LED grow lights... input please.

[turtle420]

If they're ignoring a question, send them an eMail with just that question. Nothing more.

Man, I'm happy that you're going for this... really!

But keep your eyes open man... $600 over in that part of the world will buy you a lot of cheap beer and costly women.

The 10 day delivery sounds good.

But as you say... some optical equipment is needed to test the LEDs... to make sure they're pumping out the correct spectrums.

Hmmm... dude!!! I'm going to search my college books. I've got this instrument, cheap, in the back of my head.... It's for measuring wavelengths.

You point it at the light source, look through the peep-hole (like a kaleidoscope [?])... then, what you see inside, is a big nm-wavelength chart. Then, the wavelengths that are present, "illuminate" on the correct portions...

Damn it man... I'm usually very good remembering technical stuff... I can't remember the name... ermmm.... I'll check it out today... I hope I can post tomorrow.

When I say cheap, it might cost, you know, $40, $50 or $60... so it isn't that cheap... but better than costly-ass electronic equipment...

DARN IT! I can't remember!

I NEED WEED!!!

I HAVEN'T SMOKED IN OVER A WEEK!!!!

Best to you man, and godspeed ahead...

-turtle420
.

[Aaron385]

I am making an attempt to feminize with 7500k led Bulbs, I read somewhere that excess light in this spectrum is a sure win for feminizing. I also have 6500k CFLs going. Will let you all know if it works.

[knna]

I think that a bluish spectrum can slighty help to feminize, but only for plants not totally defined genetically. Help slighty agaings hermies development, but genetic has more effect than nothing else.

Using blue leds would be better for your purpose.

[Aaron385]

Well I am running a ton of lumens in the 6500k range and adding in 7500k with 60 super brite leds (yea.. ones from superbriteled.com).. Im killing two birds with one stone as well.. as I have it in the 24/0 room burning it 24/7/365 so I can see for real what LED life is like.. I am also insuring they can stand up to the high humidity and constant duty cycle of grow room use.

I think the future of led's for growing purposes lie in two key places.. one being the strings of LEDs that you can buy on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/LED-String-Light...QQcmdZViewItem

because people are not thinking outside of the box on this.. why put led's in a fixture like a light bulb?? Thats not productive.. get these strings and hang them from a movable fixture hanging above the crop and just raise the strings between all the plants as they grow. Walla! Make sure you integrate (or alternate) various patterns of different watelength LEDs to achive desired spectrum intensities.

The second thing required will be the availablility of these strings in the spectrums we need without people doing it on purpose.. case in point being CFLs got really popular when you could go to wallmart and find one that operated at 6500k for $5.. and walmart didnt order that light for you to grow plants with..

I hope by the time my HPS system degrades to the point it needs replacing that I will be able to find LED strings like the ones listed above in the RIGHT spectrums for MJ growing.. because if I can.. I mean this guy is selling them for $6.67 (incl shipping) per 6 foot string of 12 1w lights.. 12w per string.. get 100 strings of these and for $667 you have more than a HPS 1000W worth of light, targeted exactly to the spectrums you want, with little heat, and the ability to basically touch the lights to the plants!

The limiting factor now is if those LEDs are in a spectrum that we like?? Its worth a little Q&A to find out..

MonkeyRacket- how is the grow going???

[oldsanclem]

http://www.geeks.com look for led bulb 120v This is a simple way just screw in. I'm not suggesting to use one but it would solve a lot of problems.
If led worked some ONE would come out with data, thats all I have seen data, ON the leds,(angs, freq,Kelvin, pulse with,over drive, etc) nothing on the production of Pot/tomatoes. I wonder why the cashcroppers still use the 30 year old systems.
Only fly to the sun at night, its much safer. :dance: :thumbsup:
ohms, ohms , ohms O god I see delight zap.
If mites fly into a bug zapper will it make ozone.
Is a pussyfour, one less than 5.
Enjoy growing grams/watts/months just the facts.

[Aaron385]

Nasa has produced good results.. on lettuce. Ive read many people starting grows LED but i never see if they finished?? Anyone heard of sulfur microwave bulbs??

[oldsanclem]

The last panels for grow labs, are florsent flat panels, with harvest of wheat and other grasses.
At $10,000 per liftoff weight cost, leds did not make it.
The sulfer bulb, is just like wind, solar power, only the goverment can efford it.
The sulfer microwave system requires light pipes to manage it. 1400 watts in 1000 watts out, last price I have seen is about $3,400, plus light pipes. a 30 year old ballast is much more efficent.
A few things to think about 1915 electric car went 80 miles on a charge a 2005 goes 80 miles on a charge. A 1940 Crosley got 50-60 mpg a new Toyota gets 50-60. just the higher cost of snow jobs.
The major differance is gas back then was .08 per gallon, and the break even point for the Toyota is a little over $10.00 per gallon. Today people are much richer they pay between 4-10 bucks a gallon for drinking water.
If N.A.S.A. can not efford them how can a pot growers do it.
Karma,Vodo,Hodo, Watts=watts,,, BTU=BTU,,, My fairy god muther is a whore and she charges for favors. :rasta: :twocents:
I must give everyone credit for trying, Put you B.S. M.S. Phd in elec. engeering to help N.A.S.A. :thumbsup:

[graymatter]

I don't know much about indoor growing but I learned some things when researching LEDs:

Heat sucks
Light is good
Light is expensive
LED's cost more but operate more efficiently.
I have no idea if LED's produce great bud.

[Aaron385]

well i wouldnt write off sulfur microwave yet.. the new bulbs are shielded (dont give off any detectable waves.. even if they did it would just be like a microwave being on in the room.

The price is down too.. only about a cool grand.. and imagine if they can do for them what CFL's have done for flouros... could be putting out 100 lumens per watt at a higher PUR rating than HPS with no heat and no light degredation over the 50,000 (estimated) hr life of the bulb.

I mean.. pretty good specs and the price is only about twice what a good HPS setup costs.. It is supposed to be better in the watts to lumens ratio than it use to be and I think it may have potential in our hobby.

Also.. maybe we can make them?? Its a pretty simple design.. a magnetron (microwave generator like in your microwave) blasts its beams thru a ball filled with sulfur gas.. not too technical.. but im sure there is a little more to it.

[PearlJamFan]

Ok what I have now is 80 Red in series of 5 with 3 660nm and 2 630nm per series, I also have 3 blue per series, then alternate them 400, 432, 400,432. So for each breadbord I have 80 Red with 68ohm resistor per series and 15 blue w/ 68ohm resistor per series . Each breadboard put's out 7.7w of red, and 1.2w of blue.

Here is the power breakdown.

Red per breadboard:
* each 68 ohm resistor dissipates 27.2 mW
* the wizard thinks 1/4W resistors are fine for your application Help
* together, all resistors dissipate 870.4 mW
* together, the diodes dissipate 6880 mW
* total power dissipated by the array is 7750.4 mW
* the array draws current of 640 mA from the source.

Blue per breadboard:
* each 68 ohm resistor dissipates 27.2 mW
* the wizard thinks 1/4W resistors are fine for your application Help
* together, all resistors dissipate 136 mW
* together, the diodes dissipate 1080 mW
* total power dissipated by the array is 1216 mW
* the array draws current of 100 mA from the source.

Total for project:

Red total: 480 red, 288 @ 660nm, 192 @ 632nm
* each 68 ohm resistor dissipates 27.2 mW
* the wizard thinks 1/4W resistors are fine for your application Help
* together, all resistors dissipate 2611.2 mW
* together, the diodes dissipate 20640 mW
* total power dissipated by the array is 23251.2 mW
* the array draws current of 1920 mA from the source.

Blue total: 90 blue, 45 @ 470nm, 45 @ 400nm
* each 68 ohm resistor dissipates 27.2 mW
* the wizard thinks 1/4W resistors are fine for your application Help
* together, all resistors dissipate 816 mW
* together, the diodes dissipate 6480 mW
* total power dissipated by the array is 7296 mW
* the array draws current of 600 mA from the source.

23251.2 mw x 7296mw = 30w of LED power, should be equal to a 250-350w HPS?