Phototherapy--Grow Lights

[aln]

Hey Aln-

I hooked up an led grow light today to get the process of starting some seeds going, and then thought how I could make it more efficient using some bedini tech. And then here you go posting all this info. Thank you for that.

I am interested in replicating what you have done exactly. How much is that array of Rapid LED's pulling? Are they from this site: http://www.rapidled.com/ ?

I have a small solid state SG I can use to test this out...but then you mentioned a separate driver? How does that connect to the SG and then to the LED's?

I also have a small 3 pole kit. Are you just running one master coil and then a gen coil driving the LED's?

Yes from that site, they don't burn out like the cheapos. If you want to what I am doing I would actually go with Patrick's circuit. Here is his video, the circuit at 1 and 2 seconds is what I am talking about.

AC from the mains with one leg to a cap and then to a fwbr and the other leg to the other ac part of the fwbr. Don't use a 10 uf cap, that will put out 300 mA at 120 volts. For the rapid LED's you want a 2 uf (or less) AC cap. Series them up to come close on your voltage and put a timer on, Whala! I have 30 on my white lid, 20 on my teal; no heat sinks needed! I post a picture or 2 of what I just described.

As for the question about gen coil, no it was 2 circuits branched out instead of tied together at the output diode because the 2 panels were not equal loads. Happy building. Aln

[aln]

reason for using that circuit

I can use a battery and bedini or the circuit I described above. I primarily use the above circuit because it is near indestructible unlike the ssg, which prefers to be dumped into a battery. If you go ssg, a cap (1-20 uf) across the output will smooth out operation and eliminate flickers. I'll check draw, maybe 30mA at wall outlet according to math if I remember, I can check it with battery and ssg and get back to you. The LED's are the output of the ssg circuit, no charging. You could throw a battery in series with the LED's and charge at the same time, I played with it a bit but came to the point where I wanted the wife to help out and not make things so complicated with wires and batteries all over. Aln

[aln]

Here is the draw on the white lid panel

a lot less than if hooked up on parallel, then you would need heat sinks too.

Here is a mini driver with the ac cap fwbr method


That Cap is a little small, but will light the panels dimly.

Here is where I was going but didn't size the panel yet to the driver. It is the IMHOTEP Bedini fan as an LED driver, maybe you want to develop that.

For both pictures with meters Amp draw is on left voltage on the right meter. Set at 10 amps.

Aln

[Branch Gordon]

Haha yeah I've noticed too that wives + wires going everywhere don't play well together.

I'm thinking though since I'm going to be the only one handling my setup, the SG setup will work best for me, with a cap across the output like you recommended. You mentioned in an earlier post how it was a challenge finding the right coil configuration. Can you clarify what you mean by that? Were you trying to achieve a specific voltage on the output?

So say I measure on my machine a 150V spike...then I would wire up a max of 150V of LED's in series correct? Or do I need some headroom? And then it's just a matter of tuning the resistance to find the brightest resonant point?

Thx for all this info. I'm going to start playing with this and coming up with a design this week.

I can use a battery and bedini or the circuit I described above. I primarily use the above circuit because it is near indestructible unlike the ssg, which prefers to be dumped into a battery. If you go ssg, a cap (1-20 uf) across the output will smooth out operation and eliminate flickers. I'll check draw, maybe 30mA at wall outlet according to math if I remember, I can check it with battery and ssg and get back to you. The LED's are the output of the ssg circuit, no charging. You could throw a battery in series with the LED's and charge at the same time, I played with it a bit but came to the point where I wanted the wife to help out and not make things so complicated with wires and batteries all over. Aln

[aln]

I'm thinking though since I'm going to be the only one handling my setup, the SG setup will work best for me, with a cap across the output like you recommended. You mentioned in an earlier post how it was a challenge finding the right coil configuration. Can you clarify what you mean by that? Were you trying to achieve a specific voltage on the output?

I had a goal in mind- multiple ways of lighting the same panel- so I wanted a specific voltage on output yes. I do not have a scope so I just fill a small cap to see how much the circuit will put out. Voltage alone will not do the work you want, because you want more than just dim lights. You could have 300 volt spikes that won't light 300 volts worth of LEDs. Too much charge for your load and you get heat and a fried tranny or burnt out LEDs.

So say I measure on my machine a 150V spike...then I would wire up a max of 150V of LED's in series correct? Or do I need some headroom? And then it's just a matter of tuning the resistance to find the brightest resonant point?

Since you already have a circuit, build the panel to the circuit. So if you can fill a cap to 150v your neon will light up before your LED's. Kepp that in mind. If you use the nice ones from rapidled, then you can use less LED's in a row as they can take more juice so size the load to 90v instead of 115 for the cheapos, just a guess. If you use cheapos they are less forgiving and cause drive circuit to heat up if the spike can't get out fast enough. If you add a cap in parallel, use a small one and use less leds as the cap wll absorb a bit of the spike. It is fun to play with you'll get the hang of it. The cap will save your circuit while playing around too. When you think you've found the right combination, let it run for a while and check for heat. That was my biggest hurdle and where I nagged Bob the most for help.

You will find you won't need the cap if you mess around enough. Just takes fiddling with it. You will need to have a pot on the SS SSG circuit as that is your output adjustment. Your getting close if neon lights up and then you can shut it off and keep the circuit going just by turning the pot. no core, no cpd, no gen mode Aln

[AlvaroHN]

aln nice lighting method! do you put resistors in the leds array???

I remember one of the John Bedini videos on youtube, he is using resistors in the led array, the video is the one that he is testing a small 12 volts battery converted to alum and it light the leds array for weeks...or more…

Here is the link -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT2CeNuIG6I

But he is not using an oscillator just testing the battery, I don’t know if the resistors in the array led is the way to go for spikes as well as with DC.

I am tempted to make an oscillator to run the light in my house.. specially after I read the patent of tesla that Aaron posted the other, day, “On light and other high frequency phenomena”… just 1 wire! Is amazing I tested it the way John B shows in a video, 1 wire from the radiant coil into 2 diodes and it works! Is amazing! great to show it to the skeptics… lighting things from 1 wire

Alvaro

[aln]

aln nice lighting method! do you put resistors in the leds array???

Alvaro

Nope, maybe I should. What will they benefit?

here is a good page on reading capacitors. Helpful when salvaging them, to know what you have.
Cap value codes

Aln

[AlvaroHN]

Nope, maybe I should. What will they benefit?

here is a good page on reading capacitors. Helpful when salvaging them, to know what you have.
Cap value codes

Aln

I think the resistors force the leds to share the energy evenly.

Alvaro

[aln]

I think the resistors force the leds to share the energy evenly.

Alvaro

That must be when they are in parallel.

So I mentioned earlier not to use CPD mod or gen mode: time to throw a wrench:

I did not try either one on my panels. When I was building, Bob suggested I start with the basic solid state circuit.
In my own thinking I thought, "I have heat issues with the vanilla so for sure I would with the advanced modes."
I am not sure that is correct because as I was playing with a new bigger solid state over the last week I was able to eliminate heat
and increase charging with the CPD mod while I was charging a battery. Batteries and LED's as loads will definitely act different so...
If others with more experience have used their cpd modded ss ssgs to drive LEDs then please tell if it is a good idea or not.
Also, do I need a pot paralleled with the cap on the cpd mod or can I use a resistor (wire wound I would suppose) (this is where you Bob or Patrick could chime in )
Aln

[min2oly]

That must be when they are in parallel.

So I mentioned earlier not to use CPD mod or gen mode: time to throw a wrench:

I did not try either one on my panels. When I was building, Bob suggested I start with the basic solid state circuit.
In my own thinking I thought, "I have heat issues with the vanilla so for sure I would with the advanced modes."
I am not sure that is correct because as I was playing with a new bigger solid state over the last week I was able to eliminate heat
and increase charging with the CPD mod while I was charging a battery. Batteries and LED's as loads will definitely act different so...
If others with more experience have used their cpd modded ss ssgs to drive LEDs then please tell if it is a good idea or not.
Also, do I need a pot paralleled with the cap on the cpd mod or can I use a resistor (wire wound I would suppose) (this is where you Bob or Patrick could chime in )
Aln

Hi Aln,
The biggest reason I see for using the CPD is for creating the big beefy spike, this could ultimately destroy the leds. That being said, you can always find the right size cap (smaller) and/or tame it with a resistor to make the spike just big enough to light the leds with a frequency your plants will appreciate. a resistor paralleling the cap is one way to tame... here....

1. resistor parallel to cap - uses/burns off some of the energy in the cap so there is less to hit the transistor base. this parallel resistor is your duty (time on).

2. resistor in series with the cap - slows down and lowers the voltage going to the transistor base - this is your frequency regulator.

A... basically a free 555 timer

3. the diode - this makes all the energy built up in the cap drain off to the transistor base. Good for getting multiple spikes per cap drain. I would experiment with removing this so the cap can fill up - drain off - fill up- drain off - FOR FREE with the leds. it will not work that way with charging battery (the free part that is) it is free, it just passes through to the batteries.

summation - if you find the right size cap, you can eliminate the diode and resistors. Start with small ac caps a lot depends on the size of your inductor as well...

for leds I might go the "slayer exciter" route or "Dr Stiffler" those will not charge batteries but do a nice job lighting leds safely.

my 2 cents Patrick A.

[aln]

Patrick
When you say "resistor paralleling the cap is one way to tame..." do you mean a pot so it makes a tank-like circuit or a ceramic resistor, or do they act similiar and it doesn't matter? Aln

I noticed with the CPD mod and air core puts out much better charging than w/o cpd. Compared to vanilla with and w/o core. At least my meters say so, Haven't done long runs yet. Working on a fun project to share when its completed. Aln


Just thought about your comment some more. Is the cap you are referring to when you wrote "resistor parallel to cap" the one in parallel with the LED load, or the CPD (cap, diode) mode cap? Sorry, english is my first language Aln

[min2oly]

Patrick
When you say "resistor paralleling the cap is one way to tame..." do you mean a pot so it makes a tank-like circuit or a ceramic resistor, or do they act similiar and it doesn't matter? Aln

I noticed with the CPD mod and air core puts out much better charging than w/o cpd. Compared to vanilla with and w/o core. At least my meters say so, Haven't done long runs yet. Working on a fun project to share when its completed. Aln


Just thought about your comment some more. Is the cap you are referring to when you wrote "resistor parallel to cap" the one in parallel with the LED load, or the CPD (cap, diode) mode cap? Sorry, english is my first language Aln

Yes, I'm talking about the CPD cap and yes resistor across the cap is POT so you can adjust the duty... look forward to your project.
KR - Patrick

[aln]

Patrick, I lost where you posted your solid state set up in the garage that was hooked to the solar panel so I will ask here, how did you protect the panel from the spike? A diode, parallel caps, or was the big cap on the front enough? Aln

[aln]

a thought on LEDs and seedlings

...
Thx for all this info. I'm going to start playing with this and coming up with a design this week.

Branch, Something my wife mentioned yesterday, regarding seedlings, is that they need light right on them to get them going strong. Since LED's are very directional it is hard with my rapid Led panel to get the right mix of color on the seedlings with them spaced how I have them, just thought you might want to know that if you are in the process of designing something. Works good for the plants when they are growing and you can lift the light a little. Learn as we go. Would like to see what you come up with, I might do some redesign for a seedling light too, Just putting them closer and using more 660nm red would do the trick, Aln

[min2oly]

Patrick, I lost where you posted your solid state set up in the garage that was hooked to the solar panel so I will ask here, how did you protect the panel from the spike? A diode, parallel caps, or was the big cap on the front enough? Aln

Hi Aln,
that was a single diode on the + side to a nice big 350V 3300uF cap
the line from the panel to the cap is about 25 feet. I think there's enough resistance there to avoid the spike, at least I have not had any problems with it.

There was some talk about the SSG eventually running batteries down, and I think Bob mentioned my setup here. I'm using my Neg2Neg mode on this so I wonder if that might have something to do with my batteries lasting so long. As Aaron mentioned using the Neg2Neg is more like a boost converter, there's still a spike however much current is delivered as well. That being said, my batteries this winter have not been climbing as high as last winter, I'll have to look up to see if there is any comparative solar data for seattle this winter vs last winter. Just in case, this week I took the coil off and have the panel hooked up directly to the batteries + diode of course... The sun is out quite a bit more this week so I will not be able to compare, just taking caution. It's a nice battery bank I'd hate to loose it.
KR - Patrick