Customized LED Grow Boxes/Shelves/Boards

[ace1928]

Hey guys

As been playing around with and building these things for quite a while.
High power LED's
Low energy usage
Full spectrum white, blue or red LED's possible.
Perfect for cactus germination, graft growing and pretty much anything else.

Couple pictures attached to show a few home jobs. I can make them fancy looking (more expensive) or practical and minimalist (cheaper).
All power is regulated to the LED's so there will be no blow outs or burning out due to overload.
The LED's are rated as having over 50000 hours lifetime and the LED's themselves are waterproof and have a 2 year warranty.

PM for details. Will be a month or 2 waiting list at this point in time.

Cheers

Note:
There are 1000 lumens of power output in the seedling box pictured which, for the surface area of 0.8m2 that the box has, equates to 12,500 lumens per square meter.
This is not the limit of light intensity but is most definitely more than enough for seedlings.

[Geebus]

Keen pmd

[Matt1208]

what brand are those LED's ?

[ace1928]

Brand Name: Joyland
Model Number: MBCW

[theuserformallyknownasd00d]

Nice work ace.

I can support that these are GREAT for indoor gardening. I've grown grafts from peas to 10c big under very similar leds in a few months and have just finished trialling them for leafy friends. Has supported a chamber full of Iochroma clones I took and they've not happily thrown out new leaves which have also reached normal size with no sign of dwarfing or restricted growth.

Should we start an LED growth thread too? Seems like it's way overdue

[theuserformallyknownasd00d]

Purple eche? Smart move

[Terrapin]

An LED thread would be nice, I'd love to read more about people's experiences with them before deciding to go all electro.

I take back the LED threat, a thread would be much more useful.

Or I could threaten my seedlings with LEDs, see what they do.

Edited September 13, 2015 by Terrapin

[BedOSpines]

Cool setup, I made a few lights a couple year ago using some 100w cree LED's and CPU heatsinks, they really worked great, something to consider with the white LED selection.

you can play around with the colour for optimal growth.

[onyeka]

Nice work man. I'm very keen on trying grow light's but knowing in this area is small.

Do they cost a lot to run? I do have a little fluro light thing that is great for seedlings, but it's quite expensive to run. I'm interested in trying LEDs so this topic will be very useful.

[☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ]

An LED threat would be nice

hand over the LEDs or we'll let ya tyres down !

...these cute little LED thingies look like some 8000k orchid LED modules I saw on an orchid grow in Asia not too long ago,

nice one

and I second the LED threat ;) would be nice

.. there are a few already but much confusion and waiting has been done regarding these lovely revolutionary new ways

to sun our plants that some more would be super welcome in my humble opinion also

[ace1928]

Nice work man. I'm very keen on trying grow light's but knowing in this area is small.

Do they cost a lot to run? I do have a little fluro light thing that is great for seedlings, but it's quite expensive to run. I'm interested in trying LEDs so this topic will be very useful.

Hey mate

10000 lumens of power = 75Watts

Id imagine there is a small amount of loss in the power supply too. Definitely crazy cheap when compared to fluoros.

Cool setup, I made a few lights a couple year ago using some 100w cree LED's and CPU heatsinks, they really worked great, something to consider with the white LED selection.

chlorophyll_activity.jpg

you can play around with the colour for optimal growth.

These are cool white 6500K

Could add some red modules to amp it up a little but the cool white promotes more vegetative growth and less flowers (which is what I'm chasing for my grafts initially)

Color spectrum can be customized any which way

[ace1928]

Also

I can incorporate Bluetooth controlled switches, temperature monitoring, light monitoring, soil moisture probes etc etc. The imagination is the limit. I like to work on technical projects and am willing to try and create something to fit your unique circumstances.
So you can ask for as high tech or low tech build as you want. The complexity will be reflected in the price of course but most of these sensors and probes are relatively cheap.

For example a Bluetooth switch + temperature probe + light monitor would set you back approximately $25 extra on the set up (prices of sensors fluctuate a little).
Each of the sensors will be wired separately to the lights as well so if anything goes wrong with them you wont lose your lighting.

If anyone wants to get really technical than a data logger could be incorporated as well.

[Change]

I just wanna let everyone know Ace is a top bloke thats honest and has with a real talent for setting up this sort of electrical stuff.

He constructed this amazing lighting shelf for me, its been running for almost 6 months now and the only issue ive had is trying to control the explosive growth rates.

[BedOSpines]

Looks great, are all the leds on the one driver? Or split into 10s or smthing?

[ace1928]

All LEDs are fed off of one driver but each LED is wired up with a voltage regulating resistor which is part of the waterproof modules, each containing 3 individual LEDs.
The driver is also grounded and has short circuit and overload protection.
Rated at 5W higher than the power required by the LEDs (to provide some buffer room for the resistance in the wiring and connections etc which can increase power consumption slightly)

[Change]

Here are some more pics

The above are hybird astrophytum crosses that were germinated 4 months ago

The bottom are the same seeds that were sown a week ago

As you can see these lights are fantastic for germination

[baghdatis]

WOW crazy setup, mad respect for you guys

Change that shelf looks like something you would buy at a grow shop! i wold set up some mylar but by the sound of it you don't need it.

if you where to double 12,500 lumens sq.m, at 25,000 lumens sq.m you could start to think about vegging a small plant, but its not gonna flower very well

​either way your gonna save a shit load with that watt per lumen output. very SEXY

[Maxuel Powers III]

Just a couple questions because I've been debating making the LED switch a while but not quite sure the LED's are up to spec for the price. Last time I checked a decent LED would run about $1.50 US per watt. This was years ago. If you guys are hunting professional LEDs go here and I'd even call an ask about the newest LED developments.

http://www.mouser.com/Optoelectronics/LED-Lighting/LED-Emitters/High-Power-LEDs-White/_/N-8usfj

That said how are you hooking it up to mains? Are you using a AC converter? PC power supply? Etc..? Also I see many of the light strips are in a highly humid environment. Are they sealed off from the tank or is the wiring exposed to the humidity?

[ace1928]

These LEDs are about $3US per watt. But wattage is not directly related to luminous output with LEDs. They get way less efficient as any one LED gets more power hungry. Lumens per square meter is what you want to look at along with what wavelengths in the spectrum are actually being produced. You don't want to waste tonnes of power on useless light. It will look bright but do nothing.

Hooking it up to the mains is using an AC -> DC converter with fuse in case of surges. Wiring is soldered, sealed and heat-shrink wrapped and the LED modules are waterproof. Humidity is not an issue.
That website looks interesting but a little pricey for what I want personally, maybe others will enjoy it.

If someone particularly wants heavy duty sealing then epoxy resins can be used. They are all customized set ups for people so its really up to what the individual wants

[BedOSpines]

how does the heat compare to a fluro set of similar power?

[ace1928]

So little heat that even in a fully enclosed box you might want to use a heat mat.
You could have the plant touching the lights without burn from heat.

[BedOSpines]

This will be handy come summer, usually have problems in summer with hot lights.

[ghosty]

or, you can use the heat output from the LED (obviously the light produced by the LED is cold. lacking IR) by mounting all the LED modules to an aluminum tube based system and power a small dc fan into it. Venting the heat out in summer, and by means of a mechanical switch or solenoid into the growing enclosure in winter. This is what I'd personally do if i was building such units =)

aluminum tube.. It has so many darn uses.. More than just blow-pipes to keep the vermin off my property.

Edited September 23, 2015 by ghosty

[ghosty]

LED power consumption is a bit of a shit. Sure, the LED draw what they are said to. roundabout anyhow. On their required voltage. However, I have found to my dismay that the driver's (constant current only for LED's) draw far more current than you'd expect for the LED wattage. I've done a few projector mods (don't believe the crap they work great!!!) and a 150w LED on it's driver you'd think will pull a tad over half an amp right? wrong. the thing pulls some 4.7 amp on 240v.

Economical? NO but they wont burn out the projectors LCD's, polarizers, filters etc. on the prism in 1000 hours like the arc lamps in them normally do.

In short, these things are great if you have a need suited to them. I would think very low wattage LED's in the right spectrum (important part) would suffice. thus, a rather perfect system could be born.

Oh, the light CAN get hot if the LED wattage is high enough. A 150w LED chip on standard driver will ignite a cigarette a couple inch's away. At 6000-6500K spectrum (a rather cold white).

Edited September 23, 2015 by ghosty

[ace1928]

or, you can use the heat output from the LED (obviously the light produced by the LED is cold. lacking IR) by mounting all the LED modules to an aluminum tube based system and power a small dc fan into it. Venting the heat out in summer, and by means of a mechanical switch or solenoid into the growing enclosure in winter. This is what I'd personally do if i was building such units =)

aluminum tube.. It has so many darn uses.. More than just blow-pipes to keep the vermin off my property.

These LEDs don't get that hot. You wouldn't have a need for a fan for heat control only for humidity control.

LED power consumption is a bit of a shit. Sure, the LED draw what they are said to. roundabout anyhow. On their required voltage. However, I have found to my dismay that the driver's (constant current only for LED's) draw far more current than you'd expect for the LED wattage. I've done a few projector mods (don't believe the crap they work great!!!) and a 150w LED on it's driver you'd think will pull a tad over half an amp right? wrong. the thing pulls some 4.7 amp on 240v.

Economical? NO but they wont burn out the projectors LCD's, polarizers, filters etc. on the prism in 1000 hours like the arc lamps in them normally do.

In short, these things are great if you have a need suited to them. I would think very low wattage LED's in the right spectrum (important part) would suffice. thus, a rather perfect system could be born.

Oh, the light CAN get hot if the LED wattage is high enough. A 150w LED chip on standard driver will ignite a cigarette a couple inch's away. At 6000-6500K spectrum (a rather cold white).

Completely different types of LEDs. The drivers will always have losses during the conversion from AC to DC and stepping it down from 240V to 12V. Circuits rarely work according to the on paper calculations. So many little things add up over a whole circuit haha.

How pricey are these 150W LEDs? Should link me to some. Sounds like you could mod it up for some simple laser cutting/marking.