Hell yes, I'm here, bells on, first page.
Oi Cap, the cabin boy is aboard, we can shove off now!!
I've also got some thoughts on lighting, and tent lighting that are important for new shoppers, so please excuse me while I hog up a bunch of space for some thoughts on diode-spacing on someone else's thread..
I run, what the Orange God King would call, "China brand" light fixtures, "King Brite'' to be specific. They are the highest recommended of the 'local companies' in Shenzen manuf. district, and can be dealt w/ via Ali Babba and have many satisfied US/EUR customers, including myself. They even have stateside 'assembly factories' now, where they store the stuff to avoid heavy import taxation, so prices are very good. I love my uber-powerful, CO2 atmosphere-designed KingBrite luminaires, and the company have been very good to me by sending out a complete copy of my original package because we had a freak storm and there was minor water ingress to the package. The light worked fine still, but they sent me a new 1000W range-topper immediately, customized to my orig. specs., and told me to keep the original. Well, you dont have to tell me twice. A new order for a second 5x5 went out the same day! So that was all wonderful. However, this is when the marketplace began to stir with a new design for bar lights that would seriously impact efficacy, and, even though I'd done my research and was staying up to date, this was a change timed perfectly for me to miss. And a change that I don't want anyone to miss, because it is so revolutionary - yet easy to underestimate in value.
So, please, if you are in the market for a New Star in your grow room, a bar-light, or frankly, any style. Please, make doubly sure that you have the new diode-spacing that intensifies light on the edges while mellowing it in the center. Look for more diodes on the tips than in center area over given amount of space. This is
critical, without it your 720w really wont be able to run much higher than 600w because the central hot spot is too hot otherwise. That means your effective max is just 600PPFs even though you paid for a 720W one. That means you might have to run your edges too weak, or your centre too strong. (sorry, spellcheck is playing havoc wit my ''PP'' acronyms).
Not any more, the new diode spacing ideas permit extraordinarily even canopies right to the edge without burnt-out centres, allowing for balanced, max light usage across the full canopy, taking advantage of tents in particular and their reflective sides. Believe me, this is hugely important, as growers around me using this spacing of diodes on the bars report a
minimum 10% gains in yield, AND a minimum 10% boost in efficiency to go with it... and these numbers, I am reliably told, for fastidious growers, can get much closer to +%20, and yet this will still not bring full justice in describing the improvement-factor offered by this specially designed diode distribution on the bar itself.
All the big companies have started it, and my expectation is that there will be little else on the market in the very near future, that's how effective it is.
Equally spaced LEDs on large luminaires is officially yesterday's technology now, and the improvement is so substantial that you need a pretty huge price discount to make the original, equally-spaced ones worthwhile (and even then...)
Ordered 2 years ago, I specifically wanted Samsung LM301H
top bin leds (paid extra, got extra?) in a 4.3 foot(ish) square footprint made up of 10 bars. My light's total PPFD is over 2950 (FYI 1950 PPFD is more-than-plenty for the same footprint with no c02). The light is so powerful that without 1500ppm of Co2 in the room I cant turn the lights up past 50% power! lol. Too powerful. I wanted the huge footprint because I need to operate in 5x5s for personal space usage maximization, and I wanted 1000W so I could take advantage of my Co2-supported atmosphere where possible (created 50% by growing mushrooms, wine degassing, and 50% Co2 from an active, controlled tank system in sealed growroom), and extend the life of the light itself by being forced to use it at 50% strength whenever not cookin'wit c02 gaz.
However, I have the ''classic spacing' between diodes, as my ordering window opened just before they came on the market. I'm non-plussed. One day I'll just order new led strips and install them into all the standard-measurement cooling fins and power supplies that came with my rig(s), splashing them with a lovely upgrade. Until then? Er... love life with my two hugely power-packed 5x5s, w/c02-supportable luminaires, and from there play the cards I'm dealt, with whatever skill and experience I can swipe off all you Rubes and Marks! Jus'jokin, you're not Rubes.
You'll love (and hate) tents, Cap. They are excellent at creating microenvironments entirely dissimilar to the one just 2mm on the other side of its nylon/mylar walls, and make it look easy. They are an excellent invention in my worldview. Truly.
PS, I wish we could get white walls, like one of the Euro-only brands do in their tents. Just looks cleaner to me. Please, someone with some juice tell your buddies that there's a market for white walls! Reflectivity is basically equal, and it just looks cleaner, nicer, a lot less "1970s space-age", and is just as effective, I promise. OK, science promises too. If you're reading this and have some juice with Vivosun, tell them I said the green accents on all products must go. OK, not the new rotating wall fans, but everything else. I have hated that shhit from
time immemorial. Please, please, please... not the tent's bars, what did they ever do to you, Vivosun? To deserve such punishment? It's hideous. It fades in a year, and I cover it with gold foil because I'm baller that way.
VIPAR, yer doing ok, although a word of warning: Using ''every colour'', does not get you points the same way as choosing good colours does. You'll be forever hobbled. Make a choice, or two! lol.
CL
