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@iGrowDagga @Ill_Evan Howzit guys Grow diaries have been hidden from guests for years now before growing became decriminalised actually lol. Never crossed my mind to change that and @iGrowDagga is the first to raise the concern since. Of course, there is no need to keep it hidden anymore so I've made the grow diaries public now

@420SA Admin is too kind thanks! It helps when I attempt to direct traffic to my diary, usually people stop when they see account needed.

Oh wait, maybe I am not even answering you there. just rambling away! The bar LED layout design allows for passive cooling, so you don't have to actively cool it with extra fans. With the bar layout, out of all designs, allows for the coolest running temperatures from your diodes and driver. Allowing space between strips and driver it doesn't build up or trap any heat. you can hold your hand around the strips while on, air moves around the strip freely, extrusion strip being alu it doesn't conduct heat, light spread muuuuuuuuch better allowing for closer to canopy allowing for better penetration and overall less heat, allowing for less electricity consumption cause no extra fans

To achieve optimal desired spectrum on the leaf surface for both veg and flower situations with one light is almost impossible, because they're so far apart. This is the reason people mix and match, but if you upping the Wattage and switching between spectrum, it's better not to play in the middle. Best to go full white at 5500k for veg and switch to full yellow at 3000k for flower and look at it as two seperate lights. much less technical and you don't have to worry bout adding blue and red and and and and and, cause that stuff just takes you closer to the middle again. and adding red to 3000k spectrum is over kill, my flower light is a DIY 3000k already can't see shit cause it's so yellow it looks like HPS. same with white, adding blue to the 5500k is overkill. it's only when you work around the 4000k mark that it really gets technical cause then you have to add blue and then you look at one single light as "best of both worlds" but it actually does two things half half and cause it's more technical it's easier to go wrong. But that's just my About that last bit, looking at the bigger picture, out of all lighting options, the life span of LEDs beat out all the rest, except for the centennial light bulb that's been burning for 120 years straight but yeah, so getting into why it lasts so much longer is because the output in light is so much greater than the output in heat, even from the little generic poop grade LEDs you get on your christmas lights. Samsung, with their new tech, they start pushing the limits. Some diodes give off more heat some give off less heat, but in all cases it's not a fixed output, it's always got to do with the resistance you put on it. You're an engineer, I just grow plants hahah you probably know waaay more than me about thermal resistance and that stuff? If you look at 2 of the exact same diodes, brand new. One running one at 100% output will wear it out quicker than that same one runming at 50% output. The reason for that is because the 100% diode is running physically hotter than the 50% one. and this is the same principle that goes for why most electrical appliances need fans on them to keep them running cool at all times to keep them from wearing out too fast. most electrical stuff got built in fans for that ot the design of the body allows for passive cooling of to some degree. The hotter a circuit runs the more resistance it has on it, the more resistance the harder the thing has to work to reach the same amount of output and eventually shortening the lifespan much quicker. Logically, if the design or "layout" of your light causes it to heat up more the light will have a shorter life span. If you gotta run fans on it, it means it runs hot. If you gotta run more fans you pulling more W from the wall. why not build a better working design that the plants will also appreciate more PLUS save money by not having to run extra stuff plus less wear on the light

Thanks Sir! Nice to have a view from someone who has both. I think perhaps rather Budbox for me. I think where I am a stronger construction is probably gong to be needed more.

lol my current setup If you heavy handed and don't have time to look that you do everything carefully - I'd go for the Budbox. If you someone that looks after their stuff and can make a material thing last long then the Mars will be better for you. Budbox - Better zips, thicker and heavier material, I don't see any light leaks coming through the "almost plastic-like" inner lining of the tent walls. doors can hang open. Sturdy build. MarsHydro - Better bang for buck as the mylar prooves to reflect better than the white across many different light PAR tests. (Budbox need to remove that false claim) but then most complaints you hear about is light leaks from either the zips wearing out or the material flaking off from bending too much and forming creases and flaking off on those creases and also the stitching on the material itself wears out over time leaving pin hole light leaks. so with a mars to make them last longer you gotta hook in the doors each time so they not hanging or flapping (wearing out the material and the zips). also Mars is a bit cheaper, so yeah... they kinda balance eachother out in that regard.

Hi bud, hope you well. We got a inhouse LED specialist, if I may say so myself. @MrE have you seen this? @koosjr I did a quick over everything, but I didn't pick up on any mention bout if you gona be using the light for veg or for flower or for both? when buying a light this most important so you can imagine how important it is to know what you wana do with the thing before diving head first. a duel spec light that will cover both veg and flower phases needs to be quite a bit stronger in overall wattage and you'll need to be able to switch between spectrums like turn the red on and off by itself, same with the blue and you gona have to mix spectrums to keep the plant happy through all of it's cycles. Duel spectrum lights don't really offer that. If you take a 300w driver and make it pump a duel spectrum - even if it can't switch between spectrums and just on full blast all the time - it means during veg your plant is not getting optimal PAR/PPFD readings and undesired spectrum for vegging, and same goes for flower. not technically but to make it easier to understand, then the plant will only getting 150w of good veg light and 150w of good flower light, cause you pulling that 300w in two different directions. It's more technical than that, but I am sure you get what I mean? So building a duel spec you need to get a driver that can push 600w and split that spectrum so you can toggle between veg and bloom. basically what I am saying, it's the same as with all things in life, if you want one gadget that can do multiple things it becomes gimmicky. it will do both things at mid quality. much better to have, lets say 300w on full blast, but with the right spectrum in order to get an optimal veg and a optimal flower light. you'll be glad to find out that those added UV, added IR and all the mixing and splitting of spectrums you only need to do if you want to go for a duel spec light. which I would advise against. much more important to be able to dim the light, when it's in the right spectrum the output % becomes way more important. Besides what we telling you, we can talk till we blue in the face, but here is a link to LED gardener, I'll drop the link to the page you need to be on right now study it thoroughly, there are even step by step guides for each build, you get optimal performance minimal mumbo jumbo. https://ledgardener.com/diy-led-strip-build-designs-samsung-bridgelux/

Download the Photone app for your phone and use white paper and tape for the diffuser. This measures PPFD, LUX, DLI, etc and its pretty damn accurate.

Go Mars over the budbox.

Which one would you choose? Budbox does claim that the white inside is better than Mylar, and it does seems like even a slightly better construction. These two seems to me stronger than the cheaper alternatives and it can hang quite a bit more.

Hi all, Just wondering about different ways to keep Tent up to temperature in the night when lights go out?. I've ordered a RAM fan controller box to start with. 1.2x1.2 tent and on slow speed the fan seems an overkill sucking some nice 12°C cold air at a fair old rate!. I've ordered a 400w Desktop fan heater and will couple this with a separate thermostat. The fan will be placed with back near intake. Will update findings in 2-3 weeks for anyone interested. In the meantime, if anyone has any other suggestions to keep the tent warm I would be grateful. Panel heater is possible????. Also,........ what is the coldest temp (at night) that the plants could handle?. I believe 24°-27°C is the ideal temp-----in an ideal world!. I'm running everything on Solar so big wattage heaters are out of the question. Setup; Mars tent, led lights, ram 150mm fan. 2 fresh air 150mm inlet feeds.

Yes, basically it is two different lights on one panel so although the total power of a panel will be say 200 W, I will be using only 100W for Veg and 200W for flower. I surely have no intention to use both spectrums all the time. I also want it dimmable because if I run from solar, then some days I might have to compromise and tune down the light to the minimum level possible for the hours that I have limited or no solar. I do not want to get too technical though. Where I don't follow you well is with regards to the heat rejection in the box. Event he 165 lm/w Samsung LEDS have almost 50% energy loss in heat. So, if you power 100W, then 50W is heat. Do I miss something there?

just shows you how quick my quick over was, but as soon as I read you mixing spectrums and adding uv and ir and that stuff then I knew where it's going. if looking at doing a duel spec, working with the 300w/1m2 rule, you gona have to put roughly 600w driver on. cause you only using half the light most of the time if I am not mistaken? you going for building 2 different lights on one panel? gona be a tough one but goodluck!!! have you seen the LED BAR designs??? no need for extra heat management and stuff brother. You already got the PCB's? I'd advise to go with the aluminium extrustions. look for a T shape. Pack of tiny pop rivits, tiny drill bit. Build a square with bars running across. light will basically never even heat up + coverage and penetration goes waaaaay up since you have diodes all over the canopy and you can bring the light muuuuuuch closer to the canopy cause of the little heat. just all around better design. don't have to run 100% all the time + minimal heat = last almost forever with minimal power drop. for ages and ages the techy techy dudes been teching the tech out these tech things, like a couple years ago you could find these big body LEDs with built in fans and and and all the fancy jazz, all the extra shit they didn't need cause they too focussed on the tech side, not looking at design. a lot of times, when we approach something we wish to understand better cause we don't completely understand it yet, it's always a complicated start so we tend to look at the easy answers and go "no way it could be this easy, it has to be more complicated" when actually it really is that simple. just the layout of the light design can make a moerse difference in the way the tech performs. with those old big body LEDs with built in shit you buy a light that sucks 300w from the wall, but 80 to 100 of those watts are being put out in the form of heat and another 50w goes to running the fans leaving you with about 200w of light output, then people are left scratching their heads when they throw a PAR meter and get less than what the product is advertised, just cause the design is all wrong.

Do you have access to burning some wood? I have lots where I am, so I am planning to have a plain old Donkie and heat it up with sticks. If you have a 200 litres insulated tank at 60 or 70°C you can pull it down no nearly 30°C with a properly selected heating coil. That will give you already about 9kWh of heat - and you can even store then with your solar system with an element during daytime if you have any access.

I think my first post is clear enough what I want to achieve. Yes, I am going to have a light with both 3000K and 5000K such that either can provide the full power needed for veg and flower. I will then have each circuit to be fully modulating - which is easy enough to do so I can go 50% of the one and 50% of the other if I want to. It seems to save manufacturing costs, I need to limit my panel sizes to 400x100mm - not a bad length and I am still playing with ideas of how to assemble it. I want use aluminium PCB's as it will help a lot to remove heat from the LEDS and hopefully will at least make them last better. My thinking starts leaning towards having a dedicated plenum system for the lights where the air in/out is a separate circuit to that of the airflow for the box - so this means that almost the entire heat load of the lights can be removed from the box.

Nope, ventilation for the room through the light fitting will probably not work as well as I hoped. I ill have to get that heat out separately which means extraction and I doubt that ill give much leave movement. Some good ideas on this forum help shaping my ideas.

OK, so I found that LED light efficiency is about 40%, which means that in this room I will have a heat gain of nearly 300W. So, if I do blow air through my light fitting it means at least a 3°C increase if the air passing through the fitting. That will give me problems in summer but in winter this will be advantageous. I need to think a little about it... I won't have enough power to use an AC unit, but I do have other options. Maybe some geothermal...

Put in the net and gave the bottom branches a final trim. I should be good from here until full flower. Canopy is looking real good and level. One week since flip.

With maybe some LED lighting along the branches inside the resin

Ever tried to put a tree into resin to conserve it?

That is a beautifull cannabonsai.

Perfect, thankyou . Yep,....... I'm in at the deep end!. Looks like the pressure is on!. Positive comments........ I feel like I'm the typical ' All the gear......No idea' person. Hope you see post explaining my reason for the lights schedule. I'm excited to try my first indoor grow with first time hydroponics. No point in planting untill the climate in GT is under control. Hopefully in a couple of weeks I can try. Cheers....

Thanks Organic, Yes, panel heater seems the way to go for me. As mentioned, I'm on solar and the setup handles grow tent equipment nicely. Not sure if I switched to night light it would cope?. Even on a cloudy day the Solar will generate enough power to run GT and charge batteries for nighttime useage =10 hrs. If I switch to 'lights on' at night there would be an additional 6 hrs that my Solar batteries would have to supply the GT and if it's been cloudy there won't be enough power stored in the batteries to run the extra hours. If you understand that.....you deserve a medal!. If I used Eskom then your 'lights on at night' schedule would be perfect . Thanks again for your help....

More than enough

Many thanks for the feedback . Comment on the fan makes perfect sense!. Shame I missed your heaters but will start looking around now. I'm not sure if I would need 2 though?. Do you think a 400w panel is enough for my 1.2M2 tent?. Cheers......

was also gona suggest the lights on at night thing. in veg you got maximum 6hrs of darkness, just aim to get those 6hrs during the peak heat of the day (11:00 to 17:00 is the hottest hours of every day even in winter) so this, in contrast, leaves you with your light on during the colder hours of every day. so it balances itself out. plants grow kak slow in anything under 18°C but it wont kill them. just stunt them a little so try not go under 18°C too often, if it dips below 18 for a couple hours every night you just gona have purple plants. panel heater will do the trick if you wana keep it above 20 or in a certain range. your setup looks like it's got the potential for some bulky yields

Nice set up bud, I would suggest a panel heater. If your fan heater is still in the box. Possibly take it back and get a panel heater in there, you can use a sonoff to regulate the temperature switching it on an off to keep the temp in the desired range. I have found this to be the best method to warm up the tent during these times. Also possibly let your lights run during the night to keep the temps in a better range. Goodluck.