Can you grow with cold cathode computer lighting?

[grow1620]

scrub- I don't think they'll be too fragile for a scrog unless you're supporting a ton of weight...and you can always make some extra supports if you get nervous. From everything I've read about them they seem very durable and are advertised as so. They're also encased in plastic, so if one did happen to break it would break on the inside and not make a huge mess...I'm scared as hell of my cfls!!, and if one ever broke any where near my plants those plants would go straight to the trash without blinking, actually I'd probably consider building a new box.
I think it would work best to set them up like you said...kind of space them out. I'd run a few from left to right..then go up about 5cm and cross them front to back. That way your getting more light spread and they're not blocking the light from one another like they would be if they were touching. For a scrog build I would stagger them with some space in between for sure...good call.

dude you got me all excited about this..it's gonna look like a disco jedi rave party in there....

canna- wow that some realllly interesting info...I never thought of red/blue light like that before...makes perfect sense.++

 

[grow1620]

wth is going on..i make a post and it "cuts in" between other ppl's posts? i made this an hours after....wtf.

 

[ScrubNinja]

Canna that's a very interesting approach. Thanks for adding.

Well things are looking good - I've done some research and it appears all the tubes are acrylic, not glass, so should have some durability.

And you are not gonna believe this but check this shit out!

These pics belong to this guy but since you have to sign up to see the pics, I uploaded those.

He used simple PC lights like mine but a tiny bit more wattage each tube - total wattage of lights - 35w!!!!! As you can see he could have got way more, it's like he wasn't even trying for yield - just one of those "fun grows". But it still works out at 0.21 gpw, which I think shows serious potential.

Reading a few threads, I think I would be best to target the same spectrums LED guys go for. I think I'll be purchasing more lights, maybe make the thing a pure CCFL grow! Gotta find a cheap source of these things.

Hey grow, I just saw your reply there lol. I bet you're double excited now, hehehe. Thanks bro. Man I'm even thinking cover all the walls and roof in tubes! My head is exploding at the moment in a very good way

 

[ScrubNinja]

Shit, now it's mixing my posts up too. :/ God dammit, not now!!!!!! There is research going on!!!!

 

[ScrubNinja]

Hey I just had a thought - are these things strong enough to use as a scrog screen? Another thought I had was to have them through the middle of the cab at two heights, so the plants can just grow through them freely. I've seen a grow on here where a dude made like a tanning capsule and it was filled with really long fluoro tubes and the plants just grew up through them. Sorta like that (will try to find a pic). Any thoughts on the durability of these bulbs though? Maybe too fragile for a scrog?

Here's that pic

While I was hunting around I found this too, omggggg

 

[canna cola]

Well I woke up and this seems like an even better idea The 10cm kits (also 2 bulbs) are the same price as the 30cm ones, so what I'm going to do is just have 4 x 30cm along the length, and short bits of wire making the cross sections of the scrog screen.

Not sure which colours to use..... I hear what SD says about white/blue. But it's hardly gonna compete with the CFLs, and this also seems a good way to introduce UV light except I think it's only good at specific times? I know that far weaker UV lights are needed when you use them, so that's another reason these would seem good.

Think I should play it safe and go with a white and a blue set? All purple? All red? Mannnn so many colours.

btw the floorspace of my computer is 19cm x 39cm

Use the wavelengths that normally don't make it through the top of the plant to the bottom of the plant.

Unless I am mistaken it would be blue light that normally doesn't make it through much plant material as the plants respond to a higher red:blue ratio by stretching because they think that they have taller plants around them due to red light making it through the canopy and the blue light being absorbed.

 

[ScrubNinja]

Guys the system clock went out so you sort of have to re-read the thread, lol. Some of the posts before this post and after canna cola's are up the page

Here are the specs for the second kit I got (the white ones)

Length : 300 mm
Voltage : 570 ± 40 V
Current : 5 mA
Power : 2.85 ± 0.30 W
Brightness : Over 18000 ± 3000 nt (cd/m2)

 

[grow1620]

wow man nice find on those pics..and ty fer uploading them...this is showing huge potential, not to mention the pure awesomeness of growing plants with jedi lightsabers!!1! No offence to that dude's grow but he could have utilized the light footprint way better...I think I'm gonna have to get some of these for sure..I would be sooo happy to be able to switch over to a pure ccfl grow..omg...yeh, wow. I'm gonna figure out something today. I can spare a few bucks for the cause I spoze.

May the force be with you.

 

[ScrubNinja]

wow man nice find on those pics..and ty fer uploading them...this is showing huge potential, not to mention the pure awesomeness of growing plants with jedi lightsabers!!1! No offence to that dude's grow but he could have utilized the light footprint way better...I think I'm gonna have to get some of these for sure..I would be sooo happy to be able to switch over to a pure ccfl grow..omg...yeh, wow. I'm gonna figure out something today. I can spare a few bucks for the cause I spoze.

May the force be with you.

Excellent bro!!! I think we should start a CCFL Club when we get our shit working It's 2:30am and I've been scouring the internet all night trying to find the cheapest sources, lol.

There are some super cheap bulk lots on ebay but they don't have an inverter (think: ballast). They do sell inverters that handle "many" tubes but I can't find any numbers yet.

Basically if we take the second set I bought, they are Bitspower brand and come with inverter, they're $20aud from a reliable store so you're looking at 100 bucks or less for his setup. Pretty awesome I reckon. I agree about the footprint. Imagine scrog, wow.

Let me know how this develops I want to rethink my whole design and go pure CCFL

 

[grow1620]

hmm...I was bout to ask if there's a solid way I can run these without a computer power supply? I mean that would be cool and all to run a grow completely off one of those , but they kick off alot of heat and take up alot of room...

Do you need a ballast and a 12v inverter? or do they usually make them all in one?..I'm barely starting to research and if you've been looking all nite you could save me a few hours what would be really nice is to find a complete set up that could be plugged directly into the wall rather then having to go through a big huge pc power supply, but I don't expect to find that..the only applications I've seen for these so far is pc and automotive which are both obviously 12vdc

edit: like could I just use a 12v adapter like I run my pc fans off of? I know you can't do leds like that because the ma have to be perfect..cuz they're current driven or somthin..i dunno exactly..but would milliamps be an issue with these?

 

[ScrubNinja]

Well, basically I've found 3 main models of PC units - the Vantec Spectrums, The Bitspowers, and AC Ryans (which I suspect that dude used and may have more watts).

All computer kits seem to come with inverter and 2 bulbs. Unless you are buying just the bulbs, or how I got some with my fan controller.

There are also actual normal lamps available too on ebay, as well as 1 metre long flexible cords.

Do you need a ballast and a 12v inverter?

Nope, we can say for simplicity that the inverter is what we normally think of as a ballast. So you need the bulbs, the inverter, and a 12v power supply.

One of the Bitspower bulbs draws 5mA so I assume it's the same as matching the amps for fans - meaning a simple cheap 500mA 12v wall adapter is going to do.....a lot. I will double check that at some stage before anyone blows themselves up.

All in all I think it would be cheapest to buy the bulbs seperately and get one of these inverters that handle "many" bulbs. "Many" is what the ebay ad said so that's fairly open to interpretation at this stage. The bulb-only kits are pretty cheap.

 

[ScrubNinja]

but they kick off alot of heat and take up alot of room...

A lot of room?!!! Ummm okay then? They look extremely low profile to me. Also the dude said his 35w kicked out about as much heat as 35w CFL. But the 35w he was using was targeted towards the red and blue spectrums weed needs most. So essentially he's only generating heat for the important spectrums. Something like a HPS throws a lot of lumens but many of them are in useless spectrums. This is how the LED guys gain their efficiency - by targetting spectrums.

 

[grow1620]

I was thinking along the lines of aquarium tech being years ahead of growing tech..ie the neptune jr I found this info so far on hooking up ccfls to a regular 12vdc PS http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/diy_moonlight.php

(sorry , how do I post "clean" links.. where I can be like "go here <--")

edit: I meant the PC power supplies take up alot of room..not the lights er anything..think micro ru style.

 

[grow1620]

hmm I can't find any 8" white tubes, np finding blue and other colors..I think I might go with a white 80mm ccfl fan to get the white light..I plan on mixing white and blue about 50/50 for veg... I started to think too much with reds and uv's etc..... I'm just gonna k.i.s.s.

I really like the idea of the ccfl fans..exhaust and lighting in one?
------------------------
*edit: ok so here's what I'm looking at- dual tube 12" red,white and blue. 1.9 amps total draw @12vdc (don't know exactly what I'm talking about btw) so I found a 120vac to 12vdc 2 amp PS with a molex adapter. is not too expensive and it's pretty slimline which is what I need...did I work out the current/ma right? do I need the ~2 amp one or can I use a 700 ms one to run them all off of? I want to be able to run all 3 dual sets off one powersupply. stuff is at coolerguys.com btw.

white- .74 A (im pretty sure the #'s are for both tubes combined, same with the cd/m2 ratings)
blue- .62 A
red- .62 A

thanks in advance for any help.

 

[420.se]

2 amps atleast. If your powersupply is unable to provide enough current the lights will dim or not turn on at all.

 

[Hella THC]

I love you, scrub. You're always on the hunt for something new to try!

 

[StealthDragon]

This looking promising. I'm on board for sure, just placed my order.

 

[ScrubNinja]

Awesome fellas. You're spot on Hella, always got an eye out for stuff I can grow in//out/through/under/over Great news Dragon! You going all CCFL or just supplementary lighting?

Damn, it look like a PC power supply is probably the only option to power them? Lucky I have plenty of room in my server Thanks for being here 420.se, at the moment you are the leading IC expert on this stuff!

Grow, you type out your sentence such as "Click here" and then you select "here" and click

. Then paste in the link into the popup box, and then it's a link.

 

[420.se]

Im currently using a chinese noname 12V power supply rated 3A. Its quite small comparing to a computer PSU. Just check how much power you need and buy a cheap supply that can deliver that amount + some. If its a pure 12v supply the design gets a bit simpler and cheaper. Best option for running several lights must be an inverter that can be run directly on 120/240Vac if that even exists.

 

[ScrubNinja]

Yes that's my main goal at the moment - finding a quality inverter that will handle lots of bulbs. I do find some but they only seem to handle 2 bulbs.

Edit: so far the strongest looking bulbs I've found are from Jaycar Australia (electronics store)

> Current draw: 700mA
> Available in three colours:
SL-2855 White
SL-2856 Blue
SL-2857 UV

I think that equates to 8.4w? (.7A x 12v = w)