Using and Testing Vesta Strips
- Thread starter BuddyColas
- Start date
BuddyColas
Well-Known Member
TEKNIK got right on the tests, and I received these files from him this morning.
BuddyColas
Well-Known Member
The current mission for my Vesta fixture is hanging over 2 tomato plants. At about 175 watts they grow some killer "Early Girl" tomatoes! If you can grow tomatoes, you can grow anything...including our favorite herb.
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Rocket Soul
Well-Known Member
What ratio warm and cold white do you use?
Very nice. My take aways:
- quite true to datasheet.
- decent efficiency for one generation behind the current, especially when you account for price. Doubling strips and running them at half should gain around 9% from calculations on these results. So either 10$ for 25w of 2.26ppf/j or almost 2.5 if you go for half power for 20$ per 25w.
- the spectrum looks much colder than what i had seen estimated on ledgardeners forum.
Thanks @TEKNIK for doing test on these slightly older strips. Cant wait for a proper gen2, vesta edge seems more for decoration.
BuddyColas
Well-Known Member
Good questions. When I was growing the CBD Divine, I had separate 185 watt drivers for each color. I ran about 2 to 1 5000K to 2700K during veg and kept the same ratio and reversed the colors during flower. The bars are 8" apart, so I kept them about 4" from the canopy. That was a very even blanket of photons! So in flower 145 watts of 2700K and 75 watts of 5000K. That made 700ish umols at the canopy for 12 hours for 30ish MOLs a day of photons.
My current lighting targets are 30 MOLs a day in flower and 20 MOLs a day in veg. Subject to change with further experience and observation.
As an aside, for the tomatoes, I am running the colors in series into a 320 watt driver. As mentioned, 175 watts for 15 hours a day is very productive for the tomatoes.
Rocket Soul
Well-Known Member
We went all 2700k in last flower and it looked real nice. Even for low watts. But it was an 11 week strain.
BuddyColas
Well-Known Member
How many watts of 2700K per sq. ft. did you use?
Rocket Soul
Well-Known Member
12 strips, 4x2.5ish space, hlg240. So aprox 25w per square foot. Looked the same as the next tray which was +35w/squarefoot. But on a 11 week strain with about 10days to go. The plants should be harvested and separated so should get some yield numbers in a bit.
BuddyColas
Well-Known Member
Thanks. I have found with today's "warm" cobs and strips that 25-30 watts per sq./ft. is quite productive, but I am a hobby/medical grower and have not used CO2 and went for 1000 PPFD either. When everything settles out and the numbers are in, I would like to know the details on your comparison grows.
I have ran 3000K/80CRI since my initial V6 Vero 29 build, and it seems like the 90CRI gets the job done a bit sooner.
One more thing, where did you get the info on the V2 Vestas?
Rocket Soul
Well-Known Member
Someone posted it and i had quick look, looks like different form facto for corners, like for decoration. But there should prob be proper vesta v2 with the arrival of gen 3 brdgelux eb strips. Well, speculation...
TEKNIK
Well-Known Member
Let me know when the new product is out, I did some math on the new 5630 from Cree yesterday, I am not sure how much they cost but performance is really high on them according to the data sheet. There are alot of products to choose from now and performance will be really high this year in comparison to last year. I would say by the end of the year 2.7m/joule will be standard for many manufacturers in the mid price range.
Warpedpassage
Well-Known Member
Thank you for creting this thread buddycolas!
It sounds like you have flowered under both 80cri and 90 cri. Do you think its worth the extra hassle to find the 90 cri over 80cri. I absolutley love the way that vesta 3000k 90cri spectrum looks on tekniks test, so much more red than green. I would love find some samsung f series , 90 cri strips. Have you ever come across those for sale anywhere?
It sounds like you have flowered under both 80cri and 90 cri. Do you think its worth the extra hassle to find the 90 cri over 80cri. I absolutley love the way that vesta 3000k 90cri spectrum looks on tekniks test, so much more red than green. I would love find some samsung f series , 90 cri strips. Have you ever come across those for sale anywhere?
BuddyColas
Well-Known Member
I have not flowered under both 80 and 90 CRI. I have used mostly 3000K/80CRI and 3500K/80CRI. Both are good all around do-it-all combinations...In my opinion. I had heard so much about the 90CRI LEDs that I tried the Vesta strips because it was a low cost way to get started. Cobkits says the 90CRI shave 5-7 days off of flower time. I would have to agree. I run mine about 18 watts per color per strip for about 2.36ish umols/J. Not at the forefront of technology for sure, but very affordable. Photons are photons, and I am not willing to pay to be at the forefront of efficiency...just me.
As for the F strips, I have not seen them offered in 90CRI, but offerings change so quickly. The next light I make will be 90cri, and I too like the 2700K/90CRI spectrum...plenty of red with a peak at 625nm. Please share what you find and how it grows for you.
BuddyColas
Well-Known Member
So I looked on Digikey and Arrow for any 90CRI F or H Influx strips
...nope. BUT, Cutter has some cheap 90CRI photons for sale. Check out the graph. Plenty of blue and (like the Vestas) a nice red peak about 625nm. You wouldn't need to buy any added 630nm leds!Attachments
Warpedpassage
Well-Known Member
So I looked on Digikey and Arrow for any 90CRI F or H Influx strips
Yes, i think those are the cree, j series. Im looking at those as well.
I dont mind mind paying a little more for better efficiency, within resson. I was going to grab some samsung lm 301b strips and some osram square 660s from a company in germany. My buddy tried placing an 1500$ order that we were going to split. Since its outside of europe they had to prepare a special invoice to exclude the vat tax. At the last second , right before paying for it , all communication from them just dropped off. No response! Now im thinking about just grabbing the f series , adding osram 120s for 660nm, some 730nm and be done with it.
Pretty disappointed with that german company, they were offering a really good price. If they were having issues with credit card processing or other shipping issues, they should at the very least email a potential customer with some sort of an update. Pity, prices were damn good.
Rocket Soul
Well-Known Member
Led-tech.de?
Warpedpassage
Well-Known Member
Yes. They quoted a really good price on a bunch of osram square 660s and the strips. Im tempted to ask my friend to send them a third email asking whats going on.
whytewidow
Well-Known Member
I've ordered from ledtech several times. Never had a single problem. And they always shipped fast.
Warpedpassage
Well-Known Member
If you dont mind me asking, are u in the u.s or europe?
I was hoping they have something like a long May Day holiday.Lol. My buddy forwarded the conversation with them. After confirming stock, no response to method of payment request. Ill ask my friend to email them again and see whats up. Even with the dhl shipping it would be cheaper for me to order quality stuff from them. And they have a good rep among members here.