DIY LED Grow Light Vero 18 (Economy light)

[hyroot]

FOR sure Cree would give me more photon, but I wanted something for small plants that I really didn't have to build out right away... This is something I could upgrade IF i need to down the line. I am already working on building the lights for the larger vegging plants. I like it for what it is though! under 100$ and maybe 15min of my time was worth it to get moving away from the cabinet and on to the tents.

I'm just speculating. for my other veg. Right now its just cree globes over a cloner. I have t5's though. I could still get a 330 cmh cheaper. I want led though. Eventually it will be cobs

 

[SomeGuy]

I think you could do your whole flower room with CXA or vero and with less wattage than you currently run. 6 3-cob bars would rock the party in your flower space.

I would keep the t-5s for clones. upgrade the flower room w cob led bars. Use the a-51 for larger veg. Not sure what your goals are in production though HY.

 

[Dloomis514]

NOt sure this has been in the thread yet.

http://www.ledgroupbuy.com/cree-lumia-5-2-65w-grow-led-5-channel-for-plants/

Layout:
Channel 1 - XTE-E Royal Blue (base blue spectrum for vegetation) (18V @ 1500mA)

Channel 2 - 730nm Hyper Red (designed for sunrise / sunset) (11v @ 350mA) - Key wavelength to get optimal growth

Channel 3 - 660nm Deep Red (flowering spectrum) (13V @ 700mA)

Channel 4 - 660nm Deep Red (flowering spectrum) (13V @ 700mA)

Channel 5 - XT-E Warm White (high noon effect) (18V @ 1500mA)

http://ledgroupbuy.zendesk.com/entries/24847592-What-do-I-need-to-power-the-Lumia-5-1-LED

Does this look interesting?

I'm just speculating. for my other veg. Right now its just cree globes over a cloner. I have t5's though. I could still get a 330 cmh cheaper. I want led though. Eventually it will be cobs

 

[hyroot]

I think you could do your whole flower room with CXA or vero and with less wattage than you currently run. 6 3-cob bars would rock the party in your flower space.

I would keep the t-5s for clones. upgrade the flower room w cob led bars. Use the a-51 for larger veg. Not sure what your goals are in production though HY.

I plan on doing cobs eventually on one side of the room. I want to get the veg cobs first.In the flower room the cobs would match the watts of the inda gros. Ig - 460 watts over a 5x4. the cxa cobs would be around 450 watts over the same area. I don't like t5's. 432 watts is a lot for a 2x4. I wish I knew better twhen I got them years ago. My a51 covers more sq ft at 155 watts. T5 8 bulb puts out quite a bit more heat than an inda gro.


Once the collective gets going next year, it will be all inda gro. You have to have the safety certs UL, CUS, etc.... for grow ops. In Co the ops get fines if their lighting doesn't have the proper safety ratings. Its going to be regulated the same as Co once legalized here.

 

[SomeGuy]

@Dloomis514 interesting considering there are some folks here who have known all that info for some time. I feel that the full spectrum cobs available with only a little supplement is still the way to go. Of course... couldn't hurt to run one in a 2x2 and check out their claims.

 

[Dloomis514]

 

[hyroot]

View attachment 3264745

I wouldn't want that spectrum at all. Very low cri.

 

[SomeGuy]

That was my first thought. But they are incorporating the far reds, which is cool. I still say the high cri cobs are gonna kick ass over custom spectrum. Plants get it all outside and do awesome. Why not indoors?

 

[churchhaze]

Way too much blue.

 

[hyroot]

That was my first thought. But they are incorporating the far reds, which is cool. I still say the high cri cobs are gonna kick ass over custom spectrum. Plants get it all outside and do awesome. Why not indoors?

the higher the cri the closer to sun it becomes. Thats why induction and cobs and cmh produce that white light like being outside. There is much more air flow outside. No need for fans unless ridiculously humid. Aside from recreating sunlight. you would have to recreate the environment as well. We all have constant temps and exact times of lights on off. That doesn't happen outside. Using 730 at lights out is the closest way of mimicking sunset. Until technology can further that. Its what we have to work with.

 

[FranJan]

Just a little heads up for anyone buying Vero 18s and that want to use those Ledil reflector mounts to secure it to the heatsink, be careful. If your drill holes don't align perfectly you'll warp the Ledil mount since it only has 2 screws and you'll end up with light leaking from the side of the mount. This is doubly so if you're using something like .5 mm thermal pads.

Holy shit these thing generate some serious heat . I tried to go with a thinner passive heatsink with a larger surface area than the CPU coolers everyone seems to use and after 30 minutes it was too damn hot. Maybe I can add a fan but it looks like it's going to take a serious sized heatsink to keep these suckers cool passivley. Now I know why Supra uses those cinder block sized heatsinks.

 

[AquariusPanta]

Just a little heads up for anyone buying Vero 18s and that want to use those Ledil reflector mounts to secure it to the heatsink, be careful. If your drill holes don't align perfectly you'll warp the Ledil mount since it only has 2 screws and you'll end up with light leaking from the side of the mount. This is doubly so if you're using something like .5 mm thermal pads.

Holy shit these thing generate some serious heat . I tried to go with a thinner passive heatsink with a larger surface area than the CPU coolers everyone seems to use and after 30 minutes it was too damn hot. Maybe I can add a fan but it looks like it's going to take a serious sized heatsink to keep these suckers cool passivley. Now I know why Supra uses those cinder block sized heatsinks.

lol thanks for the heads up. I just received my V18's in the mail today. Just waiting on everything else to arrive in the mean time. SomeGuy did mention that they run pretty hot with his set up but he's got an extra box fan situated above his main grow center.

 

[AquariusPanta]

I wonder if it would make any difference in respect to heat if you didn't use the reflector mounts and just let the light loose at 120degrees?

 

[churchhaze]

Which profile did you use, and cut to what length? How hard are you driving the cob(s)?

Also, how hot is too darn hot? Just wondering since my 10" x 10" sinks are coming in tomorrow and I'm planning on running ~80W worth of vero 18 on each (4 at 20W each). Not sure how much breeze I'll need, and how hot it will get.

I figure 80W at 35% efficiency is 52W of heat.

Just a little heads up for anyone buying Vero 18s and that want to use those Ledil reflector mounts to secure it to the heatsink, be careful. If your drill holes don't align perfectly you'll warp the Ledil mount since it only has 2 screws and you'll end up with light leaking from the side of the mount. This is doubly so if you're using something like .5 mm thermal pads.

Holy shit these thing generate some serious heat . I tried to go with a thinner passive heatsink with a larger surface area than the CPU coolers everyone seems to use and after 30 minutes it was too damn hot. Maybe I can add a fan but it looks like it's going to take a serious sized heatsink to keep these suckers cool passivley. Now I know why Supra uses those cinder block sized heatsinks.

 

[FranJan]

I wonder if it would make any difference in respect to heat if you didn't use the reflector mounts and just let the light loose at 120degrees?

I'm under the impression that adding a reflector adds heat and I'm also under the impression that the tighter the angle, the more heat generated. Ooops now I see what you meant but nope I don't want to light my walls. These lights are being added as side lighting and I'm angling these into my grow so I do want optics. 120 is too wide for me.

Which profile did you use, and cut to what length? How hard are you driving the cob(s)?

Also, how hot is too darn hot? Just wondering since my 10" x 10" sinks are coming in tomorrow and I'm planning on running ~80W worth of vero 18 on each (4 at 20W each). Not sure how much breeze I'll need, and how hot it will get.

I figure 80W at 35% efficiency is 52W of heat.

I'm at 900mA and mounted on a 4 1/2" x 8 1/2" x 3/8" and I could just handle it which is too hot for my flowering room. Had run some XP-E whites on them some time ago and just assumed I could get by and didn't bother to do the math since I was running them a bit soft. Oh well, decision time. 2 x 80mm fans or maybe something like the one below to stay passive which is what I really want but the wallet is looking a bit sad lately .
http://www.dynatron-corp.com/en/product_detail_1.aspx?cv=&id=257&in=0

 

[guod]

@FranJan
1. this is not a passive heatsink. fins to close
you need some airflow and pressure...
Dynatron R23 CPU Cooler Thermal Performance under Wind Tunnel Simulation :

2. this heatsink has an Vapor Chamber Base. no holes please...

 

[FranJan]

Great design job Ledil! Next time try to use more than the least amount of material possible to interface with the heatsink. Plus it uses 2 of the Vero's mounting holes. Pretty shitty design but maybe I'm using it wrong. Plus it seems that even if I put a reflector in it will still leak light out sideways.

Thanks for the tip Guod!

 

[churchhaze]

Yep. The reason these are labeled as passive is because they're meant to go in rack mount servers, which are designed to have airflows from front to back. (or is it back to front?)

In other words, they aren't really passive, they just don't have a fan mounted on them. Air is blown through sideways.

A design less reliant on airflow would have fatter fins spaced farther apart. This is because when the fins are close together, hot air gets trapped, reducing the effective conductivity of the sink.

@FranJan
1. this is not a passive heatsink. fins to close
you need some airflow and pressure...
Dynatron R23 CPU Cooler Thermal Performance under Wind Tunnel Simulation :
View attachment 3265739
2. this heatsink has an Vapor Chamber Base. no holes please...

 

[Positivity]

Great design job Ledil! Next time try to use more than the least amount of material possible to interface with the heatsink. Plus it uses 2 of the Vero's mounting holes. Pretty shitty design but maybe I'm using it wrong. Plus it seems that even if I put a reflector in it will still leak light out sideways.


Thanks for the tip Guod!

The reflector adapter doesn't fit perfect on my cree setup either. If you look at some of the pics in my thread you can see light leaking out. Mine has punchouts for the ideal holder that further leak light. I'm not too worried about it though as I think it's really minimal light loss. That's a whole lot of light it needs to contain. I'm just happy they are making these for such a large amount of leds...must be hard to make them fit perfect on every led.

When I tightened the screws to my adapter too tight it would distort the plastic and leak lots of light. By just applying minimal pressure to the screws it kept the frame much straighter.

Anyways that's cool you set it up like that. I have to raise my light quite a bit when using reflectors or it lightens the leaves. Wish I had a par meter to see the difference..the numbers must be huge.

 

[SomeGuy]

This is from the LED tent on Friday at the end of week 4. Things are starting to pick up in there. woot. Looks even better now.