I tried making artificial sunlight at home • Hacker News Board

Re: I tried making artificial sunlight at home

#241

Post by agensaequivocum » Sun, Mar 30, 2025, 12:51 AM UTC

ankitml wrote: post #60

alejohausner wrote: post #41

For me, the problem with this setup (and with most high efficiency LED lights) is the lack of red wavelenghts. Real sunlight has a substantial amount of energy in the very red end of the visible spectrum (700 nm) and also of course quite a bit in the infrared. These lamps have two spectral peaks: a narrow peak in the blue range, around 450 nm, a broader peak in the green, centered around 580 nm. That greenish peak fa…

Yep, that was my first assessment. Cant call it sun without NIR.

Or lack of flicker.

Re: I tried making artificial sunlight at home

#242

Post by LoganDark » Tue, Apr 01, 2025, 1:33 PM UTC

brcmthrowaway wrote: post #25

Const-me wrote: post #23

> the main thermal issue when scaling up would be the cooling of the power supply itself, not of the lamp If I would be scaling up that device, I would consider an ATX power supply. These are relatively large and typically include an active cooler inside, but they can easily supply hundreds of watts at 12V, often have an on/off switch on the back, are relatively inexpensive (at least unless you need much more than 50…

Could you wire them in parallel for more watts

You really don't want to wire up power supplies like that in parallel because tiny voltage fluctuations could (read: would) cause all of the current to be drawn from one or the other instead of evenly distributing between them. You can, however, wire server power supplies up in series (I have done it successfully) with relatively more success, even though it's still not the greatest idea.

Re: I tried making artificial sunlight at home

#243

Post by nkmnz » Wed, Apr 02, 2025, 10:04 AM UTC

lnrd wrote: post #221

nkmnz wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?"

What I learned over time is that if a product/service requires contacting an agent or a salesperson, then its price is only affordable for businesses and is not intended for regular consumers.

Probably true and in the same category of wisdom as the old saying: "if you need to ask, you cannot afford it".