600w True wattage LED HLG600H Quantum boards

[garyfisher]

Folks,  I been blasting Quantum boards for 2 years now.  Just upgraded from the stock V1s to the new Rspec boards.  Im putting them together right now and here are a couple photos.

 

 

[Restorium2]

The usual questions;

Parts and where to buy them?

Meter readings?

[Restorium2]

Do these LEDs have the coating on them to make them seen as white light?

[semicaregiver]

 Looking at their website...  https://horticulturelightinggroup.com/collections/quantum-boards/products/qb288-v2-rspec-slate-2-single-combo

 I am guessing from your photo's and tech specs on their website that the assembly you show is about 15" x 36" and uses 4 of their $99 panels w/ heat sink.  With framing, ballast, misc parts and shipping I am guessing the materials cost is +$500.   What is the grow area coverage of this panel?  

[Restorium2]

I would like to see what the PAR readings are on one of these quantam boards compared with the Yehsense 1500 LED.

 

[Kingdiamond]

Hey Gary what kind of weight are you getting from the panels compared to the old HPS setups?

[Hydraulic Jack]

My room with cob lights....taken a week ago at week 5....HJ

[garyfisher]

On 7/12/2019 at 9:13 AM, Restorium2 said:

I would like to see what the PAR readings are on one of these quantam boards compared with the Yehsense 1500 LED.

 

PAR only tells you about the spectrum, not much how much flux.  The spectral are listed on the website.  What you want to compare is PPFD.
PPFD is photosynthetic photon flux density. PPFD measures the amount of PAR that actually arrives at the plant, or as a scientist might say: “the number of photosynthetically active photons that fall on a given surface each second.

The PPFD of these lights is between 2.4-2.9 uMol/J.  One of the most efficient lights on the market.

@kingdiamond  I'm getting more than 1g/w.

Pushing these boards at 480w, i was able to illuminate a 4x4 area well.  With these new 600w drivers I expect a 5x5.

[garyfisher]

On 7/12/2019 at 8:30 AM, semicaregiver said:

 Looking at their website...  https://horticulturelightinggroup.com/collections/quantum-boards/products/qb288-v2-rspec-slate-2-single-combo

 I am guessing from your photo's and tech specs on their website that the assembly you show is about 15" x 36" and uses 4 of their $99 panels w/ heat sink.  With framing, ballast, misc parts and shipping I am guessing the materials cost is +$500.   What is the grow area coverage of this panel?  

The lights I posted are Kits with one giant heatsink rather than 4.  The kits run 739 @ growerslights.com
I am building my own frames with 4 separate heat sinks also and those are running me around 550$

[Restorium2]

23 minutes ago, garyfisher said:

PAR only tells you about the spectrum, not much how much flux.  The spectral are listed on the website.  What you want to compare is PPFD.
PPFD is photosynthetic photon flux density. PPFD measures the amount of PAR that actually arrives at the plant, or as a scientist might say: “the number of photosynthetically active photons that fall on a given surface each second.

The PPFD of these lights is between 2.4-2.9 uMol/J.  One of the most efficient lights on the market.

@kingdiamond  I'm getting more than 1g/w.

Pushing these boards at 480w, i was able to illuminate a 4x4 area well.  With these new 600w drivers I expect a 5x5.

I have a quantum PAR meter. It works great for comparisons.

If you want to use a PPFD meter that's fine.

What I would like to see is side by side comparison between these lights you are building and the ones you said that were not as good.

The PAR footprint and all around inside of it. A true comparison. That's what I do when I compare lights. Takes all the guess work out of it.

[garyfisher]

 

[Restorium2]

Nice. 

If you put 4 of the cheap ones in that tent you would have about as much PPFD.

[garyfisher]

19 hours ago, Restorium2 said:

Nice. 

If you put 4 of the cheap ones in that tent you would have about as much PPFD.

Almost as much but not quite.  270w x 4 = >1000w .

Thats double the energy of my light. Double the cost.  Double the heat.

[garyfisher]

Here is the custom jobby I built last night.

 

 

1200W beast at full power or dimmable down to 600watts.   2300 LEDs in this rig total.

Covers a 4x8 really well.  Might space the next build out more.

[Restorium2]

45 minutes ago, garyfisher said:

Almost as much but not quite.  270w x 4 = >1000w .

Thats double the energy of my light. Double the cost.  Double the heat.

It would be nice to see 'how much heat is added to a room' type comparison. 

 

[Slappy]

1 hour ago, garyfisher said:

Almost as much but not quite.  270w x 4 = >1000w .

Thats double the energy of my light. Double the cost.  Double the heat.

I tried 3 of my fixtures in a tent, and it ran waaay too hot. That's when my tents became vegetative. LOL.

[semicaregiver]

 

Gary,  New fixture looks really nice and clean.  Are you mounting the ballast directly to the fixture or moving it off to a wall for better cooling?

I watched the video and one thing struck me.  The voice over ( about 8 min 30 sec into video) talked about mounting the light no closer than 24-30" to the plants for bloom.   I have never used LED's but I have had the impression that one of their benefits is they can be inches from the plants.

 

[Restorium2]

Just now, semicaregiver said:

 

Gary,  New fixture looks really nice and clean.  Are you mounting the ballast directly to the fixture or moving it off to a wall for better cooling?

I watched the video and one thing struck me.  The voice over ( about 8 min 30 sec into video) talked about mounting the light no closer than 24-30" to the plants for bloom.   I have never used LED's but I have had the impression that one of their benefits is they can be inches from the plants.

 

I was just going to ask him the same thing; "Can you mount the driver remotely to save on heat in the tent/room?"

With the 1500 Yehsense you can let the plants grow up to 6 inches from the light at mid bloom.

Right now I have my hydro scrog about a foot away just starting to go 12/12 bloom with both switches on.

They don't have a dimmer but they have two switches, one for veg and both for bloom. 

Not sure how many growers have the room to have the lights 2-3 feet above the plants. 

[garyfisher]

2 hours ago, semicaregiver said:

 

Gary,  New fixture looks really nice and clean.  Are you mounting the ballast directly to the fixture or moving it off to a wall for better cooling?

I watched the video and one thing struck me.  The voice over ( about 8 min 30 sec into video) talked about mounting the light no closer than 24-30" to the plants for bloom.   I have never used LED's but I have had the impression that one of their benefits is they can be inches from the plants.

 

Thanks, Semi.  I enjoyed putting the light together and it was fairly easy.   I used 40 rivets for that entire frame and a few pieces of angle alumium.

If you notice in the very first post of the kits, the driver is mounted on top of the light, adding heat to the room.

 

The light rig i just built has the driver remotely mounted outside of the insulated grow space.  Eventually I'll remotely mount the drivers in the kits I built as well.

These lights are bright and WILL bleach your plants white if less than 12",  some run 18" but 18-24" is the closest you want to get them in flower at 150watts per quantum board.  If you ran the QBs at 60w you could get them a lot closer.

I'm pushing the limits of these LEDs with the highest amperage allowed.  

 

 

Edited July 16, 2019 by garyfisher

[garyfisher]

You could build the older version of these HLG QB V1s for $47 each and a 240w driver($60) to push the boards at 60w.
Probably wouldnt even need the heatsink.

So you're talking $260 for the components plus the frame and wiring.  Very cheap way to get into high end LED lighting.

[Restorium2]

The only downside I can see with this large fixture is that your are locked into one configuration. The modular, independent lights, in a daisy chain or singular, are much more flexible for the grower who likes to be able to add and subtract lights in any pattern, size, or configuration of their plants. Sometimes I use one 1500. Sometimes 2 or 3. I can easily move them around. Not restricted to moving the big beastly fixture around. Having all these lights in one fixture is like having all your eggs in one basket. I can see it would be perfect for a warehouse grow. Not so much for a small home grow. I like a bunch of small grows where I can keep em separated.

Edited July 17, 2019 by Restorium2

[Slappy]

So what's the deal? You fire 'em up yet? I wanna see!

[garyfisher]

On 8/1/2019 at 9:54 AM, Slappy said:

So what's the deal? You fire 'em up yet? I wanna see!

yep.  We are 4 weeks into flower now with the new lights.  I have 3 HLG600H kits and the above light in a 10x10 room currently.
They're bright and I'm working on installing potentiometers so I can push less watts and get the lights even closer.

[Restorium2]

12 hours ago, garyfisher said:

yep.  We are 4 weeks into flower now with the new lights.  I have 3 HLG600H kits and the above light in a 10x10 room currently.
They're bright and I'm working on installing potentiometers so I can push less watts and get the lights even closer.

How close are they at full power? How do you decide how close you want them?

[garyfisher]

theyre around 24" above the canopy and I use a light meter.