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Unit Farm System Supply

Unit Farm System Supply

Well-Known Member
booms111 said:
I think alot of what your seeing is inexperienced growers choosing LED before they know how to grow, it's rampant on this site. I agree with the small setups we see over and over, mostly guys choosing LED out of convenience since the white leds can be ran at half wattage of hps which makes the heat factor much easier to deal with in there mind when a good intake/exhaust system is all a hps grower needs. I'm testing some Quantums now to see how they do, one setup similar to hps with boards running at max and hung high like a 1k hps to let plants grow up to lights and another spot ran with a blanket of boards ran lower to plants similar to how strips are used. If these tests come back out yielding HPS in same size area i will change out my 1k hps's rooms but if not oh well it was worth the investment to find out the truth. So far I can say the quantums are doing a great job compared to mh/hps grows but i haven't finished a grow with them yet so time will tell and I'm sure I will let everyone know if a 20 year hps vet converts to LED or if they fail.
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Nobody can stop the tide of history，It's like a train replaces a steam engine and a high-speed rail replaces a train....LED or HPS is okay for growth,just LED is better and better. Person loves be better ,right?
 
Randomblame

Randomblame

Well-Known Member
Well done! No one said they can't, they are simply not as efficient as eg. Bridgelux COB's or Samsung strips and they lack in quality.
Yield per watt depends on effiency of the used LED's, mate! 1,5-1,8g/w is doable for the most using efficient white COB's, QB's or LED strips(30-35w/sft.).
Blurple's are cheap and they can indeed grow some weed but you'll probably end up with 0,8-1g/w like HPS.
 
Bear420

Bear420

Well-Known Member
It has been about 3 months now and i have to say, these ladies are looking nice and I am saving 100.00 bucks a month on power bill. I took down a few under my new leds and the weight, flavor and Hi. is better than my HPS lights, I would of never believed it so. but the proof is there.
My ladies are not stretching as much as they did under the hps, they stay fairly low and are producing a bit more with a shorter plant. I am thinking and hoping these become cheaper so everyone can use less power and get a more stinky tasty smoking plant.
I can post pics if anyone is interested in seeing the progress. But I can tell anyone watching this thread Good Leds work as good as a hps now and are comparable to them with the great energy savings of LEDs.

Happy Grow all :)
 
Randomblame

Randomblame

Well-Known Member
Nope you need at least thermal glue. I've used the glue and grease and used the glue only on 2 of the outer surfaces, the rest of the surface I have coated with the thermal paste. So they are only glued on two small places and the rest is covered with more efficient thermal grease and if you do it this way they can be easily removed.
Cheap thermal glue can be found for 1$US at E3ay,
You could also use double sided thermal tape if you not plan to drive the diodes with +700mA. I've used the same cheap 1,2w/m-k tape I've used to mount the strips and it works good so far. But I run mine (XP-E 730nm 601bin) only around 300mA.
 
KonopCh

KonopCh

Well-Known Member
Randomblame said:
Nope you need at least thermal glue. I've used the glue and grease and used the glue only on 2 of the outer surfaces, the rest of the surface I have coated with the thermal paste. So they are only glued on two small places and the rest is covered with more efficient thermal grease and if you do it this way they can be easily removed.
Cheap thermal glue can be found for 1$US at E3ay,
You could also use double sided thermal tape if you not plan to drive the diodes with +700mA. I've used the same cheap 1,2w/m-k tape I've used to mount the strips and it works good so far. But I run mine (XP-E 730nm 601bin) only around 300mA.
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Okay, I order 10g pase, should be okay for 5x 16mm stars. I will drive them at 500 mA in 80x80 cm tent. For now. Later in winter I will expand to 120x120 cm tent. I will buy strips for that tent. 4 plants, each should get their own XP-E and one in the middle. To get the same stretch/coverage.

Talking about strips, I need double sided thermal tape for them, right? 25mm tape for 20mm strip is okay? I guess dust will cover remaining 0.5mm tape? The blue one, 25 meters for around 10€?
 
Aolelon

Aolelon

Well-Known Member
I soldered mine to the heatsinks, its really easy if you know how to solder.
And yes the 25mm tape will work for the 20mm strips, I used some for my strips and they work well. I don't imagine i could remove the strips from their heatsink without damaging them.
 
Randomblame

Randomblame

Well-Known Member
KonopCh said:
Okay, I order 10g pase, should be okay for 5x 16mm stars. I will drive them at 500 mA in 80x80 cm tent. For now. Later in winter I will expand to 120x120 cm tent. I will buy strips for that tent. 4 plants, each should get their own XP-E and one in the middle. To get the same stretch/coverage.

Talking about strips, I need double sided thermal tape for them, right? 25mm tape for 20mm strip is okay? I guess dust will cover remaining 0.5mm tape? The blue one, 25 meters for around 10€?
Click to expand...
Why not use 20mm tape? It's available in many widths, in 5mm increments, from 5-50mm.
And thermal paste aka grease alone is not enough, mate. You need some kind of glue or you need to screw them additionally! And 1g is more than enough for 5 stars.
 
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KonopCh

KonopCh

Well-Known Member
Randomblame said:
Why not use 20mm tape? It's available in many widths, in 5mm increments, from 5-50mm.
And thermal paste aka grease alone is not enough, mate. You need some kind of glue or you need to screw them additionally! And 1g is more than enough for 5 stars.
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I must look into 20mm tape, didn't see it yesterday.
Your second line of comment... talking about strips? Thermal tape is not enough to hold them on U-channels?

Aolelon said:
I soldered mine to the heatsinks, its really easy if you know how to solder.
And yes the 25mm tape will work for the 20mm strips, I used some for my strips and they work well. I don't imagine i could remove the strips from their heatsink without damaging them.
Click to expand...
Thank you for tip, I am okay with soldering, but I will go with tape because it's easier anyway. And don't need to buy MX-4 again.
Those cheap chinese tapes are okay at higher voltage, temperatures?
 
Randomblame

Randomblame

Well-Known Member
The thermal tape is perfectly fine, you can use it for strips and stars. But only thermal grease/paste is not enough for the stars! The stars will fall off without some glue or additional screws. Only if you plan to drive them harder like 700mA you should consider to use the thermal grease for better heat transfer.
 
Aolelon

Aolelon

Well-Known Member
KonopCh said:
I must look into 20mm tape, didn't see it yesterday.
Your second line of comment... talking about strips? Thermal tape is not enough to hold them on U-channels?



Thank you for tip, I am okay with soldering, but I will go with tape because it's easier anyway. And don't need to buy MX-4 again.
Those cheap chinese tapes are okay at higher voltage, temperatures?
Click to expand...
Yea tape works extremely well, a lot better than I anticipated.
 
KonopCh

KonopCh

Well-Known Member
Randomblame said:
The thermal tape is perfectly fine, you can use it for strips and stars. But only thermal grease/paste is not enough for the stars! The stars will fall off without some glue or additional screws. Only if you plan to drive them harder like 700mA you should consider to use the thermal grease for better heat transfer.
Click to expand...
Thermal glue is what I ordered. Sorry for confusion. I order like you said - thermal glue. So this should hold stars on heatsink.
And glad to hear that, @Aolelon ! No need to make holes into 10mm ALU heatsink, simply put double tape onto it. Simple and not pricey at all.

Thank you for input guys!
 
jarvild

jarvild

Well-Known Member
I just use the thermal adhesive tape to fasten my stars down, unless I'm using the solder less stars from Rapid, then it's drill and tap.
Anyone have a recommendation on the amount of infra-red diodes or uv diodes to mix in with the white LEDs
 
Tejashidrow

Tejashidrow

Well-Known Member
Randomblame said:
Well done! No one said they can't, they are simply not as efficient as eg. Bridgelux COB's or Samsung strips and they lack in quality.
Yield per watt depends on effiency of the used LED's, mate! 1,5-1,8g/w is doable for the most using efficient white COB's, QB's or LED strips(30-35w/sft.).
Blurple's are cheap and they can indeed grow some weed but you'll probably end up with 0,8-1g/w like HPS.
Click to expand...
My first led was a mars hydro blurple
Used them for years
Averaged 1.3-1.5 grams per watt.
It’s all about understanding what you got and it’s weaknesses and maximizing its positives.
 
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