Did you do it DIY, or is there a manufacturer you’d recommend?
I’m really happy with my luxx strip leds, great for clones and small plants. That was under 2 of them.
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I’m figuring at least 2 per shelf for my envisioned setup. Thanks for sharing. Mind if I ask how much those ran you per strip?
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Is that their grow light or shop light version? The T5 (led) shop lights are as cheap as $10 a piece. Looks like the grow versions aren’t too much more expensive, either. How many are you running per shelf?
Gotta love Uncle Jeff mailing everything so fast, too. Haha
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I believe it’s the grow version
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I got them for 72cad for a pair.
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The one’s shown by @The_Lone_Stiller are $99 (USD) for six fixtures (and they have a $20 off coupon right now). $79 for six veg lights sounds pretty damn good for my needs. Gonna be hard to beat!
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You’re still golden with a 650 diablo, HLG products are more or less the gold standard being copied by all the manufacturers in China. Efficiency wise, LM301H > LM301B > LM281B. As I understand it, the emitters are all the same, but binned differently based on output/spectrum. The H designation is to indicate Horticultural use, but I haven’t been able to find anything to suggest the diodes are actually different. Could be a difference in conformal coating, but I don’t know for sure. LM381B are a great, cheaper option and make a lot more light per emitter, but are overall slightly less efficient when measured at lumen per watt.
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Here’s one of the writeups I was talking about. If you go the DIY route, the main thing I would make sure of when wiring, is that the wires have enough copper to carry however much current you’re feeding the strips, without heating up and melting insulation. More current needs thicker wire. Solid core is a recommendation based on compatibility with the little insert connectors on the strips.
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Bot post above. Please flag.
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Hortilux finally joins the led market
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Now here is a catchy brand name. I need to light an 8x3 space to grow basil and two of these are beating out viparspectra in bang for buck.
They use the 281b diodes. Not as good as 301b or h.
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Thanks for pointing that out. About 25 percent less efficient, from what I read.
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its all in the bins of diodes too. You arent getting a great deal buying the cheapest. I have a clusterfuck of lighting and need to take better records. But i do seem to see differences. I have an array of quantum led lights. Honestly- hlg is not performing as well as china and hlg has lots of failed led and china quantum has none.
This is the back of my viparspectra xs2000. The fan hanging above is my addition. Note the way the bracket holds the ballast away from the board. Hlg sticks theirs right on the board. I am going to mod my b spec with a little bracket like that to hold the ballast off the board. I am also going to add a fan. I think it was this thread where someone said passive cooling doesn’t work very well, and I agree. The ballast is barely warm to the touch with a fan on it, versus being very hot without one. It seems like a no brainer to add the fan.
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on smaller lights where the driver is mounted flush to the heatsink directly above the diodes then a bracket or standoffs should be used as much for the drivers sake as for the patch of diodes directly under it that do not get to radiate away their heat as effectively.
on larger lights like hlg 600’s where there are no diodes directly under the driver its not as bad but really all drivers should be mounted remotely, let the heatsink cool the led’s not the driver.
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