Naughty.Psychonaut

@Modboy69 

hope you good! 

possible signs of WPM? 

here is to hoping it's not WPM!!!

I was gona suggest finishing her up to get more and better quality RSO, but if those white spots are WPM it's better to chop her now before the WPM takes over, with winter fast approaching it's sure to happen if you already got the spores in the air. she's already flowering so can't really spray anything... you could push her till you see the WPM getting real bad then do a bud wash post harvest / pre drying.... 

if it's WPM and it's only a little there will be no problem in making RSO with it just like that as you'll have to decarb the weed at some point, which will help kill a lot of mold/bacteria spores that dwell on the surface. it just wont work if your plant is covered in the stuff... 

goodluck man, ecxited to see what goes down! 

Hi there, welcome! 

We gona have to see better photos before weighing in at all, not that it will matter anyway, If you wana smoke the thing by all means smoke it, but if you where looking for a  I'll only be making my deposit when I can see everything. In the past we've had people post photos of quite badly neglected outdoor grows with very poor flowers and sometimes all covered in WPM, asking us if it's ready to be smoked.... hope it goes without saying but sometimes it's good to ask before indulging in these things. nature can be quite tricky sometimes. 

Hope you get something nice there man, though chances for it being a stray bag seed from someones generic outdoor baggy is very very high, in which case you'll never really know what "strain" that is.

A comfortable 90% of ditch weed you'll come across will not be anything worth while. 

yeah I've been picking a hand full of fan leaves every second or third time I open the tent, but it's been a while since I did a proper clean up. left a lot of inner and lower branches for making clones if needed, but they all need to be removed, I'll do a deep defol and thining out the branches once I see pistils. Still need to clone the Chernobyl. might put down a second net once I cleaned them up nicely. they also still need to be moved to the flower tent so will probably get to all that as I move them over

7 hours ago, Island Gerl said:

Leaves are curling up and looks very dry.

you still running the HIDs?

13 minutes ago, ORGANinc. said:

I think your light intensity is too high.

woah...... dejavu..... It's almost like I said this before.....

19 hours ago, MrE said:

Honestly, if your overall spectrum is already 3500k/3000k, I don't think you're missing anything substantial that will be a magic bullet. But.. new gadgets are fun :).

Hell yea, I'd like to play around with the lights more so to just configure new ways and help myself understand the technology better, and less so to have a new light! but to hear that I am not far off with my DIY is a very enduring  

it really is a fun hobby, building grow lights, that moment you first switch on your first DIY light, it really is infectious! 

like I said with the last build for a friend of mine I was more excited than he was he was running HID and I was constantly on his case about getting an aircon cz he had heat problems, would harvest rock hard golf ball size buds with almost no smell or taste cz the heat was constantly above 35 when lights where on. terpenes go byebye!

Anyhow, big big props to you Mr.E, I like what you do and the way you go about it and now in future with my next DIY LED or just fun side project I know where to go for the real info. this industry is rife with confirmation bias and it seems marketing hype is of bigger concern than diligence!

We need more people like you on the scene, for real! We need more people passionate and willing enough to take their own time to do research and put forth information and even bring products to the local market that make it easier for all local growers to get the right stuff from the start and not have to pay unnecessary school fees! 

Hats off to you and all the work and trial and error you had to put up with for the rest of us to have better lighting options in future! 

soooooo, the flower tent is taking forever to finish and the veg tent has filled up a bunch over the last couple days. decided I'll get these ladies into flower so long so I flipped them to 12/12 and put the net down. 

don't want the same thing happening that happened now with the current flowering batch where the tent got so full it became a problem. 

Blueberry Hashplant got the chop 2 days ago

DS flopping over everywhere, tied a few tops, but not gona stress about this too much. tent got some more space with the BBHP removed. 

I know I know a tad heavy on the nutes, giving clean water now probably till they come down. 

Frosted Apricot got stressed at some point and I think I know why.... only thing that's out of place with her is the fact that she's about 40cm away from the light... kept having to put the light higher for the DS, had to raise the FA under the scrog net, she's about as high as I can get her without the scrog net doing damage. still not high up enough so she's still really far away from the light. she's making some real stretchy funny looking buds with some foxtailing going on still looking damn frosty and got a sour fruit smell going on, still happy about her. 

Got her clone in the veg tent. ready fot the next run, will do better this time  

23 hours ago, Ill_Evan said:

Indeed sir, I am very happy with the performance of the Wedding Cake. The last run I did of it I was still selecting phenos and this was the top pick out of the bunch that I could finally do a proper run of. The frost and terpenes are top class, although it does lack somewhat in bud size. I'd like to do a manifold/top of it to see if I can improve the yield. 

Four years later 

First time ever using organic nutes/Biobizz. I call it Organic Tent™ ironically because personally I would consider a grow true organic if it's just soil, amendments and teas/water. The Biobizz feels like a bit of a cheat  

hahahah this is true, cz it's already formulated nutrient line with a schedule, although one does not follow the schedule to a T otherwise it would make big kak. 

imagine following the biobizz schedule, plants will catch fire or some shit, but their schedule calls for like 10× the amount of nutrients you really need + half the stuff you don't even need  

full organic I feel is building your own soil. a few inert mediums as a base, compost from a self maintained compost heap, mostly clean water with a microbe tea / dry organic ammendment on occasion. 

hahah yeah I haven't even found any phenos worth keeping, still searching!  

grew a Sour Lemon OG by Emerald Triangle Genetics that has a damn nice citrus / cat piss taste that kinda burns my nose in a good way when smoking it. like a tingle sensation that I can't get enough of, I guess it's a terpene my body reacts to quite well. 

grew a big batch then dropped the cut, my search will probably be never ending! I feel like after I had a big batch of one strain I get ovet it real quick. I prefer smoking something diffetent each time rather than smoking the same thing the whole time, even if it's really good I become so used to the taste, smell and feel it becomes like water to me. 

I got my hands on some new phenos, way too many different strains to get to, will be running some Forbidos, Grape Diamonds, Canna Health #21 and Zweet Inzanity cuts after my batch that's in veg now. then got a run lined up aftet that too. and the batch in veg at the moment is all new to me aswell , so I don't even know if I am going to want to keep them, all I know is I am already planned to drop them

14 hours ago, MrE said:

Well thanks dude! Mighty kind words for sure! Awesome, glad you've got the led bug too! I guess I'm just a bit hesitant to go waving my 2c around. 

Yea dude, I love all the lights, love diy, all of it. So with that in mind, here it is:

My light: 240W, Samsung LM301B SK bin 3000K+5000K, Osram Oslon SSL 660nm, designed for 60-70-80-90cm(max) tents. 92% efficient Fahold driver, PF 0.983. Foldable, driver on bars or external (2m extension cord), 3 year warranty. etc. (see the website for more)

Maybe controversial, but from what I've studied, LM301B sk is the exact same chip as LM301H sk, LM301B sl is the same as LM301H sl. SL is roughly 5% more efficient for a 40% price increase.

https://cre.science/en/lm301h-vs-lm301b/

Info on the upcoming LM301H Evo: 

https://cre.science/en/lm301h-evo-new-horticulture-leds/

Samsung LM301H SL is right up there with the most efficient, if not the most efficient by a smallish margin. I'm unsure whether Nichia, Seoul, Philips Lumiled, Sanan (what the Lumii series uses iirc), Epistar etc. have any new products out, accurate data is hard to find, so it's entirely possible a few have chips that come super close. They all produce quality chips though. 

Bridgelux is no different, the top bin gen3 chips in the best EB series strips are really good (slightly more ePar production, if that's your thing, but that's a deep rabbit hole). To match the output of the top bin LM301 chips, Mars Hydro (FC3000 vs FCE3000 and now Spider Farmer with their G1000 model) use around 32% more Bridgelux diodes, making them run cooler and more efficiently.

Samsung and Mean Well established their brands first, commonly referred to as somewhat of a "gold standard" in the market. They enjoy those word of mouth bonus points. But, as with led chips, there are plenty of similar quality drivers, all with at least 5 year warranties etc. (Not that it translates through each brand's light warranty). In fact, Mean Well has been a bit slow to jump on the programmable driver train iirc.

Oh, I'm not using strips, it's a custom layout I designed. I've been developing it with a Chinese ODM for a year+.

I really appreciate your friendliness btw, makes a dude feel good ya know. Feel free to ask away. I live for this stuff. 

My guy, props given when they're deserved  same with being nice, it's a two way street Only a pleasure man, I wouldn't say nice things if it wasn't true.  

infact, I am quick to point out things I don't agree with and not scared to voice my opinion on anything and it doesn't take much to tip my scales lol 

like they say, closed mouths don't get fed!

I see you got tons of info on the backburner when talking bout LEDs, I'll have to study a bit more just to know what everything meant you just told me but I get the picture. thanks for the links to the info, I'll provide a looksee a bit later! 

You got a very nice light put together there man, hell yeah!! Is this the same light you using in your 60x60 tent?

Do you mix the 3000 and 5000 to make it both a veg/flower light or what's the reason for that? 

When during the plants life does it benefit more from full spectrum light? Or would it rather be a case of having different lights for different things? 

I am thinking like a noob here, but my mind tells me it's better to have 240w of 4500/5000K full blast during veg and 240w of 3000/3500K + 660nm during flower.

You designed your own strips?! Well, colour me impressed! Damn, talk about being 10 steps ahead of the rest of us! 

If I was looking at adding only 660nm diodes to my already existing 300w DIY LED, I would need a seperate driver, can I ask you what driver I should be looking at if I wanted to save a few rands on not having a meanwell shipped? 

Should I just be looking at bloom boosters?

2 hours ago, TikyIckee said:

A good consideration indeed @Naughty.Psychonaut...

IMO first prize is going to be those LM301H diodes paired with the red 660nm diodes. These red diodes definitely seem to be making a huge difference to flowers and the LM301 are considered the best diodes currently so a mix of both should be best.

I seriously doubt that the Lumii is using the LM301 diodes but if they are then that has to be an awesome light.

Here's another question, If my ballasts are Backline and not Lumii, would they still be able to operate on the 720W Lumii LED.? I'm guessing that they might but surely the manufacturers want users to stick to their product and would have designed the LED to be compatible with their ballast and not others. My guess is it could work but probably not as well as it should. 

Also those red diodes found on lights are not manufactured by Samsung. When those Lm301's found their way into grow lights they quickly became a game changer. Do you think Samsung might produce their own red diode that might become the new standard for grow lights again? 

Peace ✌ 

yeah I fully agree that the samsung diodes paired with red diodes will be the winner, but I am on the same page as you with the Lumii light not using the samsung strips, otherwise it would be the first thing they wana let the users know. I don't see anything about the brand of strip used. that concerns me and leads me to think it's bridgelux strips or something. 

in which case I don't think that light is that much better of an option than building a DIY with samsung strips and having the option to add red diodes on your own will. 

I am trying to figure out if that Lumii is really a better option or not.

I mean if I have a DIY LED without red diodes that doesn't mean it has to stay that way and if the other option is a light around the same price but it's got weaker diodes just with red added, then I will stick with my DIY being the better option.

12 hours ago, Ill_Evan said:

 

 

fok me, this a fan leaf bottom right covered in frost?  

you got your hands on some very nice phenos there! 

your organic grow is looking this is not your first go at organic hey? 

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

My question is this.... 

scrap veg from the convo, when we say "added red diodes" we talking flower light. 

If a light has generic diodes paired with 660nm diodes, will it make enough of a difference to not have to use LM301H diodes? example, can I use Bridgelux strips with 660nm diodes and outperform a light with just LM301H that doesn't have any 660nm diodes?

I would still like to know what strips the Lumii light used, even though the thing is too big for my setup, I couldn't be interested in it even if I wanted to hahahah

21 hours ago, Ill_Evan said:

The big fad right now is additional UV diodes which, frankly, aren't true UV and plus, people aren't even aware of the dangers of true UV and how to protect yourself when using it. 

The commercial LEDs are definitely getting nicer, and they could be making them cheaper still if they weren't trying to stuff every gimmick onto the boards. 

Yeah I see this thing going around, there's still a bunch of research we owe to understanding artificial UV lighting as a whole. I guess the way we play and mess around with the stuff more and more answers will come to light, so this is all the trial and error phase  

I have to admit a friend of mine with a 1m x 1m tent and a 300w qb (close to same setup as mine) with added 660nm diodes added does have better flowers than me didn't wana admit it at first, but it is what it is! 

I mean for the price difference I'd shit myself if there wasn't also a difference in yield quality!!!  

check this out, a shop in Paarl has light made for them with their brand on, offering QBs with Samsung strips they have Veg specific, Full Spectrum and Bloom Light to choose from, individually. Not only one option that's supposed to do it all. (one thing that does all usually does all to a mediocre extent or just plain shit) notice the price difference if you take the bloom light with the Deep / Far red diodes added...

quite a big price jump....

16 hours ago, MrE said:

I didn't know If I'd be breaking forum rules or just irritating everyone by posting off-topic. But ye, it's the first shipment of my lights that I'm currently making par charts for. Having to take a break after doing the 90cm x 90cm size, my lower back is so sore.

@Prom is a super nice guy, he let me use his quantum sensor. Thanks again to you sir, tip of the hat!

This is awesome!!!  

man look at the ingagement on just that post about the light, I think I speak for all of us when I say you're more than welcome to post about this!

I would actually like to know more about this, bugger the guys who gets irritated, this a cannabis grow forum... we post stuff that has to do with growing here and I am well sure this is some golden growing information!

not sure if you saw the diy LED thread I made, I know I know, it's not the "very best" out there right now tech used is as basic and minimalistic as I can get without using poopoo brand LED strips. at least I used some samsung LM301H strips.

Do you perhaps know how big of a difference in technology and quality of output there is when comparing the Samsung F series strips (LM301H) with the Bridgelux EB strips? I know there are many different strips in each of those catagories, but for argument sake just think of two of the same Kelvin and close to same diode count? 

my understanding is that the best of the best Bridgelux strips' efficiency is still comparible to the efficiency of the Samsung F series. am I way off or no?

What strips you making use of in your builds? 

On 4/27/2022 at 1:30 PM, MrE said:

 

or should we rather not ask

20 hours ago, TikyIckee said:

Hey Peeps

This was an awesome read. Kudos to you @Naughty.Psychonaut, the light looks like it came straight of an assembly line. What's put me off building one is stray wires and sh#£ that look more like Frankensteins monster. 

I currently use an HLG 100 to veg and have 2x600W HPS lights which I switch over to flower. I'm  pretty pleased with them so far and there's been no real stress to plants as the switch from LED to HPS happens. 

Been eyeing out the Lumi 720W which according to my research runs on the lumi ballast. My confusion here is : Is a driver and a ballast the same thing? I have been under the impression that a driver simply converts AC to DC for the diodes to run correctly. So driver for LED and ballast for HPS.  Would anyone out there recommend the Lumi 720W? Is anyone able to do an explanation (for dummies) on my driver/ ballast confusion?

Stay safe, stay blessed. Peace always ✌ 

Hey @TikyIckee hope all is good your side! 

BROOO, these two packs and your wire nightmares are gone for good...

I buy the tiny plastic brackets at ACDC, they come in different shapes and sizes. you literally make a line where you want the wires to run, slap a few sticky brackets on, and cable tie all the wires all along the one single line. ease pease lemon squeeze

Honestly man, if I had the money I would run HID's too... you gona need everything though, I would first install a solar grid so I can store some electricity before I think about that jump, because with HID comes air conditioning. and those two things can suck you dry better than a gold digger wife.

they do however produce the best nugs in my opinion!! 

about the Lumii ballast thing, a ballast and a driver is not the same thing if you look at it just like that, but in this case it does the same thing, I guess.... they probably configured the light in such a way so that the guys with the Lumii ballasts can make the jump for cheaper, another marketing tactic to convince people to make the jump and to keep them supporting Lumii.

a ballast is just a old school name for a converter, you get different ones, but these that work specifically with lights just do what the lights need to put out, they convert the power from the wall to the power that the HID needs to put out. a driver is just a modern fancy name for converter aswell. depending on the technology and the form of power it needs to put out it will need a certain converter to do that. when building a samsung LED off digikey you'll see that there are many different MeanWell HLG drivers and they all do different things also, and each one is compatible with different strips depending on their outputs.

I am almost certain that I wouldn't be able to wire up my MeanWell HLG driver to that Lumii LED, just because the tech does not support eachother or is incompatible. 

I could be way off though, these are just my speculations  

22 hours ago, The Grass Baas said:

Hey man. Yeah I noticed in my last grow I can also get a little closer. I like to keep it about 30cm, maybe 25cm from the canopy but I am pretty sure I can get nice and close. Maybe 15cm or 10cm. Will check. 

  Love it. Golf balls are my favorite. I think definitely red diodes and a good cleanup should help.

I hear you man. Also been on a blurple light and what a piece of shit. Maybe good for vegging. I actually foujd my normal 6400k flood lights do a better job. Lol.

Cant wait man. Would be very cool to see. Please let us know what he produced under that bad boy. Once again. Nice build

Hahahah hell yeah man, I once vegged under a 50w 5000k flood light, did the thing!!! I have to admit, the blurp I got does pump them a little harder than the flood light, but then again the blurp is 360w (270true watt) so it puts up quite a fight for the 50w flood, but I am convinced if I added another 50w flood I would've had identical results and the 50w flood cost a fraction of the price of the blurp... and with the blurp you can't see shit, then you have to switch lights off and bring another light in like a head lamp or flashlight just to see the plants. Blurp is TRASH!!!  ....I still use mine to veg though no one interested in buying, I even removed my sale post as I would feel too ashamed pawning off this peice of crap to someone else. will let her run till she can't run no more and replace the bitch ☺ 

already got the 288qb samsung helping her out. 

23 hours ago, SkunkPharm said:

Yes when Led was still kak expensive it was worth building your own lights. But with Lumii Black 720w coming into The market it will be hard to build something for cheaper than that.

I haven't found information on what diodes they use and as I am aware, that's what makes all the difference. I see they mention it's full spectrum with added 660nm diodes, which helps during flower. I would prefer having a flower specific spectrum with the 660nm diodes, and do the veg thing seperate with another light. to my understanding full spectrum lights are good for across the board, but I don't want a full spectrum light to flower with.

they're great for the guys who wants or has to do everything under one light.

if they could have a option to switch between the two spectrums it would be better, but then basically you'll have 345w going out in veg spectrum and 345w in flower spectrum, essentially leaving you with a 345w light to do either with.

it would be kak cheap slapping a bunch of bridgelux or even cheaper diodes on a bar light then adding 660nm diodes. so I guess if I can get confirmation on what diodes they using for the rest of the light and if I can have a flower specific light and not only the full spectrum option, for the price it's at now, then I would concider it for sure. but if it's generic diodes mixed all together with some red in between I don't think it's gona be that great. 

16 hours ago, Ill_Evan said:

This is the way. 

22 hours ago, The Grass Baas said:

Very nice build man. Very nice. I did a build like this not too long ago but I went for the bigger strips. Their measurements were 1100mm in length so was perfect for my 1200mm tent. Plus I only did 4x bars of 3 strips each.

I just recently harvested 2 batches of 1 strain under 2 different lights. The one is the 480w diy build off of LEDgardener and the other a bought 480w from kingbrite. I must admit. With all the effort and time spent making a light (which is a fun process) I found it was cheaper to buy from kingbrite. None the less fun experience.

One thing I want to mention is that with my previous harvest I found the Kingbrite light produced more nugs of good density than the DIY. Wether it is the penetration of light, or the red diodes on the kingbrite, I am not sure. I kind of think it is the red diodes because both lights are 3500K (What K are the strips you got?).So with my next batch under the DIY I will be lollipopping very close to the top to make sure all light penetrates. I am looking at getting 3x bloom booster lights from kingbrite. Still thinking about it. They are 30w red diode lights which I think could fit inbetween my existing light strips which are 3 spaces. Perfect. Only problem is they sell them seperately. I will try convince them to send me 3x lights on one 90w driver instead of 3x 30w drivers. Will see if I can add it to the DIY. Maybe they would sell me the strips seperate and I will just source the correct driver. Anyway. Just a thought. But definitely let your friend know to clean those babies up when flowering. He won't regret it. I could definitely get over 400g of proper prime nugs from that light.

Very nice build. Looking forward to what comes out of it.

Thanks man  

we got these strips in 3000K. 

no doubt you're right about the red diodes making the difference.

you have a good plan there, I haven't thought about that, yet. 

I am now, though  

my bar LED in my flower tent is just over 300W also 3000K, but it's the LM561C diodes. I can let the plants come within 5 to 10 cm of the light without light stress, cz it's so soft, then you get good penetration. I pull average about 80 to 100g off a plant in a 0.2m space. 

but I am sure it will be even better with the deep / far red diodes

I have 5 plants in a 1m x 1m tent, giving each plant 0.2m2. I've harvested 3 batches flowered under this light. everytime I hit between 400 to 500g. 

that's more than 1g/W

I have a perpetual cycle, I have found if my flowering ladies take long to finish up I leave the veg area running for longer and ending up with bigger plants and also bigger yield, landing more on the side of 500g and times when I move smaller plants into flower I land more on the side of 400g. 

so I guess that's also a contributing factor. 

but then like you said, bud quality..... we want those golf ball rock buds. I guess that's where the red diodes come in to make the biggest difference. 

I think the little bit it adds to the spectrum provides the plant with a certain chemical or causes a certain chemical reaction in the plant that it benefits from. it's only natural, though. If you think about sunlight it is literally a mix of everything, it's the fullest of full spectrums out there and that's what the plant wants and it pumps full power. not a certain amount of power being devided amongst different spectrum outputs. it's full blast everything. if we could replicate that, it would be amazing, but for now adding deep / far red diodes to a 3000K is already one step closer. plus we know it's not all about spectrum, some LEDs have a fuller spectrum, but less of other stuff and the configuration is shit then the light doesn't perform. 

example of this is the far red and IR diodes I have in my blurple light. they don't mean shit, just cause the rest of the light is shit 

I'll let the guy finish a grow with that light on his own, let him play around with it, will take a look at the results and report everything then see what we gona do to improve

15 hours ago, stretchy said:

@Naughty.Psychonaut, yea probably right, but it's only some of them, and not much I can do about ot now. It might be the medium, or the fact I use same feeding throughout veg and flower. The crystal's are looking good though, and no signs of PM, which is my main goal for this one. I'll add a couple of blocks of coco to the substrate for next grow, and maybe just use the greenhouse powder on veg. Need to try some of the 'flower power' nutes now available.

  

  

   

 

 

 

 

I agree man those ladies looking good and they pushing the frost like it's no ones business, no doubt you gona have a lekker stinky harvest!!!  

a thing to keep in mind, the very very best grower in the world, the guy running thousands of plants at a time with no struggles and no hassles is sitting figuring out ways to better his practice, because there is always room for improvement and there is always something we can do about it, doesn't matter what it is. that's why the guy who is the best, is the best. cause there came a time where he accepted that he doesn't know everything and has some more stuff to learn and opened himself up to change and try new things.

we can look at that information and take it personal and be negative about the fact that someone pointed out a flaw in something we did or we can be positive and constructive about it and use the information to our advantage. no one is here to beat on anyone, we all here because we wana help one another achieve better results with our cannabis growing adventures.  

anyway, enough ranting on!

those indoor ladies organic or synthetic?

I see you talking about 2ec, so I am assuming you doing a synthetic grow? Going the GHPF in a coco medium will be concidered organic and you'll need to add microbes and what not. all the organic stuff. 

if you growing syntetic, strictly coco and salt nutes I would say just do a runoff EC test? this should give you an indication of what's going on in the medium.

2ec in a synthetic situation should be 100% for those size plants, so I am sure you have some kinda build up. 

the plants with the claw leaves and I see one with burnt tips, you could easily fix. just stand back with nutrients till they start asking again. or till they look 100% then carry on feeding. if you wana carry on just as you where, I would suggest a nice flush with clean water of about 2 to 3 times the amount of feed you would give. then with next feed you carry on with 2ec. 

pretty much the same if you're doing organic growing, except you have to let the pots dry to 30-50% after the flush. where as coco mediums you have to keep above 50% moisture at all times. with organic you flush properly and wait a good couple days till its dry and carry on with your regime. 

Finally convinced a friend to upgrade from HID, helped him build a LED qb bar light.

He was thinking of retiring the HID for many reasons. replacing shit the whole time. electricity consumption. heat.... told him if he puts out the cash I'll source and order the shit for him, recieve everything and when time comes to slap it all together I'll just need a hand, he just needed that last nudge and so it begins!  

I think I was more excited about the build than he was!

He's got a 1.2m x 1.2m x 2m tent, so we basically copied the 4'x4' example design on LED gardener, used the Q series samsung LM301H strips in 3000k. 

First things first, size of the tent will determine the size of the frame that we build for the LEDs. Work out how much Aluminium strip we gona need. Source local aluminium extrusions. This was the only profile available in bulk on the day, we didn't wana wait, so we planned around this. You can work with any profile and have any extrusion company roll out the profile you want at the lenght you want. Easiest part of the build.

Having the aluminium, knowing how you can lay strips on the extrusion profile you can use this information to spread out the LED strips as much as possible so there are no fluxuation areas. no need to raise the hight of the light to get better coverage which would mean loosing intensity. no need to have to have certain height requirements for best output, because you don't have excessive heat coming from the light and not ALL the light comes from one spot and then has to spread, instead you spread the strips out further so you can bring them closer to your plants without having intensity issues. also the configuration being a bar style light you wont have issues with the fixture heating up at all. we run the light for 18hrs, shine laser thermometer on the frame from below the light source, got 34°C. 5cm away from the light source on the aluminium frame we got 29°C and at leaf surface at 15cm away it was room temperature... will get a apogee under the light asap, if anyone wants to follow up on that. 

now, the layout.... knowing what amount of strips you gona use and the size of tent you have to put them all in, you build a frame that can easily fit inside the tent then just space out the strips as much as possible. Next step was to cut the aluminium to the right lengths and clean up the edges. 

Along with the aluminium for the frame you'll need the smallest pop rivets the shop has to offer and a aluminium drill bit same size as the rivets. Now, slap the frame together. 2 long slats get a tine 45° corner cut out the flat so the fin is still in one peice, make a small cut on the other side so you're able to bend the aluminium without it snapping. grab a big 90° angle, make sure you have 2 x 90° angles. lay them together making sure all 4 corners are 90°, throw some clamps on, drill right throug the 2 corners that meet and pop them together with the rivet. 

Now grab a electrical junction box to hide all your wire conections, use the junction box to space out the aluminium stips, making sure you can fit enough strips on to accommodate all the LED strips needed. 

using a pensil, mark out where the aluminium strips lay and number them 1 - X and mark the frame with numbers corresponding to the strip that goes there. drill holes in all the aluminium strips where you need to pop them to the frame, put them back on the frame using the numbers to see where each one goes, use the hole im the aluminium strip to mark where you need to drill into the frame, drill all the marked points, lay them out, pop them in.

here is what ours looked like at this point.

BOOOM!!!!! got a digikey box in the mail  

It's all there and all undamaged! Now that we have the driver. it's time to build a bracket to hold the driver in place. same like we built the square for the frame, just a small one, like this.... -note the corners

driver still has some space to move around, but sits nice and snug, we ended up putting two small self tap screws throug the screw slots at the bottom of the driver to hold it in place, didn't get photos of it, but did get photos of how we attached the bracket to the frame, using two small peices of aluminium and popping them onthe the fins upside down we now had a flat surface to mount the bracket onto. like this... 

Here's where we're at now, 

Time to make this big boy easy to hang! 5.5mm threaded hooks with 2 self locking nuts, one screwed all the way to the top and one to hold it in place. 

Time to slap on some double sided thermal tape, this tape can hold up to 60kg at 120°C.... or so it sais..... so it should work! 

AND YOU KNOW WHAT COMES AFTER THE THERMAL TAPE!!!!!  

FUCK YEAH 

step by step getting there!!! 

now for the fun part, the wire nightmare.... luckily I have OCD-AF and find great therapy in wire management! we also quickly reaslised that we're going to need more than one junction box, easy peasy, the driver has 2 outputd so slap another one on the other side of the driver and have half the wires one side of the light and other half on the other side. 

I got so carried away with finishing up the light I never took a photo of what the wiring looked like when I was finished, but that was by far the most satisfying thing about the whole build. when time came to plug the bitch in I was just focussing on the damn light. here she is in all her pride and glory 

here she is lighting up the tent, and this is where she'll be for the next 10 years probably. hopefully. it's a 1mx1m frame in a 1.2m x 1.2m tent - fits perfect.

those intetested in the wire work if you wana see what it looks like I'll lower the light to take a couple photos, otherwise this last photo will show just how hidden and tucked away everything is. not one loose hanging wire, no excessive wires, no bulky no extras. 

Now to answer some questions..... 

LED Strips - R3831

Driver - R2300

Import Tax - R1500

Aluminium - R600

Thermal tape - R200

Ratchet ropes x 2 - R300

Those are all the more expensive parts of the build, the other stuff like hooks, wires, wago connectors, cable ties + hooks for wire management, pop rivets all those things gona work out +/- another R500

Let's say all in all = R9231 

that's that.

buddy got 3 x Peanut Butter Breath cuts and 3 x Canna Health Genetic #21 cuttings under that light, potted in FF premium classic, will post few updates here as things progress. 

have a good weekend all!

fuk yeah man, well done!!!  

that nug porn made me...