500€ budget for new light in 4x4 tent

KonopCh

KonopCh

Well-Known Member
I wanted buy 20x 112cm single row Q strips and 2x 250W MW drivers, but Digikey did something wrong and now I must make a new order.
Meantime, some member here says words that I can't overlook.

So I open this thread once for final. I plan to use SCROG net in 4x4 tent, and I want 25-30cm hard colas above net. I prepared everything to buy tomorrow -->20x LT-QB22A strips on 2x MW HLG-240H-C1050A drivers. So 112cm strips 5-6cm apart across whole 120x120cm tent. Better can't go, I think. 183 lm/W in 3000K 80 CRI strips, 480-500W.
If I hang them 10-15 cm above colas, do you think I will get 30cm colas which are hard as with COBs? Because right now I use Citizen 1212 gen5 COBs, driven at 35W each, and I have great results and 30cm hard colas above net. And they're not even 155 lm/W.

I am looking for best light I can get for 500€. I also have one 250W MW driver at home and I can reuse it. Price with everything (light + heatsinks + drivers) should be around 500€.
 
KonopCh

KonopCh

Well-Known Member
4x Zeus XT 3500K at 3A is 2.67 umol/s and 189 lm/W.
Any better solution?

Above strips which Randomblame recommended me, are 3000K and at 0.55A 183 lm/W, he said it's 2.61 umol/s.
 
KonopCh

KonopCh

Well-Known Member
maxlev said:
These are very efficient = 2.2 µmols/watt but a bit more expensive for a 4x4 euro771 from Dublin Ireland
https://www.migrolight.com/shop/
Click to expand...
That's not highest tech light. Want something DIY and better. I already have 2.2 umol/s light.

Boatguy said:
You already have a good light.
I would think adding some vertical light, or strips to your existing fixture would be the best bang for your buck.
Click to expand...
I have 2x 50cm heatsinks with 3 Citi's 1212 on them. Old tech, I don't think it's good for upgrade. Nor enought for 4x4 tent.
 
wietefras

wietefras

Well-Known Member
What's wrong with your chosen strip light then? That 183lm/W would be around 2.6umol/s/W.Seems quite awesome really.

Maybe you could save a few bucks using H Influx strips, but they don't come in 112cm. So you'd have to put two 56 cm strips end to end
 
KonopCh

KonopCh

Well-Known Member
wietefras said:
What's wrong with your chosen strip light then? That 183lm/W would be around 2.6umol/s/W.Seems quite awesome really.

Maybe you could save a few bucks using H Influx strips, but they don't come in 112cm. So you'd have to put two 56 cm strips end to end
Click to expand...
You scared me with distance to canopy from other thread. I wonder if I can get 30cm colas with those strips. Strips would be 10cm above scrog net, if I read right.
And because Digikey has some troubles, I must order tomorrow, so one day to finalize my mind - maybe there is something better for that money, with more than 2.6 umol/s.
I found Zeus XT boards which are 3500K and at 3A gives 118W and 2.67 umol/s. 400€ total for 4 boards, which is 100€ less than my current setup in my mind.
 
PSUAGRO.

PSUAGRO.

Well-Known Member
Yeah I think adding side lighting would be more beneficial than going from 2.2 to 2.6 umol/ j on your main source.....

intra canopy would get sticky and dirty with cannabis? maybe a Couple corner 660nm strips? Idk, some things to think about
 
wietefras

wietefras

Well-Known Member
KonopCh said:
Strips would be 10cm above scrog net, if I read right.
Click to expand...
Strips can easily be as close as 10cm to the plants yes. In your case even 3cm would be fine.

Optimal height is half the strip to strip distance. So in your case strips 6cm apart and thus 3cm is the lowest you can go for optimal uniformity.

That's above the canopy of the plants. Not above the scrog net.

Actually that height is for optimal uniformity (not to close to cause hot spots and not too high to waste light on the walls). Which means that you can have some tops grow much closer to the strips still. Some tops will grow higher than others. I have some tops almost touching the strips (maybe 1 cm away) and they are fine with that. While my regular height is 6cm above the canopy.

I found Zeus XT boards which are 3500K and at 3A gives 118W and 2.67 umol/s. 400€ total for 4 boards, which is 100€ less than my current setup in my mind.
Click to expand...
Don't do boards, they really aren't suited as well for 4x4 tents as strips are (or well spread out COBs). These boards need to hang at 18" vs only a few inches with the strip light you started out on. That's easily 20% more loss of light on the walls with the boards.

With strips you lose much less on the walls since they can hang much closer with still prefect uniformity. Lower lights means less of the wall lit up and thus less light lost there.

So from that 2.67umol/s/W from the boards you lose 20% extra on the walls and then you are left with only 2.14umol/s/W by the time it reaches the plants.

Check out the review ledgardner did of the QB288 v2: http://ledgardener.com/hlg-qb288-v2/

He runs a QB288 v2 at 140 watts:
  • Which means that according to the specs it should produce 2.53umols/W.
  • Total PPF would be: 140W * 2.53umol/s/W = 354 umol/s.
  • The tent used is a 60x60 with 0.36m2 surface area
  • So you would expect an average PPFD of: 354umol/s / 0.36m2 = 983umol/s/m2 (if the tent had perfectly reflective walls)
Now check out the PPFD matrix. Even the maximum is only 730umol/s/m2 and average PPFD comes out at around 550umol/s/m2. The chart is somewhat deceptive in showing only the complete set of center measurements while most of the surface is actually in the outer sub 500umol/s ring. Never quite understand why people making PPFD matrices do that, but you can extrapolate those values.

So overall around 45% of the light that gets sent down from that 18" height has actually been used to warm up the walls instead of it reaching the plants.

In a 4x4 tent the wall losses would be less since you have relatively less wall per m2 of growing area. Probably about half of what you lose in a 2x2, but a hanging height of 18" is a lot of wall lit up. Drop it to 4" by using strips and you cut your wall losses by the same amount.

Anyway, the cola's grow from light that reaches the plants not from specs. If you want the same sized plants as you had from under those COBs you need to make sure you get the same amount (or more) light on the plants with the strips.

BTW If you want cheap bang for the buck, I reused 3 old COBs fixtures (from early 2015) and turned them into one. The COBs are wired in parallel per 3 and those strings then in series.

Reducing the COBs power by that much means they become about 15% more efficient. So you could crank those Citizen 1212 back up to almost 180 lm/W by running them at 9W a piece. Of course then you'd have only a third of the space covered though :)
 
KonopCh

KonopCh

Well-Known Member
wietefras said:
Anyway, the cola's grow from light that reaches the plants not from specs. If you want the same sized plants as you had from under those COBs you need to make sure you get the same amount (or more) light on the plants with the strips.

BTW If you want cheap bang for the buck, I reused 3 old COBs fixtures (from early 2015) and turned them into one. The COBs are wired in parallel per 3 and those strings then in series.

Reducing the COBs power by that much means they become about 15% more efficient. So you could crank those Citizen 1212 back up to almost 180 lm/W by running them at 9W a piece. Of course then you'd have only a third of the space covered though :)
Click to expand...
Thanks for clarification about boards.
I will have the same wattage per square feet (30W) as with old Citi 1212, but those strips are 183 lm/W, Citi's are 155 lm/W. What bothers me is lack of intensity of strips. Light loses it's intensity/strenght when travels, right? So from those tiny diodes driven at 60-100 mA I doubt I can get some great colas... or I am wrong? I need that because I grow autos and you can't get perfect scrog because they don't veg/flower like photoperiods. So one cola is 35cm long, other 25cm, other maybe 15cm long. With Citi's they are all dense above net. I need that with strips, it's possible?

Yea, at first I wanted to reuse Citi's but I have bigass heatsinks with them and I decided to get everything new and sell that one. Less work and troubles with hanging in tent.
 
wietefras

wietefras

Well-Known Member
KonopCh said:
So from those tiny diodes driven at 60-100 mA I doubt I can get some great colas... or I am wrong?
Click to expand...
The 144 tiny diodes in the COB also run at the same low power. They did fine.

The light from all of them overlaps and their intensities add up to the same intensity you had before. Or in this case to a higher one.

You are certainly not getting less light. You probably had something like 1070 umol/s from the COB light and will get around 1250umol/s from the strips (from 480 watts).

Plus the strip light can go somewhat lower and then you have less wall losses. Again more light on he plants.

More light onto the plants means you get a higher intensity. Quite a lot higher even.
 
KonopCh

KonopCh

Well-Known Member
Can anyone check if I can wire 40 strips on 2x HLG-240H-C1050A? Number on Digikey is: SI-B8V101560US.
Right now I have 20x 112cm strips in basket, but I find out that if I buy 40x 56cm strips, they're 60 dollars cheaper.
112cm strips would be wired in 5s2p as Randomblame told me. What about those 56cm strips?

Any better option? @wietefras which H strips are you talking about? Are little better than those Q's?
 
bigbudzzzz420

bigbudzzzz420

New Member
KonopCh said:
I wanted buy 20x 112cm single row Q strips and 2x 250W MW drivers, but Digikey did something wrong and now I must make a new order.
Meantime, some member here says words that I can't overlook.

So I open this thread once for final. I plan to use SCROG net in 4x4 tent, and I want 25-30cm hard colas above net. I prepared everything to buy tomorrow -->20x LT-QB22A strips on 2x MW HLG-240H-C1050A drivers. So 112cm strips 5-6cm apart across whole 120x120cm tent. Better can't go, I think. 183 lm/W in 3000K 80 CRI strips, 480-500W.
If I hang them 10-15 cm above colas, do you think I will get 30cm colas which are hard as with COBs? Because right now I use Citizen 1212 gen5 COBs, driven at 35W each, and I have great results and 30cm hard colas above net. And they're not even 155 lm/W.

I am looking for best light I can get for 500€. I also have one 250W MW driver at home and I can reuse it. Price with everything (light + heatsinks + drivers) should be around 500€.
Click to expand...

You may should try the MEIZHI R1200w.one of my friend told me it's a cost-effective light only need 307€,
Power draw: 520W can Replace one 1000W HPS/MH
Hope it could help you
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top