Diary PCBuds mini-grow

[exploziv]

It probably rot in there..

 

[PCBuds]

And, what's this experiment come to?

It turns out that it lived, got transplanted twice and became my outdoor plant.

I remember using my parts car as a greenhouse, but I thought the seed in the drilled stump croaked?

 

[PCBuds]

This is a cool picture,..
I pulled the shell off with needles.

Weird looking fetus picture.
She's bending over with her ams tucked, and the placenta is laying beside her.
Eeeeewww,..

My other hobby to go along with growing was taking pictures of the grow, especially close-ups.

Trichome pictures were a real challenge to photograph.

 

[PCBuds]

Ok, so lets throw some info up i hope youre like means ok. Ask me to remove if you dont want it here ;

Budget uv: in order to get a decent amount of watts but spread out id do it in 4 levels, with maybe some on top for good measure. There are several deal on aliexpress, ill show some examples later on what to get and what not.

Well use alu u extrusions, can you find a good source of that locally. You can get it cut or cut it yourself. Id try using something like 40cm, 16 inches long sections, a total of 4x3= 12.
Id try for at least 1.5 mm thickness but 2 would be super fine. One inch to 30mm wide with 10mm fins. Fins double as attachment for shield.

Set them up like this: divide the profile in 3 sections an one led in the middle of each section. You can do a bit tighter aswell. Tighter means more intense but also more mixed since youd be using 400/365 in 2:1 sections. Up to you, if going tight you can prolly go with less alu length but width and fins you need to keed the same unless you wanna go bigger. With 12 profiles id have you buying 36 diodes, seems a lot but it aint, theyll run nice and soft and only cost around 1 $.

But youll also need a spare guide pcb in same size, just get one spare for this, infact get a few spares anyways for replacing any future breakage. Youll spend a little now on leds but it will all be worth it, youll see. If you wanna go even further you could also pick up some reds, id suggest a an even splitt of 630 and 660. It can be really nice to compensate the added uv/blue response with some red. Put them on same circuit or a separate one but be sure your number is divideable by 12 so that it works out symmetrically for 2 leds per bar. Try to get same size pcb reds as uv then you can reuse the same guide pcb. Get your metal drill out and place your alus on a wooden surface that can get some holes with no issue. Or even better, fasten the ends in something so you got nothing underneath. Trick here is to just hand fit them, dont worry about marking holes and then drilling on the right spot, its easier to just grab the guide, put it on the alu and drill a hole in the alu aligned with one of the holes/notches. Drop a screw thru it, i use m3 its usually standard but by all means double check. Hold down the guide so it fits snuggly with the screw and then drill the next hole, two is enough. Then go on to the next and next. If you do this by marking it will take ages and youre likely to get the holes a bit missaligned. Sacrifice one pcb and diode to gain an hour or so of working time cause that diode and pcb is likely to short and give problems. All of this can be done without accessing the grow space. Once you have all your holes you wait until harvest time and start installing these with fins facing towards plant space. Use a 2 mm drill to drill thru into the wood, make sure you only drill the minimal needed. Then using short m3 screws you both mount diodes and fasten the alu unchannel with the same m3 screw. You dont need to be extra hard for the diodes, enough tightening so that youll only need wrist strength, not your whole arm or shoulder. If you want extra credit then get some solution so there is air between the wall and the alu, for better dissipation. Coin or similar should do. It will also give you a nice gap to fit in any shielding you may want. Dont do plastic or glass, you want some chicken fence looking thing or similar, fine mesh.

Oops i think i made a misstake. How are you going to solder vertically?

No, youll have to mount the diodes, use screws to hold them in place, no nut needed. Solder diodes, id suggest solid core, 0.75 mm or so. What ever your electric shop can give you but dont do standard 1mm its too thick to be practical. For those who dont know how to solder check a youtube vid; presolder bot pad and wire and then oush them together with your hot point. Measure out wire distance to next diode nice and exactly so that you dont have any slack between. And then solder the next. Once going this shouldnt take more time than a minute per diode with hotpoint solder warm. Its a good idea to leave plenty of extra on each end of the circuit of 3 per alu channel, enough so you can wire each level as a string of 3 channels. That makes 9 (3x 2- 400s and 1 365) diodes to a string (or more if you mix with reds, id suggest budgeting voltage to 4 per uv and 2.2 per red). some of this maybe obvious to you but ill bookmark this post and refer people to it for any needs of instructions.

Now you remove your diodes and screws and now you do the shallow mounting holes with 2mm wooden drill, or just anything a little thinner than m3 screws (i think theyre like 1/8"). Start screwing in screws thru the alu, get some space between alu and wooden wall if you like as mentioned above. Start by attaching the end diodes properly and go over each screw until all is snug but dont use excessive force. Rinse repeat for your 4 levels, you can out the 4 string ontop of everything in the ceiling. Its gonna be ther worst ones cause youll have to set slu to ceiling while the whole solder string wants to fall of. Again, attach the screws of the very ends, to the wood but dont tighten just yet. Get your end diodes and push them into place against the screws already in place and attach the other screw and tighten properly, and finish the middle one last. Obvioulsy take care that you get your string series right, minus to plus with in each alu and also minus to plus between the alus. Dont get yourself into a situation of having fastened down and finished everything only to see that youve got one element where you have minus to minus and have to do it all over again reversing.
You should now have 3 or 4 different levels of right side, back and left. Attach the strings together each ot the levels again from minus to plus so you end up with 3-4 strings. My guess is that the distance from plant dictates a maximum of 350mA per string for short bursts and a fair bit softer for all day or 3-4 hours midday.
For driver: use a proper meanwell cc driver with max current of (numbers of levels) x 350mA. Xlg-m range may be good for this. Or even a hlg50-36B for 4 levels, its cv/cc but it will work as long as dialed down a bit.

Does this make sense to you or have i been wall of texting again without rhinking of comprehension? Quote me on anything unclear. You can of course do a full series setup and snake the connections around but i dont recommend it, anything fails and youll have a hard time finding where and all the uv will go at the same time.

I'm gonna read this later.
It's a mile long.


I don't like homework either so I'm not gonna bother reading through this 5½ year long thread.

If someone else wants to read through it and ask me any questions about it, I'll be glad to try and answer if you can link me to my post to help jog my memory.

There's all kinds of kinda cool pictures to look at, and I think cool pictures aren't just Frosty Colas.

 

[Rocket Soul]

This is a cool picture,..
I pulled the shell off with needles.

Weird looking fetus picture.
She's bending over with her ams tucked, and the placenta is laying beside her.
Eeeeewww,..

View attachment 19087543


My other hobby to go along with growing was taking pictures of the grow, especially close-ups.

Trichome pictures were a real challenge to photograph.

I think i read about this somewhere else, the seed in the trunk. Your reputation precedes you

 

[PCBuds]

I think i read about this somewhere else, the seed in the trunk. Your reputation precedes you

I will admit to nothing.
Mostly because I can't remember.

 

[PCBuds]

I think i read about this somewhere else, the seed in the trunk. Your reputation precedes you

Ohhh,..
Looking at that picture now,..

I'm sure I could have saved it.
It was just way too wet.

Babies don't drink much.
She drown. She wasn't dying of thirst.

 

[PCBuds]

Speaking of forgetting everything,..
Look what I just found,..

I'm gunna grow me another trunk plant !!
Gotta get a seed started,..

All kinds of seeds for starting a lucky plant.