My many designs and experiments.

Killkingkong · May 4, 2014

So here's my bucket grow box. The 2 plants in here both showed their sex to be males this past week. Once the first one showed sex I chopped off most of the branches to make room for the other plant. I'm gonna grow both of them out and collect the pollen so I can get some more seeds from one of the plants in my other boxes.

Killkingkong · Feb 11, 2015

So, after a little hiatus from growing I'm back (I don't want to spend anymore money on weed lol). The plants in my bucket grow turned out to be male, so that was a bust. The plants that suffered heat damage in my small PC never bounced back, so that was also a bust. I got some bud from my large PC grow, but I had to end that grow short because I put 2 plants in each pot and one of the plants died, but the roots were left behind. after a few weeks some nasty mold looking stuff starting growing, so I chopped earlier than I would have liked.

Like the title implies, I like to experiment and build things. So this time around I switched from CFLs to LEDs. I used the same containers, I just redesigned them, and duct taped over holes that I drilled before.The bucket grow is on day 7 of 12/12 and the small PC is on day 1 of 12/12. I redesigned my large PC case, but that one still uses CFLs and currently isn't running, I want to sell it.

Bucket:

Killkingkong · Feb 11, 2015

PC:

The COB LED in my PC is rated for 1.2A and I'm currently driving it at 1.5A. I'm waiting for 2 650ma power supplies to come in from China so I can install a 2nd one of those COBs and provide a better spacing of light, hopefully under driving them will keep heat in check. I also plan on buying a 650ma driver for my bucket grow, but I think 650ma might be a little too low since it's rated at 1.8A, but I'm starting to see burning on branches directly below the COB, so I might not have a choice.

Killkingkong · Feb 19, 2015

So the bucket grow is on week 2 of flowering. It's going well for the most part, but I really need to get that lower current driver, I'm experiencing leaf burning & bleaching. Luckily this plant is a female, I'm just going to have to do some really clever training & cropping to keep things in check.

Killkingkong · Feb 19, 2015

Things are going very well in my small PC case. I'm still waiting for the 2 650ma drivers from china to come so I can install the 2nd 1.2A rated COB. Things were getting a little crowded in there though, so I took 2 of the plants out and put them into my larger CFL case which I now have the exact design in my head to change that to LED for around $65 (But I already down 2 50w LED drivers that I'll be reusing for this case)

Before moving 2 of the plants to the bigger case:

After the move:

The Revolution · Feb 24, 2015

Killkingkong said:
So the bucket grow is on week 2 of flowering. It's going well for the most part, but I really need to get that lower current driver, I'm experiencing leaf burning & bleaching. Luckily this plant is a female, I'm just going to have to do some really clever training & cropping to keep things in check.
[URL=https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=58997&pictureid=1394054&thumb=1]View Image[/url] [URL=https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=58997&pictureid=1394055&thumb=1]View Image[/url]

Looks like a hot spot in the center of your bucket grow. This is caused by your light reflection, focusing in the center of the bucket. What are you using for a reflector? Best of luck with your grows

Killkingkong · Feb 27, 2015

The Revolution said:
Looks like a hot spot in the center of your bucket grow. This is caused by your light reflection, focusing in the center of the bucket. What are you using for a reflector? Best of luck with your grows

Thanks for the reply Revolution, chances are I was going to let this thread die for like the 20th time if you didn't reply. I'm not using a reflector per say, just tons of aluminum tape all over the bucket. The burning is definitely caused from the high intensity of heat/light coming from the LED directly to the center of the bucket. I've pruned about 10-15 overall branches that simply grew too high and I didn't have room to train because of this. Luckily the stretch is over and I shouldn't have to worry about new branches shooting up. I've bought a 20w LED driver to replace the 50w one I'm using in my bucket, but I'm not sure if I'm going to switch yet since the stretch is done.

Killkingkong · Feb 27, 2015

So here are the weekly updates. The 2 plants in the big PC have shown their sex to be female, I'm still waiting on the 1 plant left in the small PC to show sex and for me to get up the energy to install the 2nd LED, the 20w drivers came this week, I just haven't felt inspired to make the change yet. If the plant in the small PC turns out to be male I'll flower it until I can get some pollen and the move one of the plants from the big PC into that case and make a few seeds in the process. Oh yeah and I finally ordered the parts I need to turn the big PC into an LED box, just waiting for those parts to come from amazon & ebay. Now that I know I have at least 3 females this grow I should be able to grow enough smoke for a while, I won't bother taking guessing about yield because I've had so many failed grows in the past, but one of these fucking cases better work well this time lol.

Cinderella Man · Feb 27, 2015

Looks a whole lot better this time around man.... plants look much happier... keep it up!

unk1 · Feb 27, 2015

damn dude, you are persistent. glad you didn't give up! things seem to be looking better in that bucket, though you do have a hot spot in the middle. any way you can spread the lights out or add some sort of reflector or maybe even some shade clothe or something?

not really sure, but you have 2 PC cases (big one and small one) and the bucket? any others? how many watts of what type of light do you have in each one?

*EDIT* noticed you had some of the LED wall pack bulbs. how do you like those? was thinking about doing some on my next bin.

Killkingkong · Feb 27, 2015

unk1 said:
damn dude, you are persistent. glad you didn't give up! things seem to be looking better in that bucket, though you do have a hot spot in the middle. any way you can spread the lights out or add some sort of reflector or maybe even some shade clothe or something?

not really sure, but you have 2 PC cases (big one and small one) and the bucket? any others? how many watts of what type of light do you have in each one?

*EDIT* noticed you had some of the LED wall pack bulbs. how do you like those? was thinking about doing some on my next bin.

Currently the big PC has 129w of CFL. That's a lot for a PC case, but it's dual exhaust and heat is no issue at all (plus it's winter, dunno about summer). Once the parts come next week I'll be converting the big PC to 2 cheapo 100w COB LEDs that i bought from amazon. I'll be powering these 2 LEDs with 2 50w drivers, so 1/2 the current they're rated for. I'll also be using 2 side cooled heatsinks pushing the hot air towards the top exhaust. The LED setup will give me tons more vertical space.

The small PC is currently running a 42w & 5000lm Cob LED is being overdriven to 54w. I bought a 2nd of these cobs and a heatsink, and I plan to run both of those at 20w for a total of 40w.

The bucket is also currently being run at 54ish watts and has a COB rated for 64w & 8500 lumens. I'm waiting for my 3rd 20w driver to come so i can underdrive that and reduce the burning happening in the bucket.

The screw in LED bulbs were ok for veg, but it took 30 days to sex with them, I don't think they have the density to create decent buds. The plant in the bucket showed sex around 9 days.

unk1 · Feb 28, 2015

thanks for the info. spent like 3 hours researching diy COB lights.... seems like it's something i would really enjoy doing. thinking about upgrading the flower room with a few of the 100w cobs, so if you could take a bunch of pictures while putting them together that would be awesome.

Killkingkong · Feb 28, 2015

unk1 said:
thanks for the info. spent like 3 hours researching diy COB lights.... seems like it's something i would really enjoy doing. thinking about upgrading the flower room with a few of the 100w cobs, so if you could take a bunch of pictures while putting them together that would be awesome.

No problem, all my parts should be here on monday for my big PC to be converted to LED, so I'll take a bunch of pictures when I set that up. I have a cool new idea about using magnets to hang my heatsinks to the top of the cases, I think this is much better than drilling holes and taping over them. I stopped being lazy and finally installed the 2nd LED in my small PC. It's the same amount of power being used but spread out much more evenly now. Unfortunately the plant in the small PC still hasn't shown sex, I think there are too many light leaks, so I'll have to fix that too.

Killkingkong · Mar 5, 2015

So the good news continues. All my plants are female, so now I have 4 females in 3 boxes, so if things keep going as planned this should be a fruitful harvest. Even more good news, all my boxes are now 100% led. I now have a total of 110w of LED lighting between the 3 boxes. 50w in big PC, 40w in small PC & 20w in the bucket.

Small PC

Bucket

Killkingkong · Mar 5, 2015

So I was asked to take a bunch of pictures of me redesigning my big PC.
Before the changes:

After wiring the LEDs to computer power supply plugs so they can disconnected/reconnected.

After using thermal glue on the heatsinks and the LEDs

The 2 power supplies that i planned on using, but using both was too much heat so I wired both LEDs in parallel to just 1 of the drivers for 50w total

The new holes vs the old holes in my case

Killkingkong · Mar 5, 2015

The finished Product

The plants

unk1 · Mar 5, 2015

look at all that extra space for activities! i'm sure they will love that. they look great. thank you for posting the pics of the new lights. probably the most straight-forward and easy to follow guides i have seen regarding cob leds.

organictrails · Mar 5, 2015

Looking good there! Bucket is exciting! Will be cool to see what you get going with just 20w led and no side lighting(?). I see guys using led strips for sidelighting on other forums. This is the first cob top I've seen, been waiting for that! Best of luck to you.

Killkingkong · Mar 5, 2015

organictrails said:
Looking good there! Bucket is exciting! Will be cool to see what you get going with just 20w led and no side lighting(?). I see guys using led strips for sidelighting on other forums. This is the first cob top I've seen, been waiting for that! Best of luck to you.

I'm more excited for the cheap LED grow in the big computer. I've seen how well the bucket can work with past CFL grows, unfortunately those plants turned out to be male. I spent a lot of money on fancy LEDs from credible vendors for the small PC and bucket. If these cheap LEDs work well someone can buy all the hardware they need (case, drivers, leds, heatsinks & fans) for a PC case for around $100. If someone really wants to push the boundaries I think they can get 3 COBs & heatsinks in a large case and drive them at 30w each.

Cinderella Man · Mar 8, 2015

Yeah man looking forward to that.... LED's are just about perfect for a pc case grow. They are much easier to keep cool imo...

My many designs and experiments.

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