LED Bulb to Growlight

[WMoon518]

@anon32470837

Each of those lights already has a driver and heat sink built in.

I would sacrifice one and take it apart and see how easy it would be to separate them.

Idealy, you could have the driver portions outside the tent to keep some of the heat out of the tent. You could then wire all the drivers together and run them off one 110v AC plug. The outputs of each driver would be wired to each LED board. You wont need any additional heat sinks as they are already working fine the way they are. You just need to mount them some way and run the wires.

That assumes the driver circuits can be easily separated from the LED boards. I have not done this, so dont actually know if its possible or not. If ti is, it would solve all your problems.

Edit: This will only cost you some wire to run between the drivers and LED boards and a way to mount everything. You will want to use larger wire than is now connecting the boards and drivers because you will have a much longer run. Id suggest at least 16 ga wire.

Im not at all sure you can connect the driver outputs in parallel. You would need to test that to be sure they will be stable.

You are correct. I have taken one of them apart, The power board (driver) stands vertical in the case and plugs in to the LED Board with pins. They have a thin piece of aluminum, on the back, as a heat sink, I assume.

I saw a bucket grow from here on the site and it used 4 of these, with the board wired to each. He had said that you would probably need one board for each LED board, but my goal is to eliminate the “power board” completely and use some type of power supply/transformer, like from a laptop. The only other thing that I could tink of is to do a frame with a top and bottom. Run the power boards on the top, with all the wiring going to one of those multi-pole connectors and the emitter boards on the bottom with only wires going from one emitter board to one power board. I am guessing it could be all open, like the kit from SolStrip, but with additional strips on top as well. Should only be about an inch and a half to almost two inches thick.

One thing, is a bulb like a vape atomizer or connector, bottom pin is + and body(threads) are - ?

[Jellypowered]

@WMoon518

One thing, is a bulb like a vape atomizer or connector, bottom pin is + and body(threads) are - ?

That is generally how it’s supposed to be, but I know from personal experience (not recommended) it will work both ways lol.

If you had all of the same boards, and knew the specs of the power supply, you could rig a whole bunch of these “cobs” together with a true driver. The bulbs I took apart output 36v I didn’t try measuring current though.

[WMoon518]

@Lucy247420
I already have, see reply to @anon32470837.

@Jellypowered
I did see that and have conversed with Mr. Spakle already. I may just have to do it the way he did (one power board per emitter board. Take a look at what I said to @anon32470837. Let me know what you think. If I run the power boards up top and the emitter boards on the bottom, it should be nice and thin and have a frak load of airflow.

[Jellypowered]

Sounds like you’ve got a plan for sure. Can’t wait to see what you come up with. No reason it wouldn’t work.

[anon32470837]

@WMoon518

my goal is to eliminate the “power board” completely and use some type of power supply/transformer, like from a laptop.

That will likely not work very well - if at all. LED’s really really need a CCCV type power supply or a driver that is designed to work with LED’s. Actually, LED drivers are just CCCV type power supplies that are adjusted to the correct voltage and current. The voltage AND the current output MUST match what the LED’s want or they either wont work or will die quickly.

A laptop supply is NOT the correct type of power supply to drive LED’s. A simple transformer wont work either.

Use the drivers that come with the lights. They are free after all, and already work perfectly with these LED’s

[anon32470837]

@WMoon518

One thing, is a bulb like a vape atomizer or connector, bottom pin is + and body(threads) are - ?

No. The screw socket on those lights is AC - not DC. The center connector is the “hot” side and the threads are the “common” or neutral side of the circuit. It is very important you keep them that way for safety reasons.

Edit: Here is a link to the page where they explain it a bit more.

Polarity matters - Fine Homebuilding

[Mr.Sparkle]

Didn’t read all the responses but i will back up @Skiball in just using them in screw in format is the best option.

Sure i have dismantled them and used them like your are wondering in the past, but consider i had very limited height. At 6ft minus pots and say a frame for lighting, that’s way more than enough space to grow, just learn a bit of training techniques or scrog it as mentioned.

For “Ease” and cost that’s what i would do especially at the wattage your considering, definitely not worth the effort to break them down for literally about 2" of height all said and done. Also a heck of a lot easier to replace anything if you need to, or swap color temps, but definitely pop the domes

You said sockets are expensive where you are, but if you have access to home depot like i believe you mentioned. What you want to be looking for are the Leviton Keyless lamp holders. They are about $2 here in canada and $1.50 in the states

but gonna go back and read through the posts now to further understand the question/choices

[Mr.Sparkle]

@anon32470837 is bang on on all points, but ill try and back up with some specifics and more info just because i have played with these bulbs and breaking them down. Looks like very similar power boards and parts to the Philips 8-14w led bulbs found at HomeDepot.

First if you have time, cheap aluminum channel or other heatsinks on hand, and wire and soldering iron all warmed up, its definitely an option like larry mentioned on how about going about doing it.

Bulbs wise linearity i threw a note sheet about these out a couple weeks back but it had details i had written down through my testing… might be on another forum… one sec…

sweet alright, first as stated if you wanted to remove the power board all together your gonna need a separate ballast to light these things a CC ballast at least “constant current”.

Just to go right back to basics so as to level out confusion for possible others reading in the future. The built in power boards are there to power the leds, but they convert to usable power that the leds can use from what we get at the wall such as 120v-220v AC “alternating current” depending on where we are in the world. This 120vac transmission power need to be converted to DC power “direct current” to allow our leds to work.

Saying that i grabbed numbers for what was needed for the bulbs i broke down, but the 8w soft white bulbs ran at around 60vdc and 125ma, the bigger 14w Softwhites ran at around 86vdc and 150ma.

So say you made a parallel array of how ever many lights you have lets define it as “N” your ballast would need to supply at least that 86v and (Nx150ma) for the 14w versions, so say 10 bulbs thats 1.5amps, 30 bulbs 4.5amps, very few easily found ballast out there “laptop” will even fit in that range of say 86+vdc and home ever many amps you need.

So easy thing is just to use the prebuild ballasts that already come with the light, just requires 4 sides of every light to be wired depending on how they are mounter or remotely mounted with “proper” gauge wire to our points, AC “In” Hot and Neutral, and the DC side “output” positive and negative sides.

So that all aside lets talk about how many bulbs you should be running. Going general consensus is you should have between 35-50w of actual power per sqft for space with screw in led bulbs. For your 3x3 space with say going on the low end thats around 315w or 22 bulbs worth of those 14-15watters.

So if you already have the bulbs bonus, but if you can find the sockets above at same prices its really only around $50 out the door for them, and obviously if you need more bulbs that price goes up, wood frame and wiring excluded.

anyways can discuss this later, was starting to ramble on

[Kingaizen69]

Check out my thread bro I’m using screw in bulbs

[WMoon518]

@anon32470837

No. The screw socket on those lights is AC - not DC. The center connector is the “hot” side and the threads are the “common” or neutral side of the circuit. It is very important you keep them that way for safety reasons.

Yeah, sorry about that. I actually know that. Guess I was getting a little punchy. What I was thinking was which goes to the + and - on the DC side. But all I really have to do is plug the power board back into the emitter board. (DUH!!)

[WMoon518]

@Mr.Sparkle

@Larry3215 is bang on on all points, but ill try and back up with some specifics and more info just because i have played with these bulbs and breaking them down. Looks like very similar power boards and parts to the Philips 8-14w led bulbs found at HomeDepot.

First if you have time, cheap aluminum channel or other heatsinks on hand, and wire and soldering iron all warmed up, its definitely an option like larry mentioned on how about going about doing it.

Bulbs wise linearity i threw a note sheet about these out a couple weeks back but it had details i had written down through my testing… might be on another forum… one sec…

sweet alright, first as stated if you wanted to remove the power board all together your gonna need a separate ballast to light these things a CC ballast at least “constant current”.

Just to go right back to basics so as to level out confusion for possible others reading in the future. The built in power boards are there to power the leds, but they convert to usable power that the leds can use from what we get at the wall such as 120v-220v AC “alternating current” depending on where we are in the world. This 120vac transmission power need to be converted to DC power “direct current” to allow our leds to work.

Saying that i grabbed numbers for what was needed for the bulbs i broke down, but the 8w soft white bulbs ran at around 60vdc and 125ma, the bigger 14w Softwhites ran at around 86vdc and 150ma.

So say you made a parallel array of how ever many lights you have lets define it as “N” your ballast would need to supply at least that 86v and (Nx150ma) for the 14w versions, so say 10 bulbs thats 1.5amps, 30 bulbs 4.5amps, very few easily found ballast out there “laptop” will even fit in that range of say 86+vdc and home ever many amps you need.

So easy thing is just to use the prebuild ballasts that already come with the light, just requires 4 sides of every light to be wired depending on how they are mounter or remotely mounted with “proper” gauge wire to our points, AC “In” Hot and Neutral, and the DC side “output” positive and negative sides.

So that all aside lets talk about how many bulbs you should be running. Going general consensus is you should have between 35-50w of actual power per sqft for space with screw in led bulbs. For your 3x3 space with say going on the low end thats around 315w or 22 bulbs worth of those 14-15watters.

So if you already have the bulbs bonus, but if you can find the sockets above at same prices its really only around $50 out the door for them, and obviously if you need more bulbs that price goes up, wood frame and wiring excluded.

anyways can discuss this later, was starting to ramble on

I never realized that there was that much voltage going into those LED’s, but you’re right. I actually looked at the board and it showed 86v (or 96. Even with my glasses it was tough to read. will have to break out the mag glass I guess).

The question is, could one power board supply the amperage needed for multiple emitter boards?
I guess I will leave it up to better minds to figure out.

Here’s a question for you. In all of your small grow things (bucket, PC Case, etc) what was to lowest wattage you used for lights? Not being able to post for a day (newbie) and doing the F-Day thing made me rethink a bit. Maybe doing a “micro grow” for my sis and bro-in-law. Something self contained and “cat-proof”. Though, would this be better discussed in the other thread?

[WMoon518]

@Kingaizen69

Check out my thread bro I’m using screw in bulbs

I did. I thought about those when I first started, but went with a dual horizontal sockets when I got my 105w bulbs. Built a fixture out of half a piece of ducting from HD. Cost me $6 and a little bending, but it has worked out pretty good for now.

[WMoon518]

@Mr.Sparkle

You said sockets are expensive where you are, but if you have access to home depot like i believe you mentioned. What you want to be looking for are the Leviton Keyless lamp holders. They are about $2 here in canada and $1.50 in the states

https://images.homedepot-static.com/productImages/895c80e8-9605-48c9-b107-24d704a96876/svn/leviton-lamp-accessories-r50-08829-cw4-64_1000.jpg

Never thought about these. I was thinking about the regular sockets to get as many in as small a space as possible, a row of 5 of these would be about 30" (giving a little space between them) would work but might be a little bulky

[Mr.Sparkle]

those sockets aren’t bad, i use to use them for cfl builds of the past, cheap and they work. you could just mount them to a 1x2 frame and wire them out to a single cord.

As for the voltages and amperage, that was what i had measured, the stuff on the boards as far as im aware are more parts codes and such not wattages voltages or ratings

As for the one power board, well yes up to a couple but like i said your reducing the power by half (2 lights) then a third (three lights) but your overall wattage will still be the same “14w” so the only reason you would do so is if your wanting to spread out the light over a couple COB’s and or wanting to increase the efficiency slightly, in the end though your will just have the same amount of light that is coming out of a single bulb say split to three instead. Also getting a separate ballast to say power them all is gonna cost you more that what sockets and a couple more bulbs will cost. But in the case of spreading out the light, the smaller 8w bulbs are actually cheaper to buy even at 2x compared to a 14w at least for me.

Really there is no point in doing so, i have but definitely not needed and more expensive.

As for a micro grow, just pick up a small propagation tent you can find them in the 2x2x4 to 2x3x3 range, anything else would be custom built, aka ikea cabinets, old repurposed cabinets, pc cases ect. But the tents can be found for $40-100

As for the least amount of power so far 10w ina 1 gal protein container, fan included lol, sqft wise lowest amount i don’t actually know as im usually on the higher end of things with how i build and grow, but that 35-50w is a very safe area.

Also head over to @Kingaizen69 thread https://overgrow.com/t/low-watt-growing/11046 just for some inspiration, his first grow in years too

[shroomgod]

Mogul base socket.

[WMoon518]

@Mr.Sparkle

As for a micro grow, just pick up a small propagation tent you can find them in the 2x2x4 to 2x3x3 range, anything else would be custom built, aka ikea cabinets, old repurposed cabinets, pc cases ect. But the tents can be found for $40-100

I’m all about the re-purpose. Why buy when you can reuse. They have a small apartment and a cat that gets into everything. Figure I would see about doing something for them. Gotta get some good Autos first and seed them. Me, personally, have an old Wardrobe that I want to do something with, probably for pollinating (really hate buying seeds and have had shite luck with cloning) plus I want to do some autos which I would go broke having to resupply.

@Mr.Sparkle

As for the least amount of power so far 10w ina 1 gal protein container, fan included lol, sqft wise lowest amount i don’t actually know as im usually on the higher end of things with how i build and grow, but that 35-50w is a very safe area.

So 4 or five would be good for a small cabinet? I know that’s what you used for the bucket.

@Mr.Sparkle

Also head over to @Kingaizen69 thread https://overgrow.com/t/low-watt-growing/11046 just for some inspiration, his first grow in years too

I have and actually looked at getting one of the 7 in 1 things, but then my bro-in-law gave me the big photo bulbs and decided to go with a dual horizontal socket. Then use “y” splitter on each side when I switch to 2700K. Have started to read through it for tips, as well as a few others on another site, but it is long so it will take some time to get through.

Hopefully soon, I am going to start a new batch, some seeds I got from GPS. I am still trying to find a good strain for Arthritis and my back, so when they put up 4 four testing, one of which is supposedly high in CBD and good as anti-inflammatory, I did all I could to score some. I also figured that a Newbie perspective might be nice and hopefully get more folks in on it, so I am going to try to due a Grow Diary for it. Want to present it a not only for the strain, but as a “okay, here’s what I’m doing, tell me what I’m doing wrong” kind of thing. Maybe that will help out someone else that may be doing things wrong as well. Just have to wait until my CBD Hash is done. If I can scrounge up a pump, and can mount some lights in the wardrobe. I may start them out earlier in rock wool and the bucket cloner I want to put together. Will have to see.

[Mr.Sparkle]

That’s what grow journals on here are for ;), show and learn as you go.

As for the bucket i was running 4 of the 8w bulbs, had more later but essential added 2 bulbs worth of light to the sides, which i wouldn’t do again.

But cabneit wise, how ever many bulbs your need to fit that 35-50w a sqft.

As for the auto seeds, yeah find some strains you like and make some fem seeds from them, i recommend sweet seeds, mephisto, and some fastbuds stuff with my limited testing of there genetics to start with.

[Albannach]

Small micro style grows might well be your best bet in terms of cheap lighting bro. There is no really cheap way to artificially light a large(ish) space, enough for decent bud production anyway. My other half has a Dinafem - OG kush Auto CBD just starting to flower, we’re hoping it works well as a pain killer. Good luck pal, hope you find the right strain

[WMoon518]

@Albannach

Small micro style grows might well be your best bet in terms of cheap lighting bro. There is no really cheap way to artificially light a large(ish) space, enough for decent bud production anyway. My other half has a Dinafem - OG kush Auto CBD just starting to flower, we’re hoping it works well as a pain killer. Good luck pal, hope you find the right strain

The cheapest way… freebeies!!! lol

Kidding, but not totally. I have been fortunate. I got two really good 6500K 105W CFL’s from my brother-in-law (a Photographer). They were too harsh for him and he couldn’t take them back. Then our local 99 cent store started carrying 45W 2700K CFL’s for either 99 cents each, so I grabbed about a dozen of them, a few at a time when I had a few bucks. I made my light fixture out of a $5 half piece of duct and a $5 dual socket light. Found an old extension cord for it and Bob’s your uncle. Found an old lighting timer in a drawer. The Killer has been the seeds and Nutes. Seeds I just picked up when they would be on sale and nutes I used some I had until I got a few bucks to buy online.

I started with an Auto Industrial Plant CBD from Dinafem. It was okay but I got about an ounce from the first, tried to CS the second for pollen (got a little but not much) and tried to pollinate the some of the third, which didn’t get me any seeds or much bud. Decided to go to Photo for now so I could clone (don’t get me started on that) and I did get one from Seedsman, CBD Hash. It is supposed to due well for arthritis and inflammation. About half way through flower now. We’ll see.

[shroomgod]

Do you guys see my 250w ?