Building A Grow Light Advice Help

Did it recently. Not educated in electronics etc... It was easy, if not a little anxious turning first one on. Bar lights... single strip of diodes.. the point is to spread out light, not bunch it up, again. Due to availability or cost, 2-strips or more may end up being viable.. not the end of the world, but won't be as even blanket of light. the width should nearly span your grow area. This is important as the 90-120degree spread will only be meaningful in one direction. The point of a bar light is to have even blanket with low current, i.e. low heat. You have this sort of light 8-16" away. It runs at a low current and won't need active cooling. In fact just good circulation may keep it nearly cool to touch, but likely need a fan pointing at it to achieve that. Because you run tham at lower current and only 8-16", you don't get much spread on coverage beyond the fixture's size... ~5-8" between would be best in most cases. Diodes you want White - LM301 B or H 3000k 80cri is fine/more efficient. 660nm red - Cree XP-G3 photoboost red the 660nm chip is only ~4-5% of total diodes. added 5000k white chips is not necessary for a bloom light. May help with vege area as it has a bit more blue. I use a 3000k in vege and have no problems getting things bushy. Slap a meanwell driver on there... use some extruded aluminum, double sided heatskink tape, some wire, some wegos or similar... If you go with the diodes above, or at least the samsung with some other 660nm chip, you only need about 30-40w per square foot. You'll want your watts per diode under 0.4. Check out LEDGardner videos on drivers and wiring. Green Gene's garden is another great spot for information. also, he sells some led strip that's a bit on the pricey side, but difficult to find someone that uses the cree photoboost red diode (most efficient red diode paired with samsung's most efficient 3000k white). REgardless, his light build videos can be a roadmap for building any light.