sm0k4's PC cab - 5 year comeback

[Voidling]

I plan on stacking two fans. I'll start with one set of stacked fans and might have to get a second set after testing. I plan to stack identical models so I don't come up with some weird effect from them being different.

When the snow and ice melt off the road I'll go to fry's when I get the chance. I'll have to figure out a spacer since I don't want to buy a new fan just to rip it apart.

I also need to lightproof my intake.

 

[sm0k4]

Day 29

Day 29

After a month from seed, I am about to flip them over to 12/12. I'd like the smaller ones to have as much growth as the biggest one, but oh well. I will run out of room in stretch if I keep going. Or I could keep the bluish spectrum of light for the first couple weeks in flower to limit the stretch that the extra reds might cause.

Here are some pics. The biggest one I transplanted is the freakish bag seed. That thing shot up in the last week or so.

I trained them last night, plucked a couple fan leaves, and watered them good. Probably going to flip to flower this weekend.

Here are the pics.

 

[Voidling]

Looking good. Are you happy with your led's performance?

I just got my seeds in so you're a month ahead of me. Now I have incentive to get this box done asap and get going.

 

[Zapaleniec]

Hi smoka. you have great setup up there, i love those crazy high tech micro grows, Subscribed and +k for sure, stay safe brother.

 

[sm0k4]

Looking good. Are you happy with your led's performance?

I just got my seeds in so you're a month ahead of me. Now I have incentive to get this box done asap and get going.

Even if flower sucks with LED, which I don't think it will, this is still worth it for a veg light. I've used a 400W HPS in veg and this is just as good if not better.

If you are using 1W LEDs with wide angles, don't be afraid to get that light right down there. Some fan leaves get 1" away and no ill effects yet. I'm really liking it so far in veg. Knowing my plant can practically touch the light without getting bleaced makes me feel at ease for my upcoming vacation next month. Plus the light has been test ran for 36 hours straight with no issues. I think I'm set here. I'm satisfied with my whole build except this scrubber. I will figure out whats going on though. Worse comes to worse, I will grab some OnA. We burn scented candles a lot also, and the case is in a closet out of sight in my bedroom. Not too worried unless its real skunky.

I have had about 4-5 years of no growing, so I am still getting the feel for the plants. I messed up the pH in the beginning but they seem to be doing ok regardless. Going coco might be better with LED also since its more aerated. I love the coco so far.

I did start noticing some smell just outside the cab though last night. I do have small leaks and there may be positive pressure due to my circulation fan causing the smell to seep out of the cracks. Going to look into this over the weekend. Other than that, flowering will commence Sunday.

 

[sm0k4]

Hi smoka. you have great setup up there, i love those crazy high tech micro grows, Subscribed and +k for sure, stay safe brother.

Thanks for stopping by, always safe (or as safe as I can be)

If you are thinking of going DIY LED, just follow along and I will post the whole grow. No tricks with this grow, its not like I can sneak any other lights in my PC case to improve performance.

This is just a test setup to determine how my light will be in the big cabinet. Thinking of keeping the PC light just for clones and vegging them, it works so well. If I get a decent yield and bud growth, I will aim for 30-35 Watts of LED power per square foot with my big light for a 3.5' x 2.5' cab.

 

[woolybear]

Pretty cool... for those who didn't click the link, the setup is using 20.35w.

 

[Voidling]

Let me know when you figure out the smell issue. I haven't ordered my fans yet so I still have time to change up my setup. Today I finish painting and start putting in my ballasts and such.

 

[sm0k4]

Let me know when you figure out the smell issue. I haven't ordered my fans yet so I still have time to change up my setup. Today I finish painting and start putting in my ballasts and such.

With your cab I would go with Dayton 120VAC 120mm fans. They will push more cfm and have more pressure rating. Just get a rheostat for controlling. You might want to go with a bigger scrubber design also.

I sealed up my door leaks better with some aluminum tape plus weather stripping last night. Its a tight fit but it don't smell anymore. Still need to flower though. I have my doubts about it, but I need new fans within the week to help with the pressure. The AK-48 already smells in veg, can't wait to smell it in flower, haha. I also replaced the circulation fan inside to a lower cfm and have it blowing across the canopy. There shouldn't be any leaks now.

I cannot smell it at all in the room now. Time will tell though.

 

[Voidling]

I'm worried about the pressure ratings so I'll look into them. It's the smell that I'm worried about. I've got a single plant at day 44 in flower without and kind of filter as I have no cab yet and it'll smell my room up from time to time. Fortunately it's not very stinky for some random bag seed. So I'm back to the drawing board for my filter.

Glad you could get it sealed up better. Did you flip to 12/12 yet?

 

[sm0k4]

Check the forum here for the DIY scrubber build out of pencil holders. That would probably be perfect for yours. That with some 120mm Daytons on a regulator. You won't notice any smell. My scrubber design would be too small to effectively cool and filter your cab.

I just flipped to flower yesterday. I have three in there now only due to transplanting and space issues. I had to leave the smallest plant out. The 4th is under a CFL lamp, I am going to get a make-shift enclosure to close it off at lights out.

The plan is if one turns male, I can replace it with the 4th one I left out. I'll snap some pics later after work.

 

[KifThief]

i really like your filter design, how well does it cool your box? and do you think it would cool a box using cfls or would it not move enough air?

 

[Voidling]

Hey Sm0k4, I've seen that thread before, just couldn't figure out how to attach the thing to a fan. I'll look back and try to figure it out. Finished painting my cab, check it out. Need to get fans asap, should have lights in tomorrow I think.

Edit:
A lot of places lack the pressure ratings. It just dawned on me that these ac fans are being measured in inches instead of mm like the dc fans. Turns out the ac fan I already have is .33 - .38 inches or 94.6 Pa which turns out to be 9.~ in mm. while being 115 cfm. I just need to get another one or two of those. Do you think I need more pressure than a single fan to pull through the carbon? I'm going to go look for the carbon scrubber thread to see how much pressure they're using if they say. Thanks

Looks like plenty of pressure. Still need to get another one. Thanks.

 

[sm0k4]

Hey Sm0k4, I've seen that thread before, just couldn't figure out how to attach the thing to a fan. I'll look back and try to figure it out. Finished painting my cab, check it out. Need to get fans asap, should have lights in tomorrow I think.

Edit:
A lot of places lack the pressure ratings. It just dawned on me that these ac fans are being measured in inches instead of mm like the dc fans. Turns out the ac fan I already have is .33 - .38 inches or 94.6 Pa which turns out to be 9.~ in mm. while being 115 cfm. I just need to get another one or two of those. Do you think I need more pressure than a single fan to pull through the carbon? I'm going to go look for the carbon scrubber thread to see how much pressure they're using if they say. Thanks

Looks like plenty of pressure. Still need to get another one. Thanks.

Not sure, I'm still new to scrubbers myself. I just know the small PC fans have low pressure ratings so I stacked two. Stacking will reduce noise also since you gain suction power with less CFM. You can plan for two and just not use one(keep for backup), that is the safe bet. Reminds me I still need to get new fans.

 

[sm0k4]

i really like your filter design, how well does it cool your box? and do you think it would cool a box using cfls or would it not move enough air?

Well after I replace the fans, I hope to get a lot more pressure. I have 80mm fans though. With 90 or 120mm you can cool more. Dayton has probably the best 120mm fans for cooling/noise performance.


CFLs will be a lot more heat in a PC case, probably would take more to exchange the air. I think my setup works due to the already lower heat of the LED array. I put my hand on the metal and its warm, not hot. The heat sink gets to 90 max, but when I have my circulation on full gear, its 88 or so and my canopy gets heated by the light before air gets exchanged.

As of now with two cheap old PC fans stacked up, temps at canopy stay 85-86, temp on light at 88-90, and the incoming temp is 75.

I have my intake up top though to draw heat down to the plants. I put my power supplies below my intake port to draw in warmer air than 70. Drawing in the 75 degree air got my temps to 85, just where I wanted to be with LED. I've noticed my plants respond and perk up the best at 80-85 degrees F and 40-50% RH. If its dry and hot they don't like. If its cold and humid, they don't like. The sweet spot is humid and hot.

If you had intake on bottom and lower temp fresh air coming in, you could cool the CFLs I bet. Pressure will be the only problem, so keep the carbon to half an inch think or so.

CFL is a whole diff. story and I wouldn't run CFL in a PC, LED surpasses CFL in every way on a micro scale from what I see. No heat and better efficacy are the big ones. Pinstripe has a thread here somewhere with a similar setup. Problem with LED is, you need to DIY in order to get the best results. $1-$3 per watt depending on what you can recycle and use.

 

[sm0k4]

Day 34

Day 34

Here are shots from the first day of 12/12, day 34 overall. This was two days ago. The biggest plant is up over the screen now.

 

[KifThief]

Well I may have to use your filter design then because it is my plan to switch to LED lighting!
I'm going to be driving 24*1w diodes, but I'm going with all red(18) and blue(6). Do you think it is advantageous to mix in the white diodes compared to having no whites?

 

[sm0k4]

Well I may have to use your filter design then because it is my plan to switch to LED lighting!
I'm going to be driving 24*1w diodes, but I'm going with all red(18) and blue(6). Do you think it is advantageous to mix in the white diodes compared to having no whites?

You should be plenty fine then if you can fit 90mm or 120mm exhaust. I went shopping at a microcenter electronics store in the area to pick up my Filter kit. Then to Petco for the activated carbon pellets.

Here is the filter: http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0325054

They also sell the 80 and 90mm version.

It comes with two filter kits. I took one of the kits apart and stuffed a panty hose foot with carbon, then packed it in between the filter halves. I saved the second kit for a spare.

If your PC has a 90 or 120mm fan slot where your exhaust is, you are set. Use a larger fan, the 80mm kinda suck and I wish I could have went to at least 90mm. I didn't want to cut a bigger hole in my sheet metal though. Just stack two fans and put them both on the same controller. Dial it in until you have 80-85F at canopy if going LED. My plants thrive at that temp. I made two markings on my fan controller. One for lights off and one for lights on. Keeps circulation down at nights so my temps don't dip too low.

After sealing my door and other cracks to eliminate positive pressure from the circulation fan, I now have no odor, just started flowering. The AK-48 stinks in veg even, so this design should be put to the test soon since I just started flowering.

Using two stacked fans with the filter I linked to should work well with 1/2" of carbon. Low foot print also if you attach one fan on the outside of the grow area.

 

[sm0k4]

Well I may have to use your filter design then because it is my plan to switch to LED lighting!
I'm going to be driving 24*1w diodes, but I'm going with all red(18) and blue(6). Do you think it is advantageous to mix in the white diodes compared to having no whites?

White is there to pack a bigger punch. They emit most lumens per watt and I mainly like them for the added power. White bins are usually the most efficient.

They are a supplement source for green, yellow, and a little blue. They do help in flower by adding more photons and lumens. With diminishing returns of course.

SupraSPL used only red and white with success, but had some wicked stretch with no blue.

Successful DIY ratios recently have been 70% red, 15% blue, 15% white. That could change though, I am going to play with different combos in this cab. when I get my bigger cab built.

 

[KifThief]

Oh ok thanks that makes sense. How do you think it would compare having red white and blue compared to just red and blue?