The LED hack shack and other tall tales

[Palindrome]

Bad news on the Spectrum test - Today I found a top infected with bud rot.
Removed it and inspected the rest, no mold.
First of the closet was made for veg, and further more due to the season.
The outside RH is up around 75-80%, this is the air I pull into my grow rooms.

The HPS flower room have a dehumidifyer running at night, my exhaust system isn’t compleate.
At a later point once it’s done, I should be able to recirculate most of my air and controll the RH in the closet.

For now, I just have to accept things as they are, and start harvesting tomorrow at day 69. Will add another fan, to up the air circulation.

[Palindrome]

Harvest done, will go over the pic’s tomorrow and do a detailed update

[Palindrome]

Gone thru the pictures from the harvest, plants are now drying and will be looking forward to do a smoke test.
And examen the dry buds a little more, some where more leafy then others but still solid firm buds at the core.
Size, well yeah even tho it matters. I trimmed all the buds, even the smallest popcorn.
The penetration of the LED’s under at the low current, isn’t very high and combined with the low sqft wattage.
I suspect thats the main reason, to the small bud size and my experiments with heavy defoiling.

3000 Kelvin Strips

4000 Kelvin Strips
Plant 1

Plant 2

6000 Kelvin Strips

6500 Kelvin Strips
Plant 1

Plant 2

Plant 3

8000 Kelvin Strips
Plant 1

Plant 2

So far I can conclude the 12V dual row strips, are both better and cheaper then the single row 24V strips.
I might be able to pull a little more Wattage on the 24V strips, but the plants under the dual strips have clearly done better.

Got a bunch of dual row strips on the way!

[Palindrome]

Buds are drying up nice and slowly, atm at a temp around 19.5 C and humidity around 70%

[MicroDoser]

Why have a medium at all?

If you aeroclone, you can put the bare roots into the flowing nutrient solution. If you have some support for the plant (I use the neoprene discs from the aerocloner) that can keep it stable until it can reach the first bit of netting for support you will be fine.

Then, when you want to finish and refill, you just pull the roots out and compost them along with the stalks and fan leaves.

As long as you have enough aeration you will see very good results.

Good thread, can’t wait to see final dry weights for the various spectra. If I had to pick just one then from the look, and what that makes me think it will smoke like and an idea of yield, I would go for either the 6K or the 6.5K.

[Palindrome]

@MicroDoser

Good thread, can’t wait to see final dry weights for the various spectra. If I had to pick just one then from the look, and what that makes me think it will smoke like and an idea of yield, I would go for either the 6K or the 6.5K.

Thank you very much
I have picked the 4K and 6.5K Spectrum, for the next test run. It will be at a higher wattage and running on a MeanWell HLG-240-C700 driver. From the bud structure from the test I think the 3K and 4K looks the best, but the plants under the dual row 6.5K strips are bigger.
To do a more even test, I will build a light with 4K on one side and 6.5K on the other.
Then I will try a 12/12 from clone SOG grow this round

[Palindrome]

Next run is ready to root

[Palindrome]

Before cloning

After cloning and culling a few BLB males

[Baudelaire]

@Palindrome

So far I can conclude the 12V dual row strips, are both better and cheaper then the single row 24V strips.
I might be able to pull a little more Wattage on the 24V strips, but the plants under the dual strips have clearly done better.

Whether 12v or 24v, or 36v or 54v doesn’t matter with 3 watt diodes. It’s simply a matter of circuit design. All that matters is PPFD/Lumens per watt, per canopy area, i.e. light intensity. And until you start understanding your diode efficiency and measuring your light output, you don’t know what you have.

Fortunately, most of the information you are trying to find is already out there. Flexible strip LEDs are usually of the least efficient, poorest quality designs and components. Better quality diodes on well-designed PCBs, mounted on proper heat-mitigation components and powered by high-efficiency power supplies like Mean Wells, will deliver up to 200% more light intensity per watt per square foot. And will do so reliably for probably five or ten times longer.

The higher CCT diodes like the 6500K are closer to the “natural” CCT of raw LED diodes and thus are the most efficient at putting out the lumens per watt. So your plants will naturally react better to the higher CCTs in an under-lit space because you are providing more of the bare minimum light needed for survival. But once you get above the bare minimum DLI, spectrum plays a more important part in flower development and maturation, THC production and terpene expression. At that level most growers find the CCT range of 3000-4000K delivers the most satisfactory results in most situations. Peace -b420

[Palindrome]

Thanks for your reply

I have no idea if it’s a 3W diode or not, under the low wattage the dual strips did better and they are cheaper.
And as it don’t matter if it’s running 12V or 24V, I can just as well go with the strips with the most chips at a lower cost.

In the beginning I was really only interrested in LED as a Vegetative light, as Im using the heat from my HID light most of the year. But during my tests and builds, I have become very currius, if I would be able to just stack 2 or 3 LED grow’s. And get the heat needed, so my plants won’t freeze. Then be able to double or tripple my flower area, instead of adding bottom heat under my grow table.

For the Chips on my hardstrips, are no name chips and as I have said before. I have tried getting a datasheet with no luck from the supplier. I guess I could messure it, but it’s not really that important to me.
I have not been able to find the info you and many others have told me is out there, yet no one have posted a link and I have looked. All I can find is only the “results” and no details or links to their tests. From people who sell LED grow lights, and not saying they are not telling the truth, just surpriced no one (that I could find) have shared test grows under different spectrums.

I don’t agree on me not knowing what I have, until I messure my light output and al that. I won’t have any numbers, that is correct, but the plants talk a language I understand better then Ohm’s law and PPFD and LPW.
Im well aware about the importance of spectrum for bud production, and the fact that you get what you pay for.

I think you might missed part where I explain, that I am testing cheap stuff from ebay.
The first gen. test light, I just harvested under was under 40$ a peace All parts incl.
In clones they have payed for them self, if we take in mind they produced the clones under HPS.
They have also payed for them self with the bud I just cropped under them, and it have given me an idea about what the different strips will do.

As mentioned next test is 4000K and 6500K strips side by side, but with a much higher sqft wattage and they are running on a Mean Well 700mA constant current driver. But still cheap hard strips from Ebay.

Next “Step up” will be these strips running 1400 mA, but it will have to wait untill they have payed themself running on the 700 mA driver.

7,33 $ incl heatsink + a shit load of time. (If I was able to work and had a job, I would prolly not do all this)

Trying to see if my suppluer can get me a 3000K version, but so far no luck.

[Baudelaire]

A $10 Ebay cheapo lux meter would go a long way towards helping you get to your goal. Read your plants all you want, but without a light meter you are just wandering through the forest without a compass, trying to tell which side of the trees the moss is growing on. Until you are within the minimum light intensity requirements to grow good cannabis - these are longtime known metrics - all you are comparing is whether a starving man will starve less if you give him a little more bread… It is easy to tell from your crop results that your plants are starving for light.

Is a $7 strip less expensive if it produces 50-70% less light per watt and burns out 4x as fast? Go ahead with your experiment if you wish, but take it from someone who has been there and done that. I guarantee if you continue down this road you will have ripped out everything and upgraded to high-quality rigid strips with high efficiency diodes a year from now. And the generic Chinese LEDs and drivers you throw away won’t feel so cheap anymore. I’ve got a box of them I’ll offer to anybody here who wants to pay the postage to ship them.

No harm in learning it yourself though, just lost time and money. Peace -b420

[Palindrome]

I have ordered a chepo luxmeter

But did some math as well, just so you might get where im coming from.
If I where to buy SolStrips, let’s say 4 strips for a 250 W light at 30$.
When I get the package, I will have to pay 180 $ + shipping incl tax and customs.
Don’t know what the shipping will be, but let’s just say 20$ it seems reasonable.
Not incl heatsink, but I have that.

With the china strips im out 36 $ for 30 dualrow strips, no shipping, import tax or customs involved.
I can reuse the heatsink, so I can fry 5 of these light before I get near 200$

And remeber I am doing this for the fun, and learning curve. I will be very surpriced if this should get anywhere near the results I am seeing from Samsung chips, and I would switch my flowering from HPS to this, without testing SolStrips or Quantum boards.

[Baudelaire]

I don’t know where you live that you have 50% customs duties on American products and 0% duties on Chinese products (unless you live in China itself). Certainly that is not the case with our UK and European customers. Four X3 strips ship to UK and Europe for less than $25.

Never mind that comparing premium rigid LED strips with Chinese flexi-strips is apples to oranges from virtually any metric that matters. Notice I haven’t said SolStrips. There are many options available, including in Europe and from big manufacturers like Samsung. An hour’s research here and at several other popular LED forums would reveal that.

Have fun, but please don’t spread ignorance simply because you don’t want to learn.

Peace -b420

[Palindrome]

I don’t have 50% tax, but we have a extra customs fee

Im not using flexi strips, but ridgid Alu strips from china.
I mention SolStrip, cos thats what I have been looking at.
As well as others, but haven’t found anyone selling them in EU.
Well talked with one guy, but he was not able to ship outside UK.
But common for all the Samsung chip lights I have found in EU,
the price was so high, that I didn’t find it interresting to begin with.
Not when I found out the chip is 3 years old, and since I could not find anyone who had done this.
And said it couldnt be done, I figured I would give china copy’s a try. And document it, for anyone to use.
As a warning or inspiration, if I have these questions. It’s a fair to assume others might do to, and im happy to take one for the team.

We might have high import tax, and we got 25% on China goods too. Just there is the thing, if the pack value is under 13$ give or take. There is no import tax, customs handling fee or other taxes added. 10 china strips, free shipping 12$. No tax. Would be the same if a Solstrip was 12$, but so far I have not found anyone selling them at that price. Or any other light, with the same quality chip.

I will at some point get my hands on either Solstrips, Quantum boards or something.
And trust me when I say, I will be honest if these strips is a total waste money wise.
For me it’s already been worth it, as I have fun doing this. And when I have fun, even tho I don’t have alot of money. I try not to worry about money spend on the things, that makes my time fly or makes me smile.

So I will continue my quest, with hacking china strips and do other experiments, even tho it clearly pisses you off.

@Baudelaire

Have fun, but please don’t spread ignorance simply because you don’t want to learn.

I am doing this to learn, im loggin on the way.
You claim you have done this already! So where is your log, why have you not shared this?
If you have, plz share a link mate!
I would love to see that and give it a read, and see how the flowers developed under the different spectrums.

Not one place have I adverticed this light, im doing some crude testing and having fun.
Ain’t you some how connected to SolStrip? To be honest, I think your way out of line here.

Makes me wonder, why are you so scorn?

What don’t you want me to find out and post here?

Plz do like space cake and take your attitude elsewhere, I don’t really care about what you think about my test.
You clearly have something crossed, or misunderstood something some where.
In no way am I trying to spread ignorance, im simply writing down what I am doing and posting pictures.

If you got a problem with that, plz keep it as your problem from here on.

Thank you!

[Albannach]

I get what you are doing bro, you know these aint exactly Solstrips you have but you are having fun and maybe satisfying your need to build stuff. I get the same itch and apparently so do many others on here

I did look into doing led on the cheap but i also wanted to replace my sodium rig and that’s not easy to do cheaply. The closest i got to cheap was using Citizen COB’s from an ebay seller called Export Estonia. Those things produce a hell of a lot of light for what they cost and quite a lot of heat too so maybe worth looking into if you havn’t already

[Palindrome]

Thank you mate!
I have been looking at cobs, but I think they make too much heat for stacked grows.
But I don’t know, but I went with the hard Alu Strips. As I read they did a more even spread, and less heat.

Im impressed by what LED’s have come to, and for the budget DIY guy. They might very well, be a solid option to get started.

Jared the harvest, the small buds dryed fairly fast.
But I have been able to keep the temps, down around 19 C degrees truout the drying during day and 16 C at night.
RH have been kept around 70%, lowest it hit was 61%.
After 36 hours at 61% the buds started to snap off, and the buds where weight and jared.
I will burp them, and they might loose a little weight. But once they are done, they will be stored at 62% humidity and they will regain their weight.

For a test, with 3x 40$ lights all incl. 116 grams of smokeable buds. Im cool with that!
Will they win a cannabis cup, not likely
Will they look impressive on pictures, or next to my HPS buds. Nahh.

Will they look like my HPS buds once grinded, most likely!
Will I get high from them - id say there is a definite possibility.

I will follow up with a smoke report!

On to new tests and having fun!
I got something new cooking, a totaly different experiment.

More in line of Bio hacking this round, but it will all be done under my 2nd gen. hacked china strip lights.

Till next time, happy growing everyone!

[Albannach]

Good on you bro! judging it as a bit of fun i’d say it was a success eh. Like i said i get what your doing and knew you had an hps grow going on too. I mentioned those cob’s in case you ever want to replace that hps.
Good luck with your new experiment btw

[Palindrome]

Sure thing, but I think COBs will wait for now, maybe later on I will give that a try.

Day 4 for the new clones, still looking fresh and green.
I Air them out once a day for 5-10 min, and then back under the dome they go.
Tomorrow I will give them a light folia feed with BioBizz fish mix!

As long I have thouse droplets on the inside of the cube, I don’t water them!

[Kayoes]

I absolutely loved reading this thread!
Sooo much valuable info, and fun to read.

Well done!

[Palindrome]

Thank you for your positive feedback, glad to hear it’s not only me having fun here!