I've a new light, but how bright? What's right? I'm a bit up tight! Request for insight

[nivek]

heya friends,, yes,, tis true,, i have finally upgraded my lighting system for my upper level flower room

a brand new growmau5 three puck led system, pumping 250 watts of beautiful white light

so i just got er built, loose wires hanging still,, will be cleaned up,, promise

it is a beaut, no question,, lights the 3foot by 2.5 foot quite nicely,, must say

so,, the point of this post

to be honest, i expected this light to be oh so much brighter,, for some reason. i guess some folks talkin about these lights being so bright one needs welders glasses on to be anywhere around them

now i am pretty sure that all my soldered connections are sound, and i followed the directions properly, and all is good, build wise,, but i have no 'real' way to quantify this, measureably

now, i am thinking that perhaps i had my expectations too high,, very likely

in the space before, i had a mars hydro 300w and some supplemental cfls, so i had some light in there before, some intensity already,, but i just thot this new light would blow me down,, well, i am still standing

i have no professional way to measure the light output, save for one,, my camera

so i thot of an experiment where i can perhaps compare my lights output with y'alls, by a simple photography experiment,, if anyone will play with me..

one does not need be an led used to play here, not at all,, other types of lighting input would be most useful indeed

all cameras, well, real cameras, should be pretty standard as to light measuring,, for exposure, so we all have a similar light meter to compare with

so in my grow room, i used a plain piece of foolscap,, sheesh, does anyone say foolscap anymore?? and is that even the right word?

no matter,, a blank piece of lined paper

i placed the paper real close to 20 inches from the light, light at full power,, and took a reading.. and a pic

so my camera was set to manual and set to 1/60th second shutter speed, iso 100, and with these settings i had to dial down my aperture to f11

pretty good pic taking light, but how bout for growing??

so, friends,, any takers on this experiment??

easy peasey,, lets all do this,, yaay

merry christmas folks,, peace and love, indeed

@Weaselcracker @Chris Scorpio @PurpleGunRack

@Stunned @EhCndGrower @Sir Digby @Big Sparks @Tead @SweetSue

 

[Chris Scorpio]

I'd try lux meter app for yer phone, gives a bit of insight on the power it's popin out
Plus a watt meter you plug the driver in will tell actual watts is pulling
Also check the driver to be sure it didn't have a dimmer

Pop a pic of the driver

 

[Chris Scorpio]

Also did u add the names after you posted, I didn't get a notification of this post, I just saw it?????

 

[nivek]

cheers chris,, yes, the driver, shoulda mentioned it,, mean well HLG-240H-C1750B, dimmable with dimmer externally attached


and, yes, i added the names after with an edit,, thx for letting me know it does not work that way

 

[nivek]

@Weaselcracker @Chris Scorpio @PurpleGunRack

@Stunned @@EhCndGrower @Sir Digby @Big Sparks @ @Tead @SweetSue @nivek

sheesh,, sry for the causin chaos

 

[Chris Scorpio]

cheers chris,, yes, the driver, shoulda mentioned it,, mean well HLG-240H-C1750B, dimmable with dimmer externally attached


and, yes, i added the names after with an edit,, thx for letting me know it does not work that way

Is a dimmer attached to the driver, or is it bare??

Pic or it never happened....lol

 

[nivek]

 

[nivek]

another thing that makes me curious about if i have full light power is the heat syncs,, they do not really warm up at all,, the driver does,, and i have it mounted outside the grow room for that reason

 

[dakotamoon]

Wow, I love do it yourself lights, good work Nivek. Thanks Chris, I never thought to look for a lux meter for my phone.

 

[Chris Scorpio]

Does it significantly brighten and dim when the dimmer is turned??

Also ya got a link, can pm me if ya want, of the stats of that light, curious the wats and mA it puts out

Drivers get HOT, some lights themselves do t get so hot, my QB132 bds don't get very hot at all, thus no heatsink is needed

 

[nivek]

yes, it absolutely dims and brightens,, i think i read from 10% to 100%,, and that seems right

it's not that the light is not bright, just that i was expecting brighter for some reason



chilled logic 100 w puck v2

SKU : CL100

LEDs : Samsung LM301B

CCT : 3060K

CRI : 86

Typical Forward Voltage : 48V

Max Drive Current : 2300mA

PPF (100W) : 2.35 umol/J

Dimensions : ~133mm diameter

 

[nivek]

The ChilLED LOGIC puck was designed specically as a COB replacement for flowering
plants. The warm white 3000k + 660nm deep red fills a niche while offering a red
shift that is simply not available in OEM chip on board leds.
LOGIC can be used as a stand alone lighting source for flowering plants. When building
a “full cycle” or veg light, we suggest adding some 4000K spectrum to your build.

 

[Chris Scorpio]

One issue is the driver mA and Pucks mA don't match

Max on puck 2300mA
Driver max is 1750mA

Not gunna do math...lol...but you will only get about 36w or 75% max outa the driver

Nice light though, looks pretty slick

 

[nivek]

hmmm, driver specs,,



SKU : HLG-240H-C1750B

Output Voltage (DC) : 71-143V (2-3 x 36V COBs or ~24-47 x 3V mono LEDs)

Max Output Current : 1750mA

Input Voltage (AC) : 90-305VAC

AC Current : 2.5A/115VAC, 1.3A/230VAC

Dimming Signal : 0-10V analog, 10V PWM, resistance

Efficiency : 93.5%

Dimensions : 9.62" x 2.68" x 1.53"

Weight : 2.86 lbs



this was an upgraded driver as recommended by the staff of where i bot it. seems an email might be in order

so, chris, if i might,,

you are saying that the pucks require the full 2300 mA current to achieve "Max Drive Current : 2300mA"

and my driver only puts out 1750mA so i can never achieve the full output of the light?

and if so, that suggests to me that i was not given the correct information from the staff where i bot this light

they have a 2100b version as well,, for the same price,,would that drive the lights brighter? but still not to max brightness??

cheers for this very informative lesson on this stuff

 

[Chris Scorpio]

I learned the hard way

I got that same driver for my QBs, they max at 2000mA, so never could achieve max watts

I'd suggest getting a watt meter

Like this, will tell you for sure what it's putting out

That said, I'm not sure of drivers that do 2800ma, my qb288s came with the 2100mA driver and they are also 2800mA bds

But yes, the 2100mA driver would be better

 

[SweetSue]

I know nothing of these things. I tell Dan what I need and Luciano builds them. You're in good hands, I see.

Such cool candles! The worker bees are looking like they need their Christmas showers. Lol! Happy lot, with all the cannabis they could desire. Merry Christmas to one of my favorite creative cannabis cultivators. My best wishes to the lovely wife too nivek.

 

[Tead]

One issue is the driver mA and Pucks mA don't match

Max on puck 2300mA
Driver max is 1750mA

Not gunna do math...lol...but you will only get about 36w or 75% max outa the driver

Nice light though, looks pretty slick

Let's not jump on the vendor here. QBs can be driven at max power, but lifetime suffers when you drive them max, so most vendors seem to be underpowering the config's they're pumping out to the market.
In Tead's eye, it's a good thing. I fully realize all my fancy new QBs are not pumping out their max because the driver can't put that much out. It means my lights will live much longer and I'm very happy with that configuration.

 

[Tead]

So... I wonder if there's some sort of dimmer issue here. If you disconnect the dimmer wires, does the unit get a whole lot brighter?

 

[dakotamoon]

I know nothing of these things. I tell Dan what I need and Luciano builds them. You're in good hands, I see.

Such cool candles! The worker bees are looking like they need their Christmas showers. Lol! Happy lot, with all the cannabis they could desire. Merry Christmas to one of my favorite creative cannabis cultivators. My best wishes to the lovely wife too nivek.

 

[nivek]

I know nothing of these things. I tell Dan what I need and Luciano builds them. You're in good hands, I see.

Such cool candles! The worker bees are looking like they need their Christmas showers. Lol! Happy lot, with all the cannabis they could desire. Merry Christmas to one of my favorite creative cannabis cultivators. My best wishes to the lovely wife too nivek.

cheers to you Sue,, merry christmas sent way down there to y'all

yes, the boys are in good hands,,

peace, love and all things good for the new year Sue