Budwizer

Jusssus my bru! That’s looking crazy!!

This girl just turned week 6 so she’s legit. 
 

Black Domina

This build ends up costing me about the same as an HLG 550/650 kit, so not cheap. But I’ve got better cooling than those kits, so my boards should last a little longer. And when my boards are finished, I can just replace them.

Plus, there’s a lot of satisfaction making something yourself. 

Just now, CreX said:

beautiful man!! shit at 7 kilos you best not bang your noggin haha!!

 

Haha ya you don’t wanna walk into them. I’m still looking for a heatsink with a thinner base, but these things are hard to find in this country.

Thanks my dude

Yeah, the silver doesn’t look too bad. My first effort at building my own QBs.

Ive refined the wiring, and the hanging arrangement. Black releases heat faster than any other colour, so the new ones are a little more effective.

These boys are quite heavy with those  massive sinks. A little over 7kgs each. 

I don’t like having anything in the grow tent that doesn’t have to be there

The QBs are 480w total, split in two fixtures 

I mount the drivers on a board outside:

Can’t find the correct heatsink on RS now, but this is the closest:

https://za.rs-online.com/web/p/heatsinks/4907056/

The ones I used are 300 x 200 x 40

Nice going man

Yo John

What was your total dry yield in the end?

These are my DIY QB lights

I can run them full power with no issues. Quite expensive to build, but I like the reliability of passive cooling.

1 hour ago, John Stonedwell said:

What strains you have here man? They are looking crazy!!

First one is Northern Lights from a few years back

Second is a Blueberry I’m growing now- pic from my last harvest. That one dried to a 20 grammer

I’d do 150 for a day or two, see how it goes, then bump it up to 180. 35-40 cm should be cool. 

Yeah, I can already tell you: decent LED lights are as good or better than HPS. @Ill_Evan hit it on the head- there’s much more to bud density than just light. Sure, light is important, and good LEDs do the job just fine. Good genetics, good watering practices, correct nutrient strength, ph,  temps, humidity, airflow and on and on. 
You can have the best light in the world, but get one or two of these other things badly wrong, and you’re nowhere.

I’m also using those from lightitup. Doing an informal comparison between 600w HPS and 480w QBs.

Ill know in 2 weeks time, but it’s looking good for the QBs

Go with the first one from lightitup. I know the guy. You won’t get nearly as good customer service from those other guys. If something goes wrong, you’ll be sorted in days rather than weeks. The lights are pretty much the same thing.

Plus, that power meter comes in handy. All in all the lightitup one is by far the best value for money.

Yes, please post pics. 

Three wize men

On 6/6/2020 at 9:05 AM, Prom said:

If you have to heat.. I really recommend Gas.. gives you heat and CO2.. double benefit 

Problem is, you have to heat at lights out. You’ll be wasting CO2. Gas is also more expensive than electricity. And what about humidity? 
 

On 6/6/2020 at 7:05 PM, CreX said:

You could run it full on... But that's quite scary... 

But hooking it up to a thermo isn't so tricky... 

You just need the right solenoid that can open and close a Gas bottle, and an electric ignition source, hook the solenoid up to the thermo and boom.... 

As for the ignition and solenoid parts, you don't want to skimp on these in the least. 

Adding a gas sensor to close the solenoid if excess propane is leaked... 

Last thing you want is everything to go boom... 

This a pro idea. If you’re not a pro, don’t even think about DIYing it. If you can find a professionally built system, go for it.But know this: If something goes wrong, you can blow up your house, or asphyxiate everyone in the house.
Don’t mess around with this. 

A variable resistor will set your house on fire. You need a variable transformer aka variac (expensive) or a triac based dimmer.

Why not blow through the area. Put the fan on the intake. Pressurise the room. Negative pressure in the room will suck dust and stuff into the room. Put a filter on your intake.

I run a positive pressure tent as a veg room. Walls push out, so gives me more space. The walls don’t suck in onto my plants. I’m not worried about smell.

Here’s how you do it:

Build a plywood box and make drawers for it. The drawers don’t have bottoms. Buy filter elements and put them in the drawers. Easy to clean.

Buy a small 600w box heater at Clicks and the STC 1000 thermostat from GT or Hydroponic. Hang the box heater from the roof of your tent. Wire your intake and exhaust to the cooling side of the STC 1000 and the heater to the heating side. Cover the red light on the heater or open the heater and cut the lights wires. Tape the protection switch on the underside of the heater down.
 

My extraction sucks through my lights, and out into the ceiling. Filtered intake is ducted from another room.

The thermostat oscillates between heating and cooling constantly, so I get fresh air all the time, and humidity stays in check.

https://clicks.co.za/safeway_mini-fan-heater/p/232396
 

The level of growers on this forum has come a long way in the last few years. Well done dudes