What are the current boards/strips to buy?

[Tic]

I ended up using samsung f strips both 2 and 4 footers(seem to get better results with the 2 foot). Also veg with atreum boards.

Good results and blew away the hps.

About to expand a bit and would like to know what the up to date buys are when it comes to strips or boards?

Things seem to move fast in 6 months, in the led world.

[Welight]

Check our new online strip build calculator, useful to configure strip builds
https://www.cutter.com.au/ssk-1560-led- ... alculator/
Once you have some numbers worked out we have a list of common Meanwell drivers you can match your build needs to
Cheers
Mark

[Osash78]

Depend on what u want, and how much u wanna invest.
U wanna pay extra $$ for a new product that is maby 10% better or invest the same amount of $$ for older* cheaper but still top diodes. With this extra quantity of "cheap" product, u can achieve maby even better results than with the latest one.
Today there are several good options...
Atreum ara bars with red supplement
HLG V2 RSpec q boards
HLG Sabber 4 foot bar
Cutter different top quality strips
coming soon Cutter new amazing board
but today u can get Bridgelux Vestas or EB gen2 series for crazy cheap and u can build amazing fixture with a lot of strips, for top shit results...

[unkle_psycho]

I don't think there are any solutions that make other solutions irrelevant. The more specific your need is, the more clearly a search can be narrowed down.

Right now the whole industry is in a bit of a turmoil, there are some now products out and arriving that give the 10% increase in output mentioned above, then for example bridgelux is dumping GEN2 stock which is about as efficient as your F-series. Buying the previous generation at -40% already gives me the option to run softer and gain the same efficiency as the new model, but it gives other options too.

I've been playing around with sidelight, but always held myself back because potentially I should use tons of strip and run soft. For me this discount gives me the chance to test the stuff out.

I think part of the industry is moving out from the single focus on efficiency, so there are also lots of interesting products coming out. Having Teknik in the forum is an amazing resource for anyone who wanted to explore light quality.

And cutter has an amazing selection of exotics, for example the new cree xpg3 660nm pucks have a 15w potential for around 10$ a piece. Hard to talk about current gear without mentioning cutter.

[Tic]

Actually I like the idea of running a lot of cheaper strips.

Do other issues come up if I am running a heap of strips at half their rating?

Will it affect the height I run the light at and the depth of penetration I get?

Or does it just throw down the same wattage more efficiently?

[Vividled]

All very good points and side lighting is something I've wanted to experiment with since I heard of the potential results from a vertical cooltube with 1000w warm mh and 4 plants around her.
I'd have to recommend hlgs latest qb288 v2 R spec boards for peak performance relative to price. Then perhaps repurpose some of your older tech as side lighting?

[JayKell]

Actually I like the idea of running a lot of cheaper strips.

Do other issues come up if I am running a heap of strips at half their rating?

Will it affect the height I run the light at and the depth of penetration I get?

Or does it just throw down the same wattage more efficiently?

I am also a beginner in this arena, but as I understand it there are only advantages to be had, with one possible exception. It will affect the height you run at, the softer you run them, the less intensity per Diode so the closer you can get, which raises the ppfd (plant-usable photons).

It seems like the penetration that we're used to from hps is just scattered light from a high intensity single point source, and in part is directly related to their increased distance to canopy. Also due to heat from IR/inefficient light sources. You may be reducing overlap, and thereby penetration by lowering the (led)lights, but you are also adding many more sources of light (diodes).

My knowledge is not strong enough to walk you (or even myself) through the math, but the gentle giants here have convinced me that more last-gen strips is the way to go over fewer of the latest and greatest. There's always supplemental spectrums if you like to play around or want to catch up to later stuff.

I can't yet attest to their merits, but results around the web have convinced me to try 90cri boards, currently debating between vesta and cutter for my veg. They're both cheap enough to be used as a good starting point, I think looking at 30 strips, the f-series and vesta strips were 50 cents different, shipped, and the cutters are $20-30 more.

Oh yeah, the one potential snag that I'm not even sure of. I plan on a vert grow, using only sidelighting. If it is difficult to change the canopy to light distance, I'm afraid I may end up running them too low power. Which can always be solved by removing a strip or two (or getting a larger driver), so hopefully no big deal.

[unkle_psycho]

Actually I like the idea of running a lot of cheaper strips.

Do other issues come up if I am running a heap of strips at half their rating?

Will it affect the height I run the light at and the depth of penetration I get?

Or does it just throw down the same wattage more efficiently?

I've been wondering about this. Really was the essential question between samsung and bridgelux, where samsung had less, more powerful diodes. After a couple of years it seems little has been reported, and people have been getting quite consistent results with both.

I do like efficiency, but usually don't go over board with the top lighting. Mostly I run EB gen2's @ about 1000mA. For side lighting I like to keep power levels low, because things are very close, it seems easier to go for coverage by adding strips, rather then power and distance.

But one more cool thing about the EB's is that they run cool, so don't need heatsinks even at 700mA, so if you would go even softer, then thats a definate save.

[unkle_psycho]

Actually I like the idea of running a lot of cheaper strips.

Do other issues come up if I am running a heap of strips at half their rating?

Will it affect the height I run the light at and the depth of penetration I get?

Or does it just throw down the same wattage more efficiently?

I am also a beginner in this arena, but as I understand it there are only advantages to be had, with one possible exception. It will affect the height you run at, the softer you run them, the less intensity per Diode so the closer you can get, which raises the ppfd (plant-usable photons).

It seems like the penetration that we're used to from hps is just scattered light from a high intensity single point source, and in part is directly related to their increased distance to canopy. Also due to heat from IR/inefficient light sources. You may be reducing overlap, and thereby penetration by lowering the (led)lights, but you are also adding many more sources of light (diodes).

My knowledge is not strong enough to walk you (or even myself) through the math, but the gentle giants here have convinced me that more last-gen strips is the way to go over fewer of the latest and greatest. There's always supplemental spectrums if you like to play around or want to catch up to later stuff.

I can't yet attest to their merits, but results around the web have convinced me to try 90cri boards, currently debating between vesta and cutter for my veg. They're both cheap enough to be used as a good starting point, I think looking at 30 strips, the f-series and vesta strips were 50 cents different, shipped, and the cutters are $20-30 more.

Oh yeah, the one potential snag that I'm not even sure of. I plan on a vert grow, using only sidelighting. If it is difficult to change the canopy to light distance, I'm afraid I may end up running them too low power. Which can always be solved by removing a strip or two (or getting a larger driver), so hopefully no big deal.

The vesta 2700k is great. With no discount and a new model right behind the corner with 20% more output, its hard to buy one now. I did still get a few last week just to finish a side lighting system I had been working on for a long time, but wouldnt really start something with them now. The low efficiency does translate to a bit of heat.

The EB's pair well with some smaller drivers, so 2 2ft strips run at around 950mA with the 22v 40w TRP driver, that costs 5e [Edit! price bump, its 6e now]. Using those drivers can allow you to set each 2x2 separatly in a 4x4 tent, and also add rounds of side lighting gradually as the plant grows bigger...

[Tic]

Where do you get the eb gen 2 strips from?

560mm strips for veg