DWC 300W DIY LED SCROG Grow: AK47 and Mazar

[Husky Jackal]

Nice work, hemp !
In your experience, what effect do the white LEDs have ? I mean, what could happen if you don't add any white LEDs ?
Good luck !
Peace, HJ.

 

[hempfield]

Well, I must say that I didn't use to many white LEDs previously; the first disadvantage of red and blue ones if the fact that you could not observe the signs of deficiencies , because the leaves look almost black.

In my previous grows I have supplemented with cool CFL-s in veg (to increase also the temps). But the seedlings seems to be much happier when bathing in white light, maybe because the leaves are small and the photosynthesis process is minimal.

I would do a side by side test with different blends of wavelengths to see which spectrum is most effective, but unfortunately I don't have conditions for this (space, time, etc).

 

[vukman]

Hempfield my friend.. what can i say?? Excellent as always!!!!!!!

Keep up the great work and whatever type of sacrifices you are making to the growing Gods, keep it up.. it's working great......heheh

 

[Socrates]

I agree that white light seems to help a bit with seedlings. I'm less sure what effect it has on flower.

One question: it seems as though the new LED bar is blocking some of the diodes the larger panel. Are you planning on keeping it in that position permanently? I recall you mentioning that you have two of them, so I was thinking maybe during flower it would be better to have them set up on either side of the main panel pointing "in" at like 30 degrees or so - get a little side lighting but still cover the whole canopy, and get all your wattage from the big light.

Hard to tell from pics, though. Regardless, looking great and I can't wait to see how it goes.

 

[repuk]

Never used tobacco with weed. If I want to smoke tobacco I light a cigarette, but I prefer only straight joints. The weed in the picture tutorial seems brown cose I used a low wattage warm white light source which changed the color balance on the camera and I forgot to adjust it.

And I prefer 'fatty' joints all the time , even so I don't use foam filters anymore but raw paper tips.

Ahh!! I found strange you mixing tobacco with good weed!! I do the same, tobacco when want it, straight weed in a joint or spliff (which one is for pure weed??) Bong or herborizer To enjoy the taste of my hard work!

Glad to hear the babies are liking the new led bar, maybe as you said they're not enough developed and take more time to "adapt" to blue/red.

Isn't RH too low for seedlings? Maybe you could aid them with something to add a greenhouse effect, like hollow tupperwares or something...

So you got the epistars fom ebay??

 

[hempfield]

I agree that white light seems to help a bit with seedlings. I'm less sure what effect it has on flower.

One question: it seems as though the new LED bar is blocking some of the diodes the larger panel. Are you planning on keeping it in that position permanently? I recall you mentioning that you have two of them, so I was thinking maybe during flower it would be better to have them set up on either side of the main panel pointing "in" at like 30 degrees or so - get a little side lighting but still cover the whole canopy, and get all your wattage from the big light.

Hard to tell from pics, though. Regardless, looking great and I can't wait to see how it goes.

Good point my friend !

The new LED Bar it's just a temporary fix, until the drivers for the new bars arrives ( I want to be able to drive them irrespective of their usage - weed, aquarium, flood light, etc - so I ordered 10x10W 85-240V AC drivers) .

Indeed, the LED bar block some light from the red chips on the middle of the LED panel, but this loss is compensated by the high intensity light from the 10W LEDs.

When the 2 LED Bars will be ready, they will be hanged aside the LED panel, 15-20cm apart and a few centimeters lower. They will be hanged on two al profiles introduced in the spate between heatsink and the back-cover of the led panel.

They will be installed as low as possible, but outside of the LED panel coverage cone. This LEDs have a view angle of 140-160degrees, so the light intensity decrease quickly.

In addition, under the main LED panel, I don't want to have 3 light sources overlapped so it's possible to install the LED bars slightly oriented to the sides of the canopy.

Thanks for asking ! Good questions are the seeds of the good answers !

 

[hempfield]

Ahh!! I found strange you mixing tobacco with good weed!! I do the same, tobacco when want it, straight weed in a joint or spliff (which one is for pure weed??) Bong or herborizer To enjoy the taste of my hard work!

Glad to hear the babies are liking the new led bar, maybe as you said they're not enough developed and take more time to "adapt" to blue/red.

Isn't RH too low for seedlings? Maybe you could aid them with something to add a greenhouse effect, like hollow tupperwares or something...

So you got the epistars fom ebay??

Indeed, the humidity is low (and that is because the temperatures outside went low - like 6C and I had to start heating and this is the reason of air drying fast.

I thought about this, and I have the perfect solution for this - an ultrasonic humidifier with digital RH meter and self control, and two bottom part of some soda 2.5L PET bottles, which fit perfectly into the netpots. I only have to cut a slit on a side where the watering pipe enter.

Anyway, even the RH meter says 42-45%, I believe that the RH over the clay plebs is higher, due the water vapors rising from the hydroton.


And yes, Ebay it's the most affordable source of LEDs for low budget projects.

 

[hempfield]

Hello my friends !


Last evening when I checked the girls I noticed that the extractor noise has decreased considerably. It was very strange so I checked the power consumption and the drained current was only 1.4A, when it should be at least 2.4A. I guess something bad happened with the electronics inside the fan (probably PWM controller is not the best way to limit the speed of such a motor).

So I knew that I must build the silenced extractor , using an more quieter fan.

It took me around 2 hours of fun work and the final product look like a funky gadget.

I tested before mounting it on the grow room, and the air flow seems quite large. The pushing force (and I assume the suction force also) was a little weaker and I could not hear anything but the expelled air.

I mounted the extractor into the growing room, I set the wiring and than switched on the 12V PSU ... and nothing

I put my hand on the extractor box and I felt some weak vibrations, which mean that the fan is running, but the single sounds I could hear in the grow box were the babbling of the air pumped into the tubs and the noise of the fans mounted on the LED panel.

So ... WoooW !!! I think my grow room could inspire Björk to compose It's Oh So Quiet

I let the pictures (you can see all in the album DIY Silenced Extractor) to speak in my place. Your questions are welcome !

 

[hempfield]

... more pictures :

 

[hempfield]

... and more pictures :

 

[hempfield]

... and more pictures again :

 

[vukman]

my friend...you know.......no matter how my DIY grow light turns out, there is just no way my skills even come close to what you are capable of!!!

I truly admire people such as yourself who have the artistic skill set not only to make something but to make something look good!!!!!! BRAVO!!!!! and thank you for taking the time to show everything step by step so others can follow along.


Excellent work........just wondering if you had thought of lining the box first but then realized that it is not needed or was there never a plan on lining the box with 'suppressing' material?

 

[hempfield]

At the beginning my plan was to fill the inside of the box with some layers of polyurethane foam (squares of 20x20cmm, 2cm thick , with a round center cut in the middle) to create a stacked cone. I even draw a cutting pattern for this foam layers , to create some pyramidal shapes inside to suppress the noise.

I did not have the polyurethane foam available when I finished the extractor, and my intention was to install it later.

But after installing the extractor into the grow room and not hearing any noise I reconsidered adding the foam, to keep the costs as low as possible.

24 hours later after installation , the temps in the grow room raised with 1C, so now there are like 25.2C on the tubs and 25.7C in the air, perfect for photosynthesis.

The next project in my list now is building some Peltier chillers for the tubs but for the moment I must figure out what range of temps are best for DWC.

The plants have took off, I can see grow every time I visit them. It's so nice to grow again !

Peace

 

[vukman]

I agree my friend.. it is wonderful to watch the progress of our beloved little girls. I've seen someone in another thread call it the 'transition'.....when they just take off with almost a steroid type growth!@!!! LOL.....whatever it's called..it sure is nice to see instead of wondering and worrying about where and what went wrong early in the growth.

You are a true master as I mentioned and yes, if the temps and decibels are within reason, there is no need for further modification.

I'm going to start work today on my DIY LED grow light. Going to my father's place because he's got a mill machine and everything else I may need in his garage...He's a retired tool & die maker so I know he will have his two bits to add to everything I do as well.......ahhhhhh, what can you do...he means well....

I'll take pictures of every step..

Take Care

 

[Bushwacker]

Your work & documentation is fantastic! I occasionally embark on DIY projects. I plan... But for all my planning & thought, they don't come out looking anywhere as well thought out, or as finished as yours. You stretch your $ AND you innovate.

RESPECT! Mr. hempfield

 

[hempfield]

Yesterday morning I was in a big hurry and when I checked the girls, I accidentally forgot the tap from the evacuation pipe of the AK47 tub open so you can imagine what happened when the timer started the pumps. More than 10L of water have been spilled off , flooding the grow room.

Lucky for me (and now I am very proud of doing this) , I covered the floor with PVC liner and I let the edges 10cm on the walls , so the water could not infiltrate into the floor or the walls.

No damage has been made but I learned my lesson !

Today I will post some pics with the girls, but after I change the water on the reservoirs ( already two weeks have passed since I start this project).

 

[Bud buster]

Good call with the flooring you can never be to safe with hydro.

 

[hempfield]

2 weeks update

2 weeks update

Today I changed the water in a quite complicated manner :

I usually do not remove all the water from the DWC tubs, but keep ~25% from the old nutrient solution (I noticed that in this way the pH does not fluctuate so dramatically after a reservoir change).
But because of the flooding cause by me not paying enough attention , the AK47 reservoir was almost empty (just ~3 liters left on the reservoir) so I had to take some water from the Mazar's tub (~45%) and put it into the AK47 tub.

I prepaired 10L of nutrient solution and I had topped both reservoirs until they reached the 12.5L level.

The fresh solution had a low pH (4.6) but the old water from the tubs was 6.1 and after combining those two solution the pH stabilized at 5.7. With 10 drops of pH up I raised it to 6.0 in both tubs.

The EC is 1.2 mS, which is 100uS higher than the recommended value for RO water ( my RO water has an EC of 0.01 mS and a pH of 7.5) and the girls already shown some signs of nutrient burns (just some tiny spots on the older leaves) so I will watch carefully for this issue. If the spots grows or increase in number I will add more plain water to lower the EC to 1.1 or less (I always try not to forget that less is better in this case).

I also installed an 6.5L ultrasonic humidifier and set it to 60% to help the girls taking off.

 

[Baino]

like your fan box mate..

 

[repuk]

Impressive! and not only that you even have the patience to create a photo manual!

Those girls are taking off finally! it's sooo nice to watch them grow...