I scavenged through my storage and found these guys. I need a proper garage again.. Measure twice, cut crooked anyways lol!!
@Steakbomb I’m sure it’s outlined in your journal, but how are you powering your three boards? Your build is a big influence on my own.
I’ve mentioned this in other posts, but I wanted to show it in pictures as well. Who the heck comes up with these power ratings? These are both from the same manufacturer. I understand these are 301B versus 561C chips, but come on... I’ll eat my words if I’m wrong, but if I was building lights, I would feel comfortable claiming 6000ma per board, with a 10,000 hour lifespan. Who uses lights that long? This is an exaggeration, but still, these are near bulletproof.
Hey @Nobueno714 I rewired my room for 220V yesterday... what a loooooong day of work that was! I am going to show it off for you as you may get some ideas from the junction boxes I am using. The little blue boxes are rated 80A junction boxes and they work great! My other four drivers are plugged in via the blue cord. I'm still waiting on a 30A fuse to have a master switch to turn on/off... no biggie.
I wired two boards up using mc4 connectors. I’m going to ditch the idea of a rigid mount for now. I may revisit it again at another time.
Hey could you give a brief explanation on how you wire these din timers to the drivers? I see they are connected through these other little boxes, what is their purpose?
The power lines (from the top) goes to (copper) ground, (white) live1, (black) live2. There is no neutral except for copper and that's just ground. The green/yellow terminal junctions are grounds, they contact the dim rails and metal support (and other grounds). The black and white live wires each go to a blue terminal box and either feed the dimmer switches (always on) or go directly to either A) 18/6 timer or B) 12/12 timer. The timer OUT lines then divides again to either black or white, which feed into each driver. The blue boxes are what I am recommending. They are cheap and have enough rails to supply 8 or so lines, and don't need to be fused. I may buy a couple more for the (white) timer side but I don't have too many lights off that side so I probably won't bother. These components are all dirt cheap and over-rated to +30 amps (80A for the blue boxes). Here's a sloppy (and unfinished) diagram to help explain: the fuse/switch is still coming. I also have a cool little 12V driver attached (in the top middle) to power some cool little diodes I am (still ) working on. ooo if I could redo the manufacturing... my hindsight is so crystal clear lately.
Thanks for this! I'm not sure I understand exactly the diagram, are the boxes marked DB the blue junction box you are talking about? and the 240/320 your drivers? Do the blue boxes just serve as a junction box/terminal block? Also just curious but why the need to power the dimmers, is that just that type of dimmer that needs power? Just curious because the dimmer pot i use doesnt require power. Again thanks for the detailed reply! Oh also do you have a link to those blue boxes or a name to search?
yes,yes,and yes yes, but my other drivers (not shown but are plugged in) have their own pots. The dimmers shown are for the 800 boards and are constantly powered. and as a matter of fact, you just reminded me that I did have a thread on this... Advice for 220V split phase wiring which I will update a lil later with this newer info. @Nobueno714 I did not mean to tread on your thread... I really just wanted to show you what I did. I like watching what you are doing and think you are doing good work.
Good work @trojangrower it took me a second to follow what was going on in your picture, but the diagram cleared that up. I’ve never seen anyone hardwire timers for a personal grow. Cool stuff! And by all means, keep sharing what you’re doing. I’m all about learning as much as I can, and vice versa. Thank you for the kind words
Update on the three plants in veg. It took them a minute to get growing again, but now they’re starting to take off. All of the new growth looks pretty healthy. They are a bit droopy since I missed a watering, but they’ll bounce back quick.
Update on my bloom tent. These were flipped 16 days ago. I think they are about finished stretching. I’ve had to dial the power down a bit to keep things in check. At full blast, the light is peaking way too high for the plants to handle.
I’m feeling accomplished tonight. I finished up the wiring harness and plugged in the second 4K board, in my veg tent. It took me a little bit of trial and error, but I’m happy with how it’s turning out. I am going to move some things around so I can position the lights better, but this is already a big upgrade on the spread. Cheers