2.64w CCFL nano vert cab

Greetings! After the first attempt or two kind of fizzled, and things got busy, they have now chillaxed some, and I decided to venture into CCFL land again. I decided that the clear tube covering the real tube was whack, and started carefully hacksawing it off. It was while doing this that I realised the end caps simply pop off with barely a twist. Motherf*cker! If I had known it was that easy I would have done it ages ago. I had tried and they seemed stuck solid on the 30cm tube at least.

Some attention still must be paid. Here is a pictorial of removing the inner tube without breaking anything important. I used vice grips to shatter the plastic. It's quite low risk if you take care.



Here is a comparison, it's definitely a little (tiny bit) brighter. It rests closer to the plastic in that first one so it's sort of deceiving.



I found that the tip is the hottest, right where the black bit is:



Anyway, I've got two of these guys hanging in an 11 litre white plastic mop bucket. I don't have the correct tool to test the exact wattage, but the closest I can come is 2.64 watts. Well, the photos shown are two bulbs hooked up to one inverter (external ballast) so the bulbs are actually dimmer than they will be when I hook each bulb up to it's own inverter. Kind of like overdriving a traditional fluoro. Anyway, it will use somewhere around 2.64w when it's in overdriven mode, is what I mean to say.



The tape I used gave out instantly so the whole thing has fallen apart, lol. I will be re-taping it soon, and then I can take temps etc. I only want to do this as an experiment to see if clones will take in there, but screw it, if I'm feeling lucky I will veg in there and even flower if it came to that. All in the name of science!

I'm using the angle design for intake and it has one of these as a fan - with speed control and thermal sensor which I may utilize.



I have 6 x 1 litre square plastic milk containers which I'll cut down, in two rows of three, so there is a bulb next to or between each plant. Hopefully the excess lumens don't bleach the plants I gotta go harvest my plant right now but that's what's up. Thoughts? Will I break 1gpw? You may scoff but that's only 2.64 grams lol Don't forget these are still bright enough to damage your vision temporarily.


(23w cfl, 55w PLLs, 30cm white CCFL...I use the 10cm Bitspower orange, approx same brightness.)

Nice tutorial bruz defiantly along for this ride.
What ever happens it will be fun.


Happy Gardening All.
Peace.

Very cool!

Thanks guys! I should have something to put in it soon too. Shout outs to the ccfl posse for helping me work out CCFLs also.

oh, scrub....

I know, I know... I should have used the 250cfm delta...

Hey scrub, nice little mini light you got there. Are you accounting for a 75% efficiency of transformers and ballasts? It might cut down on your total wattage output. You're a smart guy and I assume you know this. Just thought I'd ring in my $.02

Good luck and I'm subscribed

EDIT - I had an idea after I posted this reply.

Have you thought setting one of these up like the high-pod? Lights coming in at 360 degrees. Don't know if you would have heat issues, but it seems like a very efficient way to grow. Also might change the way micro growers look at lighting.

Subscribed!!


Love your experiments bro!!!

A brief history of CCFLs and weed

A brief history of CCFLs and weed

Bigups Pedro! Glad to have you on board!

Hey frowny, thanks! Yeah I hear you and you're right technically, but at the same time, are you going to allow for the losses in your HPSes? Does a cfl user account for the massive inefficiencies in theirs? Do you add in the draw of fans? The answer is no, of course. Well, probably no anyway. I only care about the wattage like any other grower cares about it, not an extra 20c on my power bill. The 2.64 is just a multimeter reading on the 10A setting between bulb and inverter. Hopefully I can get a friend to test them for a more accurate figure and the thread title can be changed if needed.

I take it you missed the original CCFL thread? (search "cold cathode" if interested). Because we kind of went over those questions and ideas With a lot of brainstorming with the crew, I managed to build this:



I'm kind of proud of the fact that it basically is a high-pod, except it's closer to a true vertical system in terms of using 360º of the bulb. I intended to grow the plant all through the bulbs, intertwined like a great big trippy ass illuminated 3 dimensional scrog screen, as one does.

But amongst other factors, it was too hot, I'm in the tropics and it was in an unventilated room etc, so it got put on the backburner. Then I threw this together so I could learn more about how the light is actually affecting them, instead of one huge mashup:



This is as big of a plant as I have grown under CCFL and it was as shown, those 2 x 30cm blue bulbs. I was happy with the growth. They didn't explode, but weren't lagging. The leaves get a strange crinkly wave, I think from the warmth of resting against the bulb tube, but it doesn't seem to harm them.



That was the day it got removed from CCFLs and also potted into that pot. So this will be interesting for me. I can't guarantee it'll work, but I'm fairly certain it's enough light to at least root clones, especially considering I'm using 360º of the bulbs. Just before I asked about them originally, 420se had started using a white CCFL ripped out of a scanner for his clones and it worked.

On the original thread Stealth Dragon and Apples also had a go. Apples decided to quit, and Stealth stopped responding, so I'm not sure how he is going with them but he seemed happy enough last time. Stealth, you alive?

There is also the main man, the pimp daddy of the "vibrant" ccfl scene - AlienBait from another site who I found in a google search. This dude pumped out some nice looking buds!!!! I tried to get in touch with him but no response and no login. He probably has no idea what he helped inspire. Seriously, he's a hero of mine. Here are his plants



And then I built this thing before us now

LoL mate, I havent seen that vert setup before. Looks like what I would imagine a wormhole in space would look like

how much do those ccfl cost? and do they come with those connector ballast type things or do u have to buy those separate? This looks very cool, i wish u luck

Haha there's a photoshop floating around in the first thread somewhere, I think Grow made it, with a space/cat theme

Thanks MG. It depends how you look at it - the 30cm tubes cost me about $10 each I think. They're all over ebay and online pc stores if you want to find out in your currency. Just search ccfl or Cold Cathode.

There's basically two types.... computer modding type which I have:



There are more colours, and multicoloured ones, and ones that change colour, UV ones, etc. These come with an inverter. If you buy the single tube kits, you will have one inverter for every bulb and this is neccesary imo because it's noticeably brighter and draws more power. If you buy the dual tube kits, you only get one inverter, and your lights will be dimmer.

Then there are "the others". They are found in laptops, scanners, car headlights, and other places. Generally these don't come with an inverter if you buy them new. If you hit up a donation type store and ask them to keep aside broken scanners, you will have a large supply of "ballasts" and bulbs for cheap. These don't have the clear tube that I had to cut off.



The only person I've seen using these non pc-modding CCFLs is 420.se.

Edit: 420 doesn't post much but you can check his thread here. The first thread I made is here.

Horray!

Horray!

Hell yeh I'm still here. Sorry for the lack of updates but I still don't have a camera

I flipped to 12/12 on the 6th and the girls are progressing slowly, it's about what I expected. As I stated in the other thread I'm flowering purely under ccfl's because I want to see exactly what they do on their own.

I plan on using them for supplemental side and vert lighting in my main flowering box(s) after this flowering cycle is done- approximately feb 5 or so. Now that I think about, I have a few extra lightbars floating around that I might install in my new veg PC. (almost done with the 4th rebuild in 6 months!!)

here's some old pics for some eye candy.

I'll get some new ones up just fer you scrubs, just need to borrow a camera.

Yay! Good on ya Stealth. Man I would love pics of the flowering. I think you said it best in the last thread, something like they are great for what they are. And what they are is very small low wattage fluoros. Nuff said really! With a bit of luck, you could be the world record yield holder for CCFL growers worldwide!



Any general thoughts how they're growing apart from speed? Compact? Leafy?

Edit: BTW, the wall of the plastic "cool" tube is 2mm thick!

awesome scrub thanks i found some for about 6 bucks for 2. Only comes with one ballast thing tho so ill have to find a couple more of those so they can be brighter individually like u said. The ones i found give white light and are about 8.88w it said. I should mention they are also 12 inch ccfls.
I was thinking of making a clone cab in a pc, put like 4 or 5 white ccfl in there maybe even with a single cfl in there as well.
Ill keep ya posted, im interested in trying this

ScrubNinja said:

Click to expand...

LOL

Haha yeah that pic came in handy

MindGrenade, that's wicked! I assume it's the pc mod style in the tubes. It's not a huge difference with 2 per inverter, but it's definitely visible - you can check that out when it arrives. Not sure if I've ever seen just the ballasts for sale for the PC modding style. StealthD tried a third party inverter but couldn't get it working. If we could work out how to wire the inverters up (and indeed, how to buy the correct inverter) we will have hit paydirt They seem a lot more professional, capable, and safer.

The standard pc mod style inverters seem to work fine, but I wouldn't trust them too far. Standard chinese computer-grade junk. I wouldn't keep them stealth under a pile of oily rags or anything, just in case.

Hmm I can't really say how well they are "budding" yet, but as far as veg growth they grew slightly tighter nodes and just a hair slower, it's the same strain (ss's superskunk) and I know it pretty well so I'll be able to see the difference easily as they progress.

That's awesome that you removed the tubes I've been kinda scared to but I think I'll give it a try once I figure a safe way to mount them, I worry about the bare wires getting "bridged" by some leaves or by my hand. What are they like on the inside is the bulb just smooth glass? ...I actually just went and tried to pop one of mine open and they have a nice glob of glue inside the tube holding the bulb in. (damn you logisys!)

Yeh I tried everything with those 5$ inverters I found, me and a buddy spent hours (attempting) talking to asain people about them on the phone, but we couldn't get ahold of anyone who knew what they were even used for. So we tinkered with them for a few more hours and had absolutely no luck. A big part of it is they way the circuit is designed and a mislabed pdf sheet wasn't much help either!



*future ccfl world record holder*

yeah the pc mod ones in the tubes. So is the visible difference like 4 ccfl lights each on their own ballasts = 8 ccfl lights on 4 ballasts?

Bitspower - too cheap to use glue....for shame! Actually I just looked at the 30cm vantec and bitspower, and they were both glued or at least stuck solid anyway. Yet both 10cm orange BPs were unglued both ends....lol. See what I mean MG?

Stealth, I actually forgot all about the return wire while I was doing all that. They are very strong imo, it doesn't bother me, although I'm not certain on the bridging thing. I'll ask someone.

MG:

ScrubNinja said:

These are all with one inverter, and the 10A setting. Can't really test it properly as the bits are in use.

* 1 x vantec 30cm blue - .35
* 2 x vantec 30cm blue - .53
* 1 x 10cm bitspower orange - .22
* 2 x 10cm bitspower orange - .33
* 1 x 30cm bitspower uv - .34
* 1 x 30cm bitspower uv + 1 x vantec 30cm blue - .5

Click to expand...

Those numbers are amps and if you multiply them by 12 you will get the Watts. Lets use the Vantecs as an example. So with 2 bulbs on one inverter, I get .53 amps total (6.36 watts)

If I use two bulbs and two inverters, I get .7 amps total (8.4 watts). So that is the difference. These numbers are not entirely accurate, but since I'm the only one with bulbs and a shitty multimeter, it's the best we can do unfortunately.

Oh yeah Stealth, I started out with a hacksaw, and I think I would have made it succesfully if the end caps hadn't just fallen off in my hands. Those vice grips I use are good too. They're like levered pliers so you can crush the crap out of things, but they don't snap shut when it breaks. Hard to explain but they helped a lot.