Diary PCBuds mini-grow

[f-e]

Apparently there is a worldwide shortage of shipping containers and the cost of one has quadrupled and even more.

The cheapest shipping is by boat.

It takes longer to load and unload the containers because of a lack of dock workers and truck drivers.

Yeah, I tried to buy a crate of 200lm/w 18w domestic lamps, but it was horrendous. Many packages move on what we see as passenger planes. Which for a while, were barely flying at all. Nobody thought to save their airline by pulling the seats out. They just didn't fly. So the likes of DHL with cargo only planes were making deliveries, but the low cost mail had to hitch a ride on a boat. Filling the boats. Who rubbed their hands together, and doubled the shopping costs as we had no choice. My lamps already had a price breakdown that made postage and taxes the bulk of the cost, so doubling that side of the cost was putting them around £5 each to me. What can you sell a 18w 3000 lumen lamp for, when it's £5 before packing it and sending it to my customer. A cost that eBay&paypal would grab 15% of. £10? I don't think so... when it's cheaper to but a couple of less impressive lamps to get the same illumination.


Heatsinks should be positioned with their fins in line with the air flow across them. Or if no fan is used, the board would be best stood on it's edge, with the fins vertical to allow the convection currents to flow. I think these board may end up side by side, so for a fan to do them all in one go, it would be a crosswind across the boards. Which would dictate the fins orientation. As they want to be in line with that air current.
drawing pics and wiping the metadata is so time consuming... Have I described it clearly enough?

 

[H.Marks]

Yeah I think its the equiv.... take a look at this and tell me ifs good etc...

I got it the other week for 50 euro brand new...bit of a story actually.

 

[PCBuds]

Have I described it clearly enough?

Yes, I completely get it.
No need for diagrams.

I think I'll mount them vertically on the wall in a row, then enclose them, and mount a fan on the top or bottom blowing up, to assist with convection.

 

[PCBuds]

Yeah I think its the equiv.... take a look at this and tell me ifs good etc...

It's a bit hard to read the specs (it's blurry when I zoom) but it looks like it doesn't show the power or current consumption.

Check the light itself or the plug to see if it mentions either.

You may not have done too bad, and it is nice and convenient, but I don't see a need for a remote control.
Just a timer is all you need, but it doesn't matter too much with Autoflowers.


It's got a couple fans, which is good news, because it means it's using enough power to require cooling.

See if you can find a lumens rating or par or something.

Ordinary off the shelf SILs (screw in lighting) may be a cheaper option, but you would need fixtures or lamps to hold them.

I personally don't think "grow lights" are worth the money.
They do have a better spectrum that the plants can use but they are WAY more expensive.

Here's the SIL thread for lots of LED bulb information.

https://www.icmag.com/forum/marijuan...lb-comparisons



EDIT: I just found it.
It looks like 225 Watts?

You could compare that to the cost of 225 Watts worth of ordinary LED bulbs (and their fixtures).

You may not have done too bad at all.

 

[PCBuds]

Yeah I think its the equiv.... take a look at this and tell me ifs good etc...

I can get a 8 pack of 10.5 watt (60 watt equivalent) bulbs for $16.

225÷10.5 is about 22 bulbs.

So it would cost me about $44 (plus tax) for 225 watts worth of bulbs.
Plus all the fixtures and wires to hook them up.

Right now 50 euro is worth $75 Canadian.


So, you did pretty good.

 

[PCBuds]

Yeah, I tried to buy a crate of 200lm/w 18w domestic lamps,...

What can you sell a 18w 3000 lumen lamp for, ...

Our Canadian Wal-Mart bulbs are 10.5 Watt, 800 lumens.

They used to be 10.0 Watt, 800 lumens, so there has been some improvement. Lol

The only thing that I can think of is that they are more durable and longer lasting.

Maybe now they won't melt hot glue, or burn leaves, or my fingers when I try to unscrew them when they're on.

 

[PCBuds]

By comparison, my strips are 180 lm/watt, put out 1200 lumens at test current, and are using 6.5 watts.

I've got 44 strips running at just above test current, for a total of 52,800 lumens into a 21"X21"X4' closet and a total of 286 watts.
(that isn't the draw from the wall outlet though.)

 

[PCBuds]

This my draw from the outlet...

This is what I'm using...

Two psu's (power supply units), running at about 85% efficiency.

My exhaust fan.
(I think about 35 Watts?)

EDIT: It's only 11 Watts. 13.5 on high.
I was thinking of my house fan.

My 12V circulation fan.
And it's accompanying 12 volt transformer.
(from like the 80's, it's huge and weighs a ton. lol)

And of course my LED strips and plant...

 

[PCBuds]

 

[H.Marks]

It's a bit hard to read the specs (it's blurry when I zoom) but it looks like it doesn't show the power or current consumption.

....

EDIT: I just found it.
It looks like 225 Watts?

You could compare that to the cost of 225 Watts worth of ordinary LED bulbs (and their fixtures).

You may not have done too bad at all.

This might be clearer.

What does it mean exactly by equiv 1200w tho?

 

[PCBuds]

What does it mean exactly by equiv 1200w tho?

Probably incandescent lights.

The Walmart bulbs are 10.5 Watts, equivalent to 60 Watt incandescent bulbs.

The LED bulbs put out as much light as the old 60 Watt bulbs, but even that comparison is a bit ambiguous.

The Canadian Walmart bulbs only put out 76.2 lumens per watt.
The bulbs that f-e wanted were 200 lumens per watt.

f-e's bulbs would put out more than 2.5 times as much light for every Watt they use.

That's a huge difference.


My Walmart bulbs should only use about 4 watts to be as bright as a 60 Watt incandescent bulb, not 10.5 Watts.

So Watts and power consumption are important, but it's the total number of lumens they put out that really counts.

 

[PCBuds]

What does it mean exactly by equiv 1200w tho?

I found this about your light.
(although they call it a 1000w light but it still draws 225 watts.)

About this item

• Dimmable / auto timing remote control: use the dimmer button to adjust the brightness and set the auto on/off timer (6H / 12H / 18H). This full spectrum plant light contains the 380nm-800nm light plants need most, meaning plants get a balanced light as a single red or blue spectrum. Like sunshine, which is suitable for all stages of plant growth, making plants grow faster and healthier.
• High PAR value, lower power consumption: this improved version of the Bozily LED plant growth light is equipped with 24 three-layer 90 degree reflector cups that create a super spotlight effect and reduce light loss, illuminate plants more effectively, increase the PAR value by 50% and increase the yield by 27% -42%, but it only consumes 125 W
• Safe and intelligent heat dissipation: the plant light has a built-in insulated power supply and 2 smart fans. As soon as the temperature reaches 45 °C, the fan will dissipate heat (the fan does not run under 45 °C). And the entire aluminium body takes up more than 90% of the space, which increases the heat dissipation surface.
• Daisy chain and connection design: a lamp comes with two power cables that can be used for power supply and chaining, not only for sockets, but also easy to connect to more growth lights. Note: For daisy chain connection, we recommend not to connect more than 5 LED plant lights.

They talk about PAR values and how the it's like natural light, but they don't actually say what the lights output PAR value is.

They aren't showing the specs.​​

 

[PCBuds]

f-e

I thought you might get a kick out of this...

This is my integrated amp that I'm currently using.
It's from the 70's.

My brother-in-law found it at a garage sale more than 20 years ago.

It came with the integrated amp, a tuner, a cassette deck, a turntable, and a plywood stereo cabinet.
All for 20 bucks. Lol


Everything has since crapped out except the amp and the stereo cabinet, (but it's pretty wobbly. Lol)​​​​​



Being as I no longer have a tuner, I bought a $10 G2 cell phone that has a built-in radio.

I have it plugged into the tuner input on my amp.

I leave it on and plugged in charging all the time, because I don't know how to program it. Lol
(I hate technology)

The amp has 2 turntable inputs, and you can pick the capacitance for the magnetic cartridge you are using for proper capacitance matching !!

Way Cool !! Lol

The volume dial had two set screws in it to connect it to the varistor, but the one set screw fell out, and it would just spin around, so I clamped my pipe cutters to the shaft and now its my volume dial. Lol

 

[H.Marks]

Thanks man, yeah we used to have amazing amps to blast zappa and floyd when we used to bong.

Any idea how I can work out how much the light is costing me at 18/6 a month at max light.

Thanks.

 

[PCBuds]

Any idea how I can work out how much the light is costing me at 18/6 a month at max light.

Thanks.

OK, I'm pretty stoned and drunk right now, but I think this should help.


Your lights are 18/6 so on for 18, off for 6, so they are on 18/24 0r on for three quarters of the time.


Lets say that your lights are 250 Watts, (for easier math and more than the max that they would draw)

That's 1/4 of a kilowatt per hour.

So, 1/4 times 3/4 = 0.1875

Multiply your electricity cost per kilowatt/ hour by 0.1875 and you should know the electrical cost of your lights.

 

[PCBuds]

..., yeah we used to have amazing amps to blast zappa and floyd when we used to bong.

Pink Floyd, Dark side of the Moon.

Notice how white light is separated into it colors when shon through a prism.

Sunlight shining through a prism will show a different spectrum than your Grow Light, and I will show a different spectrum with my LED strips...

 

[H.Marks]

Thanks, will find out the cost here in france, also for 6 of those hours it is on the cheap rate, midnight till 6am I believe.

I just harvested.

https://www.icmag.com/forum/marijua...omatic-zamnesia-seeds?p=17958411#post17958411

 

[EV3R]

Pink Floyd, Dark side of the Moon.

...

This was the last time I caught Roger Waters live. Scottrade center, St. Louis, MO. Great show as usual. Not my video.

You've got some great stuff in here. I'm going to dig through your thread when I get some time this week

 

[f-e]

Wow. I had to check my amp actually has a phono input. Many don't now. I have not seen one with cartridge capacitance matching before. I see moving magnet or moving coil selection switches, and know the term riaa correction. At that, my knowledge craps out.
I have taken bluetooth boards and devices and put them inside older amps recently. Using the phono input selection, and a bit of artistic interpretation (a marker pen) to change phono to phone The biggest issue has been powering them. In each case, an old phone charger has been scavenged.
The phono input was already bust on one, while the others phono stage gave up an op-amp for the main amps input stage. I didn't trash perfectly good amps
I paid about £3 for a finger shaped BT device that receives from your phone, and offers a headphone socket. Internal lithium cell. I think aimed at Iphone uses that lost the headphone socket as they were further insulted without realising. I have not actually installed that, but the voice is batmans butler and it made some old PC speakers live on as bluetooth ones.


225w uses a unit every 4 hours (well 250w does) so 4 units a day. 28 units a week. About 115 units a month?
How much is a unit there? Here it could be 25p so an astounding £30 a month.
You need to look at your electric bill to see what a unit costs on your deal


My amps quite basic. 13.5Kg of oomph though. The texture on the front plate is that left by a rough concrete cutting mill or something. You could light a match on it. The volume is quite wobbly though. I think it's a comical throwback to some old rock gear, but I don't know.
I have the matching CD player with digital/usb inputs round back. It won't scan through tracks though. Only skip them. Instead, it has a light underneath so it looks good in your rack. It's blue when the Digital inputs are selected. White at some other time. Off generally. It's the oddest indicator light, but does let you know whats happening from across the room. While making the rack look good lol
https://www.roksan.com/en/product-ranges/k3/k3-integrated-amplifier/
I must get around to selling before the new model comes out. I have never liked the CD player and the amp sounds alright on bluetooth but a bit harsh through other inputs. It's on the smooth side of neutral, but I like really smooth. Like the Yamaha that's actually a bit too muddy to ever be actual hifi.

I will fall back on my Arcam Alpha 8r amp and 8se CD player. About 20 years old, so relatively new still. £1500 pair then, that still fetch £300 but £3000 would be needed to replace them. The roksan kit was that sort of money, so a sideways step more than an upgrade. The roksans power is nice but no tone controls and the CD player is dysfunctional

 

[PCBuds]

..., also for 6 of those hours it is on the cheap rate, midnight till 6am I believe.

We have TOU (Time Of Use) pricing, here in Ontario too.

I used to have my lights off during the day at the expensive time.


I opted out of TOU pricing and now pay 12.8 cents per kilowatt/hour 24/7.


I didn't like my lights being on while i was sleeping in case they started on fire, and I burned a horrible death. Lol


So now my lights are off while I sleep (1am-7am) so that I can put any fires out when I'm awake. Lol

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