Starboard leds

[unkle_psycho]

I have been wondering on how to make my own modules for 730nm and UV. Now I was at digikey and noticed that while the starboards with diodes cost 5$, just the starboards themselves go for 0.35-1.1$.

If I wanted to add a bunch of dedicated diodes onto an extrusion would starboards be the way to go, or what reasonable alternatives are out there?

Do the starboard platforms work with a wide variety of diodes?

How do the leds get attached to the starboard if done at home?

[Jolly Green Giant]

haha, your wanting to go old school DIY huh this is what they were doing before I figured out this hobby!!!

yes that is exactly what you do if you don't want to $ for a premade strip.. ( like RapidLED Emerson or exotic strips) you figure out which ratio of IR and UV to add to your white base, then thermal tape the stars to extrusion and wire them up... you can build them as simple or as elaborate as you want.. there's more options for powering and dimming also.. ( easier to dc-dc power these smaller chains of stars over a 4x4 light ) you could even set it up like the exotic boost strip with a LDD driver and a a.c. wall plug to power it..

pretty much yes.. you can fit just about any small package diode on the stars that come in a full range of nm to pick from. ( don't know about a lm301b or something around that 3030 style)

as for how at home.. hmmmm that's pass my skills lol I'm assuming it's going to be something similar to the reflow topic

[Nuggie]

I've never mounted diodes so not much help there.

My first questions on separate wavelengths was how much do I need. On RapidLED, they recommended 7W for 730 nm for a 3x3. Toggle between the features and spec/tools for wattage and area:

https://www.rapidled.com/far-red-initiator-puck/

For one dedicated wavelength would be ~4 starboards for a 2x4 fixture and placement in a rectangle at approx. 1 x 2.5 for uniform coverage. In my mind this wouldn't need its own primary heatsink, more like a small removable secondary heatsink on rectangular aluminum sheet or flatbar and attach them between the primary angle heatsinks with corner brackets. They can be removed without having to take the frame apart to re-purpose the fixture for other growing scenarios.

[The_Mouse_Police]

Just a timely note: StevesLEDs has Luxeon and SemiLED red and far red on stars for $2, right now. I was going to leave far red alone, but at that price for complete stars...

Get solder paste, a tweezer set, and watch some videos, to do it yourself. Or, get a hot air station, which is crazy cheap now.

[unkle_psycho]

haha, your wanting to go old school DIY huh this is what they were doing before I figured out this hobby!!!

yes that is exactly what you do if you don't want to $ for a premade strip.. ( like RapidLED Emerson or exotic strips) you figure out which ratio of IR and UV to add to your white base, then thermal tape the stars to extrusion and wire them up... you can build them as simple or as elaborate as you want.. there's more options for powering and dimming also.. ( easier to dc-dc power these smaller chains of stars over a 4x4 light ) you could even set it up like the exotic boost strip with a LDD driver and a a.c. wall plug to power it..

pretty much yes.. you can fit just about any small package diode on the stars that come in a full range of nm to pick from. ( don't know about a lm301b or something around that 3030 style)

as for how at home.. hmmmm that's pass my skills lol I'm assuming it's going to be something similar to the reflow topic

I guess you know I'm always changing my builds between each grow... All my old vestas have ended up as side light for a test.
Now I'm thinking of building myself side by side test setups for veggies and weed. Rather then a do it all Swiss army knife I'm thinking of building a bunch of modules that I can combine.
Nuggle showed the way with the threaded rods. From now on I'll make 2 foot modules that I can combine by need. Optimizing drivers wont be necessary, just need to know exactly how many watts of which frequency/ sq foot.

I feel like I saw someone on youtube putting diodes onto an alu extrusion in a much more ghetto manner then these starboards... I mean 2000 of those would be work, but they look pretty straight forward if you don't go over your head
Those hlg far reds sure are tempting, and probably the best solution for the job.

[unkle_psycho]

I've never mounted diodes so not much help there.

My first questions on separate wavelengths was how much do I need. On RapidLED, they recommended 7W for 730 nm for a 3x3. Toggle between the features and spec/tools for wattage and area:

https://www.rapidled.com/far-red-initiator-puck/

For one dedicated wavelength would be ~4 starboards for a 2x4 fixture and placement in a rectangle at approx. 1 x 2.5 for uniform coverage. In my mind this wouldn't need its own primary heatsink, more like a small removable secondary heatsink on rectangular aluminum sheet or flatbar and attach them between the primary angle heatsinks with corner brackets. They can be removed without having to take the frame apart to re-purpose the fixture for other growing scenarios.

The purpose would really be to build a tool box to test on familiar clones. It's not an efficient approach for a production setup, but it will allow me to test boosting different areas for myself.

There are multiple ways of using 730nm. When used for initiation it means you burn it alone after lights out, to make the plant sleep faster. 'Sleep initiation'. With it you can choose to use a longer light cycle or to let the plant sleep longer. You can also use it on outside plants at sunset to make flowering start a couple of weeks earlier.

Right now I am growing an elChapo, which does not want to take on any height. If I had 730nm I would use a high ratio on her to see if it initiated some stretch response... Perhaps I just want to fool around

I already noticed digikey had heatsinks for starboards starting around 2$, so there are definatly alternatives. From now on its all Nuggle-rods for me though! I have actually disabled every build I ever made after a grow... From now on I can just re-arrange modules on my nuggie and I'm ready to go

[unkle_psycho]

Just a timely note: StevesLEDs has Luxeon and SemiLED red and far red on stars for $2, right now. I was going to leave far red alone, but at that price for complete stars...

Get solder paste, a tweezer set, and watch some videos, to do it yourself. Or, get a hot air station, which is crazy cheap now.

I wish they had some sensible delivery to Finland, but thats not happening... great price though. You can open all available TRP drivers at digikey and press acending price... there are quite a few interesting alternatives between 12-96w, for pennies. 20 and 40w drivers for under 6euros.

I'll check up on the solder pastes and hot air stations, thanks!

[Hydrofood]

Yea it sucks that something like Steve’sLEDs isn’t available over where your at.
Try searching aquarium lighting or reef lighting websites based in Europe. That’s what Steve’s LEDs is, originally specializing in DIY aquarium LEDs and retrofitting. Idk how popular it is around the world but there are many similar sites here in the states. Aquarium DIY’ers utilize individual diodes much more then we do for horticulture so it’s a popular item on such sites.

I went bonkers with my first few orders from him and have most the diodes he offers except for UV and his 3UP boards. He also offers a mystery LED bundle in the clearance section for $5. I get one every time I order and I’m impressed more and more each time. Getting 7-11 LEDs on starboards each time. No junk either. Rebel es, sunplus, Luxeon C, SemiLEDs. Various spectrum including multiple different white temps to mess around with.

Like Iv shown you before, I’m a big fan of building individual light bars swapping out diodes and trying things out. The cheap 300mm aluminum extrusions on eBay are perfect for the job. They’re great for easily adding to a build of any size or using them to make mini 2-3 bar for a tray of microgreens or testing on a few seedlings. I’m excited to see your ideas come to fruition.

[unkle_psycho]

I saw a video where the dude put the starboards on an electronic frying pan where he could set the target temperature. There he was able to work them calmly without temperatures going all over the place.

[nDanger]

I hope Unkle won't mind a little hijacking here, but I've got a question about driving starboards that would fit right in.
I'm building a fixture for my teeny-tiny commercial grow and want to incorporate far red initiators. I'd already seen the offerings from Steve's and they look perfect to me but how do I power 40 of them? Yep, 40!
My fixture will consist of 2 rows of 7 ChilLED modules (those 1000 watt kits they had on offer) totaling 20 feet x 3 feet, so I thought sticking a 3watt 730nm starboard every foot down the length of each row might give me adequate intensity. These will hang over a Current Culture 20 bucket system so you can see why the weird layout.
The lights and buckets are sitting in my garage waiting for the builder to finish up the 14x32 building, so my requirements are pretty well set.
If you wizards could steer me in the right direction, I'll be able to soon share some serious light porn!
Thanks