What's new
  • ICMag with help from Landrace Warden and The Vault is running a NEW contest in November! You can check it here. Prizes are seeds & forum premium access. Come join in!

Pinstripe's 2nd try: PC case + 22W LED

P

pinstripe

Member
asa77sol said:
Thanks in the names of the girls, but they still dont want to take flowers since jan1.
Nice to hear your idea to combinate the LEDs with any other light sources. I also would like to build a new cab with 2x55w pl-l and 16 reds(700mA). The size is 23x60cm, its 1,5sqfoot. I'd sign in to the official challenge. Below the jpgs...

Click to expand...

Hmm, no flowers for three weeks. I hope they show up soon. Those plants are kinda big, so maybe it has something with far red to do.
That box looks awesome! Very clever design for the airflow. Only two fans to get airflow covering all lights, plants, and the heatsink for the LEDs. It should be pretty silent, too. Nice one, bro!
 
D

DrGreenFingerz

Thanks for the info Pinstripe. I've been following Knna's DIY thread. Lots of information to wrap my head around. It's starting to make more sense though. Good idea with the PLL's Im building a case almost the exact dimensions of yours. I just spent a bunch on 3 36W Pll's but was concerned with heat. I'd imagine one of those Pll's and some LED's would do wonders. Do you reckon you could have attached the LED's directly to the top of the case rather than using a heatsink? Wonder if it would be enough to dissipate the heat. I'm thinking a PLL in the middle and 8 red LED's on either side. Wonder how that would work out. I'll get a thread started whenever I actually get it finished.
 
H

herbal essences

Pinstripe great show youre putting on, may I ask where di you get this light?
 
P

pinstripe

Member
Thanks for looking in, growclean, DrGreenFingerz, and herbal essences! Good to see you guys here :)

DrGreenFingerz said:
Thanks for the info Pinstripe. I've been following Knna's DIY thread. Lots of information to wrap my head around. It's starting to make more sense though. Good idea with the PLL's Im building a case almost the exact dimensions of yours. I just spent a bunch on 3 36W Pll's but was concerned with heat. I'd imagine one of those Pll's and some LED's would do wonders. Do you reckon you could have attached the LED's directly to the top of the case rather than using a heatsink? Wonder if it would be enough to dissipate the heat. I'm thinking a PLL in the middle and 8 red LED's on either side. Wonder how that would work out. I'll get a thread started whenever I actually get it finished.
Click to expand...
You're most welcome, bro! :) It sure is a lot to read, and the most important thing you'd need to look for is the ratio of PL-L : red LED : blue LED.
I wouldn't recommend attaching the LEDs directly to the case. It would probably work okay with 10 watts, but it's too flexible. I'm guessing a nice tap on the PC case would have the LEDs break off of it. The "Knna-mounting" seems risky without a rigid heat sink.

IMO, first you should see how the PL-Ls do in the case. You maybe can go with two of those tubes without heat problems. 72W of PL-Ls gives like twice as much usable light (assuming using a decent reflector) as this 22W system that I have.

The reason I need to go with as few watts possible is I keep the grow box inside a closet and have to keep its door closed for hours and sometimes days. I could easily have gone with 60+ watts if keeping the case in a normal room.

Have fun putting the grow box together!
 
P

pinstripe

Member
Pics! 12 weeks total / 8 weeks after seeing the first preflowers.

Nothing much exiting happens. The buds slowly swell up, and I'll let them go another two weeks or so before starting the flush. I have been giving them 80-100% recommended dose Hesi bloom complex at every watering for about 4 weeks.

I also found a seed today :( Doesn't seem to be very many of any potential seeds, though. Dunno if there are bananas in there or if some Lowryder pollen from the previous grow is still flying around. The plants almost died twice from me not watering them. Maybe that could stress them to hermie a little?

picture.php


picture.php


picture.php


All the best,
pinstripe
 
D

DrGreenFingerz

Thanks for the reply man your results are inspiring. I can't wait to see what you actually yield. Looks like more than 10 grams to me but I dunno. I think you will get at least half a zip.

I want to go the LED route pretty much for the same reasons as you. Heat has always been an issue for me I see people cooling things with a tiny fan and it never works that way where I'm at. This time of year isn't bad but during the summer I'm dealing with ambient temps of 78-80 degrees so I don't have alot of wiggle room with heat. I need to keep it stealth so can't run massive fans 24/7. So I'm going the LED/CFL route. My LEDs should be here later today and just got my drivers. I'm pretty much duplicating your setup. I'm going to go with the PLL tube in the middle and then 6 Red 1 White 1 Blue on either side of the PLL. Got two drivers running at 500mA 24V 12W output. Pushing the upper limits of the drivers but its the best I could find and can always lose an LED or two if it runs to hot. Now I just need to find some heatsink material thin enough and long enough and I can get to building. I'm not looking for much if I can pull anywhere close to an ounce at a time I will be more than happy. Im a fairly light user and I vaporize so I'm pretty efficient and stuff lasts forever.

Anyhow keep on babying those things so we can see some harvest pics.
 
P

pinstripe

Member
Thanks guys!

The yield will probably have me set for a year or so. You could say I'm a pretty occasional consumer :D

Dr.GreenFingers - sounds great! I'm guessing you're using separate constant current controllers. I never figured out how to use those :)
Don't think the white LEDs will make much difference, though. In my setup the whites are likely included to add deep red, far red, blue, and to get full spectrum. Your PL-L will supply all of that. Maybe you can switch those out for red or blue LEDs.

Think you're gonna get nice results, and DWC or coco is the way to go to get that ounce!
 
D

DrGreenFingerz

Hmm good point I will think about scraping the whites then. Figured they couldn't hurt but what you said makes sense. I think I screwed up on the drivers now. Does it matter if they are constant voltage or do they need to be constant current. I got two of these 24v model. But looking at the model number they are constant voltage not current. Hope I didn't just blow money on these sigh.

Oh and I'm really leaning towards coco up to this point all I've done is organic soil which isnt bad but have really been impressed with some of the coco plants I've seen here. DWC just isn't an option really because of heat though I'd like to try it out just wont be able to keep such a small res cool enough.

Anyhow I don't mean to hijack your thread I'll sit back and enjoy the show but if you have any idea on the driver thing I'd appreciate. Thanks man.
 
S

SSLcloner

New member
DrGreen- you want constant currrent. From the pdf you listed it looks like those drivers can be operated in a CC mode. If you cant figure out how to get them operating in constant current mode, fear not. You can always strap on a simple LM317 regulator configured for CC.
 
D

DrGreenFingerz

Ah boy nah there is no way to change anything on these I got the constant voltage model. Hope someone learns from my mistake as these weren't that hard to find. I'll have to go do some research on the lm317 now. Thanks for the tip on that. I'll open up a new thread if I run into issues. Don't want to take over Pinstripes masterpiece here.
 
sx646522

sx646522

Member
Nice job, pinstripe! Way to grow. I hear what you're saying about the usage bro, I could harvest once every 1-2 years small scale and be perfectly happy with that. Though growing is such fun...

Out of curiosity, what's your opinion on the GD+ performance running them at 500ma, given that they have a higher luminous efficiency at 350ma, and that if you were to use more (qty) LEDs running at the lower amperage rating but same total wattage would give you more usable light (cost of the LEDs aside)? Wondering what your reasoning process was there.

Hope to get my little LED project going in the next 2-3 months or so, stay tuned...

SSLcloner said:
DrGreen- you want constant currrent. From the pdf you listed it looks like those drivers can be operated in a CC mode. If you cant figure out how to get them operating in constant current mode, fear not. You can always strap on a simple LM317 regulator configured for CC.
Click to expand...

I'll second that. LEDs are designed to accept a wide variance in amplitude, though they work most efficiently at one draw depending on their design/model (350ma, 700, etc.)

They are, however, extremely susceptible to voltage swings, and have a narrow Vf range within each production bin at which to power them. Go too far outside that range and you can overload the chips.

Cheers,

-SX
 
P

pinstripe

Member
DrGreenBudz - Sorry to hear that about the drivers, man. The easiest way would IMO be to try to send 'em back and get the right ones.
Using additional LM317s is an option, and will bump your knowledge up on electronics, but also takes a little time. Additionally, the LM317s will draw some extra power that could've been used to run LEDs. My knowledge on power supplys and current/voltage regulating circuits isn't good enough, though, so I'll leave that to the more experienced guys.
Oh, and I appreciate your concern of "hijacking" the thread, but it's all cool. Throw your questions and thoughts out! Some people reading this are maybe into building their own LED light, and any correct advice is good advice.


Thanks a lot, sx646522! Hear you too, bro :) The growing is just too much fun. I'll have to dress up as the Phantom and give some weed away.

Yup, the LEDs lose efficiency the higher you go in current. The main reasons for not going with more LEDs, but at the same wattage, were the price and the KISS rule.
Like I've said before, other than me building it, Knna should get all the creds for this light. He recommended both spectrum and wattage for this grow box.
You know, I already cut the watts down by half (compared to CFLs and mini HIDs) by choosing high quality LEDs, and only had to add like 5 watts to compensate the 15-20% drop in efficiency. Then 5W wasn't a big deal considering the 30% fewer LEDs that I'd have to mount and pay for.
Knna actually figured out that running these red GD+ at somewhere around 500mA gets you the most photons per buck (this, of course, depends on what price you get em at.)

Also, the photosynthesis has a peak efficiency at some light intensity (watts of light / m2). The more light added after reaching this peak light intensity, the lower the gain in yield will be. Say you're yielding 400g in a closet with a 400W HPS, then adding another 400W lamp will most likely only give you 100-150g extra yield.
So I knew Knna recommended enough wattage to reach above this peak efficiency, and I was expecting a yield of 10g, so adding 25-30% more light would (I'm guessing here, there's a link to a study in the LED lab thread) would maybe add 10% in yield. Meaning an extra gram or so for my box. You know what the KISS rule would say about that :D

I believe lighting is only one little part in what gets you good yields. PH, Temperature (including night temps!), and genetics are three very important factors. For example, when the Dr.Bud style gets really effective is when finding a good mother plant.


All the best
 
D

DrGreenFingerz

Any updates for us? I was able to exchange my drivers but ended up having to go for a 350mA version as thats all I could find big enough. Ordered my kapton and copper tape just waiting for everything to show up now.
 
P

pinstripe

Member
Thanks, jburns! The LEDs are indeed very convenient for this PC case. Now I have to adjust the fan speed to get nice humidity, not to ventilate heat out :)

Sounds good, DrGreenFingerz! There'll be some new pics when I get the plants out for the next watering. This will be in 2-3 days.

The growth isn't all exiting at the moment, and most trichomes are still clear.
Some buds will most likely need to be taken down at different times, but I'm a little confused on how to time this with the flushing. Any advice on this is appreciated!
 
#1cheesebuds

#1cheesebuds

Well-known member
Veteran
wow thouse r some very very nice buds u have there. u should be very very proud of ur grow if ur not alreaty.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Latest posts

Top