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 Rahz
Stranger
Registered: 01/17/13
Posts: 22
Last seen: 9 years, 9 months
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 Re: Best LED light for 4x4 tent  [Re: Rockahaus]
#771573 - 03/10/15 09:09 PM (10 years, 23 days ago) |
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It's just providing a current to an emitter and keeping it cool.
The Vero datasheets show the LPW for various drive currents.
For non-typical currents the datasheets have charts, one showing current -vs- voltage. It can be used to find the voltage for a particular current. Voltage X current = watts. Another chart shows luminous flux (lumens) as a percentage of the standard currents output -vs- current. Standard output X (percentage) = lumens @ your chosen drive current. Standard output X (the percentage) / watts = LPW.
Using that info I can see that a Vero 29 wired to a 700mA driver will use about 25-26 watts and produce 140-142 lumens per watt.
From there you just need a way to keep it cool. You can get more complex wiring up the emitters in series or in parallel, but you can also just buy a power supply for each emitter like I did. Emitters are wired to the power supplies, power supplies are wired to a positive and negative terminal, terminals are wired to a power cord. Plug it in and it is on. People have been using CPU coolers and getting really good results. My plan was to use passive cooling so I took a chance on cheap radial heat sinks I found on ebay that were advertised as 50 watt heatsinks. My first lamp I paired them up with Vero 18 pushing 31 watts. They ran a little hot so I use a couple fans blowing air across the lamp and they stay reasonably cool. That lamp has produced 1.1 GPW. The new lamp uses the same heatsinks but I'm only driving the Vero 29s at 25 watts and the heatsinks stay nice and cool without fans and has produced 1.2 GPW.
It hasn't been an exact science for me since I haven't been measuring temps with a temperature probe. Without knowing the exact temp of the thermal junction it's not possible to know the exact LPW the emitter is putting out. 140 LPW is probably a good guess for my new lamp. At any rate, 1.2 GPW is the figure I like and makes me feel like I built a lamp that out produces retail offerings of any brand. Engineers can build lamps, but they're also trying to build something as cheaply as possible and tack on as much profit as they can. I'm getting more output for the money and the light takes up the whole tent rather than a small group of emitters hanging in the center. This lamp sits about 6 inches above the canopy during flower.
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 Magash
The Feminizer
Registered: 04/21/08
Posts: 6,634
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Re: Best LED light for 4x4 tent [Re: Rockahaus]
#771728 - 03/12/15 12:34 AM (10 years, 21 days ago) |
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Quote:
Rockahaus said:
There is a lot to consider. I'm broke, so I don't want to spend a lot of money, but I know I need to if I want good yields though. I'm going to start checking out the Cree lights now.
You're hurting for money and you don't want to spend a lot of cash LED's are the way of the future but still aren't close to being ready to take over HID lights yet.
Why aren't you using HID lights till you can afford decent LED lights? I mean you're talking about making a system and crap wiring this and that.
Quote:
Hello everyone. I have grown a couple of times with some T5's,cheap nutes, and miracle grow soil,
You kept it simple before why not now?
Half the time you see post on youtube showing "this yadda yadda yadda light out does a 600 watt HPS and then there are a ton of post saying they are full of shit or you find out that the post was put up by the light maker and made to look like a review. (This trick is huge with the LED guys)
I want to see a nice simple LED set up that can do this
  
Over (well over) 4 lbs in a 4x8 space. I want to see LED's do it. Dense bud even at the bottom.
Hell I'd be even happy to see them do this
I'm not trying to knock LED light but the name of this thread should be How to make setting up a garden a complete pain in the ass.
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All creatures tremble when faced with violence. All creatures fear death, all love life. If we can only see ourselves in others, then how could we possibly hurt another creature?
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newbie2shoes
Stranger
Registered: 12/02/14
Posts: 51
Last seen: 8 years, 1 month
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Re: Best LED light for 4x4 tent [Re: phychotron]
#771815 - 03/12/15 06:57 PM (10 years, 21 days ago) |
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For what its worth I have a kessil H380 and its growing my cacti as well as other plants in my grow tent!!
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phychotron
Medicated
Registered: 02/17/11
Posts: 1,995
Loc: Earth (mostly) 
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Re: Best LED light for 4x4 tent [Re: Magash]
#771817 - 03/12/15 07:15 PM (10 years, 21 days ago) |
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This photo somewhat shows how the heat varies. Sorry if it came from an LED vendor, but I can attest to the fact that this is no exaggeration. With LED the heat never has to interact with the plant/environment in the same way an HPS does. That is why it is fundamentally better for the plant. It is much gentler on the plant to apply just the required energy than it is to give an excess of non-usable energy.
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Any help given is for educational purposes only. Its your responsibility not to break any applicable laws
 Bamboo Bongs I make | Perfect Dry and Cure | Grapegod under LED
“Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune intoned in the distance by an invisible player.” ~ Albert Einstein
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phychotron
Medicated
Registered: 02/17/11
Posts: 1,995
Loc: Earth (mostly)
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Re: Best LED light for 4x4 tent [Re: newbie2shoes]
#771821 - 03/12/15 07:17 PM (10 years, 21 days ago) |
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Quote:
newbie2shoes said:
For what its worth I have a kessil H380 and its growing my cacti as well as other plants in my grow tent!!
Kessil seems like a decent way to spend a lot of money on a small area. How much did you spend and how much area does it cover?
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Any help given is for educational purposes only. Its your responsibility not to break any applicable laws
Bamboo Bongs I make | Perfect Dry and Cure | Grapegod under LED
“Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune intoned in the distance by an invisible player.” ~ Albert Einstein
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