CONTROLLING PLANT GROWTH WITH LEDS
The new Lighting Development Kitfrom Würth Elektronik with horticulture LEDs accelerates thedevelopment of systems for targeted plant lighting. Companies developingsolutions for vertical farming in cities or optimized “supplementallighting” in greenhouses can use the Development Kit to explore theeffect of different “lighting recipes” on plants and in their differentgrowth phases. The circuit developed by Würth Elektronik thusaccelerates the development of lighting control systems.
The aim of horticulture LED solutions is to optimize various propertiessuch as: the light spectrum, lighting intensity growth intervals fordifferent plants and other quality parameters in order to increase theyield or to increase the content of valuable secondary substances suchas flavonols. The Lighting Development Kit offers a simple solution tomix RGBW colors for different lighting strategies and to control plantgrowth with the supplied Horticulture Panel (includes LEDs withwavelength 450 nm, 660 nm, 730 nm and RGBW LEDs). The Magl³Cmulti-color LED driver supplies the panel with power. With four Magl³CLED Step Down High Current Modules at its centerpiece, it is possible toindividually control the intensity of the four LED strings. This makesit possible to generate light with different wavelength ratios and toinvestigate their effect on different plants in their growth phases.
The control is done with the free iOS app “WEilluminate” via BluetoothLE. A version for Android will be available soon.
Blueprint for commercial solutionsThe kit is suitable for individual developers, start-ups, agriculturalresearch and lighting manufacturers. The board contains an EMI filter tomeet the limits of the lighting standard specified in EN55015 and theindustry standard CISPR32, even when dimming the LED strings. Thecircuit is therefore also a prototype for larger applications.
Under this link Lighting Development Kit [10] you can find all further information as well as a Quick Start Guide and Application Notes.
