Lighting DIY mars conversion. Questions and answers here.

[BigSm0]

Actually, these were the numbers I took down last night.


300w-400w (desired wattage total, 150-200 per tent)
36 chips max (drivers available)

Citizen
1212 = 36v@7mA - 25w per chip = 12-16 chips per tent
1812 = 52v@7mA - 36w per chip = 8-10 chips

So I guess I was pretty close to right in my estimation, I was just thinking that 5 chips per tent was gonna be my sweet spot rather than 4. I'll go ahead and order 8 and put 2 in each enclosure over both plants.

Any tips on how they should be oriented in relation to the confines of my tents/enclosures?

Thanks!

I never understood why there are so many 1212 conversions. I have explained this exact math a million times and get the same response every time. The 1212’s are .75 cents cheaper. Not really when you need 50% more to achieve the same wattage and they have a lower efficiency.

 

[BigSm0]

Makes sense. Placing my order now. Once again, thanks so much! Do you have like a newsletter or anything I can subscribe to?

You are very welcome. Unfortunately I don’t have anything like that yet. I’m a solo cob company. Struggling to keep up. You tube videos at coming soon though. Can’t wait. I am on Instagram and that’s usually easier to track sales and things.

 

[2MinutesHate]

Oh nice! I'll follow you on there, at least. I just placed my order directly to your site. What's your average shipping turnaround roughly on something like that?

 

[orrganic]

Please Don’t feel obligated to buy from me. If you find something that suits you better by all means go for it. I just prefer the 1812’s and that’s why I use them in my recommendations. The higher wattage is nice. It’s also good to stay below the drivers maximum as they are prone to dying. I would go with 100-150 for the whole tent.

I just posted my final weight from my last grow at 15watts per square foot and couldn’t be happier. 2.17 grams per watt and pure fire quality. Cob wattage is no where near any other light source. You can and will do much better with less cobs than more. Coming from someone who sells cobs lol.

Uncle BigSm0 15 w per square foot for 2.17g/pw... Wow!!! I'm strugling to be sure on weather my set up is sufficient or after hearing this I'm thinking im over doing it. Do you mind helping me out?

I have a 1.2m2 space a 4x4 I think with 4 vero 18 29v driven @1050ma which seemed dim so I added another 1050ma driver inline to the same circuit and the watt draw and brightness doubles.

I was assuming 120 odd watts at a respectable 155lm/pw wouldn't have been enough for my space, but the added driver (and citi 1212 added to the circuit today) giving me something like 337w would be enough.

I'm hoping you tell me I'm a fool, to unplug the second driver immediately and 4 veros plus the heroic citizen will be ample.

Sent from my HUAWEI LYO-L02 using Tapatalk

 

[BigSm0]

Oh nice! I'll follow you on there, at least. I just placed my order directly to your site. What's your average shipping turnaround roughly on something like that?

Sorry for that delay. Shipping from cobshop is usually faster than amazon prime. Everything goes out same or next day. Yours came in around midnight and the post office was closed then so next day.

 

[BigSm0]

Uncle BigSm0 15 w per square foot for 2.17g/pw... Wow!!! I'm strugling to be sure on weather my set up is sufficient or after hearing this I'm thinking im over doing it. Do you mind helping me out?

I have a 1.2m2 space a 4x4 I think with 4 vero 18 29v driven @1050ma which seemed dim so I added another 1050ma driver inline to the same circuit and the watt draw and brightness doubles.

I was assuming 120 odd watts at a respectable 155lm/pw wouldn't have been enough for my space, but the added driver (and citi 1212 added to the circuit today) giving me something like 337w would be enough.

I'm hoping you tell me I'm a fool, to unplug the second driver immediately and 4 veros plus the heroic citizen will be ample.

Sent from my HUAWEI LYO-L02 using Tapatalk

I ended up with just under 3 lbs from that grow, slightly less than previous grows but I will say I couldn’t care less. The quality is absolutely amazing. I posted some pics and some of these buds were the best I have seen in my life. Quality is key. Also the most important factor is operating costs. I am a care giver so I sell most of my product. If it cost me twice as much to grow then I make half as much. Sure profit isn’t everything but it is so often over looked. Even if it’s smaller and for personal use. Would you rather have a pound that’s average or 3/4lb of pure Gas that cost you half as much to produce? Operating costs are key.

As far as your space goes I have spent ass loads of time trying to figure out exactly what plants want and need. Most people don’t believe my suggestions but in time they will. You can’t ask a photo grower for a wattage recommendation. You can’t ask a blurple led grower for a recommendation either. A lot has to do with the strain but for a 4x4 space I would stay around 200 low side and 300 watts max for a 4x4. This is for citizen or cree cob watts. Which at 50% efficient is 100-150 per watts. To achieve this with traditional leds you would need 500-750 watts. Not inflated numbers. Actual par. Cob efficiency still throws people off. I need WATTAGE lol. No you need light. I think the 120 watts was definitely under powered and I think 337 is to much. Which doesn’t help you to much lol. You can grow fine in there but it’s defintily on the upper end. Is there a way to dim the light down? I would suggest going with the 337 watts and doing a grow. If you see the plants suffering then I would consider a smaller driver to get you a bit lower if it’s not dimmable.

 

[orrganic]

I ended up with just under 3 lbs from that grow, slightly less than previous grows but I will say I couldn’t care less. The quality is absolutely amazing. I posted some pics and some of these buds were the best I have seen in my life. Quality is key. Also the most important factor is operating costs. I am a care giver so I sell most of my product. If it cost me twice as much to grow then I make half as much. Sure profit isn’t everything but it is so often over looked. Even if it’s smaller and for personal use. Would you rather have a pound that’s average or 3/4lb of pure Gas that cost you half as much to produce? Operating costs are key.

As far as your space goes I have spent ass loads of time trying to figure out exactly what plants want and need. Most people don’t believe my suggestions but in time they will. You can’t ask a photo grower for a wattage recommendation. You can’t ask a blurple led grower for a recommendation either. A lot has to do with the strain but for a 4x4 space I would stay around 200 low side and 300 watts max for a 4x4. This is for citizen or cree cob watts. Which at 50% efficient is 100-150 per watts. To achieve this with traditional leds you would need 500-750 watts. Not inflated numbers. Actual par. Cob efficiency still throws people off. I need WATTAGE lol. No you need light. I think the 120 watts was definitely under powered and I think 337 is to much. Which doesn’t help you to much lol. You can grow fine in there but it’s defintily on the upper end. Is there a way to dim the light down? I would suggest going with the 337 watts and doing a grow. If you see the plants suffering then I would consider a smaller driver to get you a bit lower if it’s not dimmable.

Thanks mate that all helps a lot, I know you're a busy man. here's what I've gained. My previous run was six citi1212 packed tightly on an aluminium plate driven at 1050ma over a canopy of pretty well sickly clones all not ideal but it returned 170g from 220w... with me prematurely harvesting smoke for weeks haha.
I've now got the four veros with an added citi1212 running at 1050ma with a spare 1050ma driver to plug inline if need be. All driven at 1a I'll have 138w at 2a I'll have 338w. less is more until it isn't, thanks mate.

 

[2MinutesHate]

Sorry for that delay. Shipping from cobshop is usually faster than amazon prime. Everything goes out same or next day. Yours came in around midnight and the post office was closed then so next day.

Thanks so much! Had my 5th of 6 blurples start failing today, one strip of the blue/white veg lights went out in the tent that's doing well. Can't wait to get these COBs setup and feed these things some decent light. They're still growing, despite my best first grow attempts to kill them.

 

[2MinutesHate]

Oh wow, according to tracking, delivery is expected today (tomorrow for me). Even if the show the following day, I think this might save my grow!

 

[2MinutesHate]

I just wanted to pop back in and say thanks, @bigsmo for saving my grow. A bit over a month later, I pulled 6z dry and trimmed out of one tent, and am cutting down to achieve what looks to be similar yield out of another one.

I'll post updates once I get the weight of the other tent.

Question, if you were gonna try to improve my setup (4x 1812 3500k, 140w per 2x4 tent) by supplementing other light colors, uv, or change it to using different colored lights for veg and bloom separately, do you think I'd see considerable improvement? What changes/supplements would you recommend?

Thanks!