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ReikoX's Workshop 2017

ReikoX

Knight of the BlackSvn
Still waiting on parts for my light. I've gotten the fans and their power supply. The COB holders made it as well. The driver, heatsink, and COBs should be here by tomorrow afternoon. :clock watch:

Some Zak Haze at 24 Daze
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ReikoX

Knight of the BlackSvn
Beautiful plant and great concept on the rollout cab!
Dank you :tiphat:

It's pretty funny when I open it, she just pops out all over the place. I have to be very careful, so I've been only opening it every few days to water.
 

ReikoX

Knight of the BlackSvn
I got all the parts I ordered for my new light. I decided to run to Radio Shack to get some components, but they are closing. All the bins were mostly empty.:wallbash:

I ordered that stuff from Amazon instead. It should be here by the middle of next week. I will need to run to the hardware store for some minor stuff to hang the lights and mount the COB holders. Right now I'm just trying to finalize the design and placement.:chin:

In the meantime, I've been messing with fan and COB placement. I'm trying to decide if I should have them 6" apart with space on the ends (left), or 8" apart with no space on the ends (right). In this image I simulated a 115° viewing angle at 24" high. There isn't a whole lot of difference between two really.
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I'm also debating where to put the driver. I originally was going to mount it to one side, but I was worried about balance when hung. When I spread out the fans I was able to fit the driver on top, but there is no easy way to mount it securely. I debated moving the driver into the electronics compartment, it would fit, but may be difficult to splice in the wiring and I'm not sure how I would handle the fans.:dunno:

I think I will mount the fans using the supplied rubber feet. I can squeeze them between the heatsink fins and it is fairly solid. A dab of silicone glue on each one should keep everything in place. The fans are super quiet even when run at 100% and only consume about a watt each. I'll hook it up to my kill-a-watt and experiment with the various low noise adapters.

For dimming the driver, I went with a five position dual pole radial switch. This gives me five settings 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, and 100%. Using resistors I can hook this up so I know exactly how much power it's using instead of guessing with a potentiometer. Since it is dual pole, I thought about changing the fan speed along with dimming the lights. Something like 0 RPM, 900 RPM, 1050 RPM, 1200 RPM, 1200 RPM for the above power settings. That might be overkill though. :thinking:
 

Tbonegrower

Member
Your model is really sweet!!!

The left side seems more balanced, but the right side will do better at washing light down the walls. Decisions decisions...

:canabis:
 

ReikoX

Knight of the BlackSvn
I finally got off my ass and transplanted these five Zak Haze clones. The timing was pretty good, as the roots were just starting to wrap around the bottom.
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Here they are in the cabinet basking under the 150w CMH. I will veg them for a few weeks until they are 2/3 of the screen high, then flip to 12/12. The clone in my filing cabinet had a decent amount of stretch, so I will allow for that.
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Speaking of the one in my filing cabinet, here she is at 30 days 12/12. I had my doubts about her being an eight week strain, but looking at them now I can see it. She is starting to get a little fade on those old, big fan leaves.
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Everything else looks healthy, so I fed her as normal. The buds are ridiculously close to the ceiling, but filling in nicely. I didn't expect much stretch, but the tomatoes cage saved the day.
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When I removed a few of the fan leaves, they smelled fantastic. Very citrus smelling. She is a real finger sniffer.
 
M

Mr. Sparkle

As blynx said and tbone pointed out i would go with the later right one, as the corners will be more lit, and balance wise its actually better as well when you consider overlap
 

ReikoX

Knight of the BlackSvn
This is the second to last harvest from the colesium. These ones were over-veged then topped right as they went into flower. They are, from left to right, CBD Juanita (not topped), Tahoe OG, OG Kush, and Deadhead OG.
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Dispite my best efforts to kill them, the Jillybean seedlings are still alive. They are the four on the right. The little guy on the left was a germination test of some of those auto flower seeds.
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Speaking of germination tests, I put ten seeds between paper towels and 8/10 have cracked. Not a bad ratio, and it proves the pollen was viable. I decided to do a quick auto run while I wait for the Jillybean seedlings to grow, and I can get a good batch of clones off of them. I have seven pots, hopefully I get four girls out of it.
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ReikoX

Knight of the BlackSvn
Your model is really sweet!!!

The left side seems more balanced, but the right side will do better at washing light down the walls. Decisions decisions...

:canabis:

I'd go with the one on the right where the COBS are spread out more

As blynx said and tbone pointed out i would go with the later right one, as the corners will be more lit, and balance wise its actually better as well when you consider overlap

Thanks for the feedback on the COB placement. I hope to have the light up by the end of this weekend.
:tiphat:

I think I have convinced myself to run the driver remotely. I would have to pull the 3 wire 14 AWG wire (AC connected to the timer) to fit the 4 wire 18 AWG for the fans and ballast. That eliminates the concern of balancing the ballast and also removes a small amount of heat.
 

ReikoX

Knight of the BlackSvn
As promised, here is the build of my new light.

First I layed out the COB holders and punched the centers for easier drilling.
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Next I marked holes for wiring and hanging. I'm short a D-ring, so I'll have to pick one up.
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Next I drilled the holes for hanging and the COB holders. Tappping these is turning out to be a bitch. I broke two taps before getting the hang of it.
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I sanded the heatsink where the COBS will go and wiped it down real well with alcohol.
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Next step is to mount the COBS. Take the COB holder and flip it over. The chip clicks in place, make sure the positive signs match up. Add a thin layer of thermal compound, then attach the holders firmly to the heatsink.
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continued...
 

ReikoX

Knight of the BlackSvn
Next I wired them up in series, so negative from the previous COB goes to positive of the next COB and so on. I put a power cord on the driver and hooked up the positive and negative wires to the COBS.
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A quick bench test confirms that the lights are wired correctly. I'm still seeing spots.
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Next I hooked up the fans and ran the wires for the remote driver. The fans are simply connected by shoving the rubber feet between the heatsink fins. They may be overkill, but they sure are silent!
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Finally I mounted the driver in the electronics section. That little box on top is the 12v power supply for the fans.
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I put these plants in there for a couple of hours to see how temps hold. I will transplant later tonight, throw up the screen and watch them take off!
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After 24 hours the temps were in the range of 75°F - 80°F, so I transplanted the plants and fed them. The right plant is Juanita la Lagrimosa and the right plant is Cannatonic (which allegedly is also Juanita la Lagrimosa). I've grown Juanita in this can several times before, so I thought it would be a good test for my new light.
 

Mr Jay

Well-known member
Veteran
Neat! That's a simple clean build, just the way it should be!

Absolutely outstanding work.
 
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