Bongsauce's micro cabs and stuff. (help thread)

I ordered another quantumboard from HLG. A 288 3500K board. They were all out of kits and slate2 heatsinks, so I just ordered the board solo. I have a driver on the way....an HLG-120H-54A .

I decided to just retrofit the panel to my old mars2 heatsink. A bunch of the leds were burnt out on the mars2 so I just junked what was left of the leds and pulled the heatsink out. I saved the (8?) drivers but I don't really plan on using them since they are such low quality and low efficiency.


The mars2 heatsink is a pretty good fit. A little wide on all sides but that's fine, it will help to dissipate the heat. The heatsink is actually a piece of aluminum with the 2 heatsinks thermalpasted and screwed into it. I was able to loosen a middle screw and slot the center notch under it. So I only had to drill and tap 2 holes. The 3 points of contact should be fine...actually I'll go back and put some loctite on the screws to be safe.

Just waitin a few more days on the driver then it will be mounted next to my other quantum board. It will replace about 9 x 12w led bulbs. I'll probably run it at about 80-100w to cover a 18"x22" area.

 

hi man. I assume your talking about bulenath's tutorial with the carbon tray. Yeh I think it will work. Make sure not to restrict the airflow on either the intake or exhaust side and you should be good. If you restrict the airflow on either side, the whisper fan will sort of 'gear up' to account for the change in resistance and get a little louder. Might want to make the surface area of the filter as large as you can.

Make sure to get the right model as well.There's a ton of them out there and afaik there's only 3 models that are 0.3sone . For reference here's the model numbers. 80cfm is #FV-08VQ5, 110cfm is #FV-11VQ5, 150cfm is #FV-15VQ5.

 

uhoh math stuff inc.

First, let's compare the size of your intake to your exhaust. A standard rule is - the (passive) intake should be 2x the size of the exhaust so you don't restrict airflow. 120mm fan as exhaust equals- 120x120= 14400squareMM exhaust. a 3/4" hole equals ~283.5²mm of surface area(roughly). 253.5 x 8(holes)=2028. So adding the 120mm intake to the 8x 3/4" holes (14400²mm) you still only have (roughly) 16428²mm intake. Which leaves you (about40%?)short of the recommend 2x intake size(28800²mm).

So if all that made sense, first thing I would do is open up the intake a bit. Probably adding about 10000²mm(16square inches) to the size of the intake area. Take before and after temperature measurements and see how much that helps you temps. If that's not enough, I would just add a secondary 120mm exhaust fan and continue to open up the intake area till you lower the temps enough. That new intake(if necessary) can either be passive or you can add a 120mm intake fan...just make sure it's all balanced(meaning 2x intake size compared to exhaust size.

surface area on circles can be deceiving. Ten x 1 inch holes does not equal a 10 inch hole....not even close. That's why all my intakes are square! easier maths lol!

 

your english is great.
it kinda sucks sometimes that lighting technology is moving so fast, it's hard to keep up! ...all that research on cobs, and now quantum boards appear and they are better and cheaper. I did my cob research too, but moving forward I plan on sticking with quantum boards.

If it's in a pc case, a 3000k quantum board would be a great fit. They are 6.833" x 11.25. The quantum boards have same or better efficiency as high bin cobs. The QBs spread the light far better though, this makes a huge difference in micro grows...the plants don't have to fight for light because light is everywhere. You could probably run it at about 25-30w and have fantastic results. Running it that low would also save you money on a driver because lower powered ones are quite a bit cheaper. Too bad you pc case isn't a little bit wider because there is a new quantumboard out that would work great but it's a little too wide at 9.5" x 11".

Running a quantum board at about 30w or less would require no heatsink as well..so there's added savings and more headroom (which is super important in a small grow). I think in a pc case about 30w would be the max you would need for power. I'm not sure about driver specs because I've only bought QB kits..but I'd be happy to help you figure out which driver to get to save a little money. A ~150w driver that comes with the kit runs about $65usd...I'd guess you could find a lower wattage driver(20w-30w) for about $25.

I also have a pair of 9"w x 12"d speakerboxes that each have a cxb3590 @28w. They work good but the single point of light forces the plants to crowd around it. If the boxes were just an inch wider I would switch to QBs for sure.

 

sorry I missed you @SaHt420 , I hope you got it figured out. I recommend a large strong magnet to pull the door closed and create a tight seal. I used a harddrive magnet.

 

hell yeh everything's still going strong. \o/

 

here's a few shots of some GDP x blueberry. I love the contrast in colors. Btw, GDP genetics [at least mine] are very dominant for structure, smell and color. Everytime I've crossed it, it ends up looking like the mother plant.
The 4th pic is some blueberry from seedsman that I'm not too happy with. Weak smell, nothing like blueberry. 1 of the 3 fem seeds went autoflower as well. Also one started showing bananas so I threw it in my small speakerbox to contain it. I plucked a few nanners off and it dosen't seem to be popping more...but I doubt I'll keep these phenos or try this strain again.

 

Hi man I hope all is well. I think you would get plenty of air exchange in a normal sized room to get enough fresh air to the plants. Pay attention to temps though, the room mightn ot hadle the heat if it doesn't have a source for fresh air. The smell might not be 100% stealth though if you are recirculating into the room.

If I had better access to clones I would constantly be running new clones and search for a gem that you like to smoke and does well in your system. Then you can just reveg it or stick to picking up that particular clone if there is a reliable supply.

For stealth fans I like the panasonic whisper bathroom fans(I've ordered mine from homedepot or lowe's). They have a few 0.3 sone models that work great...I think they are 80, 110 and 150cfm. Make sure you're getting the 0.3 sone models though, not all panasonic 'whisperline' fans are created equal. From there I would attach an oversized filter (~ 6"x24")to it. Those fans are 10"x10" square duct on the intake and 4" or 6" duct on the exhaust depending on model. So plan ahead accordingly if you need to convert the square intake to a round one, and they also 'turn' the air 90degrees....as opposed to a vortex or booster fan that will shoot the air straight through.

Those light proof vents are still the best way to go imo. They are called 'scrublouvers' if you need to search how to make them. I think I did a small tutorial on how I build them as well with clear corner angle pieces, gorilla glue and weather stripping for spacers, then I frame them out with some strips of wood and some caulking.