Calling out to Weezard for LED advice

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Originally Posted by DreadedHermie

What are the dimmers doing in the circuit now? Is there a voltage drop across them at wide open? I can't believe 6 ft. of 16ga would drop the voltage that much. I will pretty much have to take yer word for it, though, since I dropped my freakin' Fluke! :mad:

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They drop from 11.3V to 10.8. 'bout a half a volt when full-on.
The wire drops .7V from 12 to 11.3.
Might have to use the dimmers to tone it down.
It's still throwing off a lot of heat. Room is hittin' 95. F.
Gonna turn it down to 1 amp at about 10.5 or 10.6 V.
That's still 100Watts of 660 and 30 watts of 460nm.
At least until the new fans arrive.
Was actually building it to raise 2 new super bean seedlings.
But the last three beans I popped threw balls on the flop.
Need any pollen?

Must be a newer Fluke, yah?.
Dropping don't bother the old ones.
Got two that I've used since the '70s
Rode 'em hard, put 'em away wet.

That's back when John D. Fluke made them for the love of it.
Interesting story.
Mr. Fluke was not getting rich producing fine, almost unbreakable meters.
He got talked into hiring a pair of "business consultants"
to find out what was "wrong" with his company
In short, they concluded that he, John D., was the problem:wtf:.

Made the product too damn good and too damn durable.
Kicked him out, took over the business, made a profit.
Also made meters, sort of.:(
It's just never been the same.

See if ya can't find a used, old one on ebay.

Oh, and it's your move.

Aloha,
Weeze

Took some in-service snaps;
[attachment=o216605]

Not wild about my cooling solution, it spews the heat into the room. I had wanted to use dryer type flex hose to remove the heat.
Hmmmm.
Perhaps now that the fan is closer to the sink, I can try flipping the fan over, (It's got built-in polarity protection),
and cutting some notches in the 4 outer fins to let them join the party, I can go back to my "suck the heat out" scheme.

Got 2 more fan options coming in the mail.
So, guess it's time to wait again.

I no like to wait.
Wee Zard

Weezard, you've not mentioned exchanging air in the grow space, and what all you've got generating heat in there.

If you've still got your transformers/drivers in there it's one thing, but my 6+2 light seems very cool running. Granted, it will heat up a sealed closet in an hour or less, but so can a fan motor. I'm just spewing the heat into the grow area, where it is quickly exhausted thru a scrubber. The downside is that heat gets dumped into my living environment; no way around that. But it's very manageable.

I mounted my fans flush against the fins, copying the Procyon. Ryan has his fan pulling air thru the fins and up away from the unit. I copied that, too. Works really well.

I would think a good 92mm fan, mounted to the fins and firing through a 6" dryer duct to the outside would cool that thang. But, much I don't know about the setup.

(New topic) :stoned:

I know it's early on, but have you made any observations/conclusions about the 10:2 ratio? (I'm thinking at this moment, "Hmm....maybe I won't add those 4 reds to my light if it's causing Weezard heat problems...) I won't have a chance to work on a light for a few weeks, but the window on acquiring parts may be closing soon. ;)

How was the 4:1 ratio in your cakepanlamp? When I read "My next lamp will have 2 blues" I took that to mean you were looking for a bluer ratio than 4:1. But I'm thinking an 8:2 light might suit me for flower. Have you determined if 10:2 is overkill with the reds? (As the French say; "One never knows what is 'enough' until one knows what is 'too much.'") (Naturally, they they say that in French...):D

Gotta go. I'm following along, though. Busy, busy. Could be worse. :thumbsup:

I wanted to ask, because I know you were a dirt guy at one time. Ya know how perlite dances around in a bag that's got a 'static' charge on it?

Is there a way to create a "perlite magnet" using a coil around a glass rod or a piece of amber or suppin' like that? Disposing of dirt is easy. Disposing of dirt with perlite...can raise eyebrows. Besides, it would be fiscally and environmentally sound to recycle the dang stuff, anyway. What do you think?

Good to chat, Hermie.

I would think a good 92mm fan, mounted to the fins and firing through a 6" dryer duct to the outside would cool that thang. But, much I don't know about the setup. "

And that was my plan, with a 150mm. fan.
But from 2 1/2 inches above the fins, even with reflectix routing, it was inadequate.
Had to flip it over to run the burn-in safely.

Now that "Reddy Kilowatt" is through larking about, I'm ready to try to do it right and port the heat outside.
I can afford to allow some escape of fragrance 'cause my neighbor is growing 30 plants outdoors.

"I won't have a chance to work on a light for a few weeks, but the window on acquiring parts may be closing soon. ;)"

Not for the blues. And a mix of 660nm. and 625 nm. just might be a good thing.

"How was the 4:1 ratio in your cakepanlamp?"

There was a little stretching of the top buds.
Happened after the pre-flower stretch of the stem.
Started to look like this;
[attachment=o216777]
Then in the last 2 weeks, did this;
[attachment=o216776]

"When I read "My next lamp will have 2 blues" I took that to mean you were looking for a bluer ratio than 4:1. But I'm thinking an 8:2 light might suit me for flower. Have you determined if 10:2 is overkill with the reds? (As the French say; "One never knows what is 'enough' until one knows what is 'too much.'") (Naturally, they say that in French...):D"

Mais Weeze mon frere.

That's the plan.
However, 8:2, 10:2, etc.
Are just numbers without a ton of details.
Blue leds are less efficient than reds, different bins = different characteristics within a color, etc.

To get a true ratio, we have to use KNNA numbers.:D

Since I'm unsure what is best, right from the git, I'm unwilling to make that kine effort.
If I ever descend into "micromole land," I may not return.
Math is seductive, it can own you.
At the least, very little practical magic would get done.:i feel stupid:

I changed the plan from a dimmer on the blue, to two dimmers for the reds.
Then did an overkill on the number of reds.
I know that 30W of blue will do a great veg .with little or no stretch. So I can add red with the dimmers to try to find the ideal ratio for vegging.
Then I can add more red to the ratio for blooming to look for the best ratio there.
I only ran the reds flat-out for the smoke test/burn-in.
But, if it turns out to need full-on red, it's still got to run cool.
That's why I'm STILL waiting for fans to arrive before I chop any more holes in floor and ceilings.:(

Havin' fun though,
Weeze

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DreadedHermie

I wanted to ask, because I know you were a dirt guy at one time. Ya know how perlite dances around in a bag that's got a 'static' charge on it?

Is there a way to create a "perlite magnet" using a coil around a glass rod or a piece of amber or suppin' like that? Disposing of dirt is easy. Disposing of dirt with perlite...can raise eyebrows. Besides, it would be fiscally and environmentally sound to recycle the dang stuff, anyway. What do you think?

Good to chat, Hermie.

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That's something to think about.
Let's do dat.
It's very light weight.

You could make a great "static magnet" by rubbing a balloon in your hair.
I'm pretty sure it would attract dry soil particles as well.:(

You could use the wind to try to "winnow" it to a tarp.
Needs choke room though and the wind will have it's little jokes.;)

I'm geussing that the most practical would be to dissolve the dirt in an overabundance of water. Perlite will float to the top for skimming.
Could be stuffed into mesh bags for cleaning and re-use.
Not sure that re-use is a good idea but it is also compressible. So...
Could be rammed into soup cans and tossed with the garbage.

I still use some soil, well, coco, but have not required perlite so far.

Gotta run, but I'll give this some thought.

Aloha,
Wee Zard

Just learned something over at IC.
Guy was asking folks what the current use was in their knockoff UFOs.
His is drawing .25A which is about 30Watts!
I bought a UFO knockoff for $220 USD from da bay .
Just hung a meter on it.
It's drawing .65A or about 71Watts.
Hmmm. there are several layers of being ripped off.
I got lucky this time.

While I was metering I checked my new monster light.
With the reds at about 3/4 up, I draw 190W.
Flat out, it eats 250W!
And theres a lousy power factor, (V x A & Watts don't match), thanks to the fan and cheap power supply.

Off to the market. Jiggity jig.
Weezard

Hypothetically, let's say I have 12 - 15W. leds and want to run them at 10.8V. which (because they are perfectly matched, hypothetically) will make each of them pull 1.2A each.

That would be a total load of ~14.4 amps.

Will a Mastech 3010 drive a load like that?

I know it only goes up to 30V.; tried it. So, I assumed it would only "go up to" 10A. :i feel stupid: But at a lower (like 10V.) voltage will it put out up to ~30A?

I don't have a 10 to 12 V. dummy load (or do I?) that'll take 14A (and survive :D) to test this. Weezard, I noticed in one of your burn-in photos the Mastech was running at 10.6A (thought I was seeing double :stoned:). How much higher will these things safely go? Could I drive a dozen well-matched hi-power leds at <12V. with one?

Watching your progress intently, Hermie.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DreadedHermie

Hypothetically, let's say I have 12 - 15W. leds and want to run them at 10.8V. which (because they are perfectly matched, hypothetically) will make each of them pull 1.2A each.

That would be a total load of ~14.4 amps.

Will a Mastech 3010 drive a load like that?

I know it only goes up to 30V.; tried it. So, I assumed it would only "go up to" 10A. :i feel stupid: But at a lower (like 10V.) voltage will it put out up to ~30A?

I don't have a 10 to 12 V. dummy load (or do I?) that'll take 14A (and survive :D) to test this. Weezard, I noticed in one of your burn-in photos the Mastech was running at 10.6A (thought I was seeing double :stoned:). How much higher will these things safely go? Could I drive a dozen well-matched hi-power leds at <12V. with one?

Watching your progress intently, Hermie.

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In other words, Frayed knot.:(

10.6 A. is just about max for da Mastech 3010 at any voltage.
Put a clone in to preflower streatch and as soon as it started "reaching"
I turned the reds down from 5:1 to about 2:1 and the stretch stopped.
I would think that lower light overall would increase stretch?

So, it looks like it will be easy to control internode distance with this design by playing with the R:B ratio.
Got some more fans today and some 6" dryer hose.

Be back tomorrow.
Weeze

Bumpity bump!

Just had to pull those dimmers and stick 'em where the sun don't shine.
Under the shroud that is.
[attachment=o217083]
Flipped the fan over and mounted it in a reducer.
[attachment=o217084]
I'll mount the dials on the shroud and calibrate them with the Lux meter.
Been running cool for an hour, outdoors with a breeze.
It's quieter now, looks better too.
[attachment=o217085]
Also have a new fan for the power supply.
That pup runs hot!
Cheap is as cheap does.:(
Things get sold on E-bay for a reason,yah?:smokin:

Might replace it with a nice quiet, cool running computer supply next time I find my round tuit.

Das ist alles.
I'm pau for the day.
Don't mind workin'
But I'd much rather play.:cool::jointsmile:

Aloha, y'all

Weeze