Lighting DIY Cheap Panel

[mjau]

Greetings,

Started working on my new panel today. Glued 6 heatsinks, will do 3 more later. Glued them with thermal silicone on 4mm alu plate. On top of them Ill put 140mm fan.


Panel will be made of 6x full spectrum 10w chips and 2x 10000k 10w chips. Might go with 7 full spectrum chips but not sure yet. Every chip will have its own driver (will post link later) and then all drivers in parallel on one 12v 10A driver. It should be around 55-65w real power. Drivers are rated at 900mA but they are actually around 780mA which is just awesome.

Panel is very cheap to make, will count expenses when I finish it. Some of you most likely will comment that these chips are chinese and not very good, which isnt true. Going to start a journal to show you. Also will compare this panel with other one I use, 4x CXB 2530 3000K, dimmable from 50-100w.



Edit:

Cant decide if I should do it like this

Or like this

 

[BigSm0]

Most of the people here including myself are into DIY for 3 reasons. One is to build what we can't buy or building it for a much cheaper cost and mainly for efficiency. I have absolutely no problem buying cobs from any country as long as the efficiency or heat to light ratio is good. Regardless I'm thrilled to see the thread and will absolutely follow along. Adding another to the wonderful DIY group we already have is a bonus. Please add a link of your journal here if you don't mind.

Is there any specs or spec sheets on these cobs?

 

[mjau]

Im mostly doing DIY because I like to build stuff rather than buying finished products.

Will start a journal in a few days when I finish building cab for this panel, waiting for exhaust fan to arrive.

Also, when I finish panel will post pictures from spectrometer and ppfd meter, a friend built them and he also build panel very similar to mine.

These 10w chips are designed very well which I cant say for 20-100w ones. They work best when they are in 50-70% of max current, so 780mA is around 60%. Also you can ran them on 9-11V, 11V is letting more green photons and to our eye it seems its glowing stronger but in reallity 9-10v is best. Measured them on spectrometer and got these results, they are really great in red spectrum and not that good in blue so thats why I added 2x10000k to boost vegetative growth, 10000k leds also have a small amount of red photons.

Judging by 2 grows Ive seen using these "full spectrum" chips they work very well. Adding some 10-20000k white leds helps much in vegetation instead od just using "full spectrum" ones.

 

[mjau]

Had some free time today and decided to work on the panel. Now I need to connect leds with driver and its done. Will post update as soon as I finish it.

 

[mjau]

After some time decided to finish this panel. It has 2x10000k leds and 7x"full spectrum". Bought 3 regulators like this
http://m.ebay.com/itm/401088940765
and adjusted voltage for leds on 9.15V and current to 800ma. After several tests this is when they work the best, 9v and 800ma, more voltage or current its just more heat and green spectrum. So, each led runs at 7.3w, cca 65w total without fan. Still need to attach fan, will do that today when I finish the cabinet in where Ill hang this panel to test it. In case anybody is interested here are the pictures.

 

[wayward1]

Just been re reading your thread. You've got a good light there. A lot of work put in and you've obviously got the skills. Hope it grows well for you.

 

[mjau]

Red Poison auto sprouted today, will start journal in sweet seeds section in few days so we will see how the panel performs.