PLL Club. (if you don't know, now you know)

[ScrubNinja]

Woah, sweet vert setups! I just checked both your posts and you haven't made your respective threads yet!

I pull my latest in about a week I guess

Has anyone "worn out" their bulbs to the point they don't grow as well?

 

[Tilt]

sorry about that I wil get crackin on it right now

 

[yesum]

I have a t12 tube guard with a 1 1/4" reducing bushing inside a 1 1/2" male pvc connector. The connector is installed in a 4 11/16" deep box with a 4" pc fan installed on top. The assembly is ran through a hole in the shelf into the flowering chamber. I have 6- 55 watt pll 3000k color temp. I will be setting up a grow diary thread soon. Maybe some club members would like to come check it out.

This is how a pll grow should look imo. I am running LEDs right now, but was going to run some vertical plls in corners of tent with reflectors on pll.
I would not be surprised to see a gram per watt with a well done vertical grow.

 

[staank]

I have a t12 tube guard with a 1 1/4" reducing bushing inside a 1 1/2" male pvc connector. The connector is installed in a 4 11/16" deep box with a 4" pc fan installed on top. The assembly is ran through a hole in the shelf into the flowering chamber. I have 6- 55 watt pll 3000k color temp. I will be setting up a grow diary thread soon. Maybe some club members would like to come check it out.

Nice!
I making something similar now to go in the corners of my DR80.

 

[Tilt]

I have my diary up now with pics of the cool tube pll. The entertainment center

 

[ahhhavalanche!]

I am trying to select a workhorse ballast for my set-up from this chart (http://www.1000bulbs.com/images/PDF/Fulham-Lamp-Chart-brochure.pdf), does anyone know what the "PA" means after a bulb designation? (I.E. what is the difference between a 55W and a 55WPA?)

 

[kinesis]

I'm just going to splurge on the 4 lamp/reflector kit from AHSupply, what 4 bulbs for flower and veg? do I need to get and how should I arrange them in the sockets? I can only afford 4 bulbs.. Any more and I'll just get a 90W UFO LED 6band instead.. let me know, thanks.

 

[oldone]

I'm just going to splurge on the 4 lamp/reflector kit from AHSupply, what 4 bulbs for flower and veg? do I need to get and how should I arrange them in the sockets? I can only afford 4 bulbs.. Any more and I'll just get a 90W UFO LED 6band instead.. let me know, thanks.

The AH kits are great and you wont have any trouble putting them together. I didnt.

I cheaped out and bought the Plusrite 3000K and 4100K bulbs from 1000bulbs.com. They are like $3-$4 each and have worked fine for 1 run at least.

Hope this helps,
OO

 

[dustydoggy]

Ballast purchase -PLL Biax Who/what/where/$$$?

Ballast purchase -PLL Biax Who/what/where/$$$?

What is the "best" or most cost effective place to purchase sockets & electronic ballasts? My new cab setup will be using:

CLONE/ROOT: 1- 18w (10.5") 4-pin Biax (24/7)

VEG: 4- 36w 4-pin Biax + 1- 55w 4-pin Biax (14/10)

FLOWER: 4- 55w 4-pin Biax (13/11) supplementing 70w HPS

Need electronic (most efficient) ballasts can't seem to locate a 4 lamp ballast and then there's the $$$ issue (no one likes to pay too much) Are there any Made in USA? Hate to buy light kits from ahsupply.com and start cutting/modifying. Or is that my best course?

Opinions & help please.

Thanks. Dusty

 

[rives]

For the ballasts, 1000bulbs.com carries a full line of Fulham ballasts. I have seen numerous posts stating that they also carry the 2G11 sockets, but that they aren't shown on the web site. You would need to give them a call and see if they carry them. If not, they are on Amazon, etc. The AH kits come with a very nice socket that has a molded on splash-guard type of neck on them that comes up around the base of the lamp as well as an integral cord about 6' long. The kit also has lots of small pieces for strain-relief, etc. I was very impressed with the kit, and AH has the best service I have ever seen. Yep, I am a fanboy! Hope this helps.

 

[TheGreenBastard]

What is the "best" or most cost effective place to purchase sockets & electronic ballasts? My new cab setup will be using:

CLONE/ROOT: 1- 18w (10.5") 4-pin Biax (24/7)

VEG: 4- 36w 4-pin Biax + 1- 55w 4-pin Biax (14/10)

FLOWER: 4- 55w 4-pin Biax (13/11) supplementing 70w HPS

Need electronic (most efficient) ballasts can't seem to locate a 4 lamp ballast and then there's the $$$ issue (no one likes to pay too much) Are there any Made in USA? Hate to buy light kits from ahsupply.com and start cutting/modifying. Or is that my best course?

Opinions & help please.

Thanks. Dusty

1 Fulham Workhorse 7 = $44.19USD/£30.53UK
http://www.1000bulbs.com/Fulham-Ballast-Workhorse-7/8744/

4 Phillips 50w PLL's (4000lm) =$32.84USD/£22.69UK
http://www.1000bulbs.com/3000-Kelvin-50-Watt-4-Pin-2G11-Base-Compact-Fluorescent-Light-Bulbs/5965/

4 socket 2g11 bases =$1.99USD/£1.37UK
http://www.bulbs.com/eSpec.aspx?ID=...s&RefId=305&Ref2=Compact+Fluorescent+Screw-in

Shipping total (flat) =$19.92USD/£13.76UK

Total=$98.94USD/£68.36UK

200w and 16,000 Lumens

That is everything you would need for a PLL setup save for wire (easily attainable) and a reflector.

 

[rives]

Nice work, TGB! The only thing that I would add is that the 55 watt lamps put out a fair bit more light, but you can only run 3 at a time on the Workhorse 7 & 8 ballasts without voiding the warranty. So, another ballast would be required (two Workhorse 5's, for instance).

 

[dustydoggy]

WOW!!! You green bastard, nice freakin' job! Shipping, Totals ... everything! Why don't you just go get the stuff, come on over, wire 'em up, hang 'em for me! I'll make you samiches and some sweet tea. We can sit around and have some laughs. Alas, that can not happen because neither of us exist! Thanks Bro, looked around on 1000 and a bunch other sites, thought the fulham was the way to go #7/#8? I'm "ol' school" from the old leaky PCB ballast days. So this is like, all new again. Rives, I thought about scoring up one AHsupply reflector and bend my own out of Aluminium flashing or trim. except a bit wider to put in the cab corners. Are they all they claim? Thanks again. : )

 

[TheGreenBastard]

Nice work, TGB! The only thing that I would add is that the 55 watt lamps put out a fair bit more light, but you can only run 3 at a time on the Workhorse 7 & 8 ballasts without voiding the warranty. So, another ballast would be required (two Workhorse 5's, for instance).

The reason I suggest 50w bulbs is that they are the best option for a 4+ bulb setup. The lumen difference is ~800 per bulb and 20w total, though the advantage being the need for only one ballast.

For under $200 you could get 400w's (32,000lm's) using 2 ballast and 8 bulbs, though with 55w's you could only use six bulbs across two ballast (330w, 28,800lms). The price is roughly the same for both options, though their ends up being more light per ballast if you use 4 50w bulbs.

 

[rives]

TGB - good reasoning on your choice, I think. I went with the 55w lamps and three ballasts driving six lamps so that I could switch them independently and bring on more lighting as the plants got larger in the veg stage. There seems to be a little better availability of the 55w lamps from what I have seen, but since they are all a mail-order it probably doesn't make much difference. Dusty, I don't know if you have seen the following link, but there is some very good information there about building your own reflector. Particularly, there is one design that looks more efficient than the commercially available stuff. I need to buy a sheet-metal brake!
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=114922

 

[Milhouse]

I currently own 2 - workhorse 8 ballasts to power my 440 watts of pll. I have a friend that is looking to sell his icecap 660 ballast for half what he paid. I was thinking of buying for future plans but wasn't sure if it was worth. Even at half the normal cost, it would still be cheaper to buy a workhorse 8. I don't know much about icecap ballasts so if anyone has any experience, I would appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

 

[twrex]

I believe I read somewhere that you could use european-style mini terminal strips rather than actual bases for 2g-11 type bulbs. Can anyone verify this?

Also, does anyone know if these would work for bulbs with the gy10q pin arrangement?

 

[Peanut Butter]

I currently own 2 - workhorse 8 ballasts to power my 440 watts of pll. I have a friend that is looking to sell his icecap 660 ballast for half what he paid. I was thinking of buying for future plans but wasn't sure if it was worth. Even at half the normal cost, it would still be cheaper to buy a workhorse 8. I don't know much about icecap ballasts so if anyone has any experience, I would appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

You should probably buy 2 workhorse 8 ballasts and run 3 bulbs per light. They are not actually rated to run four 55 watt bulbs even thought they say 220 watt output.

 

[TheGreenBastard]

Workhorse 7's can run 4 50w bulbs, I think its the best option for a 4 bulb PLL setup (200w and 16,000lm's under $100 USD)

 

[Peanut Butter]

personally, I went with 2 workhorse 5's or Advance Centium ICN-2S54's, that way you can run 4 of the 55watters....better lumen output and dirt cheap off-brand bulbs from 1000bulbs.com