I got the Emerson boards and the exotic spectrum boards from Rapid LED. I haven’t used them yet though.
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Gonna have to check them out after work. Wife will be thrilled at me buying more stuff lol
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I’d suggest don’t waste your time or money. There’s very little (if any) proven benefit from extra red or UV supplementation in any current, modern LED builds, and certainly nothing approaching the cost to add it.
But hey, if you have money burning a hole in your pocket, send it to me and I’ll send you a daily affirmation in return. You’ll get way more benefit from someone giving you complements than you will red or especially UV supplementation in a grow. 
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Well according to some of the studies one read they say the opposite I’ll take the word of a botanist that has actually tested it unless you have some experience. Explain why it would be a waste?
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You could be right. Please do cite those studies done with modern LED lighting growing cannabis flowers. I’d love to read them and learn.
Interestingly, you had the opportunity to respond in a number of different ways to my attempt to help potentially save you some money and frustration, including thinking, “Maybe this person knows something I don’t. I’ll ask and try to learn.”
Instead, you replied with this:
That’s not the type of response that fosters community growth and benefits you or others. That seems unnecessarily antagonistic and personal when you’re responding to someone trying to help. What traumas in your past makes you seek out that type of negative interaction rather than collaboration, learning and growing? (Please don’t answer that - it’s rhetorical.)
We’re not in competition, friend. We’re here to create something together. Otherwise, why post?
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My apologies sir, should have waited until after work to reply, things written in haste never really work out well as we can see. I’ll look for the bookmarks, hopefully I can find them. One of them is a long video and there professor talks about the different color spectrums and leaf penetration of the different colors, also talked about the effects of UV on cannabis. Supposed to increase trichome production. The reason I’m looking to supplement those is I’m running a full 3500k light not a mixed spectrum. If you have experience with this please enlighten me instead of just saying don’t waste the money with zero reason why. That’s most of the reason for the tone of my reply, there was no explanation as to why it would be a waste, however I should have asked your reasoning instead of venting frustration with other things on you and die that I apologise sir. This whole Rona farce has me out of character.
Edited for stoned rambling
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Yo @Daytripr69! That tone was not necessary bro.
That’s for RIU.
Blessings…
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Hey man, no big deal. Thanks for coming back and engaging and apologizing. I’m also sorry for escalating. Let’s move forward together. 
This is Dr. Bruce Bugbee, the grandfatherly professor of crop physiology at Utah State University. He’s one of the only if not the only researcher in the US that’s FDA and USDA approved to study cannabis, and he’s been funded by NASA for over 30 years. Love him or hate him, he’s one of the only people in the US studying the effects of various lighting spectrum supplementation and various light sources on cannabis in a controlled environment. Most of the other studies done are not in the US or were from the 1970s and 1980s and weren’t considered well-designed research by today’s standards.
Below is a video where he talks about the role of the various parts of the photosynthetic spectrum in cannabinoid production and dry weight. These are actual tests on weed plants (he uses 15 varieties of high-CBD plants and also has an undisclosed amount of high-THC plants) in a NASA-quality lab. I strongly recommend changing the playback speed of the video to 1.5x.
That starts at the 13min mark where he goes into depth about why extra blue (which functions approximately the same as UV in the plant) doesn’t aid cannabinoid production and could be detrimental for a variety of reasons.
The modern white midpower LEDs we recommend in this thread contain plenty of blue in relation to the other colors, even at 3000k. Other researchers are finding out that near-UV (400nm - 450nm) is likely just as effective as UV, and most strips we’d recommend contain a fair bit of output in this region. Enough that it’s probably plenty. That’s why there is no reason to use a combo of high and low color temp LEDs in your flowering spaces.
This is his video that talks about the benefit of green and far red (in proper ratios to the other colors) and why too much blue isn’t beneficial for cannabis:
It’s a really good listen. Regarding far red (700nm - 750nm) or “deep red” (630nm and 660nm) supplementation, again it’s about the proportions of these to the rest of the spectrum.
The bottom line is that it’s a waste of your time and money to supplement any parts of the spectrum when building the type of high-end modern white LEDs recommended for DIY flowering setups in this thread.
As long as you’re using Bridgelux EB2 or EB3, Samsung, or some of the boutique strips (PLC, ChilLED, etc.) in the 2700k - 4000k range, you will not need to add any spectrum to get great results. The grows using those strips don’t really benefit from supplementation in significant ways. You will benefit far far far more from simply growing better, whether it’s better strains, better environment, or more light. There is no silver bullet.
However, I do want to mention something that’s been corroborated by LED light professionals. It turns out that the 90cri Bridgelux EB3 strips have a ton of red and far red in them, especially at 2700k and 3000k, and really good proportions of all the colors, so they are the best bang for the buck for flowering. And they’re available if you “backorder” them from Future Electronics. Here’s their 3rd-party measured spectrum ratios and efficiency for a 2ft 2700k 90cri strip run at close to the optimal current (675ma):
We can go into the research of the effect of UV supplementation on cannabinoid content, but basically there’s no modern peer-reviewed studies that have found strong relationship between UV and cannabinoid content. There’s old studies, but they weren’t well-designed or peer reviewed, and the modern studies don’t find the same “blockbuster” outcomes that the old studies found.
If you want to deep dive on the research papers let’s do it on a separate thread - I have a list of 7 or 8 papers on this subject and a summary of the findings for each - but it’s really so inconclusive that the added cost, complexity, and danger of adding UV to your grow makes no sense (UVA and UVB are bad for you over extended periods, especially for your eyes or skin).
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Now that’s a reply sir! Lol after looking last night either the bookmarks I have are now dead or they are old research. Thank you
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@Palindrome did a good experiment some time back using strips with a wide range of colour temps. If i remember correctly the plants grew quite well right up to about 6000k.
I tried a few combinations of strips a while back but now i just use 3500k start to finish. It limits stretch and i get nice dense potent buds. Turns out something close to daylight works quite well 
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Bruce Bugbee is rather amazing (his work I mean), he reminds me a little of Doc Edgerton.
Thanks for that link, I had it at one point and lost it… 
Cheers
G
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Not sure if this has been mentioned here yet but it probably wouldn’t hurt mentioning if it has been already.
Quoted myself from another post here:
Make sure you bond (using wire) any non current carrying metal to the ground wire from your plug. That means anything metal that isn’t supposed to have electricity on it i.e. Your frame ect. Trust me 
I’m a doctor… wait for it …of electricity. 
But Seriously. I am an electrician. That way if any wire gets frayed or damaged and touches any metal it will trip your breaker in stead of electrifying said metal until you touch it 
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I think I may have asked this before, does anyone have a semi-rough figure (+ or - $50.00 on what 2 x 4’x4’ parallel bridgelux gen3 strip setups would cost? this would be the safest way to go, correct? I really need to change out my blurple lights, bad.
regards,
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Over my head to give any advice.
For now something to gander at. good info here, a little dated.
For my own practice. Just worked up a potential 4x4 config. Don’t try this at home!
44 strips - 560mm ($230)
2 drivers - 320H-20ab ($170)
1 fixture and hardware ($150)
580 total watts
36.25 watts per sq. ft.
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Gram,
thank you for this information, is this for one (1) 4’x4’ light build? just not sure?
regards,
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Yes, a single 4x4. Probably can be done for less money by those with exp. Also not sure if my design is solid.
I like to build with 2 drivers.
If a driver fails, I only lose half the strips. Gives me time to replace the bad driver. Light cycle not interrupted.
(The IT guy in me wants a cold spare on the shelf.)
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Have you ever had a driver fail? Is that a common occurrence? I’m researching some lighting for my 4X4 and that sounds daunting. Thanks…
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Yes, my dad had a driver fail. I had been over driving it by a pretty large margin for about 2 years. It ended up getting extremely hot, then shut down. A few minutes later, it would work again until it got hot and repeated the cycle. The new driver isn’t being driven as hard. 
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Not yet. Fingers crossed!
Ballasts, bulbs, power supplies - they can fail at any time.
Everything I’ve read…Mean Well drivers are super high quality, with awesome warranty.
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