Just gonna drop it out there that your misinformation cost me over a grand in a week in duties. you couldn’t be arsed to amend the flat rate shipping. So sent over 11 boxes. Now I’m not saying the general consumer is gonna buy 11 boxes but the point is.
Your prices posted in the above message are not what anyone outside the US is gonna pay. So stop pitching it like that. People want clarity I’ll give it them first hand. My opinion is You have a good product with decent prices but only for people stateside. Anywhere else not so great.
** To re-clarify: there are many options available today to LED buyers around the world. SolStrips are one option. We believe that, as one of the few LED strip products designed specifically to create customized horticultural lighting systems, SolStrips offer a unique value proposition vis-a-vis other LED components designed for commercial and industrial lighting applications. Whether that proposition is deemed worth their cost - including any attendant shipping and taxes required to get the product from point A to point B - is a subjective judgment that can only be made by the customer. We at SolStrips will do whatever we can (short of lobbying 30 countries to eliminate their import duties) to help our customers understand and benefit from that value.**
Sorry for the distraction everyone, but I cannot allow our hard work to be slandered.
An LED strip circuit that is wired in parallel, as we recommend for SolStrips, will not “all fail” if one strip fails (which by the way, has never occurred with SolStrips). The very nature of the parallel circuit prevents this, which you would know if you knew basic circuit design, let alone “quality light design”. You point to an Ebay-listed driver in Australia and then suggest the same can be purchased in Canada from Digikey with free shipping - is this a theoretical option or real one? Are you offering a real suggestion to the OP or just trolling now?
I’d say the reverse is more true. Lumens measures light visible to humans, which highly over-weights green wavelengths. Green light is the spectrum of least use to plants. Lumens doesn’t measure deep blue or deep red spectrum at all. Deep blue and deep red are the most important wavelengths for plant growth. Because of this, a highly efficient, high PAR output LED can have a very low lumen output, and probably should, because green light is not nearly as critical for plant growth. This chart illustrates the differences between lumens and PAR (photosynthetically active radiation) well:
So, how exactly does the “average Joe” do this “aiming”? Where does one find the “maximum efficiency in the luminair” indicated in their “spectrum graph”? Why not just use the correct measure for the intended use?
@cdnBuddy, we appreciate your decision to purchase a SolStrip system and look forward to working with you in the future when you are ready to expand.
Personally I think this is the kind of discussion that turns people away from buying high quality lighting. Myself and others get lost in so much information and bickering and just end up buying a crappy light because they get confused or turned off.
Let’s try and keep it civil guys, we are all brothers and sisters on OG. We can educate with out picking each other apart.
Dude, somehow you appear to have got the wrong end of the stick and run with it.
I made no comment on your lights, other than in another post to say I would always support a fellow traveller with a quality product. Clearly a comment seen as hostile somehow and that I won’t repeat. I have zero knowledge or interest in your product so likewise have zero interest in what or how you recommend wiring or measure anything so I don’t know how I am spreading any misinformation about some product I have never even commented on.
IF you make a good product for a decent cost with quality advice and service good for you, I hope you make it big.
I didn’t think this forum was all about sales reps pimping some products over others though, maybe that is my misunderstanding and if so I apologise for any offence somehow caused.
You got Digikey and eBay mixed up. They are not related and don’t as far as I am aware share any shipping of anything. What I WAS actually suggesting is that the OP could avoid unnecessary third party markups on strips if there was any by buying all their components cheaper via Digikey. They could also shop for cheaper gear on eBay.
So this bit is very easy and if you ask your engineers you may find they do this exact same thing. Assuming they don’t actually use a spectragraph to measure the spectrum (which of course they might) then every half decent manufacturer of light will publish it’s spectrum graph, which in the case of the samsung lights, took all of about 30 seconds to locate. They are easy to read, however I have made it even easier by marking the upper end of the PAR value of 700. So then ‘average joe’ simply needs to examine the spectrum to see in which bands the light runs at it’s most efficient and select the light temperature accordingly. And then an informed customer is able to make their own decision unbridled by market speak, which can only ever be a good thing, other than them being induced to by a cheaper product from someone else that is.
What is MORE there is hardly a mention of PAR values on your website, let alone data sheets for any of the lights that would reference it or even indicate much technical data on anything. No MTBF information, no beam angle information, no spectrum charts let alone an IES profile. What there IS mention of is… lumens and watts, but ONLY watts per square foot with regard to ‘thereabouts this light should be about right’ measurement. So a user can look at the pretty pictures and take your word for it. Yeah but nah sorry. At the VERY least data sheets of your own ought to be published. Practising what you are preaching would make for a credible start.
Might be worth spending the time making up some ready made ‘bill of materials’ from such places as Digikey for the ardent DIY grower or anyone who may want to construct a big lighting system. Could even spend the 10 mins to come up with PAR values for the lights
In reference to measurements in lumens, as they say, “run with what you’ve brung”.
If you do not have the ability to measure PAR via the use of either a PAR sensor or a spectrometer, then the use of lumens or readings in lumens will provide something of a ball-park estimate. In combination with the spectral plot you can decide whether the measurement produces a sensible result. Which, perhaps, is sufficient for some folk as a general indication of intensity. And, meters that measure lumens tend to be more readily available.
However, if you want to obtain more accurate measurements of photo-synthetically active radiation, are looking to compare lamps for horticulture, or are looking to tune your grow environment (a good number do), PAR measured as PPF or PPFD would be the industry standard. Which is what Baudelaire was referring to in the graphs. I think that was simply trying to illustrate the difference. Lumens converted to power would differ significantly from PPF simply because of the bandrange of the sensor.
FWIW, the acronym PAR has been used somewhat interchangeably with the range (400-700) and the power within that range. It is also not the only measurement useful for the application to horticulture.
I totally agree with you. I guess in the absence of the correct instrument to actually measure the output and construct it’s PAR values, it’s all ball park. PPFD with μmol/m2/s woudl be the gold standard as the measurement but I don’t see any of that anywhere and nor would it mean much to most people.
The thing is though that for 98% of people, especially growing for personal then ball park is going to be just fine. In fact, MOST people could get away with making a LED selection based on temperature and wattage consumed and so long as there was a reasonable amount of blue and red come up with a decent result all things being equal.
The thing is, if this is all measured and tuned and carefully engineered, well the veg/bloom strip is simply a combo of 2700 and 5700. So the MOST blue in the LED emitter range at 5700 and the MOST red in the emitter range at 2700.
Now that sounds like a case of ‘pick the most blue, pick the most red and jam them together’
Now in my OWN tests across numerous grows of the various light temps using these exact leds on samsung strips, these two temps did NOT get the best all around result, which seems to come at around 3500K or a mix of 3000K and 4000k. So I am curious to know how these combo was arrived at.
In any case I can’t find any real engineering values on the above mentioned solstrips anywhere, so I figure they are ballparking in like the rest of us
What I learned is you will give whatever information you wish to sound right. Just so you’re aware I still have every email/invoice/receipts.
I can go find the ones where I say before you sent them that I’m not happy with the flat rate shipping method and you effectively say you don’t give a fuck (with politer wording) and carry on regardless.
There’s also those customs declarations we agreed on that you thought I could just change after I’ve already paid the full price ones you sent. (Doesn’t work like that) and you were very much told this.
So if you want I can pull the proof whilst you keep talking bullshitDeleted off-topic post. I have business sense I just made a really bad decision on who i worked with…
Fortunately for you. After the escapade above I’m going to do exactly that. I’ll post a tutorial this weekend. They cost peanuts to make and you’ll know exactly what’s going in without middle men. I will still make them if people aren’t too clever at DIY but why not share the love.
I will have to say I never measured the spectral data on these. And I don’t know the PAR output. But what I do know is it grows a bloody good bud
Totally with you there man.I really didn’t mean to kick of anything negative here. So I am about to design/build a 40 strip setup for someone doing exactly this. I’d be happy to share the schematics and design info for anyone who is interested when I get it done, and actually I would appreciate the TDR. I’ve been testing a number of these constant current step up converters which are both cheap and as far as I can determine thus far amazingly reliable. These can be had for less that $10 for a 10~60V input to 12~60V module that mesures 85mm width 52mm height 21mm. I have tested the 250 watt version by abusing it in all sorts of ways it had no right to survive, I am using them to run my underwater lights in my boat for example. Talk about a hostile environment for electronics, I have potted them for this purpose, but so far no failures.
So the idea with this build after some more load testing abuse on converters is to put a heatsink and possibly a 50mm fan on each, and them to house them in an aluminium case as modules. Each one will easily drive 5 strips in parallel, so for larger builds such as this one, I’ll just arrange them in a suitubly sized box for banks of 5. Then the power itself comes from a 36 volt PSU, (or several even) sized to fit the requirement. For the next build I am pretty sure I going to integrate the light time management etc into an arduino relay system that just uses as simple LCD push button selection module and I’ll house this in a bezel on the box containing the step up modules. All these bits are cheap and reliable, so when I get that sorted, I’ll publish that here also. Open source is good, happy to share anything I know that might be of help. No deliberate misinformation I promise
Regardless of all the data in the world, the proof of the pudding is always in the eating my friend.
And yet, you continue to comment on and denigrate SolStrip products despite your admitted ignorance.
Is that how you “never comment” on something you admit you know nothing about and aren’t interested in?
To correct, once again, your misinformed comments:
Our blended 2700K/5700K X3 80w strip is one of five different CCT options offered. The others include our 2700K, 3500K (your preferred CCT) 5000K, and a 445/650nm deep red/blue X2 50w strips. They are offered so that customers have the flexibility to design the spectrum THEY think is best for their situation, based on their own research and requirements. We aren’t “jamming” anything together - Fluence, probably the most research-intensive horti-light company around, recently adopted the same dual-band design in their lights, using the same Samsung diodes.
Our 3500K strip is our top selling strip. Feel free to post your extensive testing data here, as you have called for ours. Or do you just want to talk smack about shit you admit you are ignorant of?
The charts you posted are widely available from Samsung, and only address the diodes at the diode level. All of our strips and lights are fully tested in-house for spectrum and output, which is available to prospective customers for download at SolStrip.com or upon request. I am preparing a Photonics blog post on the full results of our most recent test series at this moment.
Here’s the spectrograph for the X3 strip with the “jammed together” spectrum you denigrate:
As you can see, the X3’s “jammed together” spectrum gives you higher deep blue and deep red spectrum, even though both strips have a similar average CCT. Does it make a significant difference in production outcomes? SolStrips gives everyone the option to test it in their own situations with their own strains and cultivation styles.
Here’s the PAR map for our dual SolSheet X system in a 4x4 ft tent at 18", taken with an Apogee meter:
We haven’t done a “lumen map” because we are designing horticultural lighting, not office lighting, which is what your Digikey strips are built for. Those PAR numbers are worth a lot more than “tits on a bull” if you know what you’re talking about. They blow away most commercial LED light options watt for dollar, the least of which is the Viparspectra queried by the OP.
We’ve also posted instructions to build our SolSheets. Anyone who wants to build their own can download it here.
Keep throwing your shade, and I’ll keep “pimping” corrections.
BTW, good luck on your “arduino relay system” - you might want to check this $20 component before you spend too much time on it:
Mate, all I can do is wish you luck and say you have the strangest selling technique I have ever seen. ( Who tells a recent customer on a grow forum like this to “grow a pair”?) You know nothing about me, or what my background might be.
Instead of just being an sook about it all, feel free to contribute something useful that contributes to peoples general knowledge here. You are using exactly the same LEDs as Samsung are on their ‘office strips’, and your specs even link to their data sheets, the only difference is you have a narrower temperature range across the range. Unless you have some magic voodoo sauce you somehow conjure up to make them more special at the very MOST it’s going to amount to is a bees penis. If you are claiming that somehow your 3500K strip using the same diodes will give you a better result then I am just saying HOW? Unless you are binning and each and every diode and discarding all but the very best? Which I somehow doubt. Look, if I’m saying the 3500K does the best for me, and it’s your best selling temp then it seems to me I agree with the majority of your customers, right? What more do you need?
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Awesome, something useful! Is this something you use and recommend? Any feedback on reliability? Any other useful information on these?
Edit: on examination this is no use. These can switch out 24 volt max. These look more suited as aquarium light controllers.
For me also only 4A per channel is enough, and I need to make a GUI front end more or less idiot proof for this particular install, but there see bringing ideas and suggestions to the community wasn’t so hard now was it? Maybe keep em coming? Meanwhile dude, I am done wasting time arguing over something I don’t have and really could care less about. It’s a waste of everyone’s time and I am sure your lights work just fine.
That ebay controller got my hopes up for a minute. With a multi core wiring loom (trailer cable) maybe i could run a couple of x2 strips off each output. Thing is i really want something that can dim the lights when temps go too high using PWM.
Me too, it looked like it might be a really cheap and easy solution. Unfortunately I just don’t think it has the grunt for most grow lights. You could likely use a step up converter on the output side and run at 3 strips for each output? You get 4 amps so if you left yourself a little bit of room so as not to run it at 100% reliability would likely be improved. I’ve used a step up converter from a 12 volt supply to power a strip with no problems. This I think would work, though good luck finding decent documentation!
I was thinking about your issue with this. You could run them\switch them on through a MOS Tube FET Relay Module like this:
These have built in PWM that you can use to dim your lights so you get switching and dimming in one.
Here is useful if slightly difficult to understand youtube of them in use.
If this is combined with a Thermistor or an enviroment temperature module (depending on what you are measuring) then the arduino code should be pretty straight forward. You may even find you can cut and paste and hack existing code from various places to do get to do what you want. And being MOSFET the relay mechanism will never wear out.
The module being used in the video above can be got here for a grand total of $1.75 each.
