Status
- not done
Introduction
We don't have a lot of rooom to garden outside. And wouldn't you know it, we don't get much sun in the house. I built this grow light to grow seedlings. My test subject for this light is cat (wheat) grass.
Overview
The colors we are interested in for our light are red and blue. Different LED lights you can buy have differnet ratios of these two colors. There are excellent articles on the internet describing how plants use these two colors. Now if you want to view your plant's natural beauty then this is not the light for you.
For my first prototype I used pink LEDs. Pink LEDs are blue LEDs with a red/orange phospher coating. Hopefully this provides some good results.
Specifications
I built the light on perf board. See the pictures for the layout. The light draws 5.1 watts of power and runs on 12V. 1W is dissipated in the resisters. I used 51 LEDs and 17 100 ohm resisters.
Construction
Please use the pictures as a guide for construction. Each row contains a 100 ohm resister and three LEDs in series.
Top view of Light
Bottom view of light
Testing
Our test subject is cat grass. Grass does grow quick. I took grass that was already growing and gave it a hair cut. Now we'll see how well it grows back.
The start of the experiment on 5/17/07
Conclusion
I'm setting up the test so I have no conclusion except that this makes a great pink spot light.