MGT builds 6 stacked cabs(planning phase)

[MedGrowerTom]

sooo, as much as I would like to do bar style lights, I still keep going back to look at the quantum boards like https://horticulturelightinggroup.com/collections/all/products/qb288-rspec-fr-quantum-board that I posted above. These are def an option thats half the price for led's as well...

If I went

My main concern with those, was heat and coverage but I think the heat may not be a concern, and the coverage may not actually be that bad.

Here is a question though, if I were to use those panels. they are 150w panels, I was thinking 4, and run around 60% to be roughly 360w, or would doing 6 panels at around 40% for the same 360w and perhaps better coverage with lights over all the plants without need more height for spread.

I want to keep the distance between light and canopy as low as possible since I wont have a lot of height to work with.

I am not committed to these specific panels, but they are readily available and at a nice price point.

 

[MedGrowerTom]

if those style panels, being 150w panels, and the space I have for the cabs, and wanting as small as space as possible between the plants and the panels, this is the two options I can think of. Not sure what would be better for what I'm trying to do, I think the 6 panels would be, but I'm still learning this so I'm no sure yet.

lmfao, plz excuse the 2 minute mspaint chicken scratch of sketch haha

 

[Ca++]

From the link, I can't see what it is. Just that it needs a less common driver voltage.

Run at 50w, they don't need a heatsink. Though there paper thin looking heatsink is only $15

I pay £15 for heavier ones, delivered. Boards start around $10, but there would be postage costs.

 

[MedGrowerTom]

From the link, I can't see what it is. Just that it needs a less common driver voltage.

Run at 50w, they don't need a heatsink. Though there paper thin looking heatsink is only $15

I pay £15 for heavier ones, delivered. Boards start around $10, but there would be postage costs.

so, playing with some numbers, I could also fit 9 panels, and it would cover the whole ceiling of each cab, inch between panels, inch from panel to wall. A whole ceiling of panels. If I ran 9 at 40w I would still be at 360w total.

is there any reason to not run them at such a low %? is there point diminishing returns on running more boards and lower watts? Mostly I want lights over everything with as small of distance between plant and light as possible and after seeing how these would lay out in there I kind of like it, but I'm not sure of my thoughts on this are getting overboard.

I would def do heat sinks even with lower wattage. I don't think I would do the thin ones they offer though no
I'm also not committed to these boards, but it and something similar at the top of my list, but I am def still looking.

 

[Ca++]

KB have boards at $10 and heatsinks at $10, but you would have to message them, to get realistic postage pricing. Perhaps with a Meanwell, for about $50
The heatsink postage is too high at $20, so might be paying for extra space, the boards could use. I got mine here: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32990038003.html which is about $21 on my door mat, in a week. So KB can sort themselves out..
Often an Aliexpress seller has ali drop shipping. Ali then ship many orders out their warehouse together, with shipping partners that want the work. KB is more a Alibaba seller, where they tend to do things themselves. This means DHL/TNT deliveries.

I had a DHL quote of $95 to fly a fan over last month, and it was 10Kg due to the size of it. I could get a second sent for about $20 more though. You could ask for DHL, to be sure they check. Most of them use shipping agents to find the best deals, and the agent is looking after themselves. It can get silly.

This is real money, for such a small job. Cutting up bar lights from Mars might be another option.

 

[MedGrowerTom]

here is a slighter better wip of the general idea of the 6 main flower cabs, and intake/exhaust lung rooms inbetween

 

[MedGrowerTom]

I need to make the soil beds less tall, 18" I see is to tall for this, but here is where I'm at so far

 

[Ca++]

Are you considering how much of your space is given to ducting, and that you must have access into it for cleaning/pests
They look like they could just pull out, which would be nice.

18" of soil is quite a bit, if it's to fill the entire floor, for short plants. Do you already have these containers? Container choice often fixes the size and shape of my builds, as my build is flexible, but the store only has so much choice.
A new development for me, is recycling bins. I already liked flip tops, but I can get 70L recycle bins, that go in gaps just 250mm wide. The tall skinny shape can be a real space saver, and though 70L, you are only putting 35L in there, before the bubbles from aeration are splashing towards the top. Where all the filters and stuff live, so potential leaks are contained.

It's good to see you sketching it all out and giving it proper thought. I suspect you may be handy with both types of router

 

[MedGrowerTom]

Are you considering how much of your space is given to ducting, and that you must have access into it for cleaning/pests
They look like they could just pull out, which would be nice.

18" of soil is quite a bit, if it's to fill the entire floor, for short plants. Do you already have these containers? Container choice often fixes the size and shape of my builds, as my build is flexible, but the store only has so much choice.
A new development for me, is recycling bins. I already liked flip tops, but I can get 70L recycle bins, that go in gaps just 250mm wide. The tall skinny shape can be a real space saver, and though 70L, you are only putting 35L in there, before the bubbles from aeration are splashing towards the top. Where all the filters and stuff live, so potential leaks are contained.

It's good to see you sketching it all out and giving it proper thought. I suspect you may be handy with both types of router

there is no ducting. not in the cabs anyways, I have intake/exhaust ports for each cab, and they each go to a 'lung cab' for exhaust/intake. I have exhaust fan outside of the cabs, that will draw air from the exhaust cab, that will draw from the flower cabs. same for the intake, air from the room, gets sucked into the intake sections, they split off into the cab intakes. There will be 2 wall/clip style fans in each cab, to help circulate the air, and get it all going the directions intended.
I added a couple pics above, one has the cabs spread out with the middle sections, those are the intake/exhaust columns , it will make more sense when I get some more sketchup work done.

I will have the skeched out for ya as I get further into sketchup.

My 3 tents that currently in this space, are all exhausting from the same exhaust as well (very overkill fan, on speed controller to about 40 percent, and all 3 tents still stuck in to the point where I had to make pvc frames to help with that.

18" of soil, yes this is a lot of soil, living soil beds. the beds in my tents are 2ft x 4ft x 18" and the plants thrive in them. These cabs after looking at my skecthup, I will be lowering the height a bit, possible to as low as 14"

recycle bins, yes they would work, but not what I want to see when I look in there.

Def will be true living no till soils, hand mixed. Will be watered from blu mat systems, gravity fed.

No, I do not have the containers/beds yet. I will most likely build them out of wood again, however I am talks with a company thats makes fabric soil beds, about making me some custom sized ones. We shall see where that goes.

I have 54" of internal height in each flower cab. I will be making these beds shorter, I hope to build light with more panels not driven as hard, with hopes to get lights as close to plants as possible. drivers will be remote, there are no ducting and filters in the cabs taking up space so all that should help. These will be scrogs, so even canopy will be no problem, cabs just deep enough to reach everything, not looking forward to have to 'climb' up to the second layer of cabs tho, but is what it is lol,

and yeah, def sketching it out first many times to get it just right, I have about two months until its build time, so time is short. Yes, def have router experience, as you will see throughout the build. There is bookcase, desk rebuild, some shelves, the other cabs, there is alot going on with this project. Only thing with this that I do not have experience with, is building leds, but this has been fun to learn about so far, and I cant wait to actully fire some up

I still have a few things I have not mentioned yet, trying keep few things a surprise

 

[MedGrowerTom]

these were the 3 layouts we were talking about, if I went with the quantum boards, and ran them at 4 @ 60%, 6 @ 40%, or 9 @27%, to get end up with around 360w. I had thought that if I went with more panels at less watts each, i would get better coverage with less distance between lights and plant tops.

After looking at this, I am considering the 6 or 4 panels, and if I went that route I would have some room to perhaps add some red/blue strips in between that I could turn on/off for veg/flower...but that part is for another discussion another time.

I cant NOT have more than 18" between canopy and light. I would like to have this be half that or better, but I feel like the less panels I have, and have to running them harder, and needing more distance for the spread, that puts more closer to the 18" mark. If I ran 4 - 6 panels, at 40-60% (150w boards) how close do you think I could get the panels?(remote drivers)

 

[Ca++]

The under bed grow box thread was 140cm, using 6 QBs per meter. They were actually hung, while a denser packing of boards could get yours closer the both plants and roof. Your beds are deep, but you could claw that back, and have a similar project. It might be worth looking over that thread, for plant spacing and netting height ideas. The carbon was on the roof somehow, so 54" will be interesting, but no real challenge, with some foresight.

The vertical columns you speak of, are what I'm calling ducting. Box ducting, rather than round flexible stuff.

Needless to say, I have pulled up a chair

 

[Rocket Soul]

Personally i like the 6 board option Ca laid out. Youd get better efficiency with 9 but i think its over kill unless you want a build without sinking. For 6 at 350ish w total id look for a little bit of sinking just incase but you dont need the full sinks from hlg.

Also, for 6 board option you could run the 2 centre boards on another driver to get more even spread since theres always more cross lighting in the middle. It gets messy if you want separate drivers for each of the 6 cabe but if you group them in pairs, and use the same driver for all 8 lateral boards and another separate driver for the 4 centre boards you could dial in perfect even coverage.

Id look at something like a 600w driver for the lateral ones and then a 200 or a 240driver for the centre ones. That would give you a rational build with a limited amount of drivers. The penalty would be having 2 cabs needing to be the same watts. Not sure if its worth it to you.

How you feel about using an alu sheet for ceiling in the cab? You could just drill thru and attach the boards to the ceiling directly. No moving up and down but you would have dimming and a closed growspace with reflective walls so i doubt youd need it. Also, if the top of the aluceiling is exposed to air the heat would just dissipate outside.

What Ca brought up about ventilation and ducting is quite important, where would intake and outtake go in each cab?

With prices being quite low at hlg i wouldnt go for alibaba boards unless you have to. Maybe you could ask for a bulk discount at 40-50 boards if you hit HLG up.

 

[MedGrowerTom]

Personally i like the 6 board option Ca laid out. Youd get better efficiency with 9 but i think its over kill unless you want a build without sinking. For 6 at 350ish w total id look for a little bit of sinking just incase but you dont need the full sinks from hlg.

Also, for 6 board option you could run the 2 centre boards on another driver to get more even spread since theres always more cross lighting in the middle. It gets messy if you want separate drivers for each of the 6 cabe but if you group them in pairs, and use the same driver for all 8 lateral boards and another separate driver for the 4 centre boards you could dial in perfect even coverage.

Id look at something like a 600w driver for the lateral ones and then a 200 or a 240driver for the centre ones. That would give you a rational build with a limited amount of drivers. The penalty would be having 2 cabs needing to be the same watts. Not sure if its worth it to you.

How you feel about using an alu sheet for ceiling in the cab? You could just drill thru and attach the boards to the ceiling directly. No moving up and down but you would have dimming and a closed growspace with reflective walls so i doubt youd need it. Also, if the top of the aluceiling is exposed to air the heat would just dissipate outside.

What Ca brought up about ventilation and ducting is quite important, where would intake and outtake go in each cab?

With prices being quite low at hlg i wouldnt go for alibaba boards unless you have to. Maybe you could ask for a bulk discount at 40-50 boards if you hit HLG up.

I did reach out to hlg, they quoted me at the listed price of 35(as it says on their site) each board for QB272 Rspec FR boards, which are the ones I have linked

for the QB288 Rspec boards, they quoted me at 70 each which they said is a discount.

venting is covered, that should be all good. all vents/blowers/scrubbers are external to grow cabs


for boards, I think I am leaning towards 6 panels, dimming the center ones may be a good idea for sure. I def want to run heat sinks, and I def will raise/lower the lights (may or may not have to do this manually, looking into this)

I am still looking for strip options as well, but 12" ish ones are hard for me to find

 

[Rocket Soul]

I did reach out to hlg, they quoted me at the listed price of 35(as it says on their site) each board for QB272 Rspec FR boards, which are the ones I have linked

for the QB288 Rspec boards, they quoted me at 70 each which they said is a discount.

venting is covered, that should be all good. all vents/blowers/scrubbers are external to grow cabs


for boards, I think I am leaning towards 6 panels, dimming the center ones may be a good idea for sure. I def want to run heat sinks, and I def will raise/lower the lights (may or may not have to do this manually, looking into this)

I am still looking for strip options as well, but 12" ish ones are hard for me to find

I meant the fr-spec.

The issue with doing strips is connections: unless you drove them fairly hard theres just so much more wiring. Those strips that ca mentioned are a nice option size wise but depending on how shipping and taxes work out you could end up paying more for less.

 

[Ca++]

Digikey have a few interesting strips

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/bridgelux/BXEB-L0280Z-35E1000-C-B3/7907665

It's getting a bit like a domestic lamp build though.

I like the idea of dimming for the middle. At lower power levels, drivers get much better priced. Like 50w for $15, though it does soon add up

 

[Rocket Soul]

The bxb eb series is true and tested but with the low watts per strip they are a pain connecting up. They come in a reg version and a slim version, the slims were not nice to work with, very flimsy and dodgy connectors: they wont take standard 1mm stranded. By now im too lazy to wore up strips that do less than 10-15w per strip: too much work and then loads of wires everywhere.

 

[MedGrowerTom]

kitchen opening (where the kitchen food cabs will be)

 

[MedGrowerTom]

bay window area (veg, mother/clone, other, cabs) plus some more goodies going here

 

[MedGrowerTom]

another view

 

[MedGrowerTom]

and another view