Veg led diy 5500 lm/ 50w

Advanced Techniques
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Im hoping the 2 way will match the performance of the 2 x 55w T5 in the back ground, and the 3 way will match the performance of the 4 way 4 x 55w T5 I have in a tent.

The strips are 23 watts each so 2 x 23 =46w Vs 2 x 55 = 110 and for the 3 way 3 x 23 = 69w Vs 4 x 55w = 220w of T5 flouro.

The 3 way gets warm to touch like a hot mug of coffee, so I think if you were to use 4 or 5 strips you would be better with a 3/4 or full size baking sheet, mine are 1/2 size baking sheets 13"x18"

So to sumarise 46w of leds Vs 110 w of T5
69W of leds Vs 220w of T5
Just playing first time using LEDs.

4 Likes
22

@Herbie nice strip build! I agree that 3 or more may need a little cooling, either a thicker/larger baking pan, or a small fan. Iā€™m using 2 strips under clone/bonsai mother trays 2x2 ft per 2-strip light, 4-6 inches from the canopy, and they are doing well.

I started my LED strip projects using these TCI strips from the Estonian shop in the Ebay link above. Iā€™ve since decided to design my own strips, which are twice as powerful and use the most efficient white LEDs on the market, the Samsung LM561C chips. More on those here> DIY Grow Lights with high-efficiency LED strips
but to square the circle on this project, hereā€™s my parts and design notes:

Below is everything I used to build a 3-strip, 75w light:

2017-06-15 12.52.00.jpg2448Ɨ3264 2.03 MB

I wanted to see if I could contain all of the electricals within the baking sheet, and then use an acrylic sheet to protect it from water spray, leaves, etc. I also wanted to use a switch to offer a low light/ high light option:

2017-06-15 12.38.47.jpg3264Ɨ2448 2.27 MB

Switched to one strip only, for seedlings and rooting clones:

2017-06-15 12.41.30.jpg3264Ɨ2448 1.79 MB

Two strips lit, for rooted clones and mothers:

2017-06-15 12.42.13.jpg3264Ɨ2448 2.04 MB

I used 25mm nylon spacers and nylon screws to attach an acrylic sheet over the strips. Itā€™s not waterproof, but it does shield the LEDs and internal wiring from the elements. Iā€™m very happy with the result:

2017-06-28 14.03.21.jpg3264Ɨ2448 2.42 MB

As you can see, this clone bench is very tight on vertical space. If I was going to keep the lights more than 6 inches above the canopy Iā€™d probably run all three strips over a 3 x 3 ft space. I probably wouldnā€™t flower with this light, but I would with my SolStrips, at twice the watts/meter as these TCI strips.

-b420

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Very cool! I am impressed with all the builds i am seeing lately on here.

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When will they be up for sale?

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Hi @Baudelaire. Thanks for the kind comments. I have mine running 2 strips over propogators with their lids on the light strip is approx 12 inch above the propogator top. They are a little bit cooler than the flouros at same distance from prop top. When the lid comes off I will lower the light closer to top of the plants.

I like your addition of the clear acrylic cover to keep the unit water/mist proof. :+1:

I will be very interested to see what the 3 way does in the tent when I put it in there with the reflective inside for pre vegging the clones the strips are hanging over at the moment :wink:

2 way underside.jpg1336Ɨ752 175 KB

3 way underside.jpg1336Ɨ752 152 KB

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These are the 55w flouro bulbs I run.

http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/non-integrated-compact-fluorescent-lamps/7117231/

I have lamps with 2 bulbs and some with 4 bulbs, so total is 110w = 9600 lumens for the 2way and 220w = 19200 lumens for the 4 way. I use these for cloning and pre veg. It will be interesting to see the differences. The strips I have seem more warm white than cool white, they say 4000k but compared with my sylvania 4000k they appear warm white to the sylvania cool white? :thinking:

1 Like
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CRI - Color Rendering Index is going to play a part in how cool-warm the lights look. I believe these strips are 80 CRI, your T5ā€™s are likely in the 90 CRI range.

Iā€™m testing some samples of the SolStrips while awaiting the initial small production run of 3000K, 4000K, and 5000K strips. Also working on a deep red/blue strip for the spectrum tweakers. Should be able to begin pre-orders in a week or so. More info on that on the SolStrips thread (link above).

-b420

2 Likes
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The colour reference is 840 for them and the colour rendering is 85 ??

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Hi,

Do you know which led bins these TCI les strips are using? have you figured out maybe?

I just ordered the 3000k versionā€¦will these help in flowering?What is your opinion?
I have 2xcxb3590 @1400mA - 100w total and supplementing with these 5 x23w 3000k strips would be enough for 0,9mx0,9mx1,7m area?

Thank you.

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whats the par on them? an what about just using some kind of clear sealer instead of the acrylic sheet prolly save some lumens an par from being cut out an you could pretty much water proof it

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Iā€™ve never been able to figure out the diode manufacturer let alone bin. Thatā€™s why I moved on to designing a custom strip so I could know everything that went into it, diode, circuit design, PCB form, format and thermal capacity. That said I like the TCI strips for my clone and seedling tables, they were a nice upgrade from my old T8s.

The 3000K strips will double your lumens and add nice spectrum for flowering. You donā€™t say what your COBsā€™ CCT is, ultimately your space will have a blend of the two spectrums, how well blended will depend on the design of your array. Strips give you a lot of options to spread light into corners and weak spots around a COB array.

As far as coverage, your dimensions reflect a 0.9m x 1.7m canopy area? In American, thatā€™s like 15 s.f., which gives you around 13 watts per s.f. Sounds way too low for veg, let alone bloom. If you mean a canopy of .9m x .9m, or about 9 s.f., itā€™s a veg-acceptable 22 watts per s.f., but still lower than the 30-40 watts/s.f. that Iā€™d recommend as a rule of thumb. (LED growgeeks frown upon ā€œwatts per s.f.ā€ talk but with white LEDs it is a useful shorthand. Ultimately youā€™ll want to understand PAR and PFFD, which measures plant-useful spectrum intensity.)

I get about 26,000 lux at 10 inches off the 3-strip light shown above, using the TCI 4000K strips. Thatā€™s a nice vegging intensity, over about a 5 s.f. area. I would want more like 30,000 lux for a bloom area. Download a lux meter app for your phone, or buy a $10 lux meter on Ebay, yes they arenā€™t super accurate or capture the non-visible spectrum but for white LED they are useful as a relative metric.

Frankly, depending on your canopy size I might use the TCI strips either as a second clone/mother/early veg light array, and add some more Crees, or look into the more powerful strips available from Samsung and Bridgelux. SolStrips have the top bin Samsung LM561C chips everyone wants, at twice the power of the TCI strips. I have 3000K, 4000K, and 5000K in stock, with 2700K and 3500K in production now. PM me if you want more info. -b420

2 Likes
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Hi mate, thanks for the reply. The 2 cxb3590 are 3500k ā€¦ I asked tci company (Italian) about the bins and it seems these strips are using Samsung lm561b quarter binsā€¦I am living in Europe and import taxes are always an issueā€¦my tent is 3ft x 3ftā€¦donā€™t know how I can pm you from hereā€¦still these tci 96 LEDs x 5 = 480 LEDs are good value I thinkā€¦

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Good info on the TCI chips. The Samsung LM561Bā€™s are good chips. The current generation are the LM561Cā€™s, which I use in the SolStrips. About a 30% step-up in efficiency, and thus lumen output.

The 5 TCI strips and your COBs will veg a 9 s.f. canopy nicely, but I still think itā€™s a bit under-lit for bloom stage. You are going to want to get around 300 watts of LED in there sooner or later. Since, you are committed to the TCI strips, Iā€™d pick up another 3 or 4 while they are still in stock. Or maybe expand your COBs to 3 or 4 cxb3590s.

You can PM me here by hitting the little mailbox icon under your profile pic at the upper right of this pageā€¦ Or email me at b420@gmx.us. Good luck, would love to see what you come up with. -b420