Everything LED, Open Source Light?

[crunkyeah]

Hey uhh, just stopping in to see if I can get any info here.

A little background on me: First grow - 'ghetto' rigged CFL grow 1 plant 5gal DWC, harvest about 2 oz, bag seed
Second grow - 327w CFL & LED panels(cheap 12w square panels), about 4 oz in total between both plants, also bag seed
Current grow - 53w custom made LED, currently only using that LED for my chocolope mother, cool white spectrum 4500 lumens.

Currently I'm in the process of designing my own LED light, of course it's VERY simplistic in design. I have a panel I can put prolly 100 LEDs on. Not the cheapo kind but the good quality 1w LEDs. At this time, more money is being put into 1w diodes so I'll stick with those instead of the 3 chip diodes.

Right now I have it set up so I have 24 red(625nm) and 9 royal blue (455-460nm). I bought the royals because they're the best available bin of that LED. Now my question is: If I added 660nm and 730nm to this unit, would this be sufficient for flowering 1 clone of my chocolope? Do I even need the 625nm LEDs?

My plan would be to utilize some sort of ScrOG to keep the LED efficient. My last grow was a scrog and I absolutely loved the canopy of buds. Never goin back there. So side lighting will not be used in this case. I really would like to do this small scale(just 1 clone) so if the method does work flawlessly, I can look into expanding later once the LEDs have paid themselves off. Also, would say 50w of total LEDs flower one clone?

I'm thinking like 20 660nm, 20 625nm, 9 455nm, and 20 730nm? Would that work for 1 clone? Of course the maximum amount of wattage the plant would receive at any 1 given time would be ~49w, with the lowest being 9w(both 455nm periods and 730nm).

I'm thinking my light cycle would be:
12:00PM - 455nm, 625nm, 660nm(49w total)
12:30PM - 455nm(9w)
1:00PM - 455, 625, 660(49)
1:30PM - 455
2:00PM - 455, 625, 660
2:30PM - 455
3:00PM - 455, 625, 660
3:30PM - 455
4:00PM - 455, 625, 660
4:30PM - 455
5:00PM - 455, 625, 660
5:30PM - 625, 660(40w)
6:00PM - 730(20w)
6:30PM - 625, 660(40w)
7:00PM - 730(20w)
..
..
10:00AM - 730
10:30AM - 625, 660
11:00AM - 730
11:30AM - 625, 660
12:00PM - 455, 625, 660

Do I have that about right for a 12/24 cycle? Or is that 18/24? If this is the whole cycle then this is only a matter of how much watts do I need for this 1 clone?

My question for all of you here, especially those who actually understand PAD: How the heck does this whole PAD thing work(am I anywhere near close to understanding this??)?? I have not been able to find the 'PAD manual' so I am totally not sure how this whole thing needs to work. It saddens me because no matter what posts I try and absorb I just don't have the base material to understand the concept. If anyone would kindly steer me in the direction of the manual(I'm assuming .pdf file??) I would greatly appreciate that!

-crunk

 

[organicsmoke]

Hi 420Magazine.com!!

I'm all confused about the Red light that mj uses. Is the Far red better than the Red?
That flower accelerator light being offered by that company over in Florida, it won't tell me which nm of Red it uses, just that it's "Far Red"

Is Far Red what we want in a flowering light for mj? or should be be going for the 630 and 660 nm??

 

[crunkyeah]

Hey organicsmoke,

Far red is 735nm(there are more for farred/IR but this is most common), Deep red is 660nm, Red is 630nm, and Red-Orange is 615nm. Hope this helps

735nm spectrum is used for timing, as the sun emits lots of red and IR near dusk and dawn, when the sun is going up or down. It makes no sense to use far red leds if you can't use them on a timer. At least that's how I understand it. Stick to the 630 and more importantly 660nm.

 

[organicsmoke]

ya you were saying above you will try using different spectrums at different times. That sounds like a good attempt to reproduce the light plants get from the sun.

what I am not understanding is the "peak values" that are talked about from the ps website. he says that "If an LED output is even a fraction off of the plants necessary peak value, it can be extremely inefficient for photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic processes"

Well for one, is the peak value for cannabis even known??

and if so, what would make any difference in making an LED diode that puts out 638nm, for example, and one that makes 660nm.

Is it somehow more difficult to produce a diode that puts out the nm that plants need to grow compared to the nm it doesn't need?

it's just numbers to me, is what i'm tryin to say.
why would one number be more costly/difficult to make compared to another number??

 

[organicsmoke]

Hmm... I can think of one reason: There have been, now and then, companies with less than stellar reputations. One of them seems to be particularly noxious. And there is even a thread around here somewhere - maybe in one of the review forums? - started by a member that got hosed, treated badly, and the person running the company threatened to turn all his information in to his local LEO... A company like that might find its name placed in the site's auto-censor. If it's such a company, it would make a lot of sense. (You did mention very poor quality.)



I'd think that IF a panel's individual LEDs are wired in series - or at least in a few sets of the same, that if one of the LEDs dies, it would cause a break in the voltage path or the like?

Hi TorturedSoul

If I was trying to make an LED panel, is wiring them in a series the only option? I would hate to see half my panel die because one diode went out...

 

[Jozo-sha]

Hi TorturedSoul

If I was trying to make an LED panel, is wiring them in a series the only option? I would hate to see half my panel die because one diode went out...

You'd need one hell of a constant current driver to run any significant number of LEDs in parallel. Current is additive in parallel, voltage is additive in series, so say a string of 3 750mA 3v LEDs in series would drop 9 volts@750ma, where as in parallel you'd drop 3v, but at 2.25A. And that's only for 3 LEDs.

 

[crunkyeah]

Hey organicsmoke, I've seen a couple different charts around and they all say the same thing..the high times chart even is the same:

Chlorophyll a: 430nm & 662nm
Chlorophyll b: 453nm & 642nm
Carotene Xanthophylls: 460nm & 550nm
Phycoerythrin: 400nm & 650nm
Phycocyanin: 500nm & 700nm


Just for the record I have NO clue what the last 3 things are for, one thing I have yet to look into because I'm not all that good at plant physiology haha.

One thing I HAVE researched though, is LEDs and drivers. In any LEDs above 5 & 10mm ones, the cheapest most effective drivers will only have enough voltage and amperage to run them in series. The positive to this though is that you can have LEDs of a certain color on a timer just by itself. And if you can get more than 1 driver for each color you're golden. For example, say you use 2 colors: 450nm & 660nm LEDs.

If you have 2 banks of each, if 1 string goes out you still have 3 drivers working. But that's just the way I see it. I'd honestly throw like a warm white spectrum into the mix to give you the other wavelengths not hit by the direct reds and blues.

And my final rest of assurance is, LEDs have a working life of 30,000 to 100,000 hours, depending on the mfg. If you did everything right the way you were supposed to, this LED panel you're thinking about, it could last quite a long time. On the flipside though, sometimes it happens, something goes wrong and they fail. But at least we learn from trial and error, and move on to better panels!

 

[Limeta]

So...back on topic now guys...is there any legit place where you can buy single LEDs, pick up their angle, wavelength, wattage, drives, heatsink, etc...? in other words...is there anywhere you can get all the necessary hardware to build your own LED panel (similar to the ones on the market these days) and start experimenting?

 

[Greenwize]

Bump.

Best greetings from Scandinavia.
Have those timers been released yet or what ever happened with the pioneer movement in the world of led's?
What are the most affordable options these days?
It's been a while, and I bet much have changed with all the research
All I can find are expensive devices such as the pro grow X5, or small-medium sized Ufo devices within 60-350 $ range, but none of those can be used for pad methods?