DIY LED or buy pre-made

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

oldfogey8

Very grouchy and ornery today…
*
Joined
May 12, 2014
Messages
11,277
Reaction score
32,249
I have started looking at some sites for building my own LED light. I have been known to be clever enough to build and fix electronics. LEDGardener looks to have a lot of info and links to components. I'd like opinions on if it is worth while to go the DIY route. Any comparison of cost vs. quality and PAR, etc of the light between pre-manufactured and DIY would be cool too. I am confident I can build one. I just want to know if I would really get that much better performance. I think I want to keep the cost under $200..
Thanks,
of8
 
BBP doesn't stop around much anymore. He did a whole thread on his DIY cobb lights. 2Red did his Samsung led DIY. All seem very straight forward. I have both leds I've bought and DIY, I did the same Samsung leds that 2Red did. I like them all. They are all in different spaces and do different things. I don't own a par meter, so I can't give you numbers.
 
Thanks. I will look for those threads. I like the idea of putting a light together but don’t want to bother if it isn’t going to grow better plants for less coin than buying an off-the-shelf unit. My main aim is to make a light for flowering as I need more light.
 
This is where I got mine...It as easy enough to assemble a frame of aluminum with these attached and the driver stays out of the grow so as not to add it’s heat...
https://solstrip.com/en/
 
Thanks 2RE. They look interesting. It looks like for my 3x3 tent, I’d need 9 X2 solstix and the 320 watt dimable driver if I were to use their recommendation of 35 watts per square ft. At this time, I think they are still a bit out of my price range unfortunately. Mrs Fogey likes what I grow with my cruddy setup so telling her I am investing $400 to up my game probably wouldn’t go over well(unless I can figure out how to make some money off my crops). I guess I can’t blame my wife really. I am just a cheap old fart...

I might think about making a supplemental or side lighting rig out of them though.

Thanks again.
 
I have used the new quantum board led mars sp150 for a grow. it is really better than the blurple.
I suggest you to pick the quantum board PCB board and meanwell driver. Seems many people use them.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top