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I tried making artificial sunlight at home

victorpoughon.fr

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Re: I tried making artificial sunlight at home

#181

Post by xandrius »

vincekerrazzi wrote: post #48

Honestly this area is so interesting to me because of how incredibly strongly light (or lack thereof) affects in the winter. It also seems to affect me more strongly than most in regards to sleeping patterns. Too much blue light in the evening and bam, brain refuses to sleep until 2am or later. So for me the biggest factor missing in these kinds of projects is a dynamic color temperature. While we get that from produ…

Start small and this goal will give you a nice direction.

Don't think you'll be able to do this in 6 months or a year but if you had started doing little electronics/hardware projects 10 years ago, you'd be ready now.

Re: I tried making artificial sunlight at home

#182

Post by nkmnz »

jclarkcom wrote: post #19

Very cool. I’m the CEO of Innerscene ( https://innerscene.com ) and we make a commercial artificial skylight that uses some of these concepts. Actually the coelux ht25 model is almost identical to what you made but using smaller lenses and more LEDs - however the effect they were able to achieve still isn’t that great, the sun looks like a giant orb and once you get a few feet away you can make out a sun at all. We s…

wow, these look awesome (on your marketing page ;)) I understand the pricing might depend on many factors including the location and the agent, but could you give a ballpark, such as "don't start looking for an agent if you want to spend less than X?"

Re: I tried making artificial sunlight at home

#183

Post by greg9381 »

softgrow wrote: post #115

I built a very bright light source using a lamp stand from Ikea and the brightest, narrowest beam LED reflector I could find from my big box hardware store. The project works and gave about 10,000 lux but had a few drawbacks. After reading a book for a while a got a headache. The slightest imperfection (read dirt) in the arms of the armchair becomes super obvious. When I look at my right arm holding the book, it's so…

Why did you want a very narrow beam? It seems like the opposite of what you would want from a lamp but I think I'm misunderstanding. And do you have the name of the less bright lamp you got?

Re: I tried making artificial sunlight at home

#184

Post by JustFinishedBSG »

jclarkcom wrote: post #55
dan-robertson wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pricing is ‘contact us’ and going to be region-dependent. I would expect to pay ca $ 10^4.5 for a panel that produces the ‘virtual sun’ effect. Same goes for competitors (I know of Coelux but maybe there are others. Not sure how quality/price compares). But maybe GP will reply to you.

Yes, it’s region specific. In the USA sales generally go through a partner. But it is a fraction of the weight, depth, and cost of the large coelux units that run $40k plus install. We also realized there is a need for producing just the sky with great photo metrics and that is even thinner and less expensive. A lot of interesting reading can be found in our interactive spec sheet here: https://www.innerscene.com/pro…

That's a fantastic spec sheet. Not talking about the specs, I have no idea how to read that, but it's very very well presented.

Re: I tried making artificial sunlight at home

#185

Post by z3t4 »

Gud wrote: post #180

There already exists a fairly good replica of sunlight, Philips CDM. I used it when I was growing weed, lushest bushes I’ve ever seen. 10/10 buds. It was discontinued for a while but I’m happy to see it’s back in production? https://www.futuregarden.co.uk/philips-ceramic-discharge-met... I would pick a CDM bulb any day over the alternatives, including LED, unless power consumption is an issue. “ Philips daylight CDM…

What is the lifetime before you have to replace it?

Re: I tried making artificial sunlight at home

#186

Post by Gud »

z3t4 wrote: post #185
Gud wrote: post #180

There already exists a fairly good replica of sunlight, Philips CDM. I used it when I was growing weed, lushest bushes I’ve ever seen. 10/10 buds. It was discontinued for a while but I’m happy to see it’s back in production? https://www.futuregarden.co.uk/philips-ceramic-discharge-met... I would pick a CDM bulb any day over the alternatives, including LED, unless power consumption is an issue. “ Philips daylight CDM…

What is the lifetime before you have to replace it?

30,000 hours. Which amounts to 3,4 years of 24/7 operation.

I replaced my HPS/MH setup with a CMH light and used it for a few harvests. Never had any issue.

Re: I tried making artificial sunlight at home

#187

Post by dwighttk »

jclarkcom wrote: post #19

Very cool. I’m the CEO of Innerscene ( https://innerscene.com ) and we make a commercial artificial skylight that uses some of these concepts. Actually the coelux ht25 model is almost identical to what you made but using smaller lenses and more LEDs - however the effect they were able to achieve still isn’t that great, the sun looks like a giant orb and once you get a few feet away you can make out a sun at all. We s…

That’s kinda cool… is it possible to match the weather instead of “infinite blue skies” though?

I have real skylights on one side of my house and would love to put these up on the other but it would be weird to have sunny skies mixed with cloudy

Re: I tried making artificial sunlight at home

#188

Post by 4gotunameagain »

fouronnes3 wrote: post #173
mac-mc wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A little garden spectrometer is pretty good, and around $60: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxQmaJYMOAk . And the LED supplier should give a spectrometer graph. If you can get a dual peak LED that will give a better spectrum distribution. The Amaran 200x S is one of the best.

Very cool! I definitely want a spectrometer at home now! edit: looks like it's more of a DIY project than a commercial thing. Maybe DIY spectrometer is my next project then!

Mid level, $750: https://www.aseq-instruments.com/LR1.html

Entry (?) untested, $350: https://thunderoptics.fr/product/sma-e-spectrometer/

Re: I tried making artificial sunlight at home

#189

Post by wholinator2 »

crossroadsguy wrote: post #127
jclarkcom wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm, never heard that before, I’ll have to research it more. Maybe the UV from sunlight is killing something you are allergic to. We don’t have UV for safety and energy efficiency reasons but you could try buying some strong UV lamps and see if that helps. Ideally you turn them on when you are out of the room so they don’t damage your eyes or cause cancer.

Oh, thanks. I will explore more on this.

I just want to emphasize how important it is for you to not be in the room with it when it's on. It can seriously damage you. There are stories of them being used at parties cause they looked cool and 12 hours later everyone is in the hospital cause it feels like their eyes are melting in permanent lava, their exposed skin is severely burned, it sounds like a horrible experience. Safety precautions are essential because it doesn't feel wrong when it's happening, but only hours after exposure. Also the lights can look really cool, so unsuspecting people may cause themselves serious damage without knowing.
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