Many indoor gardeners shy away from building LED plant lighting themselves. No wonder considering the many options. This leaves nothing to be desired, but can sometimes be unsettling: different LED Driversframe constructions and Circuit diagrams often leave beginners in the dark as to how to get the finished lamp. Mostly they prefer to use ready-made Grow LED panels.
Because many growers still want to use the latest and most efficient LED chips from Samsung (which is often not guaranteed by Amazon & Co. for finished lamps from the Far East) Crescience has now introduced the FLUXshield. Here are the Samsung LM301H (horticulture version of the popular LM301B) as selected LED chips (SL-Bin).
https://youtu.be/9QYUPJjwt1c
The FLUXshield is very beginner-friendly in that the basic version comes with a 150 watt LED driver and no complex frame. Here, an LED module is connected to a driver, thus reducing possible sources of error. Thus the cabling and mounting of the Mean Well XLG-150-H-AB the only task until the LED can be put into operation. Even if it seems very simple, electrical installations should be carried out by a qualified electrician for safety reasons.
The FLUXshield follows a well-known principle that has been very popular in the DIY Grow LED scene for some time. Thereby many of the mid-power LEDs are distributed over a large area circuit board. The efficient chips and the large surface area ensure that the heat exchange of the board with the air is already sufficient to provide satisfactory cooling.
The following setups are recommended for the most common surfaces:
The distinctive look of the FLUXshield Grow LED panel comes from a functional detail: The FLUXshield is pervaded by cooling slots. With conventional boards, part of the radiated heat accumulates under the LED panel. The FLUXshield uses simple physics: The rising warm air (Chimney effect) will through the board, thus providing additional circulation and cooling.
In most cases, such LED boards use inexpensive standard printed circuit boards with a thickness of 1.6 - 2.0 mm. Such a design is quite flexible - but rather in the sense of "bendable". As the board is the heart of such a plant lamp, the FLUXshield uses a 3 mm thick board. This protects the LED chips from mechanical stress and increases the heat transport over the surface.
A weakness of all LED boards or COBs is that high light intensity is created under the light source, which decreases towards the outside. The underlying problem is the limited space an LED panel has. If the LEDs are evenly distributed, there is a strong "focal point" that focuses on the center under the board. To counteract this effect, the LEDs on the FLUXshield are distributed differently: LED density decreases towards the middle. This also has another advantage for cooling: The heating of the board is more even.
The new FLUXshields have been developed and manufactured in cooperation with the Grow-LED specialist LXCustoms. Two versions have been developed:
While Crescience offers modules and simple kits in the shop, LXCustoms also offers ready mounted lamps like this 300 W - Monster:
