Diary PCBuds mini-grow

[q3corn]

Sucks about the space! I think your new idea of SIL's on the hanging fixture and strips going vertically makes a lot of sense. The bummer of building all this stuff yourself is the added expenses of R&D and all the "maybe this will work" purchases... That's why I ended up with a total of 5 different cabinets over the years. lol. "Maybe next time I should do this..."

 

[PCBuds]

I'm playing around with stuff...

My one leaf fell down...

So I Krazy glued it to the next leaf.












The experiment continues...

 

[PCBuds]

I thougtt i should stitch it to the other leaf as well.

 

[PCBuds]

I got my new water heater installed and I scored the contactor/thermostat from the old one.

 

[PCBuds]

I bought a new timer and I'm going to give my underwater light another try.

 

[Swanson]

Some elaborate stuff going on there bud! Curious about how the led strips go, was thinking about adding some to my box for side lighting.
Plant is looking good! That sad spot on it is weird as everything else looks perfect. Almost like pure nutes spilt on it or it was burnt by lights? Wouldn't stress about it, funny you glued it.

 

[PCBuds]

Some elaborate stuff going on there bud!

I didn't want to spend too much money on equipment but it's fun buying new stuff. Lol
As long as I don't spend more money growing weed than buying weed.

Curious about how the led strips go, was thinking about adding some to my box for side lighting.

That's the main reason I bought the strip lights... Really low profile and really low heat.

I wanted to have side lighting that didn't stick halfway into my closet.
I could have built a bigger cab but I didn't want to get that involved.
Plus it was kinda fun buying all this new stuff. Lol


I've realized that I was way too worried about heat and the strips put out a lot of light with no real heat.

I was going to use ~1/2" spacers to get the strips off the walls then I was thinking just screw them flat to the walls, now I'm thinking maybe just washers so there can be some airflow past the backside of the strip.

I was also too worried about the gauge of the wire.

I was thinking 18 AWG but the stuff I have (speaker wire) is stranded so I'd have to solder each wire because the clips don't crab stranded wire.

I was thinking of using Bell telephone wire but that's only 22 AWG and the casing of the wire says "22 AWG 5 Watt" and my strips are 6.75 Watts at test current and double that at max.
I think I might buy some 18 AWG solid wire.

Plant is looking good! That sad spot on it is weird as everything else looks perfect. Almost like pure nutes spilt on it or it was burnt by lights? Wouldn't stress about it, funny you glued it.

I tipped the light into the plant to get at the screws to raise it but didn't think it would burn in about 30 seconds, but it did. Lol

It's interesting how the rest of the leaf isn't dying so I guess the veins are still delivering nutrition and water to the leaf.

She'll be 8 weeks old tomorrow, Lol

 

[ReikoX]

I was thinking of using Bell telephone wire but that's only 22 AWG and the casing of the wire says "22 AWG 5 Watt" and my strips are 6.75 Watts at test current and double that at max.
I think I might buy some 18 AWG solid wire.

Check out 18 AWG thermostat wire. It's usually solid core.

 

[PCBuds]

Check out 18 AWG thermostat wire. It's usually solid core.

I just did that while you were posting this. Lol

I bought doorbell wire and Wago type connectors.

I always want free shipping so I bought 75' of wire and the connectors.

 

[PCBuds]

The Bell Telephone wire is 22 gauge and rated 5 Watts with its relatively low voltage and higher current.

The Doorbell wire is 18 gauge solid wire and using this chart for comparison, it should be good for ~13.5 Watts.





That should be fine even if I crank it to its 700 mA max.

 

[PCBuds]

SuperBadGrower just messaged me to see how things are going.

I thought I'd post my reply here too because I type with one finger and use my phone so it takes me forever to type something out. Lol

Hey mate!
Sorry, I hadn't been logged in here lately, very busy times.

How's it going with your adventure?

It's coming along but slowly. I decided to take your advice/opinion and go with Bridgelux Gen 2 strips.

I didn't want to do all the research on the different brands of strips and just went with four 2' cool white strips thinking I could mount them vertically with one on each wall.

Then I decided to throw in the towel on SILs and bought 26 1' neutral white strips.
I got free shipping after I spent $100 so I figured six on each wall and two for experimentation to try to make a submersible underwater light. Lol.

(My first attempt was a fail because I didn't get it sealed completely and I had electrolysis going on and it was getting ready to blow!! Lol.








I did manage to crank my 700 mA max. 11" strip to 2,400 mA for a quick burst under liquid cooling though!!
That was pretty Cool!!!

So I bought this stuff to try and seal it completely..)







I was then stumped with how to mount my 2' strips but came up with this.
(This is looking up at the ceiling)



I should have purchased an equal amount of neutral and cool white so now I have a cool ceiling and will have neutral walls.

I went with cheap Chinese knock off drivers to get more bang for my buck and will only have them running at about half of their 500 Watt rated max.

One driver for the ceiling and one for the walls.





I'm going to leave the power on for the drivers in an attempt to get them to stabilize and turn their output on and off with the timer/contactor combination.
I don't care too much about electrical waste and the drivers draw ~5 Watts at idle with no output.

I'm just going to mount the strips directly to the walls with only a washer as a spacer to get some airflow through the backside of the strips.


I'm only going to use the temperature of the strips themselves as my "Throttle & Redline". I will turn them up as bright as I can without getting them too hot to touch.

I'm going to use my IR thermometer as my "Speedometer" as well as just simply putting my finger directly on the LED segments to get an idea of the heat. (yeah, I know, never touch the lens. Lol)

Now I'm trying to figure out how to wire them all and I think I might buy some solid core 18 AWG copper wire because the stranded stuff needs to be soldered because it won't hold in the clips otherwise.

I've got Bell Telephone wire but it's only 22 AWG and rated only 5 Watts.

 

[PCBuds]

I was looking at my Great Value SIL and was wondering why it's only 80 lumens/Watt compared to my strips at 175 lm/watt.









Then I realized that the SIL includes the Wattage of the driver in its specs and my strip is just the Wattage of the LED chips.


So I guess a more expensive SIL would have a more efficient built-in driver and can get a higher lm/Watt rating.

 

[PCBuds]

I get 18 LED segments for ~$1 with cheap SILs and I get 56 LED segments for ~$4.50 with my strips.









A basic 500 Watt Chinese driver costs ~$40 and can power up to 73 of my strips at their rated test current.

 

[ReikoX]

A quality Meanwell driver will give you a better overall efficiency than that Chinese driver, but costs a lot more....

 

[indagroove]

I was looking at my Great Value SIL and was wondering why it's only 80 lumens/Watt compared to my strips at 175 lm/watt.



[URL=https://i.postimg.cc/RZRzqH03/20200129-182453.jpg]View Image[/url]

[URL=https://i.postimg.cc/3x7TKB35/Screenshot-2020-01-29-18-28-42.png]View Image[/url]


Then I realized that the SIL includes the Wattage of the driver in its specs and my strip is just the Wattage of the LED chips.


So I guess a more expensive SIL would have a more efficient built-in driver and can get a higher lm/Watt rating.

Your Bridgelux strips are likely to be made from top bin diodes, while it's unlikely that cheap SILs are to be made with top bin diodes.

https://cogiscan.com/case-studies/automotive/led-bin-validation-traceability-description/

 

[indagroove]

I was looking at my Great Value SIL and was wondering why it's only 80 lumens/Watt compared to my strips at 175 lm/watt.



[URL=https://i.postimg.cc/RZRzqH03/20200129-182453.jpg]View Image[/url]

[URL=https://i.postimg.cc/3x7TKB35/Screenshot-2020-01-29-18-28-42.png]View Image[/url]



Then I realized that the SIL includes the Wattage of the driver in its specs and my strip is just the Wattage of the LED chips.


So I guess a more expensive SIL would have a more efficient built-in driver and can get a higher lm/Watt rating.

Your Bridgelux strips are likely to be made from top bin diodes, while it's unlikely that cheap SILs are to be made with top bin diodes.

https://cogiscan.com/case-studies/automotive/led-bin-validation-traceability-description/

 

[PCBuds]

Actually, my strips are obsolete so they probably both have the same generation LED chips.


The new Bridgelux Gen 3 strips are 200lm/Watt.







The Gen 3 Bridgelux 1' strips are $10.30.

I'd rather have 2 1/2 Gen 2's.

 

[indagroove]

Actually, my strips are obsolete so they probably both have the same generation LED chips.


The new Bridgelux Gen 3 strips are 200lm/Watt.



[URL=https://i.postimg.cc/HnphqSQB/Screenshot-2020-01-24-13-48-31.png]View Image[/url]

Even within the same diodes there are different bins. Manufactures like HLG only use top bin diodes, and I assume Bridgelux is the same. Chinese knock-offs of quantum boards, while them may be using the same diodes as HLG, usually don't use top bin, hence some of the price differences, as well as light output.

 

[PCBuds]

... Manufactures like HLG only use top bin diodes, and I assume Bridgelux is the same.

That's what I figure.

It's just that they were the top bin from maybe 2 years ago.

I believe Bridgelux is a quality manufacturer.

 

[indagroove]

From a different forum..