Jack Herer F1 and DIY LED

[PharaohBud]

Hi all. I'm new here but not to growing although sometimes you may not be able to tell.

A new friend helped me build a LED light over on another site and I have a journal going at a tiny MJ site that no one really sees and he came over there to watch and then mentioned a thread here I should read. So I figured why not just do it here too and add to the growing body of empirical knowledge so more people can put LEDS to pragmatic use.

Once the decision to build was finalized there was a lot of help in the form of threads mostly. Most of them in the double digits page wise. Weezard helped directly with the build but people like Knna contributed a lot and never even knew it.

I hope to leave this to help others in the same way.

You talk too much foo!

So on to the good bits eh?

 

[habeeb]

I would build a LED light, but I guess I'm not smart enough to figure it all out...

love seeing people build there own though.. I'm limited to buying LED's


pictures, pictures...

 

[PharaohBud]

I chose LedEngin. This is one of them.

 

[PharaohBud]

I'm not going to go through the whole build process but I can try to answer questions about it if you want to know.

I started with 23 of those and after messing up and buying a few more I ended up with 25 of them.

This is the business end of the light.

Reading the light like an American (top left to right) these are the wavelengths.

660 660 730 660 660
625 460 625 460 625
730 660 660 660 730
625 460 625 460 625
660 660 730 660 660

I am driving them like a sluts head into the wall. What I mean is they are rated at 1000mA and at the very least they are at 1250mA.

 

[PharaohBud]

Oops forgot to mention...

Oops forgot to mention...

Alongside the LED panel is a solitary 3 year old 42W CFL. I'd say it really is about 30W now being that old.

Here's a better look at the bright side so you can see the wiring.

 

[onthaherb]

i have been very interested in trying out a DIY led... im curious as to where you purchased all the materials (like the emitters and drivers)... if you could give some info about that i would really appreciate it

 

[PharaohBud]

Here is the finished light. I'm growing in a dresser turned into a cab. From the front it still looks like a dresser. I can remove the back panel easily and it's sitting on those pads that make sliding easy so I can turn it arround if the need arises. Unless you try to pull a drawer out you'd probably have no idea.

Underneath it are 6 JH clones which had just finished rooting. They vegged for about a week.

 

[PharaohBud]

i have been very interested in trying out a DIY led... im curious as to where you purchased all the materials (like the emitters and drivers)... if you could give some info about that i would really appreciate it

The LEDs themselves are from mouser.com The heatsink and LM350's came from ebay. The resistors to complete the driver circuits are from radioshack. The PSU is also from ebay.

 

[PharaohBud]

Here is from a further out. As you can see I built the 4 circuits right on top of the PSU.

 

[PharaohBud]

Here it is with the CFL on. I have a couple reasons for the CFL. It makes it a lot easier on the eyes especially for spotting deficiencies and secondly I wanted to make sure if the plants needed any other bits of the visible spectrum they would have it.

 

[PharaohBud]

That brings us to day 1 of flower. Day 1 was preceded by night 1, the first 12 hours of dark.

 

[PharaohBud]

April 13th (day 2) I up-cupped and took a picture. They went from 9oz to 18oz cups and into one of my shroom growing tubs to catch water.

 

[PharaohBud]

If you havent noticed the date above then yes Im only up to day 10 or so. The grow isnt very in yet.

Moving on to day 4. They have grown a bit.

 

[PharaohBud]

Took this for Weezard

Took this for Weezard

Here's the new cups and one of two drain holes cut 180' apart with scissors.

 

[PharaohBud]

On day 5 I wanted to see what the LED only looked like if I used the internal white balancing of the camera. Basically you take a picture of something white under whatever light youre using and then use that picture as your white. I used a paper towel set on top of the plants for a minute.

The results got me thinking that this may be useful for determining how effectively the leaves are absorbing the available LED spectrum since the camera cant balance what isnt reflected back.

 

[PharaohBud]

That pretty much catches me up here. Day 9 was yesterday and when I happened to take pictures and update the other journal. On day 8 I couldnt find much other than preflowers. On day 9 they seemed to have appeared overnight.

 

[PharaohBud]

As I said those are F1 JH's. Now I have some joeys weed c99 and ak-47 F2's waiting in the wings to go next.

I'll update again in a couple days.

Peace.

 

[Weezard]

Welcome to the best Cannabis board left standing.

Welcome to the best Cannabis board left standing.

You might want to try some Dutchgrown genetics too.
I recommend the "Laughing Tiger".

(Prolly don't want to mention other seed vendors here as a courtesy to the paying advertisers, yah?)


What do you plan to feed those Jackals and when do you expect to chop?

Aloha,
Wee tiny 'zard

 

[PharaohBud]

I'm going to get so flamed...lol

I'm using Miracle Grow Quick Start liquid. It's 4-12-4.

For veg I have Pure Blend Pro grow liquid. Also I have a bottle of cal-mag if it's needed.

Even funnier is the bag of Big Lots Black Magic potting soil.

Hard to find things during the winter here. That's how I ended up with the MG and dirt.

 

[muddywaters]

cool, nice work on building the led light system.