Lighting led prices

[az2000]

i am also in the process of making my own . i am an elctronic engineer by trade and have all the equipment at my disposal to pick and place the leds and solder them in reflow ovens etc, i have chosen the leds i am planning to use and also started drawing up the board layout.

That sounds like a fun project. I posted a DIY radiospectrometer ($40) (<<link) last night which might interest you if you're going to get down to those details.

Have you considered a custom Cidly Apollo? You can get a 130w for $150. User Hansbrick did one of these. (<<link) No extra charge for the custom spectrum. And, free shipping. Not as much fun as DYI. That thread names the Alibaba seller who did it for Hans. Tang and 2-3 others did a custom Apollo too. That's mentioned in that thread too.

 

[TaNg]

Great discussion guys I'm going to make this a sticky.

 

[Gloomshade]

First time I looked into LEDs was for growing aquarium plants I didn't end up making a purchase but looked very closely at diy LED kits. Again when I started setting up my tent I was looking at DIY kits after seeing prices on blackdogs and cali Lightworks. When I found the topled site, and in the days of research afterward came to have some confidence in their genuineness reading good reports about their after sales service warranty etc... I binned the idea of DIY just on the fact that the 4-500 bucks I would spend on an led that was factory built by someone who knows what they're doing. Wouldn't have saved much doing it myself, and while not overly complex still quite a difficult task to diy.

 

[ontop]

Interesting thread! Im currently running 2x 400w hps in a 2m x 2m x 2m tent and im considering LED's. When I have both lights running heat is an issue as are electric prices to keep it cool.

I have seen 4x 300w vipar units on ebay and am considering getting these running in my tent as I can run 3 and keep 1 spare. Ive seen a couple of posts here saying vipar units are bright but are they good at penetrating? Im now also considering 4 of the prakasa units as the watts are lower so I could essentially run all 4 cheaper than my 2hps units and have greater lumen cover. Are the 180w prakasa really comparable to a 400w hps/mh?

 

[NEimmaculates]

Great thread!!!! After the fall harvest this year I'm planning on replacing my MH and HPS lights. This is the one I'm thinking about at the moment.
http://topledgrowlight.kancart.com/item_detail/61-Reflector-LED-Grow-Light-192x3w
Still researching though.

 

[Paul_sheff]

i am interested seeing what the new grow northerns are gonna do

 

[yodabuds]

I can chime in on the Cali works SS 400w, the build quality of the light is straight some kinda heavy metal... A very solid built light, mine overheats in flowering mode with out a clip fan pointed on top of it, causing the built in kill switch to kick on turning the light off,.. I got to be honest and say for the difference in price and having almost a solid year of using it along side two bysens and two blackstars I would say it gives the most airy buds of all the LEDs... The only posticw feature on it that I notice made a huge difference in flowering was the uv side lighting which really did kick up the trich production.

:stylez rasta smoke:

 

[jackmc]

Great thread!!!! After the fall harvest this year I'm planning on replacing my MH and HPS lights. This is the one I'm thinking about at the moment.
http://topledgrowlight.kancart.com/item_detail/61-Reflector-LED-Grow-Light-192x3w
Still researching though.

I am with NEimmaculates. I have the 300W Mars II (called 700W) and the plants love the 5W LEDs. They are made by Cree, one of the flagship LED manufactures. The units come with a three year warranty. So if it lasts for the warranty my light costs $8 a month which with the energy savings makes it almost free.

 

[fweedom]

nice discussion guys its helped a lot i was initially looking into the Top Led lights basically cause they are the least expensive but also seem to have pretty good reviews but looking at the warranty made me a little iffy about it. it says.....

(6) If product has problem, you spread bad words everywhere on internet, but not tell us in advance, we will not give warranty.

id never spread bad words or anything in the first place it just made me think theyre expecting it to have issues or something idk :dunno:

 

[Trapper]

I read that as:

Why should we help you out if you trash us publicly first. Furthermore, how would they know who you are?