and meet my above requirements. You also have to be very careful with your design so as to not dissipate a lot of heat in your load resistors or a large array can easily become hotter than a typical florescent.

I love LEDs and use them all over here in my ham radio and specialty lighting projects but they really are a bit pricey compared to other lights available to us, at least in the candlepowers that we need here in our gardens.

Let me point you to 2 sites... one a cheap source for experimenter LEDs and the other is a handy dandy circuit designer so you can order just what you need in LEDs and resistors.

Super Bright LEDs ΓΆβ?¬β?? LED Lights, Bulbs, and Accessories
LED series parallel array wizard

I also highly recommend these guys for your resistors and any other miscellaneous parts you may need.
All Electronics | Electronic and Electro-Mechanical Parts and Supplies at Discount Prices

Emmie