Mornin Gray....Happy New Year bro! Just voted for your Destroyer on POTM! Looks like youl'e prolly take it this time! Finally got those Desfran (DestroyerXDestroyer) beans on the way! Super stoked brotha. 100 % Sativa has me a little afraid though,must admit. Have a great day Gray.....cheers!
Congrats and Happy New Year!
LOL, I'm SO stoked!
I gotta get my act together and post another update - been busy, Holidays, yadda yadda. I chopped the pitiful Carnival a few days ago, and hey, it wasn't bad at all - smooth, potent - perfectly suitable snob smoke.
It's not even couchy, which is probably a testament to this plant's ultra zippy buzz.
Thanks for the support, everyone! And for the Holiday wishes.
Yer all good peeps!
G'day graytail!! I'd love to swap some ideas with you brother... Sorry, never saw your invite... I own 4x90w I-grows... I think that's a great idea about adding to the corners...sorry, I will read your journal, just saw rep thing and am answering before I read, so I'll ask questions that I'll be able to answer soon, lol... What size you in? Also an option in your case, with the size of your panel, is to move it closer to your back edge and adding two/three 90w panels to the front..what spectrum configuration have you gone for (settings)?.... There'll be more questions... Peace brother... Or sister... Hang on I'll look at your profile, lol..... HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Brother, lol, peace
Great to see you, GrizzWald! My panel is about 14x22 inches with 6 x 90 watt modules. Its effective coverage at 2 feet of clearance is about a 2 foot oval so the four corners are the worst issue. I've played with a grid chart and a pencil, drawing circles and PAR readings 'n stuff and I think I'm best just adding to the corners and leaving the big 540 watt panel in the center. I'm running Intelligent-Gro's recommended timing schedule and it's been working just fine for me. I grew that Destroyer under it.
I've spent quite a lot of time lately studying LED panels - coverage area, Lux, Lumens, PAR charts, PAR/watt, PPF, DIN 5031-10 Sensitivity Curve
, lens angle, spectrum bands ... etc - and I think I'm starting to get a grip on 'em. The main drawback that I see is the conflict between manufacturing design and efficient coverage. It makes sense for manufacturers to stuff more diodes into smaller spaces and deliver higher PAR. But there are physics limits, so the higher PAR comes at the expense of coverage. You get more intense light per watt, but your coverage area shrinks. Physics. Yes, better driver and spectrum design can help a little, but watts is watts - same watts, same amount of light.
A 63 watt COB with 21 x 3 watt diodes has the same PAR as 21 x 3 watt diodes spread out over a square foot. But the COB has a much higher PAR within its focus area. That's good. And it's a lot less costly to manufacture, which makes it cheaper per watt to sell. That's good, too. It also mixes all the spectrum bands at the source, so you don't need as much clearance to let them blend. All good points.
But ... LEDs beam, and COBs beam even more, since they're more of a point source, so you don't get efficient coverage. I'm using COBs as an example only because they're the ultimate in concentrated LED intensity, not because I think they're a bad design idea. The more you focus the intensity, the higher PAR/dollar to manufacture. But my experience tells me that the lens angles aren't what we think. If you check out Icemud's and others' PAR measurement videos and study the PAR charts you can find online, you'll see that PAR drops off steeply at more like a 40-60 degree focus, not 90 degree. It doesn't seem to vary much among manufacturers and designs, either. If you drop a foot, you'll get a foot of coverage. 2 feet will get you a 2 foot circle. PAR directly under the panel will be as advertised, but it will drop off exponentially as you move to the side. Geometry and inverse square principles apply. The diodes are surface mounted, unlike an HID bulb, so you get nada from a diode from the sides. HIDs have the very same output to the sides that they have directly beneath them, so moving to the side doesn't have as much effect. With diodes you get less light because of the side angle, and also because of the lens/reflector, which are designed more to produce high PAR readings than to evenly distribute the light. How many manufacturers boast of 120 degree lenses and lower PAR readings?
So ... ideally, a grower would want a 4x4 panel for a 4x4 room. That would spread the PAR evenly across the sky and be the most efficient for growing. But no one is going to make one for sale, 'cause it would be more expensive and hard to ship. If a manufacturer can put ten times as many diodes in the same chassis, he kinda has to. I'd like to run 50 watts of LED per square foot, so 16 x 50 watt panels would be perfect.
But that's a lot more spendy than 2 x 400 watt panels.
My current conclusion is that LEDs are even more expensive than we think. I was happy with a 600 watt hps, for 35 watts/sqft. Now I'm running almost as much LED at 30 watts/sqft and I want to add another 400 or so for 50 watts/sqft. LEDs put out 50% more PAR, so I'll end up with more than twice the light. Less than $200 for the hps ... $2000 for the LEDs.
Ah well, that's a hobby for you.
But I won't be going back. LEDs produce better produce, period.
And this Intelligent-Gro is among the most advanced designs.
After Christmas dinner smoke.... High Gray......
That was a good little read there Gray. Your explanation of pars dropping off alot with angles starting at around 40 d. and how the lens affect has such a huge impact on usable pars. /sq. foot. I'm trying something with my present grow .....i've left the light(Budmaster2,675xg) right at the top of the room.Since these 26 gal pots w/trays take up so much floor space ,in order to get a real good coverage with the BM it should be up there.It's a full five feet off the canopy and they are loving it.
....
)
) you stomped all of our plant competition into the ground, surely a nice little update from you for a consolation prize isn't too much to ask.... 
