New Grower 2x2 Tent-Best LED that wont break the Camels Back?

[Chong's Cousin]

Hey ya'll Im going with a 2x2 Tent for my first "Official" soil grow. I'll be going with a high yield/potent AutoFem but I want to get some opinions on LEDs. I was going to choose the Mars Hydro 300 but want to make sure there isn't something better and more effective for a 2x2. I definitely am on a small budget and love the Mars300 Price, but im willing to pay a few more bucks if its worthwhile. Any ideas are greatly appreciated!! Thanks in advance

 

[Rapha El]

How handy are you with a soldering iron?

 

[Chong's Cousin]

How handy are you with a soldering iron?

Pretty descent ,why do you ask?

 

[Rapha El]

Building your own, you can come away pretty cheap with some great lighting. What does the Mars 300 cost, about 70/80 bucks? For a little more it should be possible to assemble a nice 100-150w cob setup.

Example:
COB: CXM-32-40-70-54 ~34,-
Driver: HLG-150H-54 ~65,-
Misc Electronics scrap, like an old-ish cpu fan ~20-30,-

That'd be a dimmable 150w single cob light. For something like that you certainly have to use a tower style cooler and have it actively cooled.

It's basically 1$/w for cobs atm.

 

[Chong's Cousin]

Building your own, you can come away pretty cheap with some great lighting. What does the Mars 300 cost, about 70/80 bucks? For a little more it should be possible to assemble a nice 100-150w cob setup.

Example:
COB: CXM-32-40-70-54 ~34,-
Driver: HLG-150H-54 ~65,-
Misc Electronics scrap, like an old-ish cpu fan ~20-30,-

That'd be a dimmable 150w single cob light. For something like that you certainly have to use a tower style cooler and have it actively cooled.

It's basically 1$/w for cobs atm.

I can solder onto motherboards, leds to boards, switches & buttons to boards,but im not sure about any of what you just quoted,however im greatly appreciative of the info and will def look into this. Thanks again @Druid

 

[bushmasterar15]

The Mars led has been used by many and will get the job done. You also have COB lighting which has been what alot of growers have been switching to. Might take a look at the AutoCobs by @BigSm0 if your looking for a easy plug-n-play light. He also offers an almost complete that you would need a driver and finish wiring. So there you'd get into the DIY aspect of building your own lights to what suits your needs.

 

[Tommy boy]

You might try led bulbs seems to work very well and it is cheap to build. Look in the diy led thread off the shelf led bulbs by Mr sparkle. My grow is on the bottom of page 5. Built my light for right around 60 bucks I was using 400w hps but was struggling to keep my Temps in range

 

[Chong's Cousin]

Wow this all sounds very fascinating, i will be looking into this today-thanks for the insight AFN

 

[Padawan1972]

The Mars led has been used by many and will get the job done. You also have COB lighting which has been what alot of growers have been switching to. Might take a look at the AutoCobs by @BigSm0 if your looking for a easy plug-n-play light. He also offers an almost complete that you would need a driver and finish wiring. So there you'd get into the DIY aspect of building your own lights to what suits your needs.

He will answer any question you have, his customer service is top notch.
I ran marshydro in my tent on firsts few grows,was happy about price, but I am telling you that these cobs are out of this world. Easy to adjust height, very little heat output (important if you have small area), no noise...and the lightput is amazing and backed up with numbers, not only on the specs of the lights, but also what people are harvesting with these cobs..check them out..it just might make you turn over couch cusions to find the extra money!

 

[Free Flow]

I use 2 600w mars hydro panels and am,slowly switching over to a DIY cob light. I plan to use less watts and gain more light for my plants to absorb. But my 2 600w panels do the job just fine.