Guide me to the Light....
- Thread starter DukeFluke
- Start date
I can see this becoming a bit addictive
Does this look good to use Hookup wire
Renfro
Well-Known Member
grotbags
Well-Known Member
cant see why not? it 300v rated.
grotbags
Well-Known Member
nice....it looks like you had to cage them up to stop them escaping!.
Rocket Soul
Well-Known Member
Mate, you dont even wanna know. Worse than crack. Youll end up running out of space and allways in convos with led dealers across the worrld and investigations of the next idea you have.
Blux ebs and alibubbers are the equivalent to "the first one is free" but then you realize youre not happy when youre not in the vortex of a led build.
But that first time you light up your new light, built and designed by yourself ffor a fraction of what a store bought one, seeing your light hit 2g/watt for the first time; big time satisfaction...
Buut led buyer beware...
Rocket Soul
Well-Known Member
Whats youre main thread, renfro? I havent seen how your cob build turned out.
Rocket Soul
Well-Known Member
Whats your take on custom solstrips? What are you after? Ive also been thinking of custom solstrips.
Ook, this has to stop, no posting right after coffee.
grotbags
Well-Known Member
the light i have in mind has to cover an approx 4.5ft x 10.5ft.
so after crunching some rough numbers im thinking about 70 strips ran at around 25watt each spread across 5 seperate but identical lights, each light 2ft x 4.5ft. 14, 3 channel strips per light.
4 of the 14 strips i want configured as 6500k 98cri optisolis on channel 1, 2000k nichia757 80cri on channel 2, then on channel 3 there is space for 12 monos, for these 4 boards i want far red but not 12 i only want maybe 3 on each strip and then bridge the remaining pads so all 4 boards can be joined together as a single channel while also spreading out the far red nicely over the canopy for EOD.
for the remaining 12 strips i want the new cree 2835 2700k90cri on channels 1 and 2 then on channel 3 i want the uv blend for the 12 mono's 365nm(3), 380nm(3), 395nm(2), 400nm(2),415nm(2), i am trying to picture how much near uv this is? it might be too much? but i can always dim them and run them ultra soft. or i might get 6 of the 12 with the uv blend and the other six strips with maybe a few 475nm, 500nm, 630nm and 660nm.
then repeat for for the other 4 fixtures so i end up 5, 5 or 6 channel fully adjustable lights -
channel 1 6500k optisolis 98cri (ran harder for pre flower veg week and through stretch, the pulled back for the rest of flower).
channel 2 2000k 757 nichia 80cri (off during pre flower veg week and off through stretch then full pumped up after)
channel 3 2700k 2835cree 90cri (low during pre flower veg and stretch then flat out for the rest of flower)
channel 4 far red (off during pre flower veg off during stretch then on all the time with a little after lights out for EOD)
channel 5 near uv (still to be determinend???)
channel 6 475nm,500nm,630nm,660nm (still to be determined???).
all hopefully ran off meshteks if i can juggle the voltages/ currents to line up.
i cant think of another light you could build today that could possibly match up to the to the shear width of spectrum you will get from this, if you look at all the individual spectrum curves for these led's they compliment each other brilliantly, each filiing a hole the the other one has.
thoughts?.
grotbags
Well-Known Member
sorry, everywhere above that i say 6500k should be 5000K....brain fart, pharrrppppp.
Rocket Soul
Well-Known Member
I think this might be better to discuss over pm or a build thread of your own, dont wanna highjack this one. Theres a whole load to talk about and admire the ambition.
My initial reaction is that thats a whole load of channels and cableing, im allready scratching my head regarding the build im planning for a client with solstrips. Theres 6 cables going to every strip so 84 cables per section in your build.
grotbags
Well-Known Member
yer i might start a build thread when i start ordering the parts, cutter have ordered the new cree 2835 90cri chips and are waiting on pcb's so it will be a while yet. if dukefluke isnt happy with the background chatter he can suck it!....joke lol no but we could take it to PM, just some of it could be relavant and id like everyone to hear our thoughts so they can add or critique if they want.
i hear what you are saying regarding the amount of cabling but i dont see any other way? sure beats trying to wire up a load of monos on starboards lol.
hopefully using the meshteks will cut down on cabling a bit, they use one common anode for the positive run for all four channels. i will solder up a custom loom (no wagos) and just tap into the common positive right at the end of each strip with short runs of smaller awg wire into the connectors. it will probs need two meshteks per fixture so ten in total, ill mount the mesteks on the fixture and have the ballasts remote (hopefully only two per fixture, one feeding each meshtek).
im under no illusion that this isnt gona be a head scratcher but it will be doable.
a quick pic of a meshtek circuit using 3 channel strips -
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Rocket Soul
Well-Known Member
If ii could do reddesigns re v2 soltrips ii wouulld make the white channels 24V and double amps to be able to do series with 4 sections w voltage <100V which would be a decent compromise between ease of use and safety of low voltage.
I know theres reasons for 48V but i think it would be just be worth it for ease of use. @welight ...
Grots, one way to make things easier is using a domestic cable format w ground, it already has 3 cables inside.
Hey mate don't mind me. Nuttin wrong with goin off on your own tangent. It's all relative stuff so..
Ever done it?
Rocket Soul
Well-Known Member
We hit 1.9 average once, with some trays being obviously better than the rest but it was only counted on aa hpps vrs led basis. This grow was a dream run, 1/w on the hps side even which we only did once before. This was grow where my growbuddy started asking for only 2700k 90cri lights for white flower spectrum, it was the best tray by far
Caveat: were counting board watts: 240 driver as 240w and not the actual 260ish draw.
But tbh its not that hard, you just need to find a way to light your grow with 25-30w per square foot and pull off a great grow with no problems. Also 10week cultivar helps a lot.
That'd be something else pulling 2gpw. Just getting the space to live up to it's potential would be more than worth it. That's why I'm getting LEDs in teh first place, I just think they fit the eviornment better, to the point where I think they could allow it to properly flourish. We'll see.
On that note, what would people consider running soft for the Bridgelux EBs? 2 & 4 ft
Just so I know how many strips to put in.
My 320w fixtures are/were going to be 60cm wide with 11 bars made up of 22 x 2ft strips. Total max wattage would be 15w per strip. That's just over an inch gap between each of them.
How far apart should the strips be to allow for air circulation and heat escape?
Any ideas on that?
Cheers
On that note, what would people consider running soft for the Bridgelux EBs? 2 & 4 ft
Just so I know how many strips to put in.
My 320w fixtures are/were going to be 60cm wide with 11 bars made up of 22 x 2ft strips. Total max wattage would be 15w per strip. That's just over an inch gap between each of them.
How far apart should the strips be to allow for air circulation and heat escape?
Any ideas on that?
Cheers
Ok scratch that...
I need more important advice.
Can I split the lead from the 480w driver to make two 240w fixtures using the 2ft strips so they're about 50cm apart? Driver's 42V strips are 19V
Thanks
Btw sorry for these abrupt replies and not properly responding to the posts so far in the thread I'm just doing the last bits of planning for the space and final adjustments and then getting the orders in, in the time I've got after work... I got another order from future elec and my TME order came as well so it's all coming together.
I'll have more time to post tomorrow and over the weekend, and I'll try and get some pictures up of some unruly ladies and also what I've got so far.
The build's happening in the next few days...
I need more important advice.
Can I split the lead from the 480w driver to make two 240w fixtures using the 2ft strips so they're about 50cm apart? Driver's 42V strips are 19V
Thanks
Btw sorry for these abrupt replies and not properly responding to the posts so far in the thread I'm just doing the last bits of planning for the space and final adjustments and then getting the orders in, in the time I've got after work... I got another order from future elec and my TME order came as well so it's all coming together.
I'll have more time to post tomorrow and over the weekend, and I'll try and get some pictures up of some unruly ladies and also what I've got so far.
The build's happening in the next few days...
grotbags
Well-Known Member
the definition of soft will vary, im not familiar with the bridgelux strips but i would consider anything less than TYP is soft. how soft you want to go is up to you, but there is a limit. at some point you would have that many strips that they are touching each other - ie no physical room left on the frame, or you are now running so soft that there wont be much dimming adjustment left.
as for gaps between strips thats kind of dictated by the above, but an inch gap between strips asuming that the heatsink/channel is an inch plus the small gap around the sides is over 50% open so i imagine would be plenty for air circ.
you might have to get creative with your circ fans like blowing air up through the strips in summer and the down through the strips in winter?.