Looking forward to the build and run.
99%
It will only be for Mothers and clones but I will be sure to put pictures of my new system in action (flood and drain/ aeroponics if that is a real thing) 
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@Pedro_Bann Glad I could help ease your mind. You already had everything figured out, you just wanted a second opinion lol. Luckily I don’t sleep and seem to always be around lol.
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Thanks buddy my mind is at ease, now I just have to sweet talk the wife…
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Be sure to hide that proverbial trigger you mentioned haha. Best of luck friend!
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Learn to make the Green Dragon from @ReikoX’s kitchen.
It helps me regulate my sleep well.
99
PS I remember, you have some straight time before you can indulge again. When you can…
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I was going to ask how that turned out for you. Tincture is great medicine IME.
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Really works well for me.
I will have to make a bunch more.
Really works well for my friends too.
99%
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It’s really sad, pills that kill you are legal, but I can’t have a natural product that doesn’t make me have panic attacks before it makes me pass out.
I don’t like the ambien walrus,
Opiates back me up and give me the sweats,
But a gift from Mother Nature that helps with all my problems is illegal.
What a sick twisted society we are forced to live in.
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How Many SolStrips for My Space?
The most common question gardeners have when considering a SolStrip system is, how much light do they need for their space? Because LEDs are so much more efficient than high-intensity discharge (HID) and florescent lights, the traditional rules of thumb for light intensity, expressed in watts per square foot, aren’t applicable to SolStrip systems.
Current state-of-the-art white LEDs are up to 50% more efficient than HID lamps such as metal halide and high-pressure sodium lights. That huge boost in efficiency not only means more light per watt consumed, but also less heat given off by the lamp. SolStrips leverage that efficiency further with distributed diode technology, which spreads the light emitters, and the heat, across a much larger area than HID lamps or even COB lights.
Together that means that SolStrip lamp systems deliver more light per watt and can be placed much closer to the canopy, where they will deliver that light much more evenly and coolly than HID lamps. All of these factors must be considered when estimating light needs using SolStrips.
Rule of Thumb: 35 Watts/s.f. Veg/Bloom
The rule of thumb you should use when planning a SolStrip system is 20-30 watts of light per s.f. for vegetative spaces, and 30-40 watts per s.f. for bloom spaces. For a mixed veg/bloom space use 35 w/s.f. These are fairly broad ranges admittedly, but be wary of operating outside of them. Below 20 w/s.f. will result in stretching and thinning of vegetation; above 40 w/s.f. can lead to bleaching and die-off of tops.
This rule of thumb presumes several conditions:
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The watt total is operating watts, not potential watts. SolStrip X2’s have the potential to deliver 48 watts of light per strip, but most gardeners will operate them softer in the 33-42 watt range. Use the operating wattage for your calculations.
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The light system will be positioned 12” above the canopy. The physics of light means that its strength decreases exponentially with increasing distance. Positioning your lights 18” above the canopy will only give you 50% of the intensity of the same lights at 12”, at 24” your lights with deliver only 25% of the intensity at 12”. Conversely, positioning your light 6” above the canopy (very possible due to SolStrips’ very low heat) will double your light intensity from 12”.
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The light system will be designed to distribute the SolStrips evenly across the growing space. SolStrip LEDs emit light in vertical cone of about 120 degrees. No light is wasted as in HIDs by being sprayed in a 360 degree pattern that must be reflected back onto the canopy, with all the waste and weakening of intensity that results. But that means SolStrips must be aimed directly at the canopy from directly above.
Practically speaking, that means you can estimate coverage for SolStrip systems as below, using 30 w/s.f. and running your system at 100% of potential output:
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SolSheet Original: 5 s.f., with a 36” x 20” footprint.
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SolSheet X: 8 s.f., with a 42” x 28” footprint.
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SolStix array of 6 strips: 10 s.f., with a 52” x 28” footprint.
These are guidelines only. If you plan to run your lights softer, or higher than 12”, you’ll need to account for that in your estimate. For those willing to do a little math, there are better measures of photonic energy, i.e., light, that will deliver more accurate calculations based on values such as PAR and PPFD. We will explore those in a future post. But for basic planning in a typical indoor gardening space you can use these calculations with confidence.
-b420
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SolStix X1 Close-out Sale - $25.99 while they last
We are down to our last 16 SolStix X1s, so we offering them at a discount to clear them out now that we are fully stocked with the X2 strips and heatsinks.
Thought you all should be the first to know - they won’t last long: SolStix X1 Sale
The X1s are fully compatible with X2s, so don’t be afraid of mixing and matching. No 3500K strips in the X1 format left, but you can easily create custom 3467K or 3850K spectrums using the 2700K and 5000K strips in 2:1 or 1:1 ratios, respectively.
UPDATE: Just added the Cree 450/665nm red/blue strips to the SolStix sale. $49.99, $10 less than the regular price of the red/blue strip alone. Just 3 in stock.
-b420
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I have not done a build yet but in having a look at a few build designs that are here on OG I would like to suggest an improvement for ease of build if you ever make an X3.
I see that the guys are soldering and or using Wago connectors between the SolStrips, my idea is to have a double connector for each pole, IE; positive with positive common and negative with negative common then the strips would be heaps closer to ‘plug and play’ and a slightly cleaner build outcome.
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I used wago type push connectors with thermostat wire on mine. Worked great!
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So, do you mean two connector “slots” for each pole? Maybe a 2-hole positive connector on one end of the strip, and a second 2-hole negative connector on the other end of each SolStrip? It’s not a bad idea.
I can see how that might make for a cleaner build in large SolStix arrays. I it would probably require a complete redesign of the PCB. I’ve seen dual-connector hard strips but the connectors were always redundant +/- connectors, not 2-hole single polarity.
If clean wiring in your SolStix array is critical (its always a worthy goal) then I would suggest a series design. As long as you don’t get too crazy with the voltage (480v max?) and properly ground your rack, a series design would very clean and still pretty safe.
-b420
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Yep thats what I mean two termination points for each pole, I am not sure if they would fit on the same end of the strip? then the design would not have to change much at all provided there are single pole double connectors out there somewhere that could be used with your existing pcb layout.
What I am picturing in my head is the connector you already have there ( in single pole form where both termination points are connected ) just side-by-side .
I wish I still had a working version of Photoshop…
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Yeah something like that would have cleaned my wiring up a ton, mine still functions at 100% but looks like hammered dog shit lol.
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Not that appearances should matter, nobody else should ever see the rig anyway lol
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You guys are both running racks of strips right? I’ll check with my designer, presuming the double-pole Molex connector is available it doesn’t seem too difficult. Good idea, thanks.
This is exactly what I hope this thread will be used for. Collectively, we can refine these ideas and build the best all-around solution for growers in LED strip design.
-b420
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Yep I will be, by looking at the other builds it looks like the rack with the aluminium angle ( or C section ) is the simplest design.