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DIY led growlights - Builds and Results
- Thread starter Rocket Soul
- Start date
PCBuds
Well-known member
I've been thinking about UV for a while now.
I've learned that you can sterilize water with UV.
Does anyone know if a UV water sterilizer with work in my grow?
Maybe if I turn it down for the plant?
Or is it the wrong wavelength or something?
If I can get a UV light that can work double duty, then that would justify the expense.
If you do it right you can get tripple duty out of it. The plant dies too.
A dose of UV that is sufficient to deal with thrips is deadly to plants.
PCBuds
Well-known member
Well that works for me.
If I can turn it down to a non-lethal dose then I can feed the plant and kill bugs.
If I can't turn it down, I can use it to sterilize my plant just after I harvest it.
I've had problems with mold, and I think it might kill the mold and it's spores?
If it kills bugs, then it kills the plant too. UVC is also causing cancer, burns your retina etc. It's nothing to fuck around with.
There are "UV insect killers", but they only use violett/blue light to attract the insect. Then it's either burned or caught in a sticky trap. They obviously only attract flying insects.
Sterilizing your plant after harvest doesn't work either. It only works on the part that is illuminated. But the inside, where the mold starts. It's in the shadow, so it's not sterilized.
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Rocket Soul
Well-known member
Uv for sterilization is uvc, not for plants and humans but great for getting melanomas. Most reliable uv approach ive tried was 2:1, 400/365nm split. If works well on smells and taste and general plant health, secondary metabolites etc. it wont kills bugs, it will make the plant more healthy, less attractive to bugs and more hardy in resisting. But please guys lets try to keep this thread for builds and buds grown by them. Or how to build instructions and such. Stuff that shows of why to diy or how, and the results of your diy builds; everybody loves to see frost. Anything else and we tend to just chitter chatter, get of subject and eventually someone starts flaming the thread. Trust me, thats why RIU ledsection mecame a craphole. PCB, please hit me up on pm or ill chat uv on your thread.
PCBuds
Well-known member
Here's some pictures of my last plant just before harvest,..
Yeah, I know.
My plants won't stop foxtailing unless I turn the lights down.
I'd rather just keep everything at full blast until the end.
I could have trimmed off all the buds that were foxtailing, but I was too lazy so I just smoked it all.
PCBuds
Well-known member
Some pictures from the start of the grow,..
Her first day of LST (Light Stress Training)
She had a full day in the sun and was quite tired with a bit of heat stroke.
She got over it and learned to love suntaning.
Time to crank up the lights and switch nutes to stop her stretch before she runs out of space.
I only went to 309 Watts with this plant.
The others were closer to 500 Watts.
Filling in,..
Frosty Picture of a two ton cola.
Her first day of LST (Light Stress Training)
She had a full day in the sun and was quite tired with a bit of heat stroke.
She got over it and learned to love suntaning.
Time to crank up the lights and switch nutes to stop her stretch before she runs out of space.
I only went to 309 Watts with this plant.
The others were closer to 500 Watts.
Filling in,..
Frosty Picture of a two ton cola.
Rocket Soul
Well-known member
Some pictures from the start of the grow,..
View attachment 19087241 View attachment 19087242 View attachment 19087243
Her first day of LST (Light Stress Training)
She had a full day in the sun and was quite tired with a bit of heat stroke.
View attachment 19087244
She got over it and learned to love suntaning.
View attachment 19087245
Time to crank up the lights and switch nutes to stop her stretch before she runs out of space.
View attachment 19087246
I only went to 309 Watts with this plant.
The others were closer to 500 Watts.
View attachment 19087247 View attachment 19087248
Filling in,..
View attachment 19087249
Frosty Picture of a two ton cola.
View attachment 19087250
Fantastic work and in such a small place. This is exactly the type of work that shows off what you can do with diy approach; customize your light directly to you space but also how it can get quite messy, lol
There are a few ways though to avoid mess and to anyone reading up on his thread (i will as soon as i can): with small voltage strips like this i usually recommend a series/parallel connection approach: set your self up with a driver that can handle several strips in series: for example with the low voltage of some of these bridgelux eb strips you can wire several strips in series (ive seen up to 10 with total voltage of 100ish): this really brings down the wire mess: its easier to have 5 strings going to your driver than 15. Pcbuds choose to work the hard way in a few ways with this build which only makes me respect it more; his power supplies had to be seriously tweaked for stable performance. This effort can be avoided by going for a modern power supply: meanwells CV drivers functions as a CC driver when voltage is lower than max which will stop some issues with thermal runaway.
When i get the time ill share my Bridgelux Vesta build which i really liked; built in some very nice spectrum and light spread control features into the design which im really proud of. Thx to PCBuds for posting and showing off what he done, and those are some stellar results, fantastic
Mr.NotSoFast
Member
Yes exactly. Uv-b fluorescent lamp has peak at blue spectrum that attracts adult thrips and burn them. It's also attract predators mite's and kill them too
I meant literally burn, using electric current. Smells horrible too so nothing you would use near food/ingestibles. The light intensity is not strong enough to cause damage as that would not be safe for humans.Yes exactly. Uv-b fluorescent lamp has peak at blue spectrum that attracts adult thrips and burn them. It's also attract predators mite's and kill them too
Mr.NotSoFast
Member
I did use 39w fluorescent uv-b. They died on heat not any burning here or smell. What lamp did you use? But yes this belong other topic like rocket soul say
Rocket Soul
Well-known member
Charles Dankens
Well-known member
this plant did great under chill led 500w
Rocket Soul
Well-known member
Very nice pics!, lovely frost. Though Chilled led i wouldnt call it DIY, its more like self assembly: if they offered anything like an option for choosing spectrum or any part of customer options id say its diy but it is literally just setting up a light with only one way to put together. Though pretty pics are allways welcome
Charles Dankens
Well-known member
Thanks,. Sorry I wasn't thinking it was strictly diy. I did build a couple rigs in the early days 2015 ish. Passively cooled, bridgelux and cree cobs, a mix of 3, 3.5 and 4k. 24 x 48 " about 680 watts.Very nice pics!, lovely frost. Though Chilled led i wouldnt call it DIY, its more like self assembly: if they offered anything like an option for choosing spectrum or any part of customer options id say its diy but it is literally just setting up a light with only one way to put together. Though pretty pics are allways welcome
Rocket Soul
Well-known member
No probs i just hope to fill the thread up with builds and buds. But pretty pics are always welcome
Cobs are still very popular with some growers, theres a die hard group of any section of the grow community. I liked the cob days cause you saw mich more variation on what spectrum people would put in their lights. Optics were popular and scorned at the same time. All those options made people think a bit more. When it got easy things stopped happening, and people and companies all started to gravitate to sameyness. Also the whole "has to fit in a box" factor also narrowed down the scope of what lights would look like. Back then there was things like the suncloak: a 3 dimensional growstrip light fully fabricated. Also Chilled old first gen lights were awesomely designed: you could air cool them, water cool them and get the heat out of the grow. Even the gen 2 was full of nice features, 3 separate channels, though there was some problems with the pcb making it so that youd have to aircool it. But something happened along the way, both chilled and everyone else, and it became just the highest on the box efficiency numbers for the lowest cost. Most efficiency numbers are faked nowadays in my opinion; either soft faked by giving board efficiency or hard faked by giving diode max bin efficiency or just plain making it up. Even some of our advertisers come up 10% short when put in a machine. GLA would be my go to of the more commonly know on the market lights but thats a whole import for Australia, though it helps if you sweet talk them, wait for a occasional discount, or if you order their strips: its easier to get bulk discounts if your buying your light in 50w bits rather than 240w.
+ 1
Really recommend them as a retailer
+1 For GLA here's a pure GLA 800w strip tent .No probs i just hope to fill the thread up with builds and buds. But pretty pics are always welcome
Cobs are still very popular with some growers, theres a die hard group of any section of the grow community. I liked the cob days cause you saw mich more variation on what spectrum people would put in their lights. Optics were popular and scorned at the same time. All those options made people think a bit more. When it got easy things stopped happening, and people and companies all started to gravitate to sameyness. Also the whole "has to fit in a box" factor also narrowed down the scope of what lights would look like. Back then there was things like the suncloak: a 3 dimensional growstrip light fully fabricated. Also Chilled old first gen lights were awesomely designed: you could air cool them, water cool them and get the heat out of the grow. Even the gen 2 was full of nice features, 3 separate channels, though there was some problems with the pcb making it so that youd have to aircool it. But something happened along the way, both chilled and everyone else, and it became just the highest on the box efficiency numbers for the lowest cost. Most efficiency numbers are faked nowadays in my opinion; either soft faked by giving board efficiency or hard faked by giving diode max bin efficiency or just plain making it up. Even some of our advertisers come up 10% short when put in a machine. GLA would be my go to of the more commonly know on the market lights but thats a whole import for Australia, though it helps if you sweet talk them, wait for a occasional discount, or if you order their strips: its easier to get bulk discounts if your buying your light in 50w bits rather than 240w.
Really recommend them as a retailer
Attachments
Rocket Soul
Well-known member
Guys im going to open up another thread for any and all DIY led chat: anything relating to advice prebuild, parts sourcing and general jibber jabber on why doing things one way or the other. Would love for this thread to mainly be a place to show of what people done, how they did it and the results they are getting.
Also if i can finish the the write up ill review and post my favourite light built ever, my Bridgelux Vesta darling: variable spread and spectrum control for real full cycle from seedling to finish using very basic parts, only thing manufactured for grow was the red supplmentation, rest was just commercially available parts from Bridgelux home decoration line.
It would be a nice jumping off point on DIY led in the chatter thread cause it goes into driver selection and parallel/series, and how to manage light spread and even custom spectrum in your diy build.
Also if i can finish the the write up ill review and post my favourite light built ever, my Bridgelux Vesta darling: variable spread and spectrum control for real full cycle from seedling to finish using very basic parts, only thing manufactured for grow was the red supplmentation, rest was just commercially available parts from Bridgelux home decoration line.
It would be a nice jumping off point on DIY led in the chatter thread cause it goes into driver selection and parallel/series, and how to manage light spread and even custom spectrum in your diy build.
