Welcome to Narnia..:SneakiNeekz's L.E.D. GL40 S.O.G. Dr.Bud Style!

What's crackin ya'll. Back with some new goodies (Not to mention I was soo getting over my last messy arse thread.) Got my GL40 in today, and might I say, quality stuff here.



Thick arse canvas, heavy threaded stitching, thick smooth zipper's. Everything just slides in place as well, super easy set-up. Digging the layout, alotta overlapping flaps (Good at concealing the pin-hole stitch light leaks!), and came with an extra corner and some neat velcro ties. $100 well spent, I am sure it will live through years of abuse. They went a bit much on the height, but I guess it would help for HPS or SCROGin or what-not.



Kinda wish the exhaust sock was 6" so I could fit my 120mm fan snug, but I can always get a flange or Duct tape for a temp fix. Also, anybody got any ideas on a filter (Luckily them AK's are odorless at the moment...)? I am thinking, since i got a push and a pull on the exhaust, I might make something to fit in the sock so as to be air tight... Shoot away!



My closet's a whole lot more free now lol! Now, behold, Narnia!



The 42W U.F.O. is suprisingly bright in this thing, visually appearing brighter than the 12" box I was using before. Once these AK's are outta here, I should be able to fit 16 party cut's in there.

Now let's take a closer look (Fuggin L.E.D. screws with my cams focus man...)!
Here's the more Indica leaning Nirvana AK-48 x Super Skunk S1 (FIMed, 19 days today...).



Next we got the more Sativa leaning Pheno from the same bean's (A friends cross of Nirvana stock, that then stress hermed and made a few S1's...)...



Then we got the mess of clones. If you check my other thread I identified them a bit lol (ALWAYS label clones good, lol!), The blue cups are for sure 1 of each of my mom's I am sexing out (O.G. Kush S1, Blueberry S1, and Sour D S1 (Confirmed lady!)...). The red cup's are a mix of 2 either O.G. or B.B., and 1 S.D., while the 4 cut red cup's are either O.G. or B.B. (They look so damn close, I can barely see the difference without em grown a bit more like their mom's size...). P.S. my thermostat's broken since I bought it, reads about 10 degrees above ambient lol.



Oh and kinda un-related (Here I go again... ), but here's the vegging mum's under the same light (In the word's of Blake Henderson "Holy-moly, she's a thick bitch!"), very encouraging, not to mention a buncha thick cut's for next round!



Take it sleazy ya'll!

F'in rad....so many threads anymore I get glass-eyed at times.

What UFO are you running? Which model again the 90W? I still might stuff one into my mini fridge....

What distance have you been keeping the light away from the girls at?

I like the sock feature, that's the shit, I have used something similar in my DIY builds as a light trap, so maybe I am on to something.....

Probably, so more questions later, damn, you could easily throw a BlackStar 240 or a 6 pot light in your setup?

This is the light I am running in the tent and in my veg cab (Bought 1 full retail, another used, for about $220 all-together.) 100W Blackstar U.F.O.. Wish I woulda held out and looked into Aliexpress sooner... Money could have gone way further. Yea I could fit those, but I am leaning towards a square unit for even coverage. You can follow all the progress up to this Here.I usually keep it around 8" max from the tops, preferably lower, depending on canopy evenness. This is a solid little U.F.O. and at 7" it's way smaller than the old 90W unit's flooding ebay. If I didn't need my veg cab, I would stuff my other one in here. You should really look into ordering from Aliexpress my bredren, they are a really good site, and as long as you find a reputable seller on there, your set. I just got a nice size array like This . Definetily wanna get another for my tent, but I think it would be overkill, my minds losing it imagining the chunky juicy buds 185W of led would make in a GL40... But seriously, go Aliexpress, you need a CC (No debit, suck's but their worth it seriously...), but they are like paypal sort of, they hold your money a la escrow until your unit arrives un-damaged! If it's defective or not up to par, you can either replace, or keep with 50% refund. If you go anywhere else, all your doing is padding their wallet's, at an outrageous mark-up as well might I add...

Im in.

Kiwi, I am gonna preach to you my brotha! When you go L.E.D. (And you MUST go L.E.D.!), please go through Aliexpress and don't let the retailer's (Re-seller's...) bum-rape you! I am soo stoked with the quality of the panel I ordered, and wish had NOT listened to the people nay-saying on the China panel's when I got my U.F.O.'s! These are the same $600+ unit's LEDTran is slangin lol... And I am sure the shipping to u would be quick bruh (Mine had to back track to Cali then to me and still came in 3 days from sending lol...)! Just in-case u ever planned goin ta L.E.D., IDK how electric rates are in NZ... Preach over lol! Can't wait till thing's get stinky! Next project scrubber. Next purchase, over 100W of L.E.D. to churn out some greazy arse bannanerz (Cola size bruh, though I might get some re-versin' on for bean's one of these day's...) in this bag!

Sad new's, the forest has been decimated... The Blueberry and O.G. turned out to be boys, showed me their ball's early this morning... Destroyed about 8 clones, and 2 mum's (Not too bad, more soil, and more grow space!), and kept a cut of each to flower outside and collect teh pollen for future chuck's... Now only left with 3 Sour D cut's, and the 2 AK's (All confirmed ladies, whew!)... Took 8 cut's today though, all female so we should be full by the end of next week! And the beat goes on...

I feel like a total jackass/murderer... Turn's out what I thought were "Balls" on the O.G. were just nodes forming shoot's, the first micro pistil just popped outta her... Blueberry got balls now no doubt about it, they already dropped lol... Fuck my tent would be half full had I not jumped to conclusions... Good thing I kept a cut lol...

Here's where were at today.

Whole tent shot. (Got the salvaged O.G. in there too now...).



FIM'd AK Day 21



AK (Sativa Leaning) Day 21.



A couple Sour D's (Day 2 and 7, small and big, respectively...).



And the oldest Sour D, Day 12.

That Gl40 has been on my mind for a while. I always complained about the height too but growing in micro for a while now you learn to appreciate it. Especially if you plan to add any type of drip trays/mini tables for automating the watering etc. If i ever break down and get a tent...that is the one

Ive been scouring aliexpress at your recommendation too...tons of great 3w units out cheap. I was looking at those 54W e27 fixtures. 18 3w LEDS for 18.99? in a screw in? yes please. Using epistar too. Definitely no Cree/lumiled but better than a lot of other brands. I saw some of these integrated chip flood lights the 10,20 and 30 watt models.(look kind of like the HGL SOL lights but sold as single floods) 13.99 for the 10W 27.99 for the 30watt. So cheap. going to change the micro space for sure.

Yeah, I figure, if it's trying to do the same job it can't help to add-on to the setup.(Pertaining to integrated diodes...) Been looking at a lot of options for getting more L.E.D. watts in here. The e27 fixtures look promising, but I am skeptical on active cooling (Their probably only run 300mA or 1w...). I will probably purchase a 4-pot apollo, then I could really use the height with the lens penetration. Glad to spread the word on the china panels. $/W they simply cannot be beat (When the "other guy" is trying to scam ya for $100's, and then trying to use other peoples study's to back up their "R&D", then go and use word for word the chinese companies ad slogans lol...). Hope the show gets a bit more exciting soon, sorry ya'll. Got 8 bun's in the oven (Cut's rooting...)!

Soooo, I hacked up the Blackstar today. Figured I would get rid of the damn plate glass refractin my precious light. Also figured I would poke around and see what's up under the hood. I have come to the conclusion that most L.E.D. unit's on the market made using chinese component's are truly all 3w capable unit's (The diode's them selves.) Despite them being advertised as 2w chip's, they are the exact same Epiled's as the 3w unit's (But are actually run at around 1.2w). The chinese are a bit more transparent with this on their claims. The same unit that the american reseller says uses 2w chip's, are advertised as 1w on the chinese supplier's site. So I would say, most of these re-seller's are the shady guy's, inventing the BS out of their arse... Most of us are here for the same reason (To cut out the middle man, saving us money...), yet I see a lot of people swaying others to believe that the guys scraping you $1-200 extra a piece because they "Did so much R&D..." or "The customer service..." (How many of y'all would justify paying $400 an O, "Cause the guy had to dial his stuff in..."? I am gonna ask next time I order on Ali if they would throw in a few spare Driver's how much it would cost, cause that's what most retailer's expect, you to replace it yourself, sure they mail you out the part, but IDK if that's worth $200...)... Well, done with that rant, but point is, all the negatives are like wise both ways, might as well save some greenback's aye? Was hoping to be able to find a higher amperage driver (Stock one is 300mA, maybe 500 is a safe bump...), but most are made for lower diode number's, or higher current, and I can"t undo the PCB to re-do the wiring for that. I did swap the fan for a delta with twice the current draw, so it should run more efficient/cool. Back when I ordered my 10w diodes, I bought a 5 pack of 90 degree len's (Turns out their for star pcb diode's, so I got them all beside's the 1 I hacked to test fit on the 10Wer, didn't work lol...) so I figured I would jam em on where they could squeeze in... Got em on a few of the middle reds to penetrate into the nuggy's... Removing the glass alone really brightened ish up a ton, actually raised the fixture 4" with the light spread still looking more intense then before!

Here we can see the gut''s, 140v 300mA driver, 800mA 12VDC fan power supply, and the 220mA fan (stock was a 100mA flimsy cheapy unit. Another thing to note, I took the glass of of both unit's I have, and the 2010 model was way more crude in comparison, hot glue vs. fasteners, white pcb vs. mylar covered, they have stepped up with the 2012.).


Here is the fascia minus glass and with the lens...


Lookin all fugly lol...


Well see tommorow if there's any effect's, already running alot cooler with the fan (Louder too, but I run the light's daytime so not a bother...). Good growin' y'all!

Oh ya, also made a male isolation chamber outta the PC. Usin' the
P.W.M. to give the least possible light, to try and stress him into blowing early lol, got the towel ready and all bwahahaha...



BALLZ!!!



GG...

lookin nice my friend!

Have some questions about the LED unit.
How much did you pay for it?
Did it had heat problems before the modifications you made?
How far away do you have to keep it from the canopy?
Does it heat more after the modification?

peace

I have 2 of these light's at the moment. 1 I bought new on sale, a 2012 model for $120 USD, then I scored a slightly used 2010 version for $80 USD. All growth up until now in this and my other journal has been under a single one of these (1 Flower 1 Veg...). I am happy with the performance for the actual wattage (42W supposedly...), and the result's have been on par with around 3x the CFL lighting wattage (Only have experience with CFL before this.). I made the modifications based on using what I had lying around. It ran warm to the touch before, like the side of a refrigerator or T.V., but now that is gone (I had the pc fan lying around, and figured, why not, I wouldn't mind the noise, and the way L.E.D.'s drive, cooler is more effiecient. I have never been keen on having glass (or anything...) between my plant's and the light. I, being one who strives for efficiency, decided that the glass is useless, only there for protection of the emitter's, and I baby it anyway, so I had no worries. Read somewhere that glass eats up like 7-10% of your light, and with low wattage number's, every bit help's. I can literally sit it on the plants and they will be fine (They are only driven at 300mA/1.5w, so no worries on bleaching. What I did find though, was that the plant's actually grew better with the light pulled back 6" rather then 1-2", I am thinking because the color's are allowed to blend better. If you hold it just above the ground, 1-2", you will notice the spotlight effect of the individual diodes, if you hold it back just a bit, it loses just a tad bit of intensity (Made up since I took out the glass...) but the light is all a uniform color. I have it about 21" from the ground at the moment, maybe 8-10" from the canopy. I am doing zero veg little lolipops, but I am curious what a run In a proper cab would pull with this, cause MerryGardener's 28g pull was far from efficient, so I probably pack a 16 clone run someday.... Never had a heat problem with it, before or after, just a little tinkering, and removing useless junk. I would give the light a 3/5, if it was right at $100 then it would be a deal. I think if you called them they probably would let em go for $100, I mean, even retail, it's cheaper then HGL's little $249 equivalent... Aliexpress got em for $60-80, cheaper in bulk as well.

So today I finally snapped and decided to take care of something that I noticed yesterday hacking up the BS. Here's the fascia...



Notice the ring around that is partially blocking some degrees of the light. That is because the PCB sits about 1cm deep in the fascia, with the emitters only 3-4mm above the PCB, thus allowing for a 6-7mm recession from tip of emitter (well past the primary 120* lens already...) to flush. I am guessing a loss of a minimum of 15* (Practically a percent loss...) all around the light.



Maybe another reason other's are pulling 20-30g, even though it is putting out 35-45w actual power. My solution was to fashion L brackets from some metal strapping, and it turned out quite well.





The noticable dingy drop off shadows in the corners are now absent, albeit a slight bit weaker than the center.



She really lights this place up now, guesstimate's are a steady 20-30% increase in output (5-7% from removing glass panel, 20-30% from the extra 20-30* of light blockage removed.). Visually (I know, I know, you cant see the spectrum plant's use...) it appears to confirm my calculations, few shadows to be found anywhere. The ladies seem to be loving it aswell (At least the glass panel removal, woke up to a nice pistil-splosion that wasn't there when I put the panel back in yesterday...)... Good growin y'all!

Here's some shot's from this morning right after I removed the face from the U.F.O. Notice the small amount of trich's developing that wasn't occurring when the glass plate was in place, as well as the pistil explosion, I am thinking the lens on the red emitter's may have helped stimulate em a bit...

AK "Knucklehead" (Day 23)




AK "Sattelite" (Day 23)



And the farthest along "Rotten" Sour D (Day 14)



Good growin y'all!

Sweet grow neekz. Planning on going led soon. I'm in for the ride.
Happy growing!

Thx bredren! You won't regret trying L.E.D. , real game changer. Good growin cuh!

for all the information my friend

The girls are looking very good!

I really like all the modifications you made with those lights, hope it pays.

Now when I look back I think I should have gone with L.E.D instead of pll. I went for the pll because they seemed to be a much cheaper solution. All the time and money I wasted on solving the heat problems was just not worth it! Plus the ghetto cooltube I had to improvise caused some odor problems.

peace