# Build Your Own LED Array



## bombbudpuffa

Learn how to build your led array here with pics!!! Learn how to solder here!


----------



## bombbudpuffa

Man building these are easy. If everyone is really nice to me I might make a DIY. I've built a few of these.


----------



## Rosebud

Very cool BBP.


----------



## Locked

Cool stuff but the prices have come down enough that I just buy them. Last one I got is rockin it at we speak. Plants love it.


----------



## bombbudpuffa

Hamster Lewis said:


> Cool stuff but the prices have come down enough that I just buy them. Last one I got is rockin it at we speak. Plants love it.



It's waaaaayyyy cheaper to build one.


----------



## Hushpuppy

That is a very good read. It gave me flashbacks to my electronics engineering classes. 

All that stuff used there for making the LED arrays could be bought at Radio Shack at one time but now it has to be ordered online as they quit carrying that stuff for the most part.

If you are tech savvy at all, doing those builds is a blast. I did a very similar thing to build "moonlight" arrays for my 55gal fish tank. But instead of using a circuit board, because of the simplicity of my needs, I was able to just mount everything into the plastic covers of my hoods. They worked great for several years until I had to replace the hoods.


----------



## Budlight

bombbudpuffa said:


> It's waaaaayyyy cheaper to build one.



 I would have to agree with you my friend not to mention you'll get a lot better quality I don't know much about this stuff but what I have learned in this last little bit is you're definitely better to build one like you said  Plus you can get a lot better coverage instead of  A store bought one beams the light and one Derakhshan where you can get full coverage by spreading it out on your custom built one


----------



## bombbudpuffa

Here's a 4200k(or 4500k...can't remember) with specific spectrums from the blue range added...can't remember the nanometers either:/. I guess this can be considered a super veg bulb. These plants are growing under t5 just wanted to show off how bright led is at 33w using 11 3w diodes.

Interestingly enough I've never actually used these for anything. I just made them, turned them on, thought to myself, "Oh cool! It works!", then kind of put them away. It wasn't until I returned to the forums that I realized that people actually use these now lmao. 

View attachment 20161202_134646.jpg


----------



## bombbudpuffa

You only need a few materials. All are basically so cheap you won't believe it.

LED driver
Diodes(so many different color combinations you'll hurt your brain thinking about it too much)
Heat sink
Fan
110V power cord
Soldering iron
Heat sink compound
High temp glue or adhesive compound of some sort 

View attachment 20161202_134816.jpg


View attachment 20161202_135236.jpg


----------



## bombbudpuffa

Hushpuppy said:


> That is a very good read. It gave me flashbacks to my electronics engineering classes.
> 
> All that stuff used there for making the LED arrays could be bought at Radio Shack at one time but now it has to be ordered online as they quit carrying that stuff for the most part.
> 
> If you are tech savvy at all, doing those builds is a blast. I did a very similar thing to build "moonlight" arrays for my 55gal fish tank. But instead of using a circuit board, because of the simplicity of my needs, I was able to just mount everything into the plastic covers of my hoods. They worked great for several years until I had to replace the hoods.


You don't even have to be tech savvy to build these. I'm an idiot so if I can do it.... It's crazily easy.

You get any pics before you replaced it?


----------



## bombbudpuffa

Budlight said:


> I would have to agree with you my friend not to mention you'll get a lot better quality I don't know much about this stuff but what I have learned in this last little bit is you're definitely better to build one like you said  Plus you can get a lot better coverage instead of  A store bought one beams the light and one Derakhshan where you can get full coverage by spreading it out on your custom built one



Yup. Just need a plant spectrum chart and you can pick the nanometers you want, you can pick the diodes layout yourself, make them as small or large as you want to. Totally customise your lights spectrum and it's cheap.


----------



## bombbudpuffa

Seems the light in the above post does have a couple 3000k diodes. So it's more of a full spec with added blue.


----------



## Hushpuppy

Sorry I didn't ever take any pics of it. It was very simple. I had 2 white and 2 blue leds with little screw-in led mounts that I mounted to the plastic in each of the hoods. I bought a 6v 300ma plug in power supply. I mounted small push button switches on top of the hoods so that I could switch them off and on. I used the same formula for figuring my resistors. I mounted a small terminal strip inside each hood and made all my connections through those (rather than using any boards). It was fairly crude but for my purpose it worked out really well.

I think I am going to build a couple of these in strip lighting to hang with my HPS lights in my flower space to see if I can increase resin production in my plants.


----------



## Budlight

This is awesome  i'm going to sit back watch and pay close attention to what you guys say maybe somehow I can understand this LED business  I watched a few videos for me putting it together part will be easy for me but I just don't understand all the different LED  and drivers  to choose from. :48:


----------



## bombbudpuffa

Hushpuppy said:


> Sorry I didn't ever take any pics of it. It was very simple. I had 2 white and 2 blue leds with little screw-in led mounts that I mounted to the plastic in each of the hoods. I bought a 6v 300ma plug in power supply. I mounted small push button switches on top of the hoods so that I could switch them off and on. I used the same formula for figuring my resistors. I mounted a small terminal strip inside each hood and made all my connections through those (rather than using any boards). It was fairly crude but for my purpose it worked out really well.
> 
> I think I am going to build a couple of these in strip lighting to hang with my HPS lights in my flower space to see if I can increase resin production in my plants.



You don't even have to worry about resistors now. You just connect your leds to the driver, connect the driver to the power supply and you're golden. Does require a lil soldering but a novice could do it.


----------



## WeedHopper

Hushpuppy said:


> Sorry I didn't ever take any pics of it. It was very simple. I had 2 white and 2 blue leds with little screw-in led mounts that I mounted to the plastic in each of the hoods. I bought a 6v 300ma plug in power supply. I mounted small push button switches on top of the hoods so that I could switch them off and on. I used the same formula for figuring my resistors. I mounted a small terminal strip inside each hood and made all my connections through those (rather than using any boards). It was fairly crude but for my purpose it worked out really well.
> 
> I think I am going to build a couple of these in strip lighting to hang with my HPS lights in my flower space to see if I can increase resin production in my plants.



Thats a good idea Hammy. You could build the Leds to fit around your Hps anyway ya wanted too.
I want to do a grow with HOT5s and LEDS.


----------



## bombbudpuffa

Budlight said:


> This is awesome  i'm going to sit back watch and pay close attention to what you guys say maybe somehow I can understand this LED business  I watched a few videos for me putting it together part will be easy for me but I just don't understand all the different LED  and drivers  to choose from. :48:



Drivers are really simple. The one I have running the 33w light is rated for 12x 3w leds. I never go with the max amount of leds because the drivers seem to only have a lil over 35w max in reality. I chose 3w diodes because I wanted to keep things as cheap as possible. So 3w diodes with a 36w driver minus a diode because the drivers aren't really 36w and I had enough power for 11 diodes. 

Searching on eBay makes it simple. If you want to use 3w diodes and make a 36w light just type in 12x 3w led driver-

http://m.ebay.com/itm/Water-Resista...265V-to-25-40V-600mA-/231260897825?nav=SEARCH


----------



## Locked

This might help some. 

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlM5uvO7sao[/ame]


----------



## Budlight

Hamster Lewis said:


> This might help some.
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlM5uvO7sao



 This guys pretty good I like watching him he gives good explanations and show step-by-step but like I said I still don't know what the hell I'm talking about I think when it comes time for me to start building my lights I'll just ask you guys to let me no what to order  to make sure I get the right ones


----------



## bombbudpuffa

I'll do a how to tomorrow. At work atm...off tomorrow. I'll even throw up pics.


----------



## bombbudpuffa

Bleh....have to take apart a light. Thought I had a driver lying around but can't find it. Would just post pics of my light but I can't for safety reasons. I'll get a how to up over the next couple days for sure though.


----------



## RubyRed

:ciao:  Bomb

will this Driver work?? 

View attachment 042.jpg


View attachment 040.jpg


----------



## bombbudpuffa

Off tomorrow. I'll throw up a how to then. Sorry for the wait.


----------



## orangesunshine

bombbudpuffa said:


> Bleh....have to take apart a light. Thought I had a driver lying around but can't find it. Would just post pics of my light but I can't for safety reasons. I'll get a how to up over the next couple days for sure though.





bombbudpuffa said:


> Off tomorrow. I'll throw up a how to then. Sorry for the wait.




be watching for it---i find the entire LED movement fascinating---DIY brings it to a different level---hope you are prepared for a bunch of dumb questions from me---lol


----------



## RubyRed

:48:


----------



## RubyRed

:bump:


----------



## bombbudpuffa

Man, I've been BSing about this diy but I'm going to hook it up. Just ordered a few supplies and going to order one of these in the morning.
http://www.ledsupply.com/led-heatsinks/makersheatsink-slim

Then I'll have to order a power supply for fans and I'll show you all how to make a nice looking led grow light.


----------



## bombbudpuffa

Heat sink finally arrived! Just as soon as my chips get here I'll start a new diy thread. 

View attachment 2017-01-19_15.08.17.jpg


View attachment 2017-01-19_15.08.53.jpg


View attachment 2017-01-19_15.09.22.jpg


----------



## Dan789

Thanks Bomb, you've got my attention.  I'll be tuning in to absorb all the info. :farm:


----------



## Budlight

I will be as well very interesting I want to build my own panel that is 2' x 4'   So I will be definitely absorbing as much information as possible


----------



## techrons78

I have been wanting to try one.. I know cutter sales some good DIY lighting. ..I have been wanting to use that Cree Cxb3290 50 watt COBs..tech


----------



## bombbudpuffa

Thanks for stopping by everyone. Check out Growmau5 on YouTube. He has excellent videos on cobs. He also has some great beginner vids. If you want to build your own LED light check him out.


----------



## bombbudpuffa

Here are a few charts to help you choose the right nanometers for your diy project. 

View attachment comparison_legend.png.cf.png


View attachment Mightex_LED_wavelength_portfolio.jpg.cf.jpg


View attachment plant-light-wavelength-chart-01.png.cf.png


View attachment PAR2.jpg.cf.jpg


View attachment lightspectrum.jpg.cf.jpg


----------



## Budlight

Hope you don't mind me posting this I just found these two videos  their part one and part two I thought they might be a little bit helpful I know it answered a few questions that I had  it's pink full spectrum versus white full spectrum  :48:

http://www.youtube.com/shared?ci=gBW3WvP2Ezg


http://www.youtube.com/shared?ci=yGouXLJrBJ0


----------



## screwdriver

Lets see a couple pics of leds mounted in the channels.  I can be impatient.
Whats the latest recipe of lights?


----------



## bombbudpuffa

Budlight said:


> Hope you don't mind me posting this I just found these two videos  their part one and part two I thought they might be a little bit helpful I know it answered a few questions that I had  it's pink full spectrum versus white full spectrum  :48:
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/shared?ci=gBW3WvP2Ezg
> 
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/shared?ci=yGouXLJrBJ0



I don't mind at all. Interesting videos. I'll be using a combination of colors...the nano chips and the Kelvin chips.


----------



## bombbudpuffa

screwdriver said:


> Lets see a couple pics of leds mounted in the channels.  I can be impatient.
> Whats the latest recipe of lights?



I'm really unsure how I'm going to configure them. I'm going to use 28 3w chips. Just not sure if I'll make 3 rows, 4 rows or 5 rows. Unsure which color I'll put where. Unsure of the spacing. Unsure about a lot of things. I will do a mock layout and get some teaser pics up.


----------



## Budlight

bombbudpuffa said:


> I'm really unsure how I'm going to configure them. I'm going to use 28 3w chips. Just not sure if I'll make 3 rows, 4 rows or 5 rows. Unsure which color I'll put where. Unsure of the spacing. Unsure about a lot of things. I will do a mock layout and get some teaser pics up.



 I'm with you on that one and having so many options makes it even more difficult :48:


----------



## RubyRed

:ciao:


:stoned:


----------



## bombbudpuffa

A better look at my heat sink with the acrylic splash guard in place(the splash guard still has a protective covering on it). 

View attachment 2017-01-22_19.58.12.jpg


View attachment 2017-01-22_20.01.51.jpg


View attachment 2017-01-22_20.00.02.jpg


----------



## Budlight

Hope you don't mind me asking this but what would you use to run 25 white 3W LEDs and 5 3W full spectrum LEDs   They are 700ma


----------



## bombbudpuffa

Budlight said:


> Hope you don't mind me asking this but what would you use to run 25 white 3W LEDs and 5 3W full spectrum LEDs   They are 700ma



I'd buy 3 of these and run ten led on each driver. You could buy a driver that could run them all but it would be more expensive.

http://m.ebay.com/itm/Aluminum-7-12...ED-Driver-TY-0020-SM-/152335132707?nav=SEARCH


----------



## Budlight

bombbudpuffa said:


> I'd buy 3 of these and run ten led on each driver. You could buy a driver that could run them all but it would be more expensive.
> 
> http://m.ebay.com/itm/Aluminum-7-12...ED-Driver-TY-0020-SM-/152335132707?nav=SEARCH



 Sweet thanks buddy I greatly appreciate it :48:  I think the three drivers is a better idea because if I need to turn off one I can if it's too strong


----------



## bombbudpuffa

My deep red chips came today. Just waiting on my full spectrum and blue chips and I'll be ready to build.


----------



## bombbudpuffa

https://youtu.be/UlM5uvO7sao


----------



## bombbudpuffa

Decided to replace some of the cheap cool white leds with some cree leds. They're almost twice as bright. Wiring this light is going to be fun lol.


----------



## bombbudpuffa

Received my cyan, full spec and some 400-410 nm chips. Driver for my crees should be here tomorrow then it's just a wait for the cree chips to arrive.


----------

