That’s a steal! At that cost you’re better off saving $ on heatsink n buy more. Just under driving them for high efficiency.
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I built my first prototype SolSheet with TCI’s 561B strips. Still use it over my clones. The only down side is PAR output. It is significantly lower than the lumens/watt differential with the LM561C chips used by most premium light manufacturers (along with the 301B chips) would suggest. My tests suggest 30-50% less average PAR than a similar wattage of LM561C strips (like SolStrips).
The other thing to keep in mind is they are less than half the wattage (23w) of SolStrips (50w), so you’ll need more than twice the number of TCI strips to equal the same light output of a SolStrip system.
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The driver is a 500 mA driver, the strip is a 900 mA strip. You mention you already own this, don’t yours say 900 mA MAX ? They are 41 Watt strips, but run at 23 Watt with the supplied driver on max load.
I will run them and I will make my results public, for all to see and then people can make up their own mind.
I have saved 1800 $ buying TCI strips, compared to SolStrip as you don’t have a EU outlet. I’d have to add 25% import tax on your price and deal with customs.
Had I been able to buy Solstrip in EU, or another strip with the LM561C chip. I would be testing them as well, but so far I haven’t been in luck finding any.
Anyway I look at it, even with a 30% less PAR. There is a long way to 1800 $ saved, have been spend, given I payed 650$ for the 65 TCI strips.
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Thanks everyone. I think I’ll try a solsheet original, in my 2×2 and see how it goes.
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I run the TCI strips with their included drivers at 23w just as they are advertised. I’ve had them in service for over 2 years, and never could get any information on the drivers. They are fine strips, I’m sure you’ll build a nice system. My comments only reflect the statements of the manufacturer and the technical specs of the diode, which is a couple of generations older than the LM561C diodes in SolStrips. Looking forward to seeing your system in operation.
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these are the boards i got for my veg tent, except mine were all samsung LEDs w/o the epistar reds they apparently add now … 25$ for a 304pc board + heatsink, and they are identical diodes to the quantum boards i bought for 3-4x the price from HLG … ~335w LED for under $200, or about $0.59 per watt w/ only 2 boards purchased, compared my HLG fixture only 2x the power for prob over 5x cost… if you spread the shipping cost over more boards it’ll bring the price per watt down even more
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Found driver info, on another board where a grower had been in contackt with TCI Italy.
He had some specs on the driver, how to operate the DIP switch to set it to run less then 500 mA.
Anyway the drivers are not great, they should only be around 80% but they where incl in the price.
They might do a little better on a MeanWell driver
Yeah no doubt about the LM651C chip is better then the B chip, but when I look at the papers and do the math.
It makes me wonder if there is much difference to us, small home growers with a few K watts.
Where I think it matters a lot more, when you are a commercial greenhouse grower. Who run 10-20K watt in each greenhouse, for them I am sure there is a massive difference between running the B or C chip.
Once I find some LM651C strips, or they find me, I will give them a shot as well.
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Anyone interested in buying more than 50 SolStrips should contact me directly for special pricing.
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Solstrips have really peaked my interest!
I initially wanted a single room setup, but in the interest of keeping things ticking over regularly, I’m planning on converting an old wardrobe to be a dedicated veg room (with carbon filtering so I can use it for drying at stinky harvest time!), and a small separate propagation box. I’ll just have to learn to time it all right!
I currently have a G Tools cabinet of around 80x120cm which will eventually be my dedicated flowering cab. I’ve got a 400W HID on a digital, dimmable ballast for flowering, and a 250W CFL for Veg. My first grow is all gonna happen in the main cab, but I’d like to take clones for grow #2
I’m considering a Solstrip set up for my new veg room, and I imagine down the line they’ll replace the HID in the flowering room too. Was thinking a little Lumii 2-strip fluro for my little prop box, but if I can use LEDs in there too, that’d be cool.
I guess my main question pertains to power consumption, and how much less thirsty Solstip setups of equivalent output to my old school lamps would be. I need to work out how much I stand to save on energy bills, and offset that against the cost of replacing my lamps. I’ve been doing a lot of trawling through various threads on here, but I’m struggling to extract the info I need.
I’d be happy (and frankly would prefer) to build these myself rather than pick a pre-built rig.
Any advise would be greatly appreciated, and sorry if I’m retreading the well-trodden…
T
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Use 35-40 watts of LED per 1000 square centimeters (330-380w in your example) as a rule of thumb in your planning. That will generally work with premium LEDs (not Chinese generics) to deliver a light field in the intensity range (700-900 PPFD) that you need for bloom spaces. For clone and veg spaces, use 20-25 watts per 1000 cm. A dimmable ballast can be used to maintain canopy intensities at either level as needed.
As you can see already from this rough calculation, your energy usage will drop 25-35% straight out of the gate, and may drop more if you take advantage of LEDs’ much cooler operating temperatures and reduce the vertical distance from the canopy by half or more compared to typical HID requirements. Well-designed LED cabinets can easily use 50% less energy than inefficient small HID designs, while equalling or exceeding their usable light intensity across the canopy.
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Thanks @Baudelaire for pointing me in the right direction. Think I can start speccing and costing up a Solstrip set up now. I’ll be back with more questions, I’m sure… 
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The solstrip rig and driver seems like it costs a shit load at 1st but the efficiency and yield you get in the end MORE than makes up for the initial price you pay. Strain dependent you can EASILY hit the 1gpw as long as you keep the environment in check 
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Yeh I think it’s worth the investment, and believe it’ll save money in the long run. Thanks for the recommendation.
It’s funny you mention the strain as a factor though, as I was just reading a Solstrip blog post about color temperature, and there was mention of 2700K being ideal for fully maturing indica dominant strains in bloom. I’m more of a sativa fan, and already have my concerns about height. Is there an effect on vertical growth that relates to color temperature? If so, does that same effect relate to potential yield, too?
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Also, maybe more importantly, is there a way I can get them at the USA prices, not the UK distributed prices… 
Based on the current exchange rate, they are virtually twice the price 
@Baudelaire…?
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Yeah @Baudelaire is the USA distributor. If you contact him via pm I’m sure he will guide you and help all he can
Keeping the lights as close to the canopy (around 6 - 12 inch is where I keep mine) prevents stretch. 2700k is for the bloom period where 5000k is for veg. I have a 12 strip rig with 6 of each so I can veg AND bloom under the same light. The sativa hybrids I’ve grew don’t stretch as much as you seem to think they do under artificial light.
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That’s encouraging/reassuring! I’ve currently got a 250W cfl on them as close as I feel safe having it, and they’re all at node three, nice and tight. I’m just not totally sure what to expect I guess.
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I find the higher color temperatures tend to greatly restrict stretch in bloom. I recommend 5000K if you expect to use the space for flowering sativas. 5000K strips also have the highest PAR output.
Contact me here on PM or at solstrip.com to discuss you needs. We ship worldwide, including to the UK, directly from our US facility. Pricing is the same, exchange rates and customs duties vary by country of course.
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Having not used them, I can’t speak for the SolStrips but would always support a brother with a good product. These seem well worth a look.
Otherwise the Samsung themselves IMHO are hard to go past.
I am running these at 1.35 Amps where they are pushing 200 lumens/watt. I have tested various temperatures of these for different stages of growth. In the end the 3500K for these is the sweet spot for for both veg and flower. It contains a good mix or reds and blues so you get short bushy growth in veg and solid bud structure in flower.
I’ve also added some 5000K strips to the veg cycle for a bit more of the blue spectrum, but to be honest it made no real difference.
Strips produce far less heat that is easier to deal with than COBs in my experience so I have come to prefer them. Some people will talk about penetration of the light being too low, however all research demonstrates that diffused light is actually more efficient for growth and if you manage things, this is not a problem.
All you need to use for heat-sink is an appropriate size piece of aluminium channel, not any fancy expensive heat sink.
I can buy 6 metres of 40mm 2mm aluminium channel for $30. I also use some thermal paste between the strips and the aluminium, but even Samsung say this is not 100% necessary.
I don’t cover the actual LED in any way to protect these and have yet to have a single failure in any of the Samsung strip variants I have used and abused. They are pretty robust.
Here is the data sheet
https://cdn.samsung.com/led/file/resource/2018/04/Data_Sheet_H_inFlux_Rev.1.2.pdf
They are using this chip, this data sheet has all the colour spectrum graphs for the different temps.
https://cdn.samsung.com/led/file/resource/2019/03/Data_Sheet_LM301B_CRI80_Rev.7.0.pdf
I use these drivers to run them
Because they are $9 AND they are genuine Osram so more reliable.
You can only run a single strip per driver with these, but I prefer this arrangement even though it requires more wiring, rather than run a whole lot of strips in series. With this arrangement if one fails then that is all it is, in a series setup you lose the whole light. Also this way I can power up the light with more strips in flower and turn some off in veg.
Also if you have never done any of this sort of wiring, then single driver to single strip is a lot easier and safer.
If you are thinking about going this route, let me know an I’ll be happy to give you some pointers.
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^ some great info there. I’ve been using, wiring and tinkering with all kinds of HIDs for years and still am totally lost when it comes to LEDs and the various drivers in series/parallel etc. Thanks for laying it out simply like that!
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