DIY LED REVOLUTION/EVOLUTION! INTRODUCING MEvo

[jubiare]

Hi RIU community!

I am JubiARE, I have only used LED's, the thing intrigues me as much or even more than growing ahahah! I have 4 grows on my belt, I have used Blackstar, Original Magnum, GLH 290 2011 v2 and now GLH 240 2012! I have also experimented with little diy led spots spectrummed by me to observe plants reactions in order to gain understanding of LED photosintetic action on Mj plants!!

But more than anything, I have built my first LED array! It's name is MEvo (to do not confuse with EVO, to whom I have actually taken the long heatsink Idea from, thus it's name

)

I clearify that I do not intend to compete with evo or/and do not intend to sell MEvo, it's just a fun name for my array ok?

This is most of all a tribute to Knnabinoide, a Spaniard folk that has generously opened the dances of the Diy LED revolution, offering free instruction threads and free advices to people on how to assemble your own, he is by no doubts the Master of diy led! His knowledge on the subject is unbelievable, he knows it all and more!

THANK YOU VERY, VERY VERY MUCH KNNA !!!!!!!!!

Special Thanks go also to Nucleus, TheBongMaster and Nicolaj06 to name e few from which I have gathered firsthand precious info on how to make my own.

I am really not a guy who has been in electronic at all; What I am honestly saying here is that, If I can diy, everybody can!!!!

YES WE CAN!!!!
Just start your own don't wait! eheheheh

THIS IS NOT A PROPER JOURNAL, IT'S MORE OF A THREAD ABOUT THE EVOLUTION OF THE MEvo EXPERIENCE; if it's going to work and how, if it's not going to work and what I am gonna do about it. If everything goes well, MEvo 2'd array addition to follow.

IT IS ALSO A CHANCE TO SEE WHAT THE NEW LINE OF GLH IS GOING TO DO FOR THIS GARDEN

The Mevo consists of:

adhesive arctic silver (best thermal solution if you don't want to screw your star up the heatsink)
x1 aluminum rectangular tube used as heatsink
x2 Constant Current driver 500Ma for the Red's
x1 Constant current driver 700Ma for the whites/blue/green
32 Osram Golden Dragon Plus hyper Red 660nm 170 degree angle (bin T1 the lowest between T1, T2 and T3 I am afraid)
15 Osram Platinum Dragon red 625nm 120 degree angle (better min. efficiency than gd+)
4 gd+ cool white 6500k
2 gd+ 4500k (I had better emitters but I was stuck on a back order and couldn't wait no more, possibly I'll exchange these)
x2 GD+ True Green
x2 Osram Platinum Dragon warm white 3000k 120 degree (better min. efficiency than gd+)
x2 gd+ Royal Blue
x59 MCPCB Star for Osram Dragon

Ok, regarding they lay out and the whites/blue/green:

********************
*******************
********************

*red 660nm
* red 625nm
*True green 624nm
* Cool White 6500k
* Neutral White 4500k
* Warm White 3000k
*Royal BluE

Basically HALF panel experiments with no blue but three different whites for every 11/12 reds...and the other half experiments with the Green + blue and cool white

Hope it's clear? we'll see which one does what.... fingers crossed!!!!

47 Reds; 2.2v each: 2.3 x 47 = 108.1v x 0.500 (they are driven at 500Ma) = 54.05W
12 Whites/blue/green 3.45v each. 3.45 x 12 = 41.4v x 0.700 (they are driven at 700Ma) = 28.98W
So total draw should be give it or take it 80 watts!

THERE IS ROUGHLY A RATIO OF 11/12 REDS X 3 WHITES/BLUE/GREEN

sorry for pics quality, it's just a mobile for now!


LOOK AT MY SOLDERING SKILLS AHAHAHA!

AND FINALLY: MEvo running + GLH 240 !!!!
Now,

the plants are just over first week of Flowering; Genetic is called Chunky Buds Femminized (Yeah I know, I just didn't have the space and the time for regular's). They have been seedling under Cfl's, a month under GLH 2011 V2 and a week under GLH 2012, FROM today under Mevo too!

You can prob see I am running Autopot's!
50 Coco 50 Perlite!

Nutrients full line of Plagron Coco! (I might get more into that)

Well, the plants could have vegged some more, I could have topped I could have this and that.............
thing is, I have been busy with MEvo + had to switch due to time restrictions. Plants have been neglected somehow.. some def/nute burn/PH issues here and there but nothing major! They have just been growing no defoliation no nothing..!

I am gonna start paying more attention to reservoir/PH, nutes and all from now!

Let's see, wish the ladies luck!

This is it for now.
I will get more into details.
I will say more about the Spectra, excited to see what this 2012 will do!

there's links I could have post to where I have learned on how to build, light concepts etc. I could have gotten more into how/why I have chosen the drivers etc.. I could get better camera and better pics... but everything will follow ok?

HAPPY GROWING TO YOU ALL AND THANKS FOR POPPING BY!!!kiss-ass

 

[Nikolaj06]

Very good JubiARE!!
That soldering took ages right? what did you use to attach the LED's to the MCPCB's? What are the temps of the tube? And what did you pay for the setup?
Hope you get an awesome haul!
Peace <3

 

[jubiare]

yeah the soldering is between fun and pain... it takes it's time! if I was to get a soldering iron again I'd spend more maybe.. for a better one... 30w is what I used.. it's fine but takes more time to heat things up!

I used adhesive arctic silver for attaching the LED to the star and the stars to the heatsink!

The tube is warm to the touch But I can stay with my hand on it with no discomfort.... I put the thermometer on top of it for a while, it reaches 94F ..... what do you say? I'd be gutted to have to employ fans oh no! LED's are spaced about at 2" distance.....no overlapping there for sure.....

Regarding costs... we are at about 290$..... I def spent more for bits and bolts and have spare parts .... but that's roughly how much "the thing itself" costs!

 

[PSUAGRO.]

^^^^^^^^^^SUBBED.......quite a panel Jubiare!! Is their a reason why you didn't go with meanwell drivers???.......thanks for letting us in on this project, good luck my friend

Edit:...And I don't care what anyone says knna is the man!...oh and at 94 degrees your pushing it with the led temps IMO....even Hans panels, he included a small fan on his latest version (check the pics/website)

 

[puffenuff]

Cool diy project jubiare! Excited to see how it works out for you!

@psua: did you finally order a new light?? Which one??? Shoot me a pm with the details!

 

[HiloReign]

Hot damn it's what I've been waiting for! Very elaborate friend, you inspire the MacGyver in me lol...

 

[Slixxor]

Fans will be needed take it from me lol your LEDs will start to either dim as they heat or brighten until they fry depending on if the controllers have thermal protection. A nice panel but I have to ask. What's the green LEDs for

 

[jubiare]

^^^^^^^^^^SUBBED.......quite a panel Jubiare!! Is their a reason why you didn't go with meanwell drivers???.......thanks for letting us in on this project, good luck my friend

Edit:...And I don't care what anyone says knna is the man!...oh and at 94 degrees your pushing it with the led temps IMO....even Hans panels, he included a small fan on his latest version (check the pics/website)

Thanks dude! Yeah meanwell is what I was looking at .. but prices mainly hold me back for this time around. Also I didn't want to get into dimming yet.. I run the leds in series, not in parallel (many folks use meanwell but run strings in parallel so they don't have to purchase many drivers). But I'll reconsider meanwell for sure, for MEvo v2.

Yaeh the temps, you know I never really properly got into calculations for the heatsink, I did it kind of.. it's time to do that. I am currently doing this, will update soon

 

[jubiare]

Fans will be needed take it from me lol your LEDs will start to either dim as they heat or brighten until they fry depending on if the controllers have thermal protection. A nice panel but I have to ask. What's the green LEDs for

Your design is different there, I also run the reds softer (500Ma). My heatsink is a rectangular tube, so more dissipating area. I am currently do better calculation, I'll update about this soon.

Green is very important, we are coming to find out those days. The green from the whites should be enough (also consider that whites are more efficient than monochromatic green), my half panel with no greens have three different whites for every 11/12 reds. The other part with green and blue is an experiment, we will see. This is an experiment in honor of HGL most recent spectrum, I don't know if you have seen on other boards, HGL are doing very well those days. They spectrum is 15% green, 10% blue and the rest is reds. It's an experiment, we will see!

Mind there is panels like the Vipar, or the new entry panels from hans that seem to be doing very well without the green and/or whites, so green might be not mandatory, or it could still be beneficial compared to not using it. We don't know yet I reckon, as far as I know.

 

[Slixxor]

It doesn't matter what brand in essence the constant current side of things is much the same. Make sure you get drivers with a soft start that are PWM controlled and have safety features like thermal protection.

Failing this, build your own

 

[jubiare]

Cool diy project jubiare! Excited to see how it works out for you!

@psua: did you finally order a new light?? Which one??? Shoot me a pm with the details!

thanks puff, we will see! fingers crossed!

 

[jubiare]

Right, so I have roughly 15 square inches for every watt burned. I found different opinions on the subject; 9 square inches should be the minimum x every watt, when you active cool by fans. On aquarium light forums they say 12 square inches x every watt should suffice. But knna talks about 21 square inches for being on the real safe side of things. So I am gonna try to gather firsthand opinion from some diyer who do not actively cool their array... still hope I wouldn't need to active cooling!

 

[jubiare]

Regarding the Driving of the emitters; I am gonna try to be tech here, not without the citations of the Master knnabinoide.

InGaN and AlInGaP are typically the two technologies employed for leds, the first is for Blues, whites, greens and cyan, the second is for Red, red-orange and amber.

AlInGap leds (red, orange, yellow) are rated to work at lower current than most InGaN parts. This is pretty common. While AlInGaP leds increase light output near linear with increase current, up a point, InGaN leds goes losing efficiency as higher the current used (less aditional light output for each next increment in current).



On the other hand, InGaN chips support very well high Tj (junction Temperature), with relatively low losses when heating, while AlInGap leds degrades strongly with the increased Tj. Thats why AlInGap leds are driven softer than InGaN.

I would have ideally driven the reds at 550Ma, the max suggested for best compromise between efficiency, longevity and heat! ...coulnd't find the driver for this project.

 

[jubiare]

Hot damn it's what I've been waiting for! Very elaborate friend, you inspire the MacGyver in me lol...

am glad you are inspired by this! if you ever want to think of doing yourself, am here to hep for sure, I was/am helped by others too

 

[PSUAGRO.]

About your cooling, interesting info.....I have to wonder why Hans decided to add a fan last minute to his final design?I know the cree xpe has good thermal stability up to 85_90 degrees, maybe its the rebels (red) that have an issue with high heat tolerances?....makes sense (maybe) ha

 

[Slixxor]

Whites, blues and UBS will get hot because they have higher energized wavelength IR and reds won't produce anywhere near the heat.

 

[jubiare]

About your cooling, interesting info.....I have to wonder why Hans decided to add a fan last minute to his final design?I know the cree xpe has good thermal stability up to 85_90 degrees, maybe its the rebels (red) that have an issue with high heat tolerances?....makes sense (maybe) ha

does he drive all at 700? Maybe you could ask him why.. I suppose he wanted to be extra safe? Have you received it yet?

 

[PSUAGRO.]

No...........It just cleared fucking paypal yesterday!(figuring in a 7-10days)................oh don't tell Dawg.....ha ahaha it's killing him.......well now he'll know

 

[jubiare]

whoooops sorry... should I cancel?

 

[PSUAGRO.]

Nah ..........we had our fun...........I emailed Hans about the the led current(Ma).......hopefully ill get an answer