Stealth LED Array light .

And a small break from the project ..
I surely need it .. ..
I had a 'wild' night yesterday ....
Anyway ...

I think I know what I should do ,to treat the hang-over ...

Start upgrading the three little piggies ...

Remove the mcpcbs with the Oslons and install some Vero 18 ,instead ....



Cheers.

I recently upgraded my overhead light from Vero13 to Vero18. More lumens while using less power. I figure ~20% efficiency gain overall. I see that you're using 3500k. My light is mostly (9) 3500k. It also has 2 5000k and 4 2700k. I think 3500k is a great choice for flowering and I could have used all 3500k but I like to be able to adjust the blue/red ratio for different stages of flower.View attachment 3267489

Mechmike said:

I recently upgraded my overhead light from Vero13 to Vero18. More lumens while using less power. I figure ~20% efficiency gain overall. I see that you're using 3500k. My light is mostly (9) 3500k. It also has 2 5000k and 4 2700k. I think 3500k is a great choice for flowering and I could have used all 3500k but I like to be able to adjust the blue/red ratio for different stages of flower.View attachment 3267489

Click to expand...

Great fixture you 've made yourself !

How many channels total in there ?

I'm sure you're getting some great results with that light !!
Cheers .

stardustsailor said:

Great fixture you 've made yourself !

How many channels total in there ?

I'm sure you're getting some great results with that light !!
Cheers .

Click to expand...

It has 6 chanels. One for each of the 5 strings of 3 Veros +2 stars and one for the 660s. My last run was 15.3 ounces. Not too bad for 6 square feet. It has a lot to do with the 96 Cree CXA1304 cobs surrounding the plants in the other 4 levels of bars. They're the 9v version slightly underdriven at 300ma.

Mechmike said:

It has 6 chanels. One for each of the 5 strings of 3 Veros +3 stars and one for the 660s. My last run was 15.3 ounces. Not too bad for 6 square feet. It has a lot to do with the 96 Cree 1304 cobs surrounding the plants in the other 4 levels of bars. They're the 9v version slightly underdriven at 300ma.

Click to expand...

Wow!!!
Great set-up !

~ 434 grams from ~ 0.67 of a square meter ?
That's amazing ,not just 'not bad' ...

'Tree style' with ' Intracanopy ' lighting ,eh ?

Hm...


...

Cheers.

It's the magic of side-lighting. MM regs here only allow a max of 6 plants with only 3 in veg. With my space and regs limitations I felt compelled to maximize where I could. I run perpetual so I have one in a 2x2 tent and veg 2 plants in a 2x4 tent with 2 in the open flower area. That way I keep my plant count within limits and get a good yield on a regular basis.

The latest harvest had nice 1" diameter frosty nugs right at the bottom. Those further up on the plants were bigger. Here's a shot of that.

Mad props Mechmike

Is that snow on the ground?

PetFlora said:

Mad props Mechmike

Is that snow on the ground?

Click to expand...

Thanks! No snow. That's a 5" fence post root chamber with the walls and floor painted white. What you see in the net cups is some polyfill quilt batting. I line the cups with it and them fill around the rooted clone with growstones and more polyfill. It's cheap and provides a good mix of water and air holding capabilities for the babies until the roots populate the chamber.

@stardustsailor - So cool that you are recycling the pigs!

@Mechmike - Your light reminds me of Christmas! I have always wanted to create a lighting system with a light source for each leaf. You are very close to that density. Do you see any stress on the plant or novel nute requirements? What strain was that plant with the frosty rocks? I am also trying to devise a system for the roots that avoids plastic materials. I wonder whether they make a steel wool out of stainless?


Cheers,
Mo

Mohican said:

@stardustsailor - So cool that you are recycling the pigs!

@Mechmike - Your light reminds me of Christmas! I have always wanted to create a lighting system with a light source for each leaf. You are very close to that density. Do you see any stress on the plant or novel nute requirements? What strain was that plant with the frosty rocks? I am also trying to devise a system for the roots that avoids plastic materials. I wonder whether they make a steel wool out of stainless?


Cheers,
Mo

Click to expand...

The only thing I can think of in terms of stress is that the tops will bleach if the light is closer than about 5". I also had to increase the amount of Magnesium but that is partly due to the RO water I use. The plants seem to need more Mag with the higher light intensity. I use more GH Calimagic than I used to and also add a small amount of Epsom salt.

The strain is Reserva Privada Kosher Kush. Not a huge yielding strain but the nugs are dense and hard. The taste is sweet, almost minty and the effect is hard hitting and long lasting. Great for pain and sleep. One brownie and I sleep like a baby.

I'm pretty sure stainless steel wool is available in most grocery stores in the same aisle where the dish soap is found.

And the first little piggy ,put on it's Veros 18s' ...
The amount of light that those three Vero 18s' are outbursting at 700mA is ...BLINDING !
No kidding !



Unused holes,closed with rivets.
Arctic Silver 5 ,used .
And the Veros attached with screws and washers .
(*Kinda ...DIY !!! But it works great .Vero 18 ,features a plastic case and not a ceramic,
with the latter being very prone to break apart and /or chipping .)


At 110mA

At 700mA


And some history :

Those three SSL fixtures ,where designed ,under the influence of inspiration by
Guod's Modular DIY Solid State light.

( For more detailed info ,click here )

Thus the name GD-SDS ( Guod-Stardustsailor) for the honor to Guod .
The next designs that followed up to day ,share plenty of design and construction features ,
same as with the GD-SDS SSL horti system .

While the GD-SDS system ( aka ' The three little piggies " ) is made with the design philosophy of building
a case around the heatsink ,the next designs following , utilise an actual case ,with the heatsink ,drivers,fans and rest ,enclosed .
That was the main 'evolution' done ,actually .

Cheers.

A peek to the deepest of SDS's "Phaos* Labs " ...

Directly from the 'Dynamometering Department' :

1x GD-SDS MK II


At 110mA ( Lowest Setting ) : 25-27 Watt.



At 700mA (Highest Setting ) : 87-90 Watts .


..
....
And a peek to the "Upgrading Department " :
A high tech upgrading bench ...
Chaos Labs ...



**

Phaos : Ancient hellenic word for light .
(Ancient : Φάος => modern : Φως )
It is the opposite of Chaos .
Phaos vs Chaos .

Lux et tenebris ,the romans used to say ...
Light out of darkness ...

Tell me about it !

Cheers.

I really like the 3500k Vero. It's the Goldilocks of the Vero line for flowering. As with all of the whites, a bit of supplemental blues and deep/far reds is needed to hit all of the chlorophyll A & B peaks. The 3500k Vero as the only light source should work very well. Supplemental reds and blues just makes what is very good better.

Mechmike said:

I really like the 3500k Vero. It's the Goldilocks of the Vero line for flowering. As with all of the whites, a bit of supplemental blues and deep/far reds is needed to hit all of the chlorophyll A & B peaks. The 3500k Vero as the only light source should work very well. Supplemental reds and blues just makes what is very good better.

Click to expand...

I will tell you what I think about the CXA series at 3000K and the Vero series at 3500K .,
Regarding all the possible growth states/ phases of a mj plant and not only ...
For clones ,seedlings,vegetative growing plants ,reproducing plants (flowering ) ;or even fruiting plants ..

IF AIN'T ' BROKEN ', don't fix it ...

Monos ,indeed can make good ,better ...
But only to hands that they know what they're doing exactly .
( No offence ,it seems that you know what you're doing very-very-well !! )

They can be a great 'boost' in many ways to an 'all-white' fixture ..
But most of times either they are not used correctly and the 'boost' is not that significant or either they cause 'disasters' ..

...
Still ...
Plain " SSL warm white " (3000-3500 K ) ,seems to work very well ,no matter the phase /stage of the plant(s) .

Add the ' simplicity ' offered to a designer/builder ...(soldering,installing,cooling and more)
The quick replaceability ...
The wide choice of secondary optics (lens/ reflectors ) ..
Their sheer power ..

Personally I do not need anything more for my designs ...

Just white will do .

It always had !
No matter the actual spectrum ...
Sun..HPS...MH ...CMH ..even HQI were capable of growing .....CFL ...Induction..Plasma ...
Why solid state lights should differ ?
No matter it's actual nature or source or even it's actual spectra ...
When given at 'appropriate doses' ..

Plants just love 'plain' white ...

Trust me on that one ...


Cheers .

"Plants just love 'plain' white ..." I couldn't agree more. After all, everything on this blue/green marble evolved under white light of varied Kelvin. The value of using what works cannot be overstated.

700mA small eggs, aliens' worst nightmare. Those piggies are gonna kill some UFOs.

The second GD-SDS box also became "Mark 2 " ....
...







Cheers.

Cool! Two mini-Suns. I am wondering why they draw 85w each? The Vero 18 needs 28.4v @700ma or 19.9w for each emitter. Power supply loss?

Mechmike said:

Cool! Two mini-Suns. I am wondering why they draw 85w each? The Vero 18 needs 28.4v @700ma or 19.9w for each emitter. Power supply loss?

Click to expand...

Not only ....
3x 19.9 = 59.7 Watts the 3x Veros power
85-59.7 = 25.3 Watts the 2x Fans & the PSU 3x Bucks losses ..

Now when it's a single Panel it draws 5 Watt more ( 90 Watts ) instead of 85 per panel when two of them ...
That's is absolutely normal ...
The more the PSU / bucks are operating close to their 100% load ,
the more efficient they become ...

Adding the third panel ,then at 700mA ,probably each panel will draw ~ 80Watts
(~240 Watt Full system's power ,at max driving )...

So ,here you see another "compromise" between If of dies/ arrays versus Io of PSU(s) ..
The higher the If of the dies/ arrays,the lower their efficiency ...
The higher the Io of the PSU(s),the higher it's/ their efficiency ....
And because If=Io ....

So ,in a 'dimmable' unit/fixture /system ,the two efficiencies should add up and divided by two ,to get the system's overall efficiency ..

The most efficient method ,is the 'non-dimmable' drivers/ PSUs ,that will drive the leds/arrays at a low current figure ,
so their efficiency remains at high levels ,while the drivers/PSUs will operate at their full load or as close as possible to it .

To drive a CXA/Vero efficiently at 350 mA ,the driver should also operate as close as possible ,to
the If & Vf of the CXA/Vero (i.e 350mA ,Vf =32.5 Volts for driving the cxa ..
But then driver ,especially if of low quality,will eventually degrade in efficiency ,due to high temps ....

The other options is the way I like to follow ...
Wide range dimmable drivers of high quality ..
At high If / Io the loss of efficiency from leds/arrays is "counteracted" by the increased efficiency of the drivers ...
Plus ,the fixture has an adjustable power ,'following ' the needs or restrictions of number,species of plants ,
grow methods ,available room/space and more ...


Driving many leds/arrays at low currents ,has quite a 'few' strict rules ,
in order for high efficiencies to be achieved ...
But spreading out the light ,is a great advantage for plants ...

The disadvantages of this way are more technical ..
(high cost of multiple drivers/leds-arrays-heatsink units,increased weight ,
hanging /height adjusting issues ,are few to name ..)

Cheers.