PCaddict
Member
Yes they look just like that, that's what Sara for Mars said, they are all top of the line parts with Meanwell drivers they also have LEDs around them for a better spectrum High far red etc.
Emmie's Berry D'licious 2019 True Living Organic: No AACT, SCROG, COB, SuperSoil Production Grow & Seed Run
- Thread starter Emilya Green
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Emilya Green
Well-Known Member
I had to invest $35 in a light meter so I could make sense of what I was seeing, since I knew full well that these lights were capable of frying plants to a crisp. In early veg you don't need a lot of light at all, and it really helps to have a meter so you can dial in the recommended LUX or PAR by turning down your lights. I used less than 100w of power all through early veg, and for a while was only running 35w.... these COBS are that efficient. I had to keep these lights turned down throughout 2/3 of veg or I was getting complaints from the leaves, and the light meter reading started to make good sense. Now that I am in bloom, knowing that the plants can take a lot more light, I opened them up to full power and all seems to be very good.
Keep in mind too, that I have removed my Angelina reflectors that directed an extra 30% of this light downwards, and if I had better coverage in my 2x4 area (like with 2 more cobs and spreading my rack out a bit), I could add back the reflectors and turn these lights down a bit so I didn't produce too much light. Without the reflectors it spreads the light out over the canopy better, and I just have to use a little more power to produce the same PAR. That is ok, because these lights can handle it.
Em's lights have adjustable drivers. The Mars Hydro cobs do not. You need to raise or lower the COBs to adjust the intensity at your canopy. Em turns that dial, and presto delecto! the intensity changes. This doesn't mean that they are not good lights. You have an enhanced spectrum over the lonely CXBs.
fanleaf
Well-Known Member
The added chips make the light "different" and therefore marketable IMO. Em's 3000k 90CRI chips have a very high amount of 730nm+ far red already. More than enough honestly. Once Em adds 2 5000k chips there will be nothing lacking whatsoever from a grows start to finish.
Yours sound like great lights for sure. As long as they used the highest efficiency Mean Well models with real CXB's.
PCaddict
Member
I am sorry em I am not trying to hijack your thread But this is a PM from Sara from Mars Hydro ……………………..
Hi PCaddict, it is under side of the driver, you need to move the driver off the light, and you can see it.
- Thread starter
- #486
Emilya Green
Well-Known Member
No worries my friend... its all good cannabis chatter and we are learning something in the process. Keep it going, please.I am sorry em I am not trying to hijack your thread But this is a PM from Sara from Mars Hydro ……………………..
Hi PCaddict, it is under side of the driver, you need to move the driver off the light, and you can see it.
PCaddict
Member
I don't know why a company like Mars would risk their reputation on a false claim or even risk being sued This is their description
- With CREE CXB 3590 COB, Brighter, Cooler, Higher PPFD
- IP65, Water-Proof
- QUIET to USE, Even in the BEDROOM
- Great Choice for Small Growers!
Reave
Well-Known Member
i run my 4xqb132 at around 50% in veg. I noticed the plants turning down for night way to early. (Like 4 hours). I have since turned down the intensity even more. Which is actually awesome because then I can make sure I maintain DLI in flower. But yeah I have noticed the plants don’t want a ton of light in veg.
dynamo1
Well-Known Member
Thank you SensiEmilya, for such an informative knowledgeable entertaining thread.
I enjoyed your last grow and found this one a couple days ago. I appreciate your cause and effect explanations on some subtleties I don't pick up on until you have pointed them out. Hopefully I can interact positively and wisely now that I'm caught up
fanleaf
Well-Known Member
I'm not saying they are or would. What I did say is those dont look like any CXB3590 I have ever seen, and they dont even look close. Perhaps MARS has a special deal with CREE and special made chips for them? IDK...This is what every CXB3590 I have ever seen looks like.
Also, I can get online right now and buy absolutely any item including lights counterfeited from China with a fake brand name printed right on it. Do you have any idea how hard it is for anyone in the USA to sue a Chinese company for counterfeiting goods? I can think of several large corporations that have sued and won yet the Chinese company still sells the same product because theres really nothing we can do about it. Motorola is one of those.
Am I saying MARS does this? No, but they are just as guilty as the rest for way over inflating numbers for marketing purposes so I take that into account.
All I am saying is it sounds like you have a great light with CXB's in it but.....check on exactly what Mean Well driver they are using because that is an area where while using a mean well they COULD cut costs and use the cheaper, less efficient Mean Wells just so they can say they are using Mean Well. Get my drift? I'm honestly not trying to bash your light but my curiosity raises questions.
Lastly, companies like MARS keep lights as small as they can for shipping cost purposes. This also makes the advertised coverage area claims very uneven. With COBS, as Emilya is now seeing, you want them more positioned on the edges of your grow area because the center will still have higher par numbers. One of the biggest advantages of homemade arrays is that you can build a very even canopy coverage and therefore watt vs watt a much more effective light for the whole grow area and not just the center. This is also a big problem with all of the red/blue panels. They are small and focus 70% of your core coverage in the center no matter what. Panel size is huge in efficiency. Huge!
To close, I'm not knocking on MARS lights anymore than any other light companies out there. I have grown some great weed with lights made by MARS. I just ask questions so I know exactly what I have and what I can expect.
Reave
Well-Known Member
The meanwell drivers I have looked at either have the dimmer on the driver or have the wires to wire on the dimmer. I went with the hlg-320h-c1400B. Pretty sure the b means the wires for dimmer and a means dimmer is on the driver. You can adjust with the screw driver. I soldered a dimmer onto mine. I bough a 5 pack from China for a few bucks.
Reave
Well-Known Member
good to know. I may add another one and throw some
Cobs on my qb array. My qbs are 3500k so I could likely is some lower and some higher light.
PCaddict
Member
I understand what you are saying about companies over inflating their products and I know Emmies lights are better then mine when you custom build your lights you can pick and choose what ever parts you want something cheaper or go all out and get the best on the market at the time you custom build them Just like building a Gaming computer you can go with a celeron CPU and a GTX 1050 GPU or you can go all out and buy a Core i9 9900k with a RTX 2080ti one will cost you about $500 to build and the other around $3,000 Both will game but the Core i9 Rig will eat the other for lunch so to say. What I am saying is I doubt Mars are going to claim they use CBX3950 Cree COB chips and not do it. I know how companies claim high wattage out put from lights and that's marketing but what hardware they use I don't think they will tell a flat out lie about the chips they are using that is a different matter and could make them liable for a law suit and kill their reputation. My other point is that they do use a Meanwell driver that is adjustable NOW is that the BEST Meanwell driver most likely not. Just like PSUs or Power Supplies on computers again I can buy a Seasonic White certified 750 watt PUS OR I can buy a 750 watt Titanium certified PSU one will cost $30 and the other $200 they both will do the same job but that $30 PSU will go out sooner likely to fry all the other stuff in the computer and it will die long before the $200 unit will. My point was not that I had as good of lights as she has but only that it is a Cree CBX3950 chip and it does have a Meanwell driver that IS adjustable. And I was only making the compression that we both have Cree COB lights and I had no idea how to set them for my upcoming grow and was wanting her advise and in typical Emmie style she came through with a Great explanation of what to do to adjust my light correctly Thank you Emmie for the fast and Great advice as alwaysI'm not saying they are or would. What I did say is those dont look like any CXB3590 I have ever seen, and they dont even look close. Perhaps MARS has a special deal with CREE and special made chips for them? IDK...This is what every CXB3590 I have ever seen looks like.
....But why do ALL light manufacturers HIGHLY inflate thier advertised coverage areas? They know we are growing weed and not lettuce! Why do they RIDICULOUSLY inflate their advertised wattage? Why do they forget to mention that the fans in their lights are using 30 of the watts of the 180 watts truly being used in their same light advertised as a "1000 watt" LED? Marketing!
Also, I can get online right now and buy absolutely any item including lights counterfeited from China with a fake brand name printed right on it. Do you have any idea how hard it is for anyone in the USA to sue a Chinese company for counterfeiting goods? I can think of several large corporations that have sued and won yet the Chinese company still sells the same product because theres really nothing we can do about it. Motorola is one of those.
Am I saying MARS does this? No, but they are just as guilty as the rest for way over inflating numbers for marketing purposes so I take that into account.
All I am saying is it sounds like you have a great light with CXB's in it but.....check on exactly what Mean Well driver they are using because that is an area where while using a mean well they COULD cut costs and use the cheaper, less efficient Mean Wells just so they can say they are using Mean Well. Get my drift? I'm honestly not trying to bash your light but my curiosity raises questions.
Lastly, companies like MARS keep lights as small as they can for shipping cost purposes. This also makes the advertised coverage area claims very uneven. With COBS, as Emilya is now seeing, you want them more positioned on the edges of your grow area because the center will still have higher par numbers. One of the biggest advantages of homemade arrays is that you can build a very even canopy coverage and therefore watt vs watt a much more effective light for the whole grow area and not just the center. This is also a big problem with all of the red/blue panels. They are small and focus 70% of your core coverage in the center no matter what. Panel size is huge in efficiency. Huge!
To close, I'm not knocking on MARS lights anymore than any other light companies out there. I have grown some great weed with lights made by MARS. I just ask questions so I know exactly what I have and what I can expect.
fanleaf
Well-Known Member
Good idea, I will say, if I average 14 hours per day (because I always have grows going) I have well over 10,000 hours on my arrays and have yet to have 1 Cree chip or 1 Mean Well HLG series driver burn out. The only failures I have seen is every now and then one of the cheap 100k ohm potentiometers I have a stockpile of fail causing the driver to put out very low power until I put a new potentiometer in its place. The pots I have on hand are BK100's I think.
fanleaf
Well-Known Member
Dang, I still fear I offended you and if so, I'm sorry, that wasn't my intention at all I promise...My mouth speaks what my mind thinks and sometimes it's just too much. It gets me in back and forth like this from time to time and is (usually) unintentional. Again, I just raised the question because those are strange looking chips and not what I normally see that's all.
I'm sure your light is legit and I would certainly put that thing up against the red/blue panels any day of the week.
PCaddict
Member
I didn't mean to sound defensive I had checked a lot of lights and had back and forth discussions with Sara about the lights and we discussed what chip and what driver the light had and if it was adjustable so I knew what the basic specs were on the light. Now is it that they got a subcontract to make different chips and drivers That are their low end CBX3590 or cheaper made Meanwell drivers I totally see that happening. Just like in building gaming PCs I know companies do this kind of stuff all the time. You did bring up some good points about the possibility that their CBX3590 and Meanwell drivers may be inferior to others on the market, I will try to find some info about that now I am curious. And you didn't offend me at all I am sorry if it came across like that.
fanleaf
Well-Known Member
Very glad to hear that PC. And hey, if they are CXB3590 chips they are not inferior period! If you ask questions about the driver/s though, just ask for the Mean Well model number of the driver, if they are HLG's etc they are top notch! I wonder what model drivers they are using so I can look up power efficiency of that particular driver is all.
Seems like MARS is stepping up the COB game after seeing too many DIY panels haha. This once again shows how "we" little guys in these threads push companies to raise the bar. This is the same science we all do by growing and learning from each others journals. Nothing but good comes of it. Good for them! As a company trying to seperate themselves from others for marketing it makes sense to add some other small LED's to try to set their lights apart or make them special. As far as infrared 730nm area em's chips put 20% of thier relative spectral power from 730nm-780nm. That's a huge amount of IR but Em is running the 3000k 90CRI chips.
I know that once Em adds 2 of the 5000k chips she will be amazed at not only how powerful the array will become but even though the 5000k chips are 70CRI it will make the whole array together look like 100% natural sunlight to her eyes too.
Anyways, sorry for the back and forth Em, I just didnt want to leave one of your followers offended. I'm sorry and glad to hear no offense was taken because none was meant. I'm off to bed. I look forward to seeing this grow come to term.
10gal
Well-Known Member
you cant sue a chinese golem, its hard enough to sue a corp in your country.
international trade is the wild west and by selling direct to consumers its the same as "selling at the fence" which means none of the consumer protections you would have buying from a regulated distribution supply chain which i assume hydro stores would be a part of.
(like buying eggs from a farmer vs a grocery store)
i had a look at that light @PCaddict .
it has a legit cree cob in it. it is just hard to make out the way it's been mounted in that holder.
it also has a decent hlg mean well driver. hlg series are the current top driver.
however driver output on the light maxes out at 95 watts. it'll be running at 50% as that is all a single 30 mm cob handles. so likely it is a 50 watt light and the most it could be is a 95 watt light. quite a ways from the 300 watt claims. typical of led light manufacturers.
specs are printed right on the driver.
it has a legit cree cob in it. it is just hard to make out the way it's been mounted in that holder.
it also has a decent hlg mean well driver. hlg series are the current top driver.
however driver output on the light maxes out at 95 watts. it'll be running at 50% as that is all a single 30 mm cob handles. so likely it is a 50 watt light and the most it could be is a 95 watt light. quite a ways from the 300 watt claims. typical of led light manufacturers.
specs are printed right on the driver.