Soldering a led growlight

[jm82792]

Well I am good at soldering so I am thinking about buying 100 leds from electronic goldmine(my favorite wholsale place) and solder them up to a perf board add a transformer and grow.. What is you opinion on led lights and shold I bother trying
They have a wonderfull thing called bipolar leds that can be red or blue if I can get the light output found out I cold solder that and run both at the same time even if the mfg says they are not ment for it.

 

[Dave S.]

It is certainly worth a shot and it is something I have considered doing myself. I grow cps under LED plant grow lights. I think you will need far more than 100 LEDs for a decent lamp. I would make sure that you are creating a light that puts out the proper light for plant growth. My main complaint for the red/blue lights is that the plants appear to be growing in the dark and it is difficult to see the plant details under just red/blue light. I would throw in some white LEDs just to help light up the plants if nothing else.

 

[Av8tor1]

IMHO, LED's will eventually replace most lighting systems used today... they are just too efficient not too... but as Dave recommends, the need for correct spectra still exist...

From what Ive read on the subject the Philips Lighting 3-watt Luxeon Emitter LEDs appear to be the LED to base a system upon,

"The ‘batwing’ design of the Philips Emitter series allows for superior thermal management around the diode since it allows the junctions to act as thermal sinks and permits airflow for cooling. Heat is an enemy of LEDs since it can shorten their expected lifetime" Advanced Aquarist's Magazine

If you are going to experiment with lighting you will prob want a spectroscope, I have tried three of the most commonly available ones over the last several years...

this one is decent, but cheaply made and no provision for calibration:

this one is junk, the aperture blades (proper nomenclature?) were so poorly machined it is like looking over a saw blade
also no scale for measuring wavelength, just the image

here is the one to get, nice bright spectral image, provision for calibration, easy to read
construction is cheap, but engineered very well indeed

cheers'
Av

 

[DrWurm]

lol, 100 LEDS. That'll give you about a 3"x3" square.

 

[nepenthes_ak]

Wow, I think I might do this, didnt think about that before!

 

[Av8tor1]

good intro from 2002

Illumination With Solid State Lighting Technology
IEEE JOURNAL ON SELECTED TOPICS IN QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, VOL. 8, NO. 2, MARCH/APRIL 2002

(notice the spectra curve in fig. 14 when mixing the blue, red and green LED's)

 

[jm82792]

Well I am cosidering ti since I like projects and soldering is like riding a bike,
I did do a conversion like 10,000 led mcd= 2.4 lumens but I guess ince the spectrum is good I shouldn't be worried.. If I do partake in this wel I would order the leds from there and get a large perf or maybe scree(make a circuit board etch the metal) one with chems but those chems are very nasty so I may do a perf. I'd need a 12 volt power supply then calculate the resistance for the resister. Now I am only 15 and have not that much greenstuff really but I could grow a small cp under 50 leds or whatever since I ahev a soldering iron,perf board,transofrmers,solder and other stuff.. I could buy from electronic goldmine there econo led bag there really really cheap and come in the 3 bassic colors then I could just solder away and add a few whites I'll look into it..
Now I think leds are going to growlight I mean they replaced flashlight lights and many other aplications put out like no heat and are small.. The reason they will become the MH and HPS competetor is the "weed" growers lights currently put out a large heat signiture so the heat cameras can see the lights but with leds they won't so that will make a early market for them then later people like us..
Oh I just saw this : http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G12968
Now they may not be like really powerfull but 100 for $8 I think that is a good deal there good and they are still as effeciant as normal leds so I think this is economical
Well if you do buy those I'd call and try to find out the angle of the beam and stuff like that,
there is always the idea of ordering direct from china.

 

[endparenthesis]

I'd visit the websites of companies who build and sell LED lamps like the one you intend to make. Most of them are filled with marketing half-truths, but some give some good details on the advancements they've made, which portions of the spectrum they target, and how many LEDs are effective for a given amount of space. Copy them as much as you can... let them do some of the thinking for you.

I can think of one in particular that sells you a kit that you solder yourself, but I can't post the link in the forum. It shouldn't be too hard to find.