MidwestGorilla219
Well-Known Member
I have read somewhere that the spider farmer lights on Alibaba have less diodes then the ones you can buy on Amazon. I have a sf-2000 and use it to light a 2x3 in my 2x4 tent with good results.
Does anyone have experience with Spider Farmer LED units?
- Thread starter jonnynobody
- Start date
jonnynobody
Well-Known Member
I have a spider farmer branded sf-4000 on the way and a unit from a manufacturer on Alibaba that appears to be the source for the spider farmer branded units. Each light contains the same chips and drivers. 500 units or more and you can put your own company logo on the unit. A spider farmer logo for instance. I will compare the two units. I will post pictures also for everyone to see for themselves.
Excellent point on the number of diodes. That would certainly be a way to cheapen the product while appearing the same in a stock photo. I will count the diodes of each individual panel. I will report back whether there is or is not a variance. We'll put a nail in this coffin once and for all.
Excellent point on the number of diodes. That would certainly be a way to cheapen the product while appearing the same in a stock photo. I will count the diodes of each individual panel. I will report back whether there is or is not a variance. We'll put a nail in this coffin once and for all.
chronnie49
Well-Known Member
Theres 2 versions of the 4000 that I have seen on Alibaba. One has 1212 diodes which is the same as Spider Farmer and the other has 872.
Barristan Whitebeard
Well-Known Member
Hey man Spider Farmer uses different boards for the SF-1000 (218 diodes) than they do for the SF-2000 and SF-4000 (the boards for these lights have 303 diodes each).
The six board light that you linked in your second post of this thread uses the 218 diode boards. That's one of the reasons the light is less expensive. Did you get a decent deal on shipping?
chronnie49
Well-Known Member
Yea I know the light is not from you but it uses the same diodes and driver that is on your lights.
jonnynobody
Well-Known Member
I asked the representative how many diodes were included on the 6 panel 660w unit. 1308 pieces is the response I received. That is 218 pieces per panel. The SF-4000 has 1212 pieces spread over 4 panels. That is 303 pieces per panel. The Alibaba unit has 85 fewer diodes per panel than the SF-1000. However, there are still 96 more diodes on the Alibaba unit with 6 panels for $125 less than the spider farmer unit on Amazon.
Edit:
The Alibaba individual panels are smaller than the spider farmer individual panels. The Alibaba unit is larger by overall length with 6 panels instead of 4 on the spider farmer sf-4000. The measurements given are 27.5" x 23.62" x 2.2" with 6 panels. The 4 panel spider farmer sf-4000 measures 25.3" x 21.1" x 2.3". The amount of power consumption per diode is 1.98w on the Alibaba unit. The amount of power consumption per diode on the spider farmer unit is 2.69w per diode. I'm looking forward to comparing the two units side by side.
Edit:
The Alibaba individual panels are smaller than the spider farmer individual panels. The Alibaba unit is larger by overall length with 6 panels instead of 4 on the spider farmer sf-4000. The measurements given are 27.5" x 23.62" x 2.2" with 6 panels. The 4 panel spider farmer sf-4000 measures 25.3" x 21.1" x 2.3". The amount of power consumption per diode is 1.98w on the Alibaba unit. The amount of power consumption per diode on the spider farmer unit is 2.69w per diode. I'm looking forward to comparing the two units side by side.
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Barristan Whitebeard
Well-Known Member
The SF-4000 is 450 watts/1212 diodes=.37 watts per diode.
The LEDs on the six board Alibaba light are driven harder. 660 watts/1308 diodes=.50 watts per diode.
jonnynobody
Well-Known Member
Thank you correcting my calculation error. Math and me at 6 am don't get along too well. It appears the Alibaba unit's driver provides more power to more diodes. This leads me to another question. Why do different fixtures push different amounts of power to the exact same diodes? Do the diodes emit more light? Is there not a maximum amount of wattage that can run through the chips? Does that indicate spider farmer is using under powered drivers, and more light output could be achieved if they used a more powerful driver? I might have to reach out to GreneGene on this one to get to the bottom of this. If anyone here is in the know by all means chime in.
Looking at the numbers on the specs alone without a live side by side test it would appear that the Alibaba unit is equipped with more diodes, supplies more power to each diode, has a slightly larger light spread, and is $125 cheaper than the best spider farmer unit available.
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Barristan Whitebeard
Well-Known Member
I'm at work so I don't have time to go into much detail at the moment.
Samsung LM301B is an example of a mid-power diode. They are 3 volt .2 watt diodes that can be driven up to 200mA (absolute max) and about .6 watts each. You may want to look into voltage and flux binning of these diodes as well. Lower voltage and higher flux bins are the best of these diodes and the most highly sought after (you can read about the different bins in the LM301B datasheet).
Merkn4aSquirtn
Well-Known Member
Idk shit about these leds honestly. I just want to know if I can upgrade my sf1000 driver to say a 240w driver?
Barristan Whitebeard
Well-Known Member
Not advisable, could be a safety risk and you will greatly shorten the length of the LEDs life. You would be powering the diodes well over their rated maximum wattage (which is about .6 watts per LM301B diode).
218 diodes/240 watt driver=over .9 watts per diode. Not sure about the mono-color diodes on the board. Spider Farmer hasn't stated what type of diode they use for the 660nn and 760nm on their boards.
jonnynobody
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the technical insight Baristan. I'm wrangling a rambunctious 5 year old today. When I get a little breathing room I'll pull up the data sheets to get a better understanding of the voltage and flux binning. These LED chips are the greatest thing since sliced bread. I want to learn all I can absorb.
Merkn4aSquirtn
Well-Known Member
Ok I see
farmingfisherman
Well-Known Member
Not to mention great CS, no need to pull BS returns when you own a HLG product, not to mention if the tech improves or as boards begin to fade you can rebuild them with the latest tech. Can you do the same with SF stuff or anything else you can get from say Mars ( oh same company FYI as SF). Don't get me wrong I'm a bit of a light Horder but only till I find what works best for me. Once I've learned I'll tstick with what design works best and then put my eggs into a reputable companies basket like that of HLG, timber or ect.
How about OSRAM diodes and ERP drivers?
jonnynobody
Well-Known Member
If it makes you feel better to pay HLG twice what you should be paying for the exact same components, by all means give them your money. People like yourself are putting the owner's kids through college and paying for all his luxuries in life. Give yourself a pat on the back.
Instead of mass hording every LED light you can get your hands on a more intuitive use of your time would be to actually research the technology to better understand what you actually want or need in an LED unit. Then you'll have a better understanding of what's on board and whether or not you are getting a good value based on what's under the hood so to speak. It's difficult to make an educated decision on what kind of car or truck to buy if you know nothing about cars or trucks, and refuse to do any meaningful research. You're at the mercy of the information the sales team spoon feeds you which may or may not be bullshit. That's why understanding the technology you're buying is fairly important unless you are like a buddy of mine who has unlimited disposable cash and indiscriminately wastes his money because he can. I would reckon most folks are not like my friend. I'm certainly not in that position, and have to spend my dollars wisely as most households must do.
All of the Samsung chips and mean-well drivers on the HLG units are made in China the same as spider farmer or any of the numerous manufacturer's on Alibaba who utilize the same chips and drivers. There are some people in this world that think they're getting fucked unless they pay an "I've been fucked" price for an item. Cadilaac, Volkswagen, BMW, and Mercedes do extraordinarily well under this philosophy thanks to folks like you. Got a brother like you too. If he doesn't over pay for something he assumes it's junk. Strange way to live your life as a consumer, but to each their own.
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jonnynobody
Well-Known Member
I am unfamiliar with OSRAM diodes and ERP drivers. I just recently began my journey into LED technology. I'll read up and report back later.
farmingfisherman
Well-Known Member
For a guy new to the led world you are strongly opinionated. As far as what a guy does with his money and who he chooses to support is up to him and him only. If you sleep better at night knowing that you purchased something for a good deal by all means do so. As far as what I've bought I've have purchased both new as well as new to me lights and other equipment to get started. The used bits and pieces I've bought are by far superior to the crap tech people like you are trying to convince others here to buy from Alibaba or whatever offshore scam website you suggested to buy from, if they do I hope your shit arrives and your CC number doesn't end up getting swiped afterwards, oh and enjoy the CS that comes with it. Makes me wonder if you are actually working for some shit box company trying to spread meaningless information about actual reputable companies in hopes of getting the crumbs that their hard work and long hours might leave behind. Last thing I'm happy to provide for a education as well as jobs for people who live in the USA. Their company inturn supports someone else's family overseas where the chips and other parts likely are made but who cares. You bought a new car lately? Might say made in the USA but most of the parts are made overseas, and yes if I could afford one I'd happily drive a Mercedes but until then I'll stick with our reliable Honda purchased from our local dealer.
jonnynobody
Well-Known Member
You sound like a very angry individual. However I didn't read an intelligible counter argument regarding my point on the Samsung LM301b chips or the mean-well drivers in that ridiculous diatribe of yours. Have you ever read Mark Twain? I grew up in Missouri, so we had to do a lot of reading on that fella in my school days. One of his most famous quotes rings true here. "It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled."
By the way, I have zero fraud liability protection on all of my credit cards. It's a great service. Also, I purchased both a spider farmer branded unit as well as a unit from Alibaba. Exactly who do you think I work for? Something tells me you're a big fan of conspiracy theories. Is Elvis living on the moon with Tupac? I saw it on Facebook once. It must be true.
And to be fair to you, we are all human. I have bought plenty of overpriced garbage in my life as all of us have. You're in good company. By the way, more millionaires drive Honda civic automobiles than almost any other model vehicle out there. You're already driving like a rich dude. Now you just need to stop wasting your money on overpriced HLG lights.
My source: https://www.kbb.com/car-news/this-week-in-car-buying-deals-of-the-month-what-the-rich-drive/
Edit: To clarify, the purpose of this thread is to identify differences and similarities between different manufacturer's of LED units. With a better understanding of the components we can all shop more intelligently ensuring we receive the most value for our hard earned dollars. Nothing more. Nothing less. It appears your feelings have been hurt, because clearly your HLG unit shares the exact same chips and drivers as the units available on Alibaba and Amazon for significantly less than you paid HLG for your unit. Paying an extra $350-$400 for the same guts of components producing the same output simply isn't good business for any consumer.
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jonnynobody
Well-Known Member
$130 for shipping. $504 CONTRACT INVOICE total backed with trade assurance.
Thank you for pointing out the diode variance on the SF-1000 board. 218 diodes per board X 6 = 1308. I was really scratching my head trying to connect the dots on that one. Thank you for the contribution. We'll peel this onion apart one layer at a time.
Unit A) 1308 Samsung LM301b diodes powered by 3 mean-well drivers for $504.00
Unit B) 1212 Samsung LM301b diodes powered by 2 mean-well drivers for $625.39
Based on specifications Unit A has more diodes, more power, a larger light foot print, and a cheaper invoice total by $121.39. Unit A appears to be the better value by far. The spider farmer SF-4000 will arrive in 2 days. It will be 3-4 weeks before I receive the Alibaba unit. I will heavily scrutinize both units, post pictures, and we can pick them apart as a community. If there is a flaw in the Alibaba unit we will find it together. This is gonna be a lot of fun
This keeps my mind off of our country being torn to shreds by a senile lunatic occupying the white house. God help us. November 4th cannot come soon enough. The racists are going to lose this election. In the meantime I will occupy my time doing something productive, and we can all have some fun together saving money
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