54w DIY LED Stealth PC Grow - Bag Seed

Discussion in 'Micro Grows' started by IAmTheManiac, Apr 14, 2012.

  1. I have nothing better to do so I built a small pc grow box using a custom made LED Panel 54w. The space is tight but I can manage. Building the LED Panel was fairly easy, I used an aluminum sheet 6"x12" I think 1mm thick. For the LED's I mounted them using arctic silver adhesive glue which created an amazing stick and has great thermal properties. Then for the heat I put a few 8mm thick heat sinks not huge ones on the top then put a 120mm fan on top of those heat sinks which runs at around 800rpm @ 18db(from 1 feet away). Inside the box the temps go from 22 degrees (at the bottom) to about 24 degrees 2" from the led and 27 degrees right on the led panel. Led's are amazing compared to CFL's, with CFL's I had to use loud noisy fans to keep my temps low but with LED's I use ultra silent 1000rpm @ 18db(from 1 feet away). As soon as the plant is ready I plan to take a few clones (hopefully if its female) for outdoors guerrilla then I'll start flowering. If I make use of my space properly I hopefully can yield around 15 grams. If I yield 15+ grams I plan to make a wooden grow box and use the 54w LED I made for it and possibly make a 30w extra panel.

    If you guys have any questions or suggestions feel free to let me know
     

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  2. looking very good. are those leds good for flowering too?
     

  3. Yes the combination is great for both veg and flowering. Though I shouldve gotten 14 reds 4 blues instead but it still works perfectly.
     
  4. good luck. sub'd
     
  5. End Of Day 2 from Sprout

    Does this look like slow growth. I am using a 18/6 light schedule
     

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  6. nah they are chuggin right along at a normal pace.
     
  7. #7 IAmTheManiac, Apr 15, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 17, 2012

    End of day 3

    I had a root coming out of the drain hole is this fine? I rewatered the plant cause the top was getting dry about 2cm deep. The heat inside the box is about 26. Can't wait for my fan controller so I can stop running these fans at 5v
     

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  8. #8 zereshk, Apr 15, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 15, 2012
    I have the same fan guards as you but I can't mount the damn things. Since I mounted my fans to wood I have to run the screws opposite of each other and can't screw them in at all. Do you think some kind of adhesive would be smart? or should I just gorilla tape them together or something.\

    EDIT: How did you get the LEDS? Was it relatively simple to set up the whole fixture? If its cheap/easy I could potentially swap out my CFLs for LED. I'm having a bit of a temperature problem and wouldn't mind the light upgrade.
     
  9. sub'd, this grow looks very interesting and i am interested in the LED's and how you went about wiring and all that
    and im also interested in your temp control, you mentioned a heat sink?
     
  10. #10 IAmTheManiac, Apr 16, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 16, 2012

    Adhesive or tape would work but it wouldn't be as effective. Try finding a thinner screw driver and screw them from the other side.

    Ultimately it'll cost you around 50-65 depending on the discount and such. Its fairly easy to build the panel it took me about 1 1/2 hours to build (but I screwed up my wiring a couple of times so it was my fault it took long.



    I stuck on a few heatsinks on the back not huge ones just enough so I can keep the 120mm fan with it having about 1cm of breathing room from the panel to the fan.

    Its fairly easy with soldering. The solder used on the led stars are industrial solder which has a high melting point so all you do is put some solder on the tip of the wire and then put some solder on the joint on the panel and then put them together tap the tip of the solder iron on the joint and it will stick if. You might just have to put a little more solder ontop of it just to ensure its stable



    END Of Day 4 of sprout. its growing fairly quickly. I expect to see it pretty tall in the next 3 days.
     

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  11. nice looking build you got going there, 54w of led this should be a good yield! I seen lots of led grows an they always come out nice. Like zereshk i wouldnt mind building a led panel could you explain how to go about or do you have a good link for it. anyways im subbed for the grow
     
  12. I figured it out myself. If you ever took a tech class (Computer engineering, Design Tech, etc) in High School you should have a little knowledge.

    What you will need is:
    1) Heatsink
    2) LED Driver (I use a 10-18 led driver I bought on ebay)
    3) Your Led's preferably 3w LEDs (go on ebay and you can get a discount if you buy the LED Driver from the same user just message them and check for the cheapest led and bargain with people. I got my leds + driver for only $40 which is fairly cheap and the led's are pretty damn good, I would say compared to an equivalent cree there about 10% less powerful)
    4) Solder Iron
    5) Solder
    6) An Adhesive Glue
    7) Some Wires about .5m
    8) A spare power outlet cable (like a power supply cable)
    9) A wire cutter

    You first start by mounting your leds onto the heatsink using the adhesive glue making sure the first row is negative - positive
    second row positive negative
    third row negative positive
    so on

    Then start striping wires according to the distance between the led's and solder the positives to the negative. For the ending points the starting negative led and ending positive solder a longer wire to it.

    Now get your led driver, it should have come with a positive negative plug remove that from the led and solder the positive wire to the positive long wire and the negative wire to the negative long wire.

    Now on the driver theres a blue or white or black and white cable on, its indicated on the driver that one side is neutral and the other is hot. There's not ground cause the driver doesn't really cause any electricity to flow around it. Grab that spare outlet wire and cut the middle then use your wire cutter to split the ends so you can connect the neutral and hot cable to the driver, you can solder these on.

    Now plug in your driver to the led panel and plug it in. Make sure you have the negative and positive correct so you don't short something (very unlikely but still can happen)

    I'll probably post a better tutorial if I plan to make a new panel
     
  13. I was wondering if using something akin to bungie cord for hanging fans would minimized noise due to vibration; just a thought.
     
  14. [quote name='"IAmTheManiac"']

    I figured it out myself. If you ever took a tech class (Computer engineering, Design Tech, etc) in High School you should have a little knowledge.

    What you will need is:
    1) Heatsink
    2) LED Driver (I use a 10-18 led driver I bought on ebay)
    3) Your Led's preferably 3w LEDs (go on ebay and you can get a discount if you buy the LED Driver from the same user just message them and check for the cheapest led and bargain with people. I got my leds + driver for only $40 which is fairly cheap and the led's are pretty damn good, I would say compared to an equivalent cree there about 10% less powerful)
    4) Solder Iron
    5) Solder
    6) An Adhesive Glue
    7) Some Wires about .5m
    8) A spare power outlet cable (like a power supply cable)
    9) A wire cutter

    You first start by mounting your leds onto the heatsink using the adhesive glue making sure the first row is negative - positive
    second row positive negative
    third row negative positive
    so on

    Then start striping wires according to the distance between the led's and solder the positives to the negative. For the ending points the starting negative led and ending positive solder a longer wire to it.

    Now get your led driver, it should have come with a positive negative plug remove that from the led and solder the positive wire to the positive long wire and the negative wire to the negative long wire.

    Now on the driver theres a blue or white or black and white cable on, its indicated on the driver that one side is neutral and the other is hot. There's not ground cause the driver doesn't really cause any electricity to flow around it. Grab that spare outlet wire and cut the middle then use your wire cutter to split the ends so you can connect the neutral and hot cable to the driver, you can solder these on.

    Now plug in your driver to the led panel and plug it in. Make sure you have the negative and positive correct so you don't short something (very unlikely but still can happen)

    I'll probably post a better tutorial if I plan to make a new panel[/quote]

    Excellent tutorial!
    It just so happens I have all the tools just missing the LEDs and a big enough heatsink.

    I'm going to start shopping around for 3w(?) LEDs and a controller.

    Thanks so much for this! When I start building it I'll take pictures an show you how it turned out. XD
     

  15. great :-D just make sure you find a nice spectrum. I recommend 14 660nm 4 455nm but its your decision. Look at other LED panels that have high ratings and that will help you decide.


    Its fairly silent the only time you can hear it is if your 1-3 feet away and my closet door is opened and even that then its fairly silent.
     
  16. End Of Day 5 - The second set of leaves are sprouting :D
     

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  17. please do not do like many others and leave us hanging 1/4 of the way through the grow because i cannot wait to see how this turns out.
     
  18. I wont unless something goes massively wrong.


    Gave a crappy photo for the end of day 5 so here's a start of day 6 photo :-D the second set of leaves grew during that 6 hour rest (y)
     

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  19. Ordering my LEDs tomorrow! Looks like I'm pretty much on par with your grow so I'm interested to see how yours goes compared to my CFLs until I get my rig going.
     

  20. End of day 6 - Theres a root coming out of the bottom of my pot, it looks like its fuzzy I don't know what it is. I attached a pic. I hope its not rotten. Do you think its the plant's tap root? Should I cut it off or should I put a hydrogen peroxide water mix on it? I don't know if you can see it but in the middle of the the new leaves smaller leaves are coming out I think they are the side leaves for the new growth. This plant is growing pretty quickly hopefully they veg fast so I can start flowering :D
     

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