Best LEDs today? Share info!

Eraserhead

Well-Known Member
You can buy those much cheaper factory direct. Evergrow makes those, same stock images even, they are trustworthy and has a legit 3yr warranty. They do custom spectrums too. They are decent middle quality lights.

yieldmasterleds .com lights work well and they even do custom spectrum lights!
There's tons of resellers popping up every few days with the same Chinese lights with a huge markup, I do not understand why they can't come up with something original if they want to sell to people, or at least have some verifiable datasheets on the LEDs and PAR values listed.... At least change to a known LED diode or something... Heliopto's for the lower cost win!

If the lights are good enough for the reseller, they are good enough for the end customer too. Buy direct: http://evergrowlighting.com/ and http://sanxinbao.en.alibaba.com/productgrouplist-213129554/NOVA_Grow_Series.html
 

SupraSPL

Well-Known Member
Regarding the far red LEdengin, it is about 17% efficient (700mA 50c). I have found no need for far red but for those who find it useful, it may make more sense to use incandescent or halogen with a reflector since the bulbs are so much cheaper than LED and halogen may actually be more efficient in that range than LED.
incan vs halogen.jpg
 

SupraSPL

Well-Known Member
For warm whites I love the Cree XTE R3 bin 3000K. They are cheap ~$3 and nearly as efficient as the XML2 WW at 700mA. I would dare say they are the most efficient warm whites available. Cutter sells the R3 bin on 20mm stars last I checked.

For my lamps I use:

Oslon SSL80 deep red 3T bin (ISLED) 4T bin available possibly this fall
Luxeon ES deep red EX6 bin (stevesLEDS)
Luxeon ES deep blue M4R bin (stevesLEDs)
Cree XPE red P3 bin (Cutter or LEDGroupbuy) If there is a red XPE2 P4 bin that would be awesome
Cree XTE 3000K R3 bin (Cutter)

I run them all at 650-700mA. Fasttech has a $6 driver that is >90% efficient (650mA) with a .9 power factor. I have a bunch on order and will test them for reliability.
 

anomuumi

Member
Cree XM-L www.cree.com/~/media/Files/Cree/LED%20Components%20and%20Modules/XLamp/Data%20and%20Binning/XLampXML.pdf

Unless that's old news and you're staying with just cutting edge. For my next panels, what I don't know is if it may be better to use last generation LEDs for the savings, vs. new generation for output / efficiency. Too complicated to add prices to your spreadsheet, I was just making the case for listing 1 gen old LEDs that are popular so I could compare new to almost new tech

https://anonfiles.com/file/e42e888c4c61a65922620fd67b2fe258

Something like this might work when comparing different bins of the same led. Though I'd like to see a bit more things on it.

edit2: New version, with nw, ww and XM-L2 and future/imaginary bins. :)
 

JMD

Well-Known Member
Anyone got any experience in calculating PAR output?
If I find a way to easily gather data from the spectra from the datasheets, then I will be able to make a tool that will be able to calculate everything we could imagine.

The biggest hurdle right now, is extracting data easily from the datasheets.
 

PSUAGRO.

Well-Known Member
Regarding the far red LEdengin, it is about 17% efficient (700mA 50c). I have found no need for far red but for those who find it useful, it may make more sense to use incandescent or halogen with a reflector since the bulbs are so much cheaper than LED and halogen may actually be more efficient in that range than LED.
View attachment 2762216
Good Lord........... I forgot how much Far red comes off a halogen bulb
 

anomuumi

Member
Anyone got any experience in calculating PAR output?
If I find a way to easily gather data from the spectra from the datasheets, then I will be able to make a tool that will be able to calculate everything we could imagine.

The biggest hurdle right now, is extracting data easily from the datasheets.
Easiest is to use LedEngin tool like yabo said, obtain a ppf/x lumen multiplier per spectrum and use that. Right and more useable in the future would be the knna way, that way you have the ppf/nm data and you can build more datasets out of it like "YPF" in his sheets (better for comparing true efficacy of different spectrum). Biggest downfall in his method is tedious hand digitizing, if you can get around that by some program or method, things would be fun & easy. :)

Just wondering how much the spectral distribution chart resembles true output of white leds, taking into consideration the available tints and chromacity bins. A thing to consider when comparing outputs, too much trust in the data might lead you wrong. Not so much of a problem in coloured leds, but they have spectral shift etc too. Spectroradiometer would be a nice toy :D

http://buymarijuanaseeds.com/community/threads/bulb-analyzer-tool-actualized.117933/
 

JMD

Well-Known Member
a nice Calculator from Russia
View attachment 2763980
http://ledcalc.fonarevka.ru/



Again, have a look at the Led Engin Spectrum tool
here is my Version, tailored for the new Project
View attachment 2763986
it does everything you want...

and for Calculating Flux, par etc...
start here
http://www.pveducation.org/pvcdrom/properties-of-sunlight/energy-of-photon

Yabo
The problem I'm having, is that most datasheets list the performance in lumen and not mW. Lumen is a measure of how bright the human eye sees the light.
So I either need to find a way to calculate the power (mW) with lumen as the starting point, or a different approach on how to calculate it.

When I have the power, it shouldn't be hard to get the rest calculated.


Easiest is to use LedEngin tool like yabo said, obtain a ppf/x lumen multiplier per spectrum and use that. Right and more useable in the future would be the knna way, that way you have the ppf/nm data and you can build more datasets out of it like "YPF" in his sheets (better for comparing true efficacy of different spectrum). Biggest downfall in his method is tedious hand digitizing, if you can get around that by some program or method, things would be fun & easy. :)

Just wondering how much the spectral distribution chart resembles true output of white leds, taking into consideration the available tints and chromacity bins. A thing to consider when comparing outputs, too much trust in the data might lead you wrong. Not so much of a problem in coloured leds, but they have spectral shift etc too. Spectroradiometer would be a nice toy :D

http://buymarijuanaseeds.com/community/threads/bulb-analyzer-tool-actualized.117933/
I think those tools are a bit too confusing, so I'd like to make my own that's much easier to use.
 

anomuumi

Member
First plots digitized with the engauge, involves a bit more manual work than I'd like but better than staring pixels. :)

Anyone else calculating anything, or do you just keep the data to yourselves? Would be nice to compare results to further estimate "accuracy" if there is any with these methods. Feel free to ask anything regarding the knna sheets or anything regarding these estimates, I don't know much but I'll try to answer anyway.
 

anomuumi

Member
Not unrelated at all! At least I'm dying to see what those XM-L's can do. So far looking pretty convincing! What bins did you use and how big is the grow area? NW:WW 1:1?
 

Rrog

Well-Known Member
NM:WW 1:1, yep. Running at 2A, yielding the 300W overall. Don't recall the Bins, but they were the highest I could readily get. That's a closet grow, so maybe 3' wide and 2' deep. Excellent organic soil. That helps.

The current canopy:
View attachment 2767120

Obviously the canopy could be fuller, but again, his first grow. That's a lotta light. Doing the 30 minutes of red (halogen source) in AM and PM routine.
 

LEDmania

Active Member
Not sure which one is the best, but we can figure out which one is the most suitable based on details growth information.
 

anomuumi

Member
After staring at the spreadsheets and comparing prices of single premounted leds on stars I've come to same conclusion as stardustsailor and others who have jumped on the white led bandwagon. Indeed you get the best ppf/ypf per dollar in most cases when you pick the best bins at cutter for example. Allthough whites do not deliver quite the same ppf/watt figures, more output per unit, cheaper price, better droop characteristics will eventually outperform single colour chips.

But... I'm still a bit unsure about the accuracy of output calculations for these whites, the spectral output charts are same for many colour bins, that just isn't possible. Especially SPL Supra's mentioned R3 flux bin 3000K Cree XT-E just seems too good to be true. Spectroradiometer data would be nice, but ones who have access to those might have better things to do than post on cannabis forums. Luckily we have some daring individuals like rrog, who will take the first step and show us the way. :)

Of course it is logical, that the main R&D stakes of led companies are in industrial and household lighting market, thats where the big volumes are so theres money to be made. As opposed to single colour chips that are mostly used in niche products. Surely we will see huge improvements in coming years on these too, but I'm quite sure that whites will dominate in price and output.

Do not take this as universal advice, just a one perspective from a very narrow viewpoint. Thanks!
 

Rrog

Well-Known Member
Just so I can ask the question: How much to these spectraradiometers run, anyway? Just curious. One that is suitable for our spectrum. I saw a video where one of the retailers was measuring output, and their unit dug deeper into blue and farther into red than the average Spec unit.
 
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