[repuk]

Originally Posted by bsgospel

Ditto- that SIL build and wiring diagram should be a sticky thread in itself. For bums like me who don't know about wiring, you make the DIY seem super easy.

That was my goal, really happy to be of help!

The point was doing it safely too, and if done as depicted, the only exposed metal parts with live electricity will be the inside of the cleats where the bulbs make contact, all the rest is securely isolated.

I edited the posts to include building order and tips to make it easier to follow.

Thanks again Gantz! A pleasure having you here

[Gantz]

Didn't do anything mate. No need to thank me.

I love these grows and I'm just looking for inspiration. I got sound isolation problems so I'm looking at what other people are doing.

But with this good weather I might do an outdoor grow this year.

[repuk]

Not sure if I will be able to grow some outdoors (really looking into it), but already weeded out all the orchard... 40% of it were 1,5m tall nettles, compost pile is about 2x2 x 1,5m! I'm sure they will thrive here as all fruit trees or the vegetables garden will

gonna look your posts for the sound isolation issues

[repuk]

Didn't find any posts related to noise Gantz, what's your issue? I'll have to deal with it in this tent, the RVK extractor (125E2-L 340m3/h) sounds like a jet (no carbon scrubber yet).

Once I fit the scrubber (sucking from it) the options I will consider:

Dampening:
Building/purchasing a silencer box
Using dampened ducts

Ducts make a big difference in noise. Sometimes 90 degrees routing on exhaust duct can help dampening extractor motor/propellers "projected noise" outside of the tent if that's your issue, though not optimal for airflow. Sometimes the more straight, the less "air speed" noise.

Third option: using a speed regulator circuit using triacs. Thinking on experimenting with this and mycodo PWM outputs for smooth extraction throttling.

Second Spot

I rigged up a temporary SIL hood with the octopus cables, multipliers and the SILs left (4x 2700k 11W + 6 6500k 13W) while I set up the COB and rewire the HML:



wow... what a pleasure fitting and working comfortably inside the tent!

ACE
All ACE regulars (unsexed yet) were repotted to 7L pots and moved there with the fem Kali China (11L).

Malawi and Panama (fem) were sowed yesterday

Thinking on trying a DTW setup instead of blumats here. This way any big drum at floor level with a pump will do as reservoir, and hopefully will require less checkups than blumats.

Thinking on using a 120x120 tray to collect the runoff, and place something under the pots to elevate them so that they don't sit on it, then pump it to another drum, or directly to the outdoor garden.

Anyone used condensation pumps for this? The same used to evacuate AC water, they auto-sense the liquid level and won't activate on dry. Problem is I don't think they'll like dirty water. Another way would be using a regular (aquarium?) pump activated using some sort of external level sensor.

Hesitating between a garland square tray (rigid) or a Nutriculture Flexi Tray (flexible, foldable). Tips welcome!

[repuk]

Parts specs and details: https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.ph...3&postcount=82

Hood and heatsinks have been assembled, next will come the wiring.

I recycled an aluminum window profile for the hood "frame":

Building the frame was easy peasy, just cut and rivet. It's an H, each side being 30cm/12in (sized to cover 60x60cm @50w/sq ft - 80x80cm @30w/sq ft area)



Heatsinks were drilled and taped for m5 screws, in order to fix it to the frame.

I already had the tools so went that route, a less cumbersome approach would have been using cold "solder" epoxy for metals (same kind used to fix pierced exhausts, radiators...).

Bottom view:


Top view:


I used Alpine 11GT rev2 heatsinks, note the orientation of the chamfer in the heatsinks finning where the fan cable exits (preventing rubbing the cables against the sharp fins) towards the frame.

Fans assembled (motherboard legs clipped):


Coming next:

1.- Soldering wire strips to the COB chips prior to fixing them to the heatsinks, otherwise soldering will be tricky as the heatsink will dissipate the heat from the COB solder pads.



2.- Gluing them using thermal epoxy to the heatsinks

3.- Complete the wiring of the driver, and the 12V PSU for the fans.

[Gantz]

I've got one of these



It makes quite a bit of noise. I'll just buy a 105 soundproof ducting, drop it inside, use zip ties to hold it in place, then throw that into a wooden box filled with Rockwood or something.
I'll see.

Thanks for looking out for me mate.
Cheers

[bsgospel]

*visiting Repuk's house- frames and heatsinks fall out of every closet*

[repuk]

Originally Posted by bsgospel

*visiting Repuk's house- frames and heatsinks fall out of every closet*

hahahah just envisioned that ala Marx Brothers crowded cabin scene from a Night in the Opera! Missus says I'm worse than Wall-E!

@Gantz:

I'm sorry to say this, but those extractors are crap...

I still have the last one somewhere, problem being too cheap construction, flimsy plastics and horrible tolerances, the propeller axis/motor are unbalanced, causing vibrations and even if you manage to conceal the "air noise", background rumble/vibration is almost impossible to conceal and really annoying as it will propagate through walls, etc.

I dissasembled it to tune it and try to balance the armature, but apart from not being worth, didn't find a way of achieving that (I'm handy with electric motors)

Something I didn't try was using rubber grommets to fix it to a silencer box, or even springs so that it doesn't transfer vibrations to the enclosure.

After going through two of those (TT or Vents) I got a RVK Systemair Sileo 100E2-A1: the difference is night and day and worth the investment: it will outlast a dozen of those.

[Gantz]

Thanks for the input. They say you get what you pay for... And I didn't pay much for this so... It kinda makes sense.
I did drop it in a soundproof duct and most of the noise went away. There's still some minimal vibration noise but that goes away behind a closed door.
Cheers

[repuk]

COBs
After soldering the wire strips to the COBs, I degreased them.

Heatsinks were buffed where the thermal pad is with a dremel, then degreased too.

This is possibly the most critical step, as if something goes wrong ungluing them will end up possibly with a broken cob. We seek an even coverage, avoiding any hotspots that would end up ruining the COB.

I mixed the two part (artic alumina) for one COB at a time, spread it over the COB back as if it were a toast for an even coverage, then pressed the COB over the heatsink (fingers on oposing corners, do alternate) with a twisting motion until excess epoxy appeared, removing it with a razor.




Fans power supply
Next came the wiring, PSU, etc for the fans. I recycled an old external hdd psu, cut its output connector and soldered dupont male jumper wires in parallel to each polarity.

Used heatshrink to isolate and reinforce the "octopus".

This way each fan can be (un)plugged individually. PSU provides 9 volts, fans are absolutely silent.





Fan PSU power draw:



Preliminary wiring done, using wagos of course; COBs wired in series:


...and there be light