That’s interesting, have you experienced a greater yield with your current setup vs whatever you had before that (not mixed?)?
As @Pursuer said, and I’m interested in quality of the buds over quantity.
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This will be my first grow with the added Red, Far Red, IR and UV. But the mix of 5000K for veg and 2700K for flower has had good yields and quality in the past.
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I added these for the Emmerson effect but didn’t go with the UV.
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Very cool, they almost look like turn signals 
. I’m using the Emerson and Exotic boards from RapidLED.
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Did you build one frame to hold all the different lights?
Did you use Bridgelux EB series and what were your other picks? Links?
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I built three frames using SolStix (Samsung LM561C diodes), one over each bed. Those have six 2700K strips and three 5000K strips each for a total of 360W) Then I have the supplemental boards with heat sinks between all those lights. Here is a picture of my externally mounted drivers and lights from my Workshop Rebuild thread.
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Cool, def gonna have to look thro that, the light looks good, well cool for that matter as I can’t claim to know what’s good lol
on my quantum boards the IR look real dim like there not even on,bet they get alot of units back because of it,peeps thinking there not working
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Yeah for sure. Any lights I have that have IR chips in them mention in the manual that they are IR, should look dim and its not faulty. 
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Actually this is probably the best place to post this, cant remember if I already asked this question but here goes… Is anyone aware of any 18 volt or 36 volt LED strips with a maximum length of 560mm that have any combination of the following LEDs:
Deep Red
Infra Red
Ultra Violet
I am hoping to add to an existing 36 volt build. Preferably without any voltage stepping.
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UV and IR have no proven benefit, only theorized. IR is of no practical value in high-temp LED grows that we know of…yet. UV may do something, but UV diodes are terrible and expensive and short-lived. And it’s theorized that near-UV excites the same pathways as UV might do (such as the blue spike in all white LEDs due to what @Mr.Sparkle noted about the coating that makes mixing CCTs of no value with modern white LEDs). There’s literally only one UV study that people hang their hat on, done in 1987 with questionable methodology and crude controls, and it’s never been repeated.
Bridgelux 2700k 90cri strips have a lot of deep red and especially far red which, as @ReikoX pointed out, creates an Emerson Effect.
You’d be better off just getting the 90cri 2700k EB3 strips which fit your voltage requirements, and are cheap, rather than spending money on short-lived diodes of questionable value.
But hey, it’s your money. What’s it they say about certain people and money?
I suggest watching these videos by PhD researchers studying this shit and reading the actual peer-reviewed papers produced by Bugbee and others on the subject:
and then this one:
and, lastly, this one with three PhDs, two of whom own lighting companies, talking about the nearly complete lack of proven benefit of supplementing spectrum other than far red’s Emerson Effect:
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@nube. For sure. I have watched a couple of those already. I was not aware of the Bridgelux producing good deep and far red. That would be a perfect solution. Thanks for the tip, I have some research to do
I have had a setup here with 2 tents. One is organic super soil with cool and warm white LEDs and some deep and far red. The other is a DWC with Solstrips with no deep or far red additions. Both tents run the same strain from the same mother in all grows. The organic tent with deep and far red would start to flower after 1 week from flip with a stretch of 2x while the DWC would take 2 weeks from flip with a stretch of 3x. I then took a small deep and far red LED and on the following grow added that to the DWC tent during the first 3 weeks from flip to 12/12. That time the DWC tent started to flower after 10 days from flip and stretch was 2.5x.
I am not convinced but this is definitely enough to make me want to investigate further.
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Thanks for the tip, kind of makes sense to shoot for the warmer range in 2700K if they’re already going to have blue in them… I might still mix in a small amount of maybe 5k so it doesn’t get too stretchy?
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where are you all buying your DIY led stuff? I looked and it cost more for me to build then to buy it.
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No big deal. I recommend reviewing them again because they’re very instructive on this subject.
I’ve posted it before in this thread, but here’s the goniosphere analysis of Bridgelux EB3 2700k 90cri strips at close to nominal current:
I would say get the most efficiently-produced photons you can for your money from this type of white, midpower LED anywhere in the range of 3000k - 4000k for veg & flowering, 2700k - 3500k 90cri for flowering.
It doesn’t have to be Bridgelux, but their strips represent the most photons for the money and nearly the most efficient. And it’s not even close. Samsung and boutique brands are quite a bit more expensive or they have diodes placed too closely to give you an even spread. Or they run too hard so you need expensive and heavy heatsinks.
Don’t spend money on supplementing or doing anything exotic - there’s just no proven benefit outside of FR and you only need a little of that. (Luckily there’s lots of FR in the Bridgelux 90cri strips!) And as in the case of UV, a lot of possible danger to both you and the plants. You’re better off just getting better at growing. Save your money instead of chasing a theoretical 1% gain for 20% extra cost. I mean that generally, not you specifically.
As for mixing CCTs, again, there’s really no benefit to adding 5000k. In a production setting, you want the fastest growth you can within the morphological parameters you define (essentially, with the shape you want). Scientifically, red and far red photons make for the fastest and biggest growth. If you have a very small space and don’t want big plants, sure go with more blue in veg. But, if you have no serious restrictions, there’s no point to add blue in veg against a typical 3000k or 3500k spectrum from Bridgelux or Samsung. But do remember that the CCT does not equate to a particular spectral distribution.
The reason why people wanted to veg with metal halide (fair amount of blue but also lots of green and yellow photons) in the past was because the only other option was HPS, which was almost exclusively yellow/red photons. If you have only yellow/red photons, without any blue to temper them, you end up with fast growing but viney plants. That’s as undesirable as going with mostly blue which ends up with tiny, no stalk cabbage patch plants. 
Modern white LEDs in the range of 3000k - 4000k contain mostly green/yellow/red photons with varying proportions of blue (more blue the higher the color temp). But you don’t need very much blue to keep the vining response from the red in check. Hardly any at all. For sure no more than 20% no matter what cultivar, but typically 10-15% photons in the range of 380-500nm is fine.
Blue photons make plant cells grow smaller and slower. In general, we’re pretty sure most cultivars like a little more blue in veg because it results in smaller cells which means hardier stems which is good outside in unpredictable wind conditions, but almost any spectrum will grow your plants in veg. Flowering does slightly better with more red and far red mixed into a broad spectrum white. Terps and cannabinoid content being impacted by spectral distribution is only theorized, but very few action mechanisms are hypothesized and none of it is proven at this point (not even UV).
And, lastly, it’s currently theorized that cannabis stretch in veg is largely due to spectrum. However, as the theory goes, stretch after flip is mostly genetic and happens (largely or completely) independent of light spectrum. This isn’t proven, but they think stretch after flip is mostly due to genetic factors and Daily Light Interval (DLI - how many photons the plant receives per 24hr period). The shape and weight after stretch, however, is dependent upon spectrum (all other variables being held constant).
@Who Digikey, Futureelectronics for the strips, and lots of places for the drivers and wire and extras. Octopart.com has a great part number search, so search here for builds that list the parts, then search those places for the part numbers.
Hope that helps!
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So one thing I’ve noticed looking a lil closer at the EB special is that the CRI 80s have a better typical efficacy than the CRI 90s…
I thought I also heard that the higher the CRI the better as it is that much closer to actual sun light…
So which is better to go with?
Also, am seeing that lower than 4000k also has lower efficacy…
Man this is confusing lol
I was leaning towards the 2700k and maybe a 5000k or even 5700k in like maybe 3:1 ratio but now maybe just the 4000k sounds best?
Still no idea lol
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Thanks @nube, @Mr.Sparkle, @Gpaw for re-post, I didn’t see this above… must have dosed off and missed it.
This definitely got me over the hump. Much appreciated!!
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Thanks @nube, going through all your answers to other posters questions too. Some good stuff. Saving peoples pockets
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