I just ordered 32 of those PC red diodes... was planning to blast them pretty hard.... not a good idea then?
I figured they would not be that efficient, but would 'fix' the red end of a 80cri spectrum pretty well. Being on the starboard, and on an extrusion, you still would not run them higher?
Also I was thinking that these have maybe 3:1 660:730, is there any risk of shade avoidance?
Sanlight is pretty cool, the frame is designed in a way that you can take of the old leds and instal new ones when they upgrade, so its recyclable. The fresh approach at the spectrum is nice too.
Some phosphors have problems with heat, although those PC reds can be pushed to 4W easily the phosphor will deteriorate faster than a normal white.
When the longevity tests were done the red became unstable over 2W, it won't blow the led but the red phosphor will color shift and will start to turn purple.
Green phosphor burns out faster than red, If that was a PC green then 1.2w would be the maximum stable power.
This doesn't have anything to do with the heatsink, it's the photons that burn the phosphor regardless of how good the heatsink is.
If you are planning to replace them in 12 months then it's not a big deal but I always look at long term.
There's a whole bunch of stuff at cutters I wanted to try out, but something came up and I'll be travelling for 4months after this round. That kinda puts me out of the game for 8 months. I will probably start sourcing new gear during my first grow after returning, meaning around next april. Thats why I decided to prospone some purchases. If the PC reds handle 2 rounds of flowering they will have done their job and I will have replacements.
Cutter has these as 24v, max 400mA, and I understood 350mA would be a normal driving current. 2w would be lower then 100mA, so now I'm not sure how hard I can go. I had planned 9 per 75w driver, which would give them 333mA each, but if they get unstable around 100mA my plan sounds pretty stupid.
This is also why I put of getting the tunables now. Everyting will look different in 8 months.
So cutter might want to check the product description then, I'm pretty sure I read it right. 400mA max. I guess I would have ordered differently if I knew the power level... I was wondering how in the world I would be getting decent red diodes at 6w per 1.6$, but at almost a dollar per watt the price is not so far of the xpg3's...
So cutter might want to check the product description then, I'm pretty sure I read it right. 400mA max. I guess I would have ordered differently if I knew the power level... I was wondering how in the world I would be getting decent red diodes at 6w per 1.6$, but at almost a dollar per watt the price is not so far of the xpg3's...
Still a lovely spectrum as an addition to 80cri.
Its more of a fill in spectrum, it's the best I could do at this stage until technology changes again. Price will drop on these as time goes on so it will be a viable alternative to a mono. The efficacy although consider low by myself and many others is still higher than many commercially available grow lights out there. It does have a good ratio of 660 to 730 too and fills in everything in between
Do you maybe know of any source for cree XPE-2 660nm strips besides cutter? (really nothing against cutter.. I love this shop but it would be easier for me because of trouble with customs to source it from anywhere else but australia)
what customs issues do you see from Aus, what country are you in?
tomorrow we start shipping the new 2 channel red strip, The NEW XPG-3 Deep Red, 12 leds, can be all 660 or two channels, one 660, one 730 or 6x 660 and 6x UVA etc etc
Cheers
Mark
customs keeps shit and wait for you to pay them a visit and open the package to see whats in there.
really uncomfortable considering how strong the lights are....
I wrote you a mail a week ago asking about progressive pricing. Hope you can answer it at some time. Just mentioning it in case it went into your spam folder and you didnt see it yet.
@TEKNIK you mentioned that the nichia optisolis would be around 30% less efficient than a 80 CRI or monos.
May I ask if you have more information on this topic?
I cant seem to find any umol/j values for the optisolis. I can only find lumen/W but I doubt that you are refering to this since lumen will obviously be lower with such high red content like the warmer optisolis (3000k-2700k).
I currently trying to make 2 different builds with LED strips. One as cheap as possible (but still with decent output) and one with which is a bit more pricey.
But im really struggling with the red contents... I thought for the bit more pricey part I could just use optisolis 2700k and dont have to bother with mono red leds, but if thats not possible I would probably just go with some good monos.
Anyways for the cheap build I thought to buy bridgelux eb series (since gen3 still isnt available I will just go with eb2 series).
Does anyone know how many LEDs a 56cm eb gen 2 strip has? If the pics in the datasheet are correct it should be around 55 LEDs. But what red monos do I use with the bridgelux? I believe that it would make sense to run the red monos as hard as a mono eb gen 2 LED. If the red mono overpowers the white leds too much I assume that I have to hang the light further away from the canopy which will cost efficiency. So I would prefer more cheaper red monos than few good ones.
The cheapest I found in a strip is from kingbrite which offers 11 red monos cree XP-E on a strip. But with 15$ a strip thats still kind of expensive if I want to run lots of them.
Do any of you guys know someone else who offers red monos on a strip? (I would be ok with cheaper epistar or something since I would like to have more red monos running with lower wattage to match the white leds)
I appreciate every advise and everyones opinion on this
When I conducted testing on the optisolis nearly 2 years ago they were hitting 2.2m/joule, they have realeased some better bins but they are not significantly better. A standard Nichia 757 V3 will hit around 2.8m/joule now.
@TEKNIK Although they are less efficient, does the high CRI of the optis change the way plants grow under these lights?
I have not seen a full grow done with them.
What should occur is healthier growth with better flavour this is what has occurred when others have used a fuller spectrum, but you need to use more power but not that much more. It's still more efficient than most Amazon lights or a traditional mars hydro.
It does get expensive quickly also as the leds cost alot more.
I am trying to come up with a cheaper solution that has better performance but I haven't had time to do the tests I need to do
very interesting thoughts @TEKNIK
What do you mean with efficiency will improve over time? Like running them over time so they age like a fine wine or with new models being released each year?
What do you think would be the best growing light at the moment?
Your post sounded a bit like you are a reseller for LEDs thats why I was asking about an online store
Or do you run a good old fashioned offline store?
Yeah the red light is a really nice warm spectrum. What item is this in Cutter's store?
Yeah just to bump this wondering what the best lights are as of 2020? Keen to get back in the growing game using led this time.
