THe sCientist's LED Grow + Setup & more...

[THesCientist]

Sorry about the delay. Had a family emergency...had to travel. All is mostly well now.

Panels are in, can you say 1,024+ solder connections? I can...

I'll post some pics when I get some of this cluster fuck worked out.

[linedrivr]

wow...do you really have to solder them? I would think they would come assembled....

either way, look forward to watching your grow.

good luck.

regards,
linedrivr

[THesCientist]

Here's the update!

The babies are coming along nicely. Moved them to the bubbler today!

The panels take about 5 hours per to solder. Not too big a deal...I only have 4. Wiring w/ PC power supply is...FLAWLESS.

I'm going to start the prototype led hood this weekend. I picked up the supplies. I'm goin with a light 3/8" wood frame and a fiberglass enclosure. I'm not going to make this one pretty, just functional.

Enjoy the pictures!

[THesCientist]

Suhweeet. 2 down, 2 to go...

Holy Brightness, w/fans. (pic1)

Light Focus on Ceiling...wow (pic2)



Good night...

[SmknVTEC]

Looks great man, nice thread. Best wishes with the grow. So you are not going to veg with the LED's then? Can you make some kind of hood for the panels? I think lots of light will be lost around the edges when there is no hood. I will be watching.

[THesCientist]

Originally Posted by SmknVTEC

...Can you make some kind of hood for the panels?...

Yeah I'm working on a hood now. It's mostly fiberglass, the panels are angled 10 degrees toward center. With the white walls and the angle there will be minimal loss...I think. Time will tell.

Good to see you around VTEC.

[SmknVTEC]

Hey buddy thanks and thanks for the link as well.
A fiberglass hood sounds bad-ass. Should be nice and light weight.
Keep us updated.

[Starvin]

Nice work TheScientist.

What is the approximate coverage for one of these DIY panels? I have limited space in my grow area and if this works well for flowering, it would be great for me to use T-5's until flowering and then switch over to LED's. Just curious, would you consider adding any blue light for flowering or is it not necessary at all? I know the UFO lights have both red and blue but according to the professor, just red should suffice for flowering.

I will definitely keep checking this thread. Also, thanks for showing how to jump the power supply. Can you also show how you wired the supply to the panel ?

[THesCientist]

Hey Starvin! Thanks for stopping in. I'd be glad to toss some pictures of the wiring up.

Coverage: I would suggest from what I see and read that 2 of these panels is a great start for one plant. The UFO has 2 colors so you can use it throughout the grow. All red is just what your child needs to blossom.

Update: I got all panels soldered, and mounted in a test board. I used a cork message board for now. It has the perfect dimensions that I need for my spot. If the spread works well, I'm going to use the canopy size for the fiberglass enclosure.

The kids are coming along nicely as well. I'll snap some pictures tomorrow.

Wooo! Stay tuned.

[THesCientist]

Finally; email back from the prof.

Originally Posted by Univ. of FL Prof

...Ideally you want your LEDs about 4-6" away from your plant. With a 2 panel/plant spread I wouldn't angle them too much. Try to focus the light about 5" out. You should be able to get 3 or 4 very healthy colas under that spread. It's vital that you watch the plant height with LEDs; Equal is the key. If you have any pictures, send them my way, I'll help where I can...

So far so good. I'm going to work on getting these things focused.

Plants are healthy, LED's are ready.

Wednesday 1/30 I start 12/12 with LED supplementation. Once they sex, the LED's will be the only light these beauties see until harvest.

I'll toss some pictures of the kids up later.

-tS

[THesCientist]

They are small...but between the family emergency and an id10t roommate they're lucky to be alive. They're coming back fast now, soil to hydro & proper nute levels and light time.


We'll see how they're lookin in 2 days...

[SmknVTEC]

Looking good. Keep it up.

[eleven357]

Right on man, I am very eager to see how this turns out.

[THesCientist]

Originally Posted by SmknVTEC

Looking good. Keep it up.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by eleven357

Right on man, I am very eager to see how this turns out.

Me too man, me too.



Thanks guys.

[THesCientist]

I added 108 watts of 5700k fury today! Ok, so it's not that cool, I just added 4 27w "daylight" CFL's to the mix.

After work I'm going to throw the PC power supply into the mix and start up some fans. Then get some dimensions for hanging the LED hood. I bought some small link chain and hooks, should go smoothly.

One can only hope.

-tS