Clearly he’s trying to copy HLG’s work as a fuck you to them. Is that not obvious?
LOL! If I can design a PCB anyone can! Seriously, it's not that hard.
What
is hard is doing the extensive work of growing and testing to see what works best. It's testing individual diodes to see if their performance is what the maufacturer says it is. It's negotiating the best efficiency bins you can afford – and/or designing around it if the particular diode you want to use is in high demand with fewer "top bins" to go around. It's testing different spectra to see how it affects yield, secondary metabolites and photomorphogenic response. It's testing equipment to ensure it is reliable and "fool-proof" for users. It's consulting real-world growers with experience to to see what features are more valuable than others. Etc.
If you haven't already read
@Grow Lights Australia 's post earlier, have a read:
https://www.rollitup.org/t/gml-accusations.1071675/page-15#post-16856518
As for efficiency testing, there are as many ways to fudge the results as there are variables. We are going through this right now: our goniometer testing of the new boards was not showing as high as we thought they should. It had us buggered as to why not. Then we took an older board which we already knew the reults of and tested it under the same conditions. What do you know? It tested the same as the new board! So, what was the issue?
Temperature and airflow. Testing in a cold warehouse in Melbourne with a fan blowing to simulate growing conditions vs testing in a hot warehouse in Melbourne (LED Teknik's facility) without.
Have a look at this graph. There is a 2-3% difference in flux between a junction temperture of 25C and 40C – which, incidentally, is exactly what we saw when our 3.01 umol/j boards suddenly tested 2.92 umol/j on a hot day. Same board, same diodes, same measuring equipment. Of course, the junction temps would have been much higher than the ambient temps, and there is a faster drop-off as the temperature increases.
Then there is the teting equipment itself. Anyone who has ever built performance engines knows about "happy dynos" – they make their customers very happy . . . until they take their cars down to the drag strip. The numbers don't lie. Which is why you have to test on the same dyno if you want to see where you're at. And even then, with a change in temperature, humidity and barometric pressure you will see marked differences in rear-wheel horsepower on the same dyno.
Those Chinese spheres? They're the equivalent of a "happy dyno". At least we know the gionometer is accurate, even if it doesn't always give us the results we want or expect. But even the best equipment in the world is at the mercy of the elements and operator.
And what about those Mars Hydro claims of "3 grams per watt!" – has anyone here ever yielded 3gpw? No?
Bragging about efficiency is a bit of a mug's game, because anyone can fudge the figures – good or bad, depending on which side of the manufacturer's fence you sit. But there are some things you can't fudge: real-world results being one of them. You also can't fudge the fact that some manufacturers have buying power or better relationships with certain diode makers and so they get to stand near the front of the line when it comes to buying "top bin" LEDs. Epecially Samsungs!
I don't have a dog in this fight but I certainly have a vested interest. At the end of the day, I'm just happy to let our lights do the talking.