a better led choice

[lindsay]

after wrecking my waterproof 5050 led strips, by using white vinegar in the

grow room after a grow. I decided to go a brighter led, that is a 5630 led strip.

the 5050 led's are 5 Amps per 5 mtr and the 5630's are 6 Amps per 5 mtr.

they arrived today, so I tested both under a lux meter and wow.

at 5.5 inches away, the 5630's were almost 2x as bright, 1150 lux compared

to 600 lux for the 5050's. then I let both led's run for a bit and tested with a

IR thermometer and the 5630's operated cooler by about 20%.

this time I am going to mount to $3.50 per mtr 12mm dia alum tubing and cover with a

$1 per mtr pvc heat shrink. this extra investment I a hope will give me the

50,000 hrs these leds are rated at, and give me the advantage of running water

through the alum tubes via a 12v pump when things start to warm up again.

[NSF]

Any links to the product you are talking about?

So you are using LED strips rather than weatherproof LED light rope?

[lindsay]

do a search on ebay with 5630 led.

5 mtrs for around 14-15 bucks

these come in waterproof and non-waterpoof

Edited June 25, 2014 by lindsay

[Sallubrious]

Thanks for posting this, I haven't kept up with recent developments in SMD LED's. That's a massive increase in efficiency.

Did you take a measurement of the 5050's when they were new ?

I wouldn't expect to see a great difference in output between new and old LED's though.

[lindsay]

yep both readings were from new strips. I cut 2 lengths with 9 leds each.

the lux readings from both would be both slightly higher if I cut longer lengths.

your right, led brightness weakens with age. I have some 5050s here that have ran

12hrs per day for 12 months+, will test soon.

[Shrooman]

this time I am going to mount to $3.50 per mtr 12mm dia alum tubing and cover with a

$1 per mtr pvc heat shrink. this extra investment I a hope will give me the

50,000 hrs these leds are rated at, and give me the advantage of running water

through the alum tubes via a 12v pump when things start to warm up again.

If you haven't seen it already checkout the heatshrink that has glue inside it - it is awesome stuff and when the heat is applied it melts the glue, shrinks the heatshrink, and forms a nice layer of glue around the item you're heatshrinking, so you get extra structural strength, but more importantly a waterproof seal.

Not sure how much it costs these days, but the cost may make it prohibitive, hopefully not.

Shrooman

[Shrooman]

Curious if anyone has checked the light spectrum of the cool versus warm white and which is better? Anyone know?

Did you get warm or cool white Lindsay and how are they performing?

[lindsay]

blue is what I use. in stamets book, he recommends lighting between 380 to 480 nanometers.

380 is the blue end of the spectrum 480 is green. this spectrum range is meant to be most stimulating

for primordial formation. i have always fruited indoors under the same lighting, so i don't know how

white would work. if i had a choice between cool or warm white, i would go cool white.

warm white, at a guess maybe closer to the red end of the spectrum than the cool. i would be happy to

be corrected. white maybe good for a more natural colour. um maybe worth a try or a search.

[Shrooman]

Thanks Lindsay. Sorry, I was getting lazy not doing my research.

I'm using cool white currently in my minigreenhouse, purely because that's what I already had for camping lights

I guess the big advantage of running just blue would be using (or wasting) less power than white LEDs.

I ordered 5m of cool white 5630s, plus 5m of blue 5630s on ebay today, so will see how they go. The blue will only be useful to me for mycology, but the white is useful for so many other projects as well.

Interestingly I went through 2 of Stamets books and found a reference where he was saying that if the substrate has normal/high amounts of calcium then they are more sensitive to blue light, but in the case of very low calcium, then they were more sensitive to the red spectrum of light Interesting.

Thanks again for this thread of yours, has been helpful and motivating for me

[NSF]

I guess that's why we add lime and gypsum to our substrate mixes...now I'm going to have to invest in some blue lights. I had cool white, they died and got replaced with more cool whites, they died. Then all I could get my hands on was warm white. I'd very much like to go back to cool white...although it sounds like I should be getting blues.

Shrooman, please let us know, when the lights arrive, which vendor you bought from and whether you could recommend them.

[Shrooman]

This is where I ordered the 5m strip of blue LEDs:

$13.75 incl postage

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/131189245330?var=430424713147&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Will let you know how they go.

[Shrooman]

Well the blue LEDs are nice and bright, now just need to get something to mount them on.

I'm thinking of mounting to aluminium box tube from Masters/Bunnings.

Have you found they get very hot Lindsay?

How did you go mounting them on round tube? I would have thought that they wouldn't stick too well to a round surface??

[Shrooman]

So I re-read your original post.

I guess the heat shrink solves the mounting problem of flat LED strips onto round tube.

I think I also read your post wrong. I initially thought you were using the tube to pump water to cool down the LEDs and extend their life, but are you running cold water to primarily cool you grow room? That sounds like a great idea.

[NSF]

Can I nail part of the strip up? Or should I just tether them to something using cable ties?

[lindsay]

heat is very minimal. better than the 5050 leds I was using.

with the 5050, eg, if the outside grow room temp got to say 25c

the inside would get to 27c- 28c. having lights set to go on at 10pm

and off at 10am, the cooler parts of the day helps a lot when days

start to warm up. these 5630s are cooler, so they should help

keep temp down a bit.

the thinking with tubes mainly was to be able to remove them easily

when it came to cleaning out the grow room (they don't handle vinegar

or bleach very well). and despite being so called waterproof, under

consistently damp humid conditions, I have had moisture get in 1

set, out of 6. so I covered these with the clear heat shrink. had to use

some talcum power to get the tubes to slide up the 2 mtr length of flat heat

shrink. the round tube does give the option of running water through

them to keep room temp down. if I select the right mushroom, for

the right time of the year then I should not have to.

cable ties are the best option for mounting.

these are handy for joining the leds if your soldering is not flash or for

a quicker method.

Edited August 22, 2014 by lindsay

[NSF]

Thanks for that great info Lindsay.

Clip on terminals like those would surely be susceptible to moisture too wouldn't they?

[lindsay]

seel up with silicone.

I have mine under the heat shrink.

[Shrooman]

Well I cut a length of the blue LEDs for my mini-greenhouse FC and ran that for the top level today, the 2 lower levels are still white.

It was a weird eerie blue emanating from my shed this morning!

[NSF]

I can confirm that 'warm white' LED light rope is utterly useless. I had 2 cool white ropes fail and then where I bought them from was out of stock and I can only easily access warm white (from the big green warehouse). They are staying alive well but they aren't providing enough light.

[Shrooman]

and cover with a $1 per mtr pvc heat shrink.

That's dam cheap heat shrink, care to share your source?

[lindsay]

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/29-5FT-Clear-20MM-Heat-Shrink-Tube-Tubing-9Meter-2-1-50-shrinkage-ratio-/121149268686?pt=AU_B_I_Electrical_Test_Equipment&hash=item1c350f22ce

[Shrooman]

Nice find, thanks

[Shrooman]

My FC at the moment loaded with POW with the new blue LED lights on the top level, and my old white LED bars on the 2nd and 3rd level:

Edited August 29, 2014 by Shrooman