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My wife is a plant enthusiast. Several years ago we got interested in grow lights, photosynthesis, and P.A.R. I bought some horticultural LEDs and built a small frame to hold them. We were able to start seedlings and get a jump on the growing season. However, the layout was not great and it had limited space. This project is an upgraded version. The goals for the new version were to increase the size, add more lights, and an enclosure to contain the light.
The final product. It has been been working well for several months. There is 2.5% VLT limousine tint on the glass.
The design. Created in Autodesk Fusion 360.
Lighting:
Lighting:
The LEDs were purchased from the Horticultural section on StevesLeds.com. I used a combination of Cool White, Royal Blue, and Deep Red. They are 3 Watt LEDs and they are powered by MeanWell LDD-700L drivers. The drivers provide a constant current of 700 mA. The system is powered by a 24 Volt 8 Amp power supply. The total power consumption is 4.2 Amps at 24 Volts = 100 Watts.
This is a view with the top removed. There are 2 aluminum strips for support running left to right. There are 6 aluminum strips where the LEDs are mounted. Each strip contains 8 LEDs for a total of 48 LEDs. There is 1 MeanWell LDD-700L powering each strip of 8 LEDs.
The 2 fans are used to simulate wind for the seedlings. The seedlings grow thicker and stronger if they sway back and forth in the wind.
A view from underneath one of the LED strips. The LEDs come soldered to a star shaped PCB with a metal backing. I applied thermal paste to the back of the LEDs and bolted them to the aluminum strip.
Circuit:
Circuit:
The 24Volts input goes to 3 places: 1) The LED drivers 2) DC-DC converter for fans(12 Volts) 3) DC-DC converter for microcontroller (5 Volts). The LED drivers have a dimming input which can be supplied a PWM signal to set the brightness. I am using an ATTiny85 microcontroller to send the dimming signal to the LED drivers. The ATiny85 sets the dimming signal based on the potentiometer value.
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