Convert a street light into a grow light.
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- Опубліковано 6 лют 2025
- I did this for fun, but if you think about it, the beam pattern from these lights is well suited to plant shelving, and the fact they are designed to be water-resilient means they could be a good choice for a task like this. You can also get similar lights in much higher power ratings and matching grow-light LEDs.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
www.bigclive.co... - Наука та технологія
Once Clive starts growing his pot, his videos will be more laid back than an episode of Bob Ross doing the joy of painting.
....See the happy little electrons.
Beat the devil out of it! Heheheh.
They'll be "Truly epic, Man . . " :-)
As opposed to AvE's angry pixies.
and with more food breaks.
brickley2000
and no shortcircuits, only happy accidents
I have a generic Chinese 400w impulse sealer (which is actually quite well made) and it came with only a standard 2-wire cord despite the base being a magnesium casting. I opened it up to replace the cord, and found it had no provision for a ground. I ended up drilling a small hole in one of the casting pillars and using a self-tapping screw to secure the ground terminal.
The driverless LED appears to have "20W" on the back - I was surprised that a very aware person like you didn't see that. Your insight is amazing.
Nice, perfect for those 'tomato' plants I don't grow
I bet soundspark gets allll the ladies
@Ben Turner Before you start calling people a 'fucking gay' I think you really ought to know Clive is gay.
The writing on back of that cheap led say 20 w. He was holding it upside down.
Mmmmm, jamaican tomato plants! =)
@@Peter_S_ Cannabis needs PBAR which is a much wider range than PAR. LEDs can't do PBAR which is why HID is still king for quality (LEDs are great for quantity)
Looking forward to your "unboxing" of your HP9800. There's a LOT of additional functionality that is very useful (including a data logger function).
Speaking of ratcheting screwdrivers, I have a Mastercraft stubby screwdriver that I have been using at work for years and it's still ratcheting just fine. Since I live in Canada, I also see Robertson screws on a daily basis. They are a lot easier to remove even if they are painted over.
Thanks for mentioning Robertson. One time at work I suggested crating stuff with Robertson screws, and including a screwdriver, inside the crate.
I don’t know about anyone else but I’m still hanging out for the Hopi video, starting to think I better just buy one to tear it down but then I don’t get the same enjoyment. Gotta love how Clive makes pulling cheap electronics apart more enjoyable to watch than if you actually do it yourself
1. Claim to be expert Chinese to English translator, while really knowing no English
2. Get hired to translate product information
3. Copy and paste random English sentences - Chinese business owner knows no
better
4. Profit!
Well, actually, that is a serious business in China. if you're foreign, some companies will hire you just to sit there in meetings and say garbage to a translator, just so the company seems diverse.
I worked a bit with China Mobile They wanted English recordings for their phone announcements, so I recorded some for them. I have no idea if they used them or if they still use them!
that drverless led at 13:00 say "mal" that is "bad" in spanish...
It actually says "20W", but upside down.
mumbo666 ^ yup
3:36 With the wires pulled back you can see a grounding screw mount at about the 5 o'clock position. The grounding wire wasn't long enough. Looks like wires were cut before they were inserted and focused on the length needed for the power supply.
I was in SE Asia recently and they don't really use earthing very much. I was pleased to see RCDs on pretty much everything. Sadly they often didn't work. (I guess humidity doesn't do them any favours).
Ive had a lot of issues with ratchet drivers exploding their internals as well, but over the last few years I have noticed they have really improved - I have one from milwaukee that has lasted about a year and a half now, and it is my main driver so it takes a bit of a beating at work.
Does power factor correction really matter for residential users?
No.
Wow, you're up super early or you just finished a great night. Either way, thanks for the vid :)
I'm always up into the small hours of the morning.
"No" for two reasons. 1) The power company doesn't charge residential users based on power factor. 2) In a typical residence, a few lights with poor power factor doesn't change the over all power factor at the power meter. 40 watts of apparent power isn't that much. But a commercial account using a large number of these lights would be a different story.
Gadget Addict
Is this a leading power factor as its a capacitor rather than a lagging power factor from a transformer therefore helping the supply company to balance the system. I would imagine they would be pleased to have some capacitance in circuit
Or am I talking rubbish?
19:25 in my parts lists i put them as "screw, socket cap, hex" and they're generally referred to as "socket head cap screw" with the hex socket implied. i've seen robertson (square) socket cap screws once but they are super rare and i don't know of any company that regularly makes them. i've seen robertson in flat, pan, button and truss heads though.
you deal with a lot of different screw types in arcades.
Clive you could file down the sidewall of the driver casing next to a screw, Then use the case screws for grounding.
I usually don't make comments of such nature, but I feel it must be said. Clive, your hands are the best looking since I started watching your videos many years ago. This is good. Have you given up bare knuckle boxing?
They tend to fare badly in winter, but I'll be back to using the punchbag at the gym again soon.
clive has been sponsored by palmolive hand cream, that or he started doing the dishes with fairy liquid (no homo intent!)
Everybody is a joke (ster). That was funny as frig. SPONSORED by..
i know that feeling, i dont do any punching, but the gym tears up my hands even with gloves, add in lots of messing around with stuff i always have cuts and scabs
Will he be soaking in it? The Palmolive that is...
"Unbelievably magenta." My new favorite phrase :-)
Does this lamp remind anyone of USS Voyager?
Evil Ash Only if you add some nacelles, she's not going anywhere without them. :-)
Well... NOW it does!
Welp, I'm probably on a watchlist now. Thanks Clive!
CMN atic why?
22:50 Hopi doesn't flicker under pink light :D
The people who actually suggested operator error on the screws being put back in wrong place do not buy many things from ebay. They weren't good enough for big box store, sell them online. That's what happens.
I genuinely need grow lights, so good for the winter and spring when light levels are low 👍🏻
Purchased a few of the driver-less one to experiment with and have been wondering if there is a source of those squarish aluminium housings as the 30W ones are bright enough to light up my drive and front porch area.
in any kind of indoor growing situation you'd need a ton of those to really be effective. with so little energy the spread would actually be a bad thing.
"Charm is a flowing scenerywear is time and space are intertwined, let a space possessedperhaps. This is not only artistic sublimationbut a permanent attachment of mental space."
I think they used google translate on "poetry" setting...
Wolfin Seems like they used the LEDs to grow some herbs
Perhaps they've already done Big Clive's grow-light conversion, and this "translation" was fuelled by consumption of the "enhanced plant product" :-)
I think its kinda a wonderful as i cant really think of what they are trying to say or describe here i think it could be loosely used to describe the stargate scene from 2001 Space Odyssey?
It's one of those profound quotes that we have no hope of comprehending because the author is on another level of existence.
ha ha thats for sure
Mad episode. I'm glad you made the definition that they aren't the same as the more expensive municipal street lights that have to comply with a bunch of specifications, or you'd have a bunch of tweekers trying to tear their local streetlights down during the night to try and make some money on the side lol. That's a good idea though.
@bigclivedotcom You were holding the driverless LED upside down but it appears it said "20w", albeit hard to make out. If you realized that, ignore me -- but it appeared you were having trouble making out what it said.
Interesting note on a mains frequency: It reads 49.84 Hz for a moment! It's quite severe drift from 50 Hz. I know that UK power grid is less stable due to its size compared to eg. continental european network, but at 0.16 Hz it would have already triggered lots of regulation to bring it back to 50 Hz.
A bit late, but on his video on the HOPI meter he mentioned that the frequency readout is unstable on it, probably as that could be done by the chip that multiplexes the screen.
Kinda makes me want to take apart my old Black-Star light. I bet this would grow catnip and herbs quite well.
~12:00 *cpu compound inquiry*
The white stuff is cheaper, it's silicone based and might have been fine for this application.
You also pointed out the stored wire. Chinese companies are very versatile, they are always changing what they manufacture.
My guess is, they already had a lot of these supplies from other manufactured products.
Prefabbed Walmart computers would be one reason to have loads of thermal compound around. The wire could literally be from anywhere or for anything.
To answer you question, short, yes.
The grey stuff is better, and they didn't use white stuff because they would have probably had to order it and there was no point if they had a perfectly applicable solution on hand.
You want water to be able to come out the bottom,I've found this useful when installing outdoor motion lights,less failure rate when you allow any water that gets in to be able to get out
When selecting high wattage LEDs, be aware there are two types. One has a solid mass of LEDs and the others have clearly visible 'squares' or 'blocks' of LEDs.
The one with discrete 'squares' of LEDs are more reliable and the failure of one block doesn't affect others. This is also the techniques used by well known manufacturers - they must know something!
In the biz, we call them hex drive socket cap screws. They're very nice looking, but if they get rusty/corroded or over-tightened, it's game over for the socket head.
I got some of these grow COBs 'early on' to have a play with and their Lumen output per Watt is miserable compared to the standard white COB LEDs -like 20% or something. Now I am wondering if this might be because the Lumen measurement was taken by a metre that was expecting a standardised spread...?
I think the only way to tell will be to try and grow the same thing side by side ensuring the same amount of input power -say 20Watts- and see which grows stuff better...
If you used the driverless LED and put the metal cover on that you said would touch the top of the chips, would it short out the chips or act as a heat sink ? I remember that those chips got very hot from a previous video.
There are 11 different nano meters of light that are used if you grow VEGETABLES. I grow alot of VEGETABLES in doors. We operate a Aquaponics system and we use separate LEDs for each wave length because when we started there were no "Grow Lights" But I am sure glade you showed this one. Our next generation of LED lights will be water cooled and about 10 brighter.
Cinese Logic: "Why connect third wire when two wires make the unit work?"
Elnufo if they could use one they would
if case is not metal its not necesary in fact
Well... the chinese are sort of right. I've never experienced unconnected earth to be a problem. In fact, none of the mains outlets in my apartment have any third earth connection, so even though the manufacturers of all my electrical devices might have connected earth, it still won't be connected when i plug it into the wall. I think the standard conventions depends a lot on which region you live in.
@@mortenrobinson
I had no idea mains power earth wasn't a thing in some places!
@@skylined5534 I think it might still be connected to the earth, just not on that third connection pin which is normally used for it. All the outlets in my apartment only has two pins (female), so I suspect the zero-pin might be connected to earth, and the 230ac pin would thus be with respect to the actual earth.
This gives me other ideas such as IR or UV lights as well. LED's come in a number of colors now.
RED= Flowering stage , BLUE = Vegetative stage for proper you need to control the time spent under each color usually 18/6 grow and 12/12 flower then again the amount of each color is important
I’ve always done 20/4 for veg but it works as long as it’s around 18/6. I’ve heard they grow faster with 20/4 but are more prone to disease
Hi, Clive. Do you have any more build videos planned? Would love another light bulb build video like your nixie bulb.
I should do more full build videos. I'll keep that in mind.
BC Sneaking out and replacing all the lamp posts lights with this vibrant pink in his local area :)
I'd be the prime suspect instantly.
Perfect for all my weed plants. Thanks Clive!
Great video. How did you unlock and reduce the light exposure?
so you prefer the mix of LED color opposed to the blue with phosphorous gel?
I can confirm that grey viscous thermal paste is what you use with CPUs/etc in computers. It WILL stain any surface it comes into contact with, so be careful what you get it on. To get it off the LEDs and backplate (if you'd like to) I'd recommend using isopropyl alcohol (any alcohol will do tho). Don't listen to the people who say you need 90% or whatever I've been using 70% isopropyl alcohol since day 1 and it works just fine.
The "Robertson" 4-sided screws and bolts are very common here in the USA for high torque applications.
Agreed - I don't mind the multi-bit screwdriver sets, but I hate it when they feel the need to add a ratcheting feature to it.
son-t agro :D The 400W version. Those grow many nice green plants here in the Netherlands.
I think I may be an accessory to some of my town's independent growers. I worked in an electronics store, and had numerous customers come to me asking for appropriate lights for growing tomatoes. I pointed out our LED globe replacements were red and blue, with a yellowy-white phosphor coated rubber cap over them, the removal of which was simple, and that, in removing the useless green band of light for growing their (with a frown and a stress) "tomatoes", they should see roughly a 30% increase or more in their energy efficiency. In the old days, police used to identify new indoor farms by the spike in power consumption. Incandescent grow lights would each be at least 80W, or fluorescent ones at about 30W for similar output. These days, you can do in 5W per light what you could do in 80. A small indoor farm, water pumps included, would consume about as much power as a new fridge.
If I am correct it wasn't so much the power usage alone that tipped them off. It was the lighting cycle that they were able to tell, on, off, on, off. Still possible to detect these days, albeit maybe a bit trickier. Much easier and cheaper to mask with a dummy load during the off cycle though.
Legalise it and go catch real criminals.I never abused weed or alcohol,only tried it a few times in my life.But i can tell you,alcohol should be banned in favor of cannabis.
Also,you can buy solar panels and then they have almost no chance at catching you.
CME True at least for the electric part. Still have to worry about thermal imaging though. I live in a Podunk town of 2300 and I remember it was in the paper quite a few years ago when they obtained thermal imaging. Unprotected, grow houses light up like a Christmas tree on thermal.
The number one reason for them being busted has been, and always will be, messed up personal things such as a pissed off girlfriend though. Of course scale of the operation is a big factor too. A plant or two and you probably don't have much to worry about as long as you cross your T's and dot your I's. Hopefully we can pull our heads out of our asses and this changes in the future.
Who uses incandescent for grow ops? Most use at least HPS/Metal halide of no less than 400w.
who the f cares man
I've found roberstons sometimes get stuck on the end of the drill. you have to put it back into the hole to get enough grip on the screw to get it out.
most heatsink compounds perform similarly. there is a difference between the very best and the very worst but for the most part theyre all the same.
Very entertaining Clive as always
in the statea almost all metal encloses have one of them non-threaded screw holes. The size is for a #10-32.They make a special green bonding screw with sometimes a cut length wise about 1/4 of the lenth of the screw so it will self tap and the bond screw will usally also come with a 6" length of 12 or 14 AWG green solid wire attached to the screw.
Regarding the poor power factor. These driver devices usually have a full wave bridge connected to the line and then a filter cap:
When the load includes a smoothing capacitor, both the voltage and the
current waveforms will be greatly changed. While the voltage is
smoothed, as described above, current will flow through the bridge only
during the time when the input voltage is greater than the capacitor
voltage. For example, if the load draws an average current of n Amps,
and the diodes conduct for 10% of the time, the average diode current
during conduction must be 10n Amps. This non-sinusoidal current leads to harmonic distortion and a poor power factor in the AC supply.
No matter how well the optic directs the light, a point source will always be supplying less light to the edges of the beam than the center -- unless you used some kind of structured light COB that compensated for the falloff (heard of such a thing? would be interesting tho!). With that and the shadow occlusion I can't see these becoming popular as grow lights, except maybe just for house plants if the price is right.
To be clear, that's only the case due to the 'target' being a flat plane, thus the rays intersecting the edges are longer than at the center. I suppose if you were growing tomatoes in space you could arrange them in an arc and use the point source to save some precious launch weight!
actually I'd be quite interested to see some testing of the beam pattern these put out, it looks to have a fairly sophisticated optic design (or...is it just designed to look like that?) and those are hard for us hobbyists to come by at prices like this.
Thanks a lot for your videos. I am learning so much. Brilliant stuff. Best wishes.
I know this is an old video but did you notice that the HOPI stopped flickering when lit just right with the grow light?
I can tell you I am almost certain they are counting on the pipe and the screws to tighten it to the pipe to be the earth return.
I also when there hasn't been a earth to attach to.I would tie it with a neutral.In the code book it says basicly the difference between a earth and neutral is that the neutral is for a permanent return path and the earth is for a backup. Structures that use EMT are counting on those screws in the couplings and connectors for the return path for earth , and as time goes by vibration , expantion and people crawling in the attics have even pulled the pipe apart and if they didn't pull a earthwire ,rarely seen it done on residential jobs, with the rest there is no return path.
Hei Clive,
just to answer your question about grounds in China.
Well i've been working as a lighting engineer in China for the past 7 years. Trust me No ground anywhere! they have the options but just dont get it why they would use it cause as soon as they plug it in the breaker jumps so they just dont use it. hahaha
Also my apartment has ground cables in every socket however no ground there.....just the cable :D :D
I have a feeling this video might attract quite a lot of views
I actually like the white thermal paste it doesn't dry out after a few years of use like the gray
Another great video... but not sure about grow light idea ...Indoor growers typically use 400- 500 Watts PER SQUARE METER
Being Canadian we use Robertson screws as the main screw head, they are the best even when the screws and or drivers are cheaply made. The USA can curse Henry Ford for keeping them out and having to live with the lousy Phillips head screws.
now here's an interesting idea...watching now! ...glad you posted I was going through BC withdrawal haha
MyBigThing2010 is the Big Clive BC or British Columbia, Canada BC? cause given the topic, it very well could be both.
BC = bigClive ...thought that would be obvious with the wording/context/content of my OP...apparently, nit picking not ...
It was pretty clear, but BC, Canada is known for it's weed. Therefore, joke.
Did anyone notice that the light made the HOPI readout display quit flickering? ! =-)
"Why am I shimmying up the pole? Well, you see Officer, there was this video on UA-cam..."
Man that voice is so mellow and calming you just got 5-10 views on random videos knocked me out i fell asleep
I have done that too.
and its not the first time it happened on his videos haha
well he gets views i get some sleep win/win
Agreed, if i have trouble snoozing i usually play a clive vid. Mikeselectricstuff is also a nice channel for that. Indepth dismantling of electronics is bliss for bedtime!
So true. My favorite bedtime stories. And I'll do this lamp if I find that mysterious LED...
Buy some taps man! Great vids, I've learned so much.
I have. I drilled and tapped the hole to take a 3mm screw afterwards.
Are you sure you are not actually using this one for growing something? ;-)
At this power output it would be ideal for cress.
bigclivedotcom yeah, "cress"
Would a quick swap of the driver and LED module easily upgrade this if you were the sort that preferred tomato's over cress?
I've never smoked Cress before.
I bought 2 reels of grow light led tape to grow my ''Cress''
six sided socket: In the US we call them socket head cap screws and abbreviated SHCS in the catalogs. If it was a button head (rounded top) we would call it a button head socket head or button head cap screw, BHSH or BHCS. Decades ago my father called them Allen heads.
I discovered robertson screws when i moved to Canada, they are absolutely superior
Wait, they don't exist in the USA?
Superior to what? Definitely better than slot heads, but I'd argue they're inferior to hex or Torx
They do, but they aren't very popular. Just another brand of screws on the shelf really. They usually just call them "square drive" or something like that. It's been a few years since I've been in a US hardware store.
They're so good the whole head shears off the screw instead of stripping it. I like them but not for heavy duty application. In such cases, hex head screws and a magnetic driver socket is love.
For me its Torx all the way. I don't like Hex head at all.
Clive are you not allowed to use a battery drill in the middle of the night?
Most fancy coloured lights are not the best colour spectrum so If you want the best and where to get them from lets know, you're buying in the wrong place. 2 colours is wrong theres a few more than that.ok how much light does a plant need? about 4 to 6 times that per 700mm square or one plant ok.
What model Grow leds you use just curious and whats the price? Also do you find the grow leds anygood for plants? Thank you for the video :D
Nerds love heat compound like arctic silver and say it'll never dry out, but I've used it in a laptop that was run hot ALL the time. Even after a complete and total cleaning the processor ran at 72c and after just a few months would creep into the 80s. I'd have to open the computer again and change out that thermal compound to keep it efficient.
The point is... liquid thermal compounds do work better, but those junky hard compounds last LONGER. If you don't want to mess with thermal compound for 10 years the hard kind works better in a couple years than the paste type, at least with all the compounds I've purchased.
I recall always being told that putting grow lights or uv reptile lights through clear glass or clear plastic would change the wavelength of light and thus somewhat filter out some of the very rays that the plant/reptile needs. They always told us not to use anything in between the light and the target but the air itself. So I wonder how much that glass filters out the light. dunno.
The new Driverless LED's iv just had delivered have clear silicon over the components. I remember you had to dig through the white silicon on the teardown you did.
Red leds may be more efficient, then red phosphor coated blue, but from my experience I bought 3W blue and red LED chips both rated for 700mA.
Blue chips had Vf=3.8V so P = 2.66W cost $19 per 100pcs
Red chips had Vf=2.6V so P = 1.82W cost $34 per 100pcs
So simply from economical perspective I understand using red phosphor coating
Next advantage is that you can mix needed wavelengths with only one type of leds so you can buy more pcs for product so you can get them cheaper.
Bookmarked for when I move to Colorado
Hey there, I have a summer project to put up some lighting in my garden (it's a small 75 sqm L-shaped ordeal) and was looking into using some cheap ebay warm white LED floodlights (you know, the ones that usually come in 10W, 20W and 50W flavor). By looking at your video it seems the 50W ones really put a strain on the components, so does that mean that I can expect the best life out of 10W ones?
Also, most of them are these arrays of SMDs instead of COBs like you have here - which would you recommend?
Thank you
I'd suggest buying a couple and trying them out to see what sort of real light level they give in your garden. The 10W COBs are a good choice, but the higher power 20/30/50W ones are OK, but better used with a lower power driver so it under-runs them.
Torx screws/bits ;)
Great vid !
Now any chance you can show us how to build a more powerful one? :) It would be great to see you build something like a single module 50-100w cree/epistar light
the best ratcheting screwdriver I've ever owned is a non-ratcheting one, no really, It does the whole lefty righty thing.. but no ratcheting gear inside! owned it well over 16 years now and most of that was mechanic use!
+David Stanton Is it the type with rollers inside?
bigclivedotcom oh yes, I've abused, missused, left to go rusty and brought it back with a squirt of light oil. i think it was made by Bergen but the markings have warn off.
Interesting...I'm English and in the UK, but for some reason both the title and video description are being presented to me in Deutsch! :-)
I wonder how long it'll be before UA-cam starts attempts to translate the dialogue, too?... ;-)
Check where UA-cam thinks you are. Some of my videos have been translated.
Any idea how to turn this feature off? I’m in Germany, but don’t want to see badly translated texts.
+v8s there *should* be an option somewhere in the YT settings along the lines of "Never translate content" or similar. Failing that, you might need to access YT via an IP address in the UK range. :-)
(Ask a UK friend if you can run a VPN tunnel through their network or - Failing that, & if bandwidth fees are no problem - Try Amazon WS! :-)
can you please give more information on the LED grow light chips i looked on ebay but didn't see any with different colors leds on the same chip
This type uses blue chips to stimulate a blended phosphor that looks orange but gives out a rich pink coloured light.
Where did you get those LED's? I've had a look on eBay and the usual Chinese websites but i have been unable to fint them.
Hi your videos are interesting to me I can watch them all day
Can you revisit this light with a PAR meter taking readings at 18 inches from light directly under light. And at 24 inches from light.
How much would one of these cost to run for the night, also where do you get the colour LED's from? thats a great idea I am useless at things like this but you make it look so easy also would the 30w one be better for the garden (more light) thanks all
The easiest way to get a rough guide to running costs is to equate 1W run continuously for one year to 1$ or 1£ cost. So to run a 30W light for a year continuously 24/7 would cost around £30.
tnx clive
Great video as always Clive!
It says 20W upside down on the driverless LED
too much "plant" intake i guess xD
if youre doing it for actual plant growth, theres 4 colour spectrums that you need from the LEDs, off the top of my head i cant remember what they are however.
I have 50 of these all stripped out of the drivers and replaced with 240v ac led chips....uses for temporary path lighting...stands are in 80 kg concrete bases...pole screws in pole is 3m tall in 1.5m sections....
socket head cap screws
Can you check how much power the Hopi consumes using the other power meter you have?
1W, 7ma.
Is there an easy way to tell if cheap LED's off ebay are full spectrum or just pink?
You really don't know what you're going to get. For wide spectrum white the keywords are high CRI (Color Rendering Index). The plant ones tend to be based on blue and red.
Love the reviews; now will we ever get to see the man behind it, or will we have to live with knowing his hands only.
Peter Rafeiner he has shown his face in many videos.
Hmmmm, lucked out so far. Got to keep looking then :-)
Just open your eyes, the icon for the channel is a pic of him.......
Are there colour cycling led chips in that form factor?
You can get the RGB chips but they need a matching driver.
How are those driverless LED's holding up? Do you have any extended runtime on them?
will u get and open up/test a mars hydro 300 led light please.
Old news. My former employer had a lot of 1KW HPS lot lights replaced with LPS, and the old lights sat in the bone yard for a couple of years. When they finally went to scrap, several were conspicuously missing. No telling where they went... 8^)