@dbrn32 I don’t think the 50,000 vs 100,000 life expectancy of the chips really matters to me, unless the performance of the chips diminishes significantly over time.
It’s the difference between 7 years and 14 years at 18 hours per day.
If I have to replace the boards in 7 years because I saved 35 or 40% up front, that’s a fine trade off for me.
If my yields are lower, I will yield plenty from this set-up, I’m ok with that.
But if the quality will be significantly different it does matter to me, whether it’s out of the gate or 3 years from now because the epistar degrade faster.
Not sure where the 100,000 hours comes in? The light manufacturers say all kinds of silly stuff, but most of the led manufacturers rate their stuff at 50,000 hours. I agree though, at the rate new tech comes out most replace their stuff way short of even 7 years.
Given the time you’re planning on running, I would probably pay extra for the cree leds if you have the money. If not, won’t be end of the world either.
50k is the lifespan, Cree is better and worth the money but not the end of the world.
3k is better for flower but the 3.5k do a wicked job start to finish. If your going to have veg and flower rooms split it in 3k+ reds and 4k,but if not run it all 3500k with red 660NM.
Your already getting kingbrites so your getting a wicked bang for your buck I wish @Not2SureYet could have better luck with the website as he wants some to but seems to have issues dealing with the website.
@dbrn32 makes a good point, in 7 years these lights will have paid for themselves over and over again and the tech will be sooo much different you will probably end up running them to grow veggies lol
Manual is only good for so much anyway. Adjust your lights based on how plants are growing and you’ll be fine. Try to keep them clean and dry, don’t mess with it while energized, and you should be good to go.
Yeah, the wire I didn’t know what to do with ended up being the dimmer, my old lights didn’t have one. I’ve got it figured out now.
Here is the difference between my old and new boards. 240W on the left 150 on the right. The biggest difference is the lack of 6.5K blue lights which were about 1/3 the old board, and probably incorporated to keep cost down, as well as much fewer reds.
No manual needed lol.
Learn to use your lux app to do a LUX to PPFD conversion and then into a DLI calculator.
DLI is how you want to dial it in while also reading your plants to watch node spacing and fox tailing
The other ones showed up today. This is a samsung 3500 301H paired with the epistar diode.
I can tell you these things are really bright. I had 700 watts on my plants, and replaced 2 150 watt panels with the 2 240 Watt panels that came yesterday, so I’m up 180 Watts in there. But it was really bright before, like when I sit under the lamps trimming or adjusting the plants I wear sunglassed.
Last night I couldn’t raise the mylar curtain without feeling like I was burning my retinas. Sunglasses all the time in the grow room from now on.
So, I think I’m done with this thread until I can give more feedback on how the plants respond. For anyone interested, I placed the order last Weds, I ammended my order on Thursday, they held it until Friday and I received it in the Midwest USA Weds and Thurs the following week. 8 days to receive everything even with them holding the order for 2 days which allowed me to change it.
Make sure your wearing polarized lenses to many cheap sunglasses out there that make you think your protecting your eyes but your not.
I always dial.
Also did yours come with the nice little Dials? My hlg has it built. Into the drive but I need to use a screwdriver while my kingbrite has a dial I love em.
Good point, I didn’t think about it. I’m not a fancy sunglass guy, and have a pair of Foster Grant Ironmans that I picked up at some touristy discount store for $2 on vacation with my kids. They are probably knockoffs, and even the originals I think only have UV protection, not polarized. Definitely worth $20 to protect my eyes in there.
They do have the dials, and they are very convenient, I have no idea why it didn’t occur to me to turn them down while I’m in there. Probably stoned, lol.
To be honest, once I have my lights set and I’m entering my tent minimal I don’t like to touch my dials because I have them tweaked in.
Yes buy some good sunglasses, a common issue in today’s world is cheap foreign country made sunglasses that just have a color/tint to them, this causes your pupils to dilate which then just allows more uv into your eyes causing damage over time. Although people don’t notice because it still seems shaded.
Don’t cheap out on safety!
Congrats on your purchase. I wish I would’ve found this conversation before my purchase. That and also the following link that I found very informative and interesting. I may have saved a few bucks and just went with (2) 3000K + version with Samsung LM301H/LM301B + 660nm epistar for flowering.
Apparently the LM301H does seem to be the same as the LM301B. They use the Horticulture tag to boost prices as high as 15% or more.
I just purchased exactly a week ago the very first one you mentioned for 129 + 50.00 shipping + a few bucks currency exchange for $182. Kingbrite LM301H 496 plus 64 660nm, 8 UV, and 8 IR Epistars LEDs. Excited to get it and should be here by mid week. I was going to use it for flowering in a 2×4 closet with 4 plants and run the P2500 Viparspectra that got delivered a week ago for Veg in a separate 2×4 closet. Btw…coming from a 4ft 4 bulb T5HO set up I REALLY dig this P2500!! I’ve been recently thinking about everything and decided that I would want to run 2 of them in my closet for coverage density reasons.
So now I’m wondering if I should just go with another one of the same ones coming my way or the 3000k 301B + 660m only option by kingbrite/meijui/ yuanhui. Been researching them all dayng week! Lol
I’ve decided to wait to see how this kingbrite is before making my decision. Based on what y’all are saying plus other sites I’m glad I went with kingbrite.
I got a used like new version of that p2500 for 179 delivered on Amazon.
I’m entering w6 flower of my first grow with Northern Lights…I have 2 G-13 and 2 Moby Dick at a month and a half in veg under a 4 bulb T5HO w/ 26w LED’s… Can’t wait for it to arrive. I’m thinking they’ll respond well when I put them under the P2500. Will go ahead and get another kingbrite headed this way too.
@McSchlabb From what I understand from the resident lighting expert / electrical engineer the 301b and 301h are the same diode, but there are some potential performance differences between them due to voltage bin and something else (photon wavelength?) I don’t know exactly, but the difference in price for the kingbrite was $10 and I wanted the peace of mind. In terms of the diode mix, it seems like people are pretty satisfied with the HLG lamps that just have the full spectrum diodes and reds, so I decided not to worry about IR and UV, I can always add those elements separately later if they really make a big difference, but I’ll go through a couple rounds of auto’s and see how the quality is with this set-up, then I can put in more money, or just move on to photo’s with what I have.
I pretty much maxed out my budget buying these. I’m just doing this for personal use and for hobby purposes to give myself something to do through the impending lockdown. I tried years ago, and had no idea what I was doing, now that it’s legal for medical patients in my state, I’m pretty excited to try again, and wanted to get the best equipment that makes sense for a hobbyist with a reasonable budget. I’m sure there are better lights out there, but I think these will work out pretty great.
Makes sense for that little bit extra to go with the H version for piece of mind. Tracking shows the kingbrite will be here tomorrow. Can’t wait for it to get here. Everything works out with it I will go with a 2nd one without the IR and UV too…
Going with 301h over 301b offers no peace of mind. You could still get a lower bin 301h that would perform the same as a lower bin 301b.
Are we sure that samsung charges more for them? I tried looking, but ran out of time to find identical flux and voltage bin chips. I don’t believe samsung is trying to pull one over anyway, as they have shared multiple press releases clearing this up. Do I believe shade tree board manufacturers will tell you the 301h is better and therefore they are charging you more? Absolutely!