Actually, yes. Given that I don't have the means to get a fancy sensor (or rather, I'd rather invest those means in more lights), I'd be happy to see how well-measured PPFD roughly translates to lumens as measured by a cell phone sensor under COB/mid-power LEDs. Thanks!

I don't think it's really worth it, but to satisfy the masses, I'm guessing some companies will change to it. The only real question is the price. If it's going to cost 20% more then of course it's not worth it, if it's the same price but 4% more efficient it's definitely worth it. As for me, I'm s...

If you're good then it's all good. I'm just giving you a heads up that in the long run small nuisances become a pain, and that anything you can do to simplify and automate pays off. My personal quest is towards complete automation of everything besides plant training and potting

The news is out on the Samsung website that they're already putting out samples of a new diode, the LM301B. At max efficiency (5000K, CRI80) it's 220lpw. ( Link to datasheet (PDF) ) In context, the QB-mania is based on Samsung's LM561c, which came out merely a year ago, and which has a max efficienc...

Having to manually control and adjust pH twice a day sounds like hell to me. The first couple of weeks of the first grow, when you're marveling the beauty of nature a couple of times a day anyhow, might still look alright. But not being able to be away from the house for more than 12 hours for three...

I wasn't familiar with manifolding, looks like something worth a try! Thanks!

For the pH sensor I'm looking at either at Haoshi or the reference AtlasScientific . The AtlasScientific probes are also conveniently packaged by whitboxlabs . One of the things that's holding me back is precisely not seeing more talk about it. Also the projects I find online are almost all abandone...

Am I seeing yellowing on the leaves of the two plants to the left? It could just be the lighting, but other wise you might want to take care of that. (On later stages of flowering that would be totally normal for lower hanging leaves, at this stage the most likely guess is slight nitrogen deficiency...

For a few months now I've been fantasizing about building a fully automated total control system for my indoor garden based around a Raspberry Pi and a series of sensors and relays. In the lighting department rather than turn the lights on/off (as per a mechanical timer) I want to have them fade in/...

As I've already mentioned before, a fantastic meta-search tool is Octopart . Two other big suppliers are Mouser (classify under: Drivers) and KingBrite (classify under: COBs, heatsinks, etc.). N.B.: Octopart doesn't search Alibaba, which is often the cheapest source. KingBrite, as well as other repu...