Home made LED grow light

Greetings guys,

This is my first post.

Basically, I've spent the last 3 months testing and trialling a home made LED light.

I have done alot of research and I see alot of posts on here regarding LED lights etc. I have made a few varations to the light and have experimented with a few wavelengths. I am using 3 watt high power LEDs for my light, 49 in total with 2 80mm fans for cooling. I opted for 3 watt LEDs because most of the ones on the market are 1 watters, including the LED UFO.

I have studied plant biology and run tests with both fruiting and non-fruiting plants.

Of course, I am an avid smoker too

SO, I am running a test with my latest light design which includes:
24 x Red 630nm LEDs
6 x Red 660nm LEDs
6 x Blue 465nm LEDs
12 x Blue 450nm LEDs

I will posts the results once it's all done. In the mean time...

I would like to see what the technical people out there think about LED designs; Why Orange LEDs? etc...

Let me know your thoughts guys.

Slix

Slixxor said:

Greetings guys,

This is my first post.

Basically, I've spent the last 3 months testing and trialling a home made LED light.

I have done alot of research and I see alot of posts on here regarding LED lights etc. I have made a few varations to the light and have experimented with a few wavelengths. I am using 3 watt high power LEDs for my light, 49 in total with 2 80mm fans for cooling. I opted for 3 watt LEDs because most of the ones on the market are 1 watters, including the LED UFO.

I have studied plant biology and run tests with both fruiting and non-fruiting plants.

Of course, I am an avid smoker too

SO, I am running a test with my latest light design which includes:
24 x Red 630nm LEDs
6 x Red 660nm LEDs
6 x Blue 465nm LEDs
12 x Blue 450nm LEDs

I will posts the results once it's all done. In the mean time...

I would like to see what the technical people out there think about LED designs; Why Orange LEDs? etc...

Let me know your thoughts guys.

Slix

Click to expand...

hey Slix, welcome to rollitup I always want to see proof of any success achieved with an LED light. Please post pics of plants matured or close to if you can. I actually, for the first time, really did some reading on leds today and saw alot of negative things about their performance... I'm just curious to this technology.

Well I can say, tomatos and Pawpaw responded well to my LED tests. The basil and oregano did not do so well . In particular the tomatos shot ahead of the rest.

I am now setting up my second canna grow.

The first time was really shakey as too many chefs made one giant mess using a 1000w HPS.

I am following the "Growing for dummies UK guide" from seed to smoke using 40x40mm grodan cubes under my 150w LED light. If all goes to plan I will posts full designs for building the light.

I am also working on a USB UHF TX/RX dongle. I am using an 18F4550 PIC microcontroller for the transmitter module and a 16F628A for the reciever (For those non-electronic minded people out there they are programmable microchips) and have rigged a temp, humidity and CO2 sensor to the 16F to send PLL serial data to the USB dongle module. I am also adding a 20A relay to allow adjustment of the height of my light in the growroom.

In other words I can have a passworded application on my PC to monitor the status of my grow room.

Once the project is complete I will provide the source code (vb.NET code), PIC code and circuit diagram for download. (Give me a couple of months )

Hopefully you guys can try it out. I am not an electronic engineer but I work in the industry

Cheers,

Slix.

I can't even see this thread it's so far over my head.

Hey Slixxor

This is my first post haha

I am looking to start growing and LED lighting makes sense to me... Why arent you using white LEDs? Don't they emit close to the full spectrum?

Looking forward to seeing your results / schematics / code! I know a bit of VB, maybe I can help


Undefined

Good question.

I will experiment shortly with white LEDs.

take a look at www.ledgrow.eu - This guy has done 6 grows with LEDs.

He seems to have great vegetative results but poor flowering results with white LEDs.

I also have a website I have made ledgrowlights.webs.com (A bit outdated now, I will update later) take a look in particular at "Light wavelengths" section. I have graphs of the light output of cool, neutral and warm white LED output (Luxeon LED datasheet). They closely match flouros.

I suspect changing from cool white to warm white LEDs during flowering will have the same effect as changing from 6500K fluros to 2700K fluoros.

I also forgot the mention my light is 7 x 7 across 300 x 300mm

the light in the middle of my light is a 3 watt UV 410nm LED. I have heard stories of people using black lights to rear seedlings. I am hoping to achieve the same results using the 410nm UV LED. No other LED manufacturer is doing it yet.

I have wired individual switches to all of the types of lights in my setup. The goal being to switch certain spectrums on/off during all stages of growth. Hence I cant use whites just yet because I cant control the exact light spectrums the girls need to grow and I cant calculate the "sweet spot" combination for the different phases of growth.

I am still waiting on the arrival of my 450nm and 660nm LEDs to come. But below I have included an image of my light configuration.



Here are some picks of my home made light chassis minus the LEDs.



I am using controllers that only run 6 LEDs in series with a 20VDC input to ensure none of the LEDs are running a negative voltage.

Cheers,

Slix.

Glad to see LED's catching on. I just got a 180W Ufo that was on sale on ebay for 160 (guy mislabeled it 90w in the description..)

It's already making my plants go faster than my HPS. I have two plants of the same strain and one is maturing WAY faster. The only environmental difference is the proximity to the LED.

Get orange and infared LED's too. Plants love it.

Infra Red?

I had wondered if I added a video camera with night vision if it would interrupt the girls sleep patterns. Since my seeds arent feminized I fear I would end up with alot of males.

Is this true that allowing "light creep" into the grow room can upset the cycle and turn my girls male? Or could I safely get away with adding an IR camera to the room?

Also, I understand plants need carotenoids for stoma development but how important is it really? the guy on www.ledgrow.eu didnt use any orange lights and still seemed to have "decent" results.

It would be worthwhile experimenting with but I cant seem to find any orange 3 watt LED modules, I can get amber ones but i'm unsure of wavelength output.

More research needed

- Slix

Look at the UFO's they have a series of lights that are invisble to the human eye, but plants love it...

Update:

Ok guys, the girls are in after 1 month of outdoor love. I have each frequency switched but I am running all of the lights at the moment. with the 2 fans and the lights I am running 148watts, or exactly 150.1 watts @ when running the fans at 12V. They are currently at 7V.

I am using an LM317 adjustable voltage regulator to control my fan speed. I can provide a simple circuit for those interested in making a simple fan speed controller that can handle up to 1.5Amps @ 12V.

pics coming soon

Some pics.

let me know which of the 3 you think will be most successful, the girl on her own is 2 weeks ahead of the other 2.



The UV LED is not hooked up at this time, I need some more space in the light hood to get a small 3w LED controller in there. I have an adjustable controller I am looking to add. hence the unfilled 5mm hole.

I would like your opinion on the actual science of growing, my setup is:

Cyco grow A & B
Mega Bud Plus



What amounts do you recommend per litre and of Cyco and based on plant size how much should I give them? pots are 9 litres, tallest girl is 100mm has her first 5-prong leaf signifying the end of seedling and start of veg cycle.

I am currently running the lights for 21 hour cycles, What would you recommend hours wise for veg?

Any tips would be highly appreciated to make sure this LED grow is truly successful. I would hate to have designed a great light only to have it ruined by poor nutrition and overwatering.

Slix

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Hey Slixxor!

I saw your Homemade LED light grow thread and searched for this one. I've been researching light with respect to growing for months now, keeping some of the information in the thread linked below. I don't have the technical expertise to make my own LED light and I was hoping that you could help me with a product list (supplier link) and brief pictorial about building a simple light. I want to build a light around 300W, or 2 x ~150W like yours would be perfect, any help or advice you could give will be appreciated.

I looked to buy first, and bought 4 UFOs, but the dipshit LED dweeb fucked me royally and sent me an all purpose spectrum with 1W diodes instead of the flowering spectrum and 3Ws he promised and I paid for, after a couple of months wait to work out the technical difficulties which he couldn't quite get. I took a bat to one of the UFOs and I'm going to take the other 3 apart on camera (with a mixture of baseball bat, hockey stick, other fun tools) and post the video on YouTube. I researched the vendor but not enough - once someone fucks you on an internet sale I have no doubt he'd like to get his pieces of shit back and sell them to someone else, and keep my money. At least I'm getting some satisfaction for my money, I'm pretty sure that with posting the video on every horticultural forum on the net I can cripple their sales enough to put them out of business.

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"I would like to see what the technical people out there think about LED designs; Why Orange LEDs?"

The Emerson Effect.

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" As I recall, the "far red" booster lights only need to be on for the the last few minutes (15-20) of the photoperiod"

I believe you're correct. This is a great chart, shows the effects of bursts of 660 nm and 730 nm light during the dark period for a flowering plant.

Chart Summary: If a plant is hit with only 660 nm light during the dark it will not flower, but if hit with 660 nm during the dark, then 730 nm during the dark it will still flower - converting Pdr back to Pr.



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I'm going to make an all ~730 nm light to be put on the last hour of light during flower and for 30 minutes after the main light is turned off.

Do you know the average temperture kelvin of your light? Good mix from your chart.

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LEDs don't work for us in flower for a reason - intensity. You can take the equivalent PUR watts in LED as a 1000W HPS and spread the lights over your garden evenly - you will not get the best yield, potency and flowering time because I believe there is a signal (no doubt chemical) that the light receptors send out to the plant when hit by intense light, telling the buds to grow like crazy because there is enough energy to grow huge buds.

"I am not an electronic engineer but I work in the industry"

I believe that I've solved the intensity problem and would be happy to share the info with you for your commercial use in the industry - I have no interest in becoming a light manufacturer and if you guys can fuck over the guy that screwed me, and make a profit, that'll be payment enough. Except for a royalty if I can patent the process and any advice you can give on the building aspect of the LED light.

https://www.rollitup.org/advanced-marijuana-cultivation/314052-plant-light-receptors.html

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As far as design goes LEDs are quite easy to work with when using a constant current source. However considerations need to be taken into account with forward voltages.

Red LEDs typically have a forward voltage of 2.6V and Blues at 3.2-3.6V. I would suggest buying controllers that run a max of 6 x 3w LEDs in series. That way you can have (like I have) switchable frequencies. Also I can run them off a 20V supply this way

when adding LEDs in series you need to add the forward voltages together; with 6 x 3.2V blue leds that adds up to 19.2V minimum needed to drive them.

Buy premade controllers instead of making your own, for those more adventurous you can try the constant voltage method using an LM317 or equivalent, but a constant current source is prefered (LM369), Premade controllers have leads already fitted and are clearly labeled.

Pretty simple from there I spent a while on my chassis design and concentrated on sturdy design with good airflow. the 2 x 80mm fans run it quite cool @ 5V. The LEDs are actually mounted on star PCB and through bolted to the plate. all wiring is on the front of the light so it doesnt look too pretty

eBay will get you 3w modules in 630nm red and 465nm blue, i used angel.edeal, I've had a few orders from them now, reliable hong kong seller.

apart from that I sourced my supplier from alibaba.com and explained I was working on LED light designs etc, etc and that I wanted some samples. They are now happy to send me any quantity I need at the 1000+ price which is (US dollar):

660nm Red $2
630nm, 465nm, 450nm $1.21
410nm UV $11

I'd love to have someone else make my design but use a different config or spectrum so we can find that LED "sweet spot"

Any more info needed on the electronics side, PM me.

- Slix

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Thanks Slix. I've got to digest the info and do some research (like 'forward voltage', I really know next to nothing about electronics) then I'll no doubt have a few questions for you.

Thanks again, I really appreciate the help!

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Basically,

when you run voltage through an LED, say 9V. if the LED has a forward voltage drop of 3.2V then the voltage on the other side of the LED will be 5.8V because the LED "eats" that amount of voltage. when running heaps in series then, say: 6 x 3.2V blue LEDS, You couldnt possibly use a 12V supply because 3.2x6 = 19.2V which would mean: 12 - 19.2 = -7.2V. LEDs CAN run at negative voltages but their tolerance is typically -5V MAX!

never let them run at a reverse voltage anyway, But general rule, they dont get bigger than 3.2V forward voltage drop. so a 20V supply is safe in all 6 LED applications

- Slix

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Thanks, great explanation.

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Ok,

I'm thinking about sexing the girls by dropping to 12/12 hours. They are still quite small but I dont want to waste my time in the long run. How long roughly after 12/12 will i notice the "balls"?

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You might notice pre flowers even before you go into flower, usually a week in to flower at the most, I've never had a plant go 2 weeks in flower without showing sex.

Slix when I'm growing a plant from a regular seed I top the plant at the 3rd node and use the topping to clone, I usually make the cuttings around 3"-4". It takes 7-14 days to root then I put it directly into flower as soon as I see a root. It takes a good 14 days for pre flowers with a clone from seed this way (the clone might not be sexually stable when it goes into flower).

You won't get a plant with a male pre flower on one node and a female pre flower on the other, but this drawing gives a good idea of what to look for and where. A magnifying glass is great for examining the pre flowers to be sure if they're male or female.



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Thanks Hobbes,

They seem really dense for me to lop the tip off and they are just forming their 3rd tier of 5 prong leaves. (6 fan leaves in total)

I have decided to wait until I actually turn them and see if they come out female or not. (I'm feeling lucky)

I have watered today without nutes and will do the same for the next cycle in 2 days.

I seem to have 36 hours between the start and full develpment of fan leaf pairs. Is this a usual growth rate?

- Slix

Ok,

Heres an update.

So far we are still in veg, not alot of verticle growth but she is splitting off into 2 branches. 37.7 kwh hours used so far since 6th June @ avg 144.7 watts.
View attachment 1002122View attachment 1002123View attachment 1002124View attachment 1002125

The girls are starting to smell a little, unsure if its a good smell or not (might be chemicals) they smell quite fresh. so im backing off on feeding for a week. the soil I used already contained ferts "suitable feeding for 4 months".

Let me know what you think guys

- Slix