DIY 270W LED light for R1500.

[AbstractGrowing]

 

The into:

The light isn't the best but with the actual draw of 270W and the use of SMD LED's cleverly grouped paired with varistors I can guarantee and equivalent output to a 250W HPS*.

 

Also the heatsink makes up R600 of the cost and has an infinite lifespan and the fans should also last upwards of 5 years. Therefore upgrading to better LED's later would be cheaper.

 

I really don't think there is a better budget equivalent. Feel free to share if you do.

 

* Only because 60W of the panels are driverless COB's and they need to be regulated with an electrolytic capacitor and I don't want to do that. But i will be replacing them with 40W cool white and then these should perform better than most HIDs of equivalent Wattage and run cooler.

 

*Also the varistors aren't mounted yet they are on their way but they significantly reduce flicker on all the SMD panels.

 

The parts:

1x Heatsink - 400mm x 200mm x 40mm (BidorBuy) R600

11x LED panels (Aliexpress) R400

20x Varistors (Aliexpress) R100

2x Fans - 120mm 220V (BidorBuy) R250

6x Off brand Wago 5 slot connectors (Aliexpress) *

2m Wire (Hardware store)*

1m Thermal Tape (BidorBuy)*

 

*Percentage used should be ~R100

 

The build: (WW - Warm white CW - Cool)

Wipe all surfaces that are to be mounted together. Lay the LED's carefully on their faces and apply thermal tape to the back where the LED's are located as this is where most of your watts will be lost to heat.

 

Position the LED's on the LED panel in a configuration that suites you. I went with 4x 10W WW on the corners, 2x 20W CW om the width outer middle and 2x 60W RB on the lenght outer middle. Also 1x 30 CW in the centre and 2x 50W WW beside it for a total of 270W.

 

Peel the outer plastic of the tape and fit LED's to heatsink. Get your varistors, 7D471K for 10-30W and 10D471K for 50W-100W, and solder them on the points located over the 4pin chip marked DB1 on each panel. Also solder power wires to each panel.

 

Next drill holes through the bottom for cable management and from the sides into the fins to cable tie the fans to the heatsink. (There is probably a better way but this will work and the fans will hold nicely. I have tried superglue).

 

Finally wire everything to a power plug and remember to earth the heatsink. Test and see if all panels light up and everything works.

 

My build isn't finished as I'm waiting for a drill but that is how I'm going to finish it. To hang it would probably be easiest to use the same holes you drilled for the fans.

 

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[PsyCLown]

Quite the franken build, I like the idea of driverless - makes life far easier.

 

Although as I have mentioned before, with LED lighting it is all about the diodes, not all diodes are equal.

While I am sure it will output some decent light and I am sure you could grow some cannabis under it, you can even use a flood light LED to grow cannabis - although I wouldn't recommend using it for flowering - I wonder how efficient it is compared to diodes commonly used for the horticulture industry. How much of the output the plants can actually make use of - the PPFD basically.

 

For clones and seedling I think it would be great, for flowering - I guess you will try it out and let us know? Keen to see a grow diary.

 

Regarding the shipping from AliExpress, what did you use in terms of shipping? The couriers are often super expensive and the other options are terribly slow and unreliable as they go through SAPO.

 

Eager to see some more DIY stuff coming from you and welcome to the forum! Enjoy your stay  

[AbstractGrowing]

Hahaha yeah, Frakenbuild is right but once I get my hands on a drill I'll make the wires look pretty.

As for the diodes, they seem to be generic China 3528 LED's driven at about 0.5W with a lumen output of 110-120lm/w at those power levels. Not bad and I think totally reasonable to flower under. Maybe not in it's current state but as soon as the varistors arrive with the added efficiency.

I don't have PPFD or PAR values but I have previously flowered under 22B LED bulbs with moderate success of 0.7g/w with 4 weeks veg in a 10l pot. As far as I can tell these are very similar diodes driven at very similar currents.

For the Aliexpress shipping I did go through SAPO and it wasn't bad. It took 6 weeks for everything but I expected it so it wasn't that bad. I was also just happy that everything arrived.

Thanks for the welcome, I'm looking forward to sharing my future buils.

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[AbstractGrowing]

I might just want to add some red in the 660nm spectrum if I do flower since the driverless COB's aren't as efficient.

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