Diy led build, grow and flower.

[Geert]

Hello,

I'm thinking of building my own QB with strips.( or kinda something.)
For now i have a burple light, wich doesn't seem to do that much of growth.
Of course i now want something more serious and efficent.
Keep in mind that i grow vegetables in it, so its important for me to keep te best bang for the buck.

Idea:

-Strip build with eb Gen2 5000k Mixed with 2700k for flowering.
-High efficiency in every stage of the plant.
-Good spectrum for different plants and stages, i grow peppers, cabbage,tamatoes and herbs in my growroom.
So i would like to have te ability to tune the spectrum for greater efficency.


Could u give advice on the build below?

-10x bridgelux eb gen2 5000k at 700ma wil produce 273 watts for vegging.
-5 x Bridgelux eb gen 2 2700 at 700ma wil product 136 watts for flowering(adding it when its flowertime)
- Should i use some far-red lighting for the emmerson effect?
-Should i add some uva and IR if i really want te get efficent growth and flowering?

Anny suggestions on the light spectrum, or something else in this build ?
Top

 

[Airwalker16]

Hello,

I'm thinking of building my own QB with strips.( or kinda something.)
For now i have a burple light, wich doesn't seem to do that much of growth.
Of course i now want something more serious and efficent.
Keep in mind that i grow vegetables in it, so its important for me to keep te best bang for the buck.

Idea:

-Strip build with eb Gen2 5000k Mixed with 2700k for flowering.
-High efficiency in every stage of the plant.
-Good spectrum for different plants and stages, i grow peppers, cabbage,tamatoes and herbs in my growroom.
So i would like to have te ability to tune the spectrum for greater efficency.


Could u give advice on the build below?

-10x bridgelux eb gen2 5000k at 700ma wil produce 273 watts for vegging.
-5 x Bridgelux eb gen 2 2700 at 700ma wil product 136 watts for flowering(adding it when its flowertime)
- Should i use some far-red lighting for the emmerson effect?
-Should i add some uva and IR if i really want te get efficent growth and flowering?

Anny suggestions on the light spectrum, or something else in this build ?
Top

If you're gonna use 2700 & 5000 just use Vesta's. Each channel is 24V.

BXEB-TL-2750G-3000-A-13 Bridgelux | Optoelectronics | DigiKey

Order today, ships today. BXEB-TL-2750G-3000-A-13 – LED Lighting COBs Engines Modules LED Module series White, Warm / White, Cool Linear Light Strip from Bridgelux. Pricing and Availability on millions of electronic components from Digi-Key Electronics.

www.digikey.com

 

[Rocket Soul]

If you're gonna use 2700 & 5000 just use Vesta's. Each channel is 24V.

BXEB-TL-2750G-3000-A-13 Bridgelux | Optoelectronics | DigiKey

Order today, ships today. BXEB-TL-2750G-3000-A-13 – LED Lighting COBs Engines Modules LED Module series White, Warm / White, Cool Linear Light Strip from Bridgelux. Pricing and Availability on millions of electronic components from Digi-Key Electronics.

www.digikey.com

They're actually 25V but are ok with A type dimming. Best way is 2 in series per parallel run withh a 48A driver, id suggest 2xhlg240h-48A or 200w versions.
I use 20w max per strip or channel.
Uv might be a good addition to aromatic herbss.

 

[Airwalker16]

They're actually 25V but are ok with A type dimming. Best way is 2 in series per parallel run withh a 48A driver, id suggest 2xhlg240h-48A or 200w versions.
I use 20w max per strip or channel.
Uv might be a good addition to aromatic herbss.

So you'd just series two strips together with their same cct?
Not a good idea to wire both channels together?

 

[Rocket Soul]

Yes, same cct so to maintain 2 channels, with 50V operation per channel. They will run fine in parallel with eachother so if you group it all correctly you get 3 spectrums; warm, cold and both (3700k).

 

[Geert]

Thanks for sharing the Vesta's , didn't know of this tuneable light spectrum.

Only thing i dislike in this product is that the only produce 135lm/watt at best.
Eb Gen2 does something like 180lm/watt, so wouldn't it get more efficicient if
i chose to use 2700k and 5000k on seperate channels with drivers wich can get dimmed?

 

[Rocket Soul]

The vestas are 90cri which means more photons per lum due to extra strong red. The actual specs are much closer than what it appears, around 5% difference from my back of the hand calculations, also the vestas are 2x96 diodes, im not sure about the ebs, 112 is my best guess. Nnt sure how prices measure up.

Personally im a great proponent of growing with 90cri: flowering was just better than normal 80cri, to the point where id prefer it even with lower specs.

 

[Geert]

But higher cree for plants only mean more Red looking light right?
From what i could find the opinions on CRI are verry different.
Is it really that important? 135lm/w vs 180lm/w is 25% raw difference in lumens.
Also, im not growing CNB underneath the LED, but al kinds of vegetables.

 

[Rocket Soul]

Lumens are for humans, its not the same as photons which is what the plants eat. If youre doing fruiting plants, tomatos or chilis id probably rec 90cri. For leafy greens wontt matter as much.

 

[Geert]

Thanks alot, so Higher CRI is more photons?
I actually thought that CRI was for humans

 

[Rocket Soul]

Cri is for humans, but in the case of leds higher cri is generally due to added reds and some far red as consequence. These reds are very nice for photosynthesis, especially in fruiting plants. Its not the higher cri its the extra red. Infact high cri will look more white due to achieving color balance.

The vestas are nice as the have loads of diodes, 192 if im not incorrect for around 10$. Not sure of price points on eb gen2. For weed wwe liked the 2700k 90cri for flower better than any other whiite spectrum we tried. I know theree some on ledgardenerforum doiing vestas for veggies and may strawberries, might be worth looking into but really theres not too much info online.

 

[Geert]

Thanks, so then vesta's it should be.

Only question i have is:

How do i change the colorspectrum on the vesta's? could i connect them just
like normale strips and change spectrum with a button ?

 

[Rocket Soul]

My suggestion is to group all warm channels together in one group and all cold channels together in another group.

That way you can connect one group, the other or both and run in parallel. You can also finesse it and have separate drivers for both sections but it means dimming and having double capacity in drivers if you wanna be able to do a pure warm white.

Its easier with the connections if you run 2 strips in series over a 48A driver. Maybe even 2 sep hlg240-48A.
Theress also CC solutions but its hard to match drivers, and i loath recing high vvoltage solutions due to it being a bit dangerous.

 

[Geert]

Again thanks for replying this fast to me.
So does dimming change the spectrum?
I dont think i get it all, could u PB me? cant find this option.

 

[Airwalker16]

Again thanks for replying this fast to me.
So does dimming change the spectrum?
I dont think i get it all, could u PB me? cant find this option.

Yes. You'll group 2 strips warms together for 50v another same on 2 colds. So 2 strips, 4 channels, 2- 2 channel series circuits. Then all those pairs of 2 in series you wire all to the driver so the first positive and last negative of the 2 strips, go to one driver and the other set of 2 strips channels to the other driver. You'll dim each one independently to get different color temps

 

[Airwalker16]

And I think the 48V driver is closer range to the 50V than the 54V driver right?

 

[Rocket Soul]

Hlg240-48A reaches 50V comfortably with a bit of voltage regulation. Its builtnin

 

[Geert]

Something like this?

 

[Airwalker16]

Something like this?
View attachment 4592208

Something like THIS:

 

[Airwalker16]

I know it's a big mess but uts just kinda difficult to draw. If that makes no sense to you, ukk draw an individual set of 2 strips in series which you would just replicate however many times over.