DIY Cheapskate DIY LED Stealth grow

[SoggerMom]

Hello.

I am building my first stealth grow in a long time. Join me in my adventure of my DIY build!!


This is the cabinet I'm building. It was a long and skinny table, I framed it in with a solid bottom and walls.



Above it I have a 4 bulb T5 on a potted herb (Thyme! Fuck yeah!) and some house plants.

I have a hidden door panel in front.

 

[Waximus]

Nice work, Soggermom! What's your plan for strains?

 

[SoggerMom]

Since LEDs and Fans and micro processors are DC, I just installed a computer power supply for all my electrical needs. I also boxed in a weird type of carbon filter design (No idea if it works!)



Since this project is my first draft, nothing it truly polished.

the wires will be ran to a hand made control panel (once that is built).



Doing this is hard work! I drilled a large hole, then razor cut out the rest of the rectangular hole. ugh! I need to buy a thin saw blade!

My lights are home assembled and designed!

My first attempt was this thing here, 16 @ 1watt Cool White(5500-7000K) LED Beads



I built a Constant current driver circuit! I'm retarded at this stuff so I have no idea how it works, i have no multimeter, so I'm not sure what the actual current is on the c ircuit. DC 12v --LM317 --3.9hm resistor --> series of 4 beads (Forward Voltage: 3.2-3.4V
6. Forward Current: 300mA) (can anyone do the math? My brain doesn't work like that!!)

 

[SoggerMom]

Nice work, Soggermom! What's your plan for strains?

Blue Himalaya from Short Stuff Seeds!! I'm very excited!

 

[SoggerMom]

after I built my first driver circuit, I built 6 more. (so much easier!)


then I went to a second hand building material store (Fuck Yeah Cheap Stuff!!), because hardware stores are expensive for aluminium bars, and I bought some window screens for $2 each. I cut them into 12" sections, then bonded two of them together.


I used radioshack electrically conductive glue to attach them to the heatsink. This is a very aweful idea, but I'm super cheap and this is a prototype! I will buy Arctic brand thermal Epoxy for future builds. I also sanded and scratched the surfaces to be bonded, hoping it would give a tooth to the surface for the glue to stick. I think it will work good enough.

 

[Waximus]

This will be a fun journal I'm in! lol

 

[SoggerMom]

I used 5-1 thinned Gorilla glue to paint the walls, then attached a 'space blanket' to line the interior. I know now that this is a less effective reflective coating, but I think shiny looks cooler.

I think i didn't let it cure long enough, because it seemed to come off easily, so I bought Loctite spray adhesive general purpose, and used it. It was't a better idea. the film would not slide into place as it did with the thinned PVA glue. It also did not attach as well as I expected. The PVA glue cured and formed a strong bond. (doh!

)

Fuck it, it's a prototype that I'll probably give away anyway!

 

[SoggerMom]

This will be a fun journal I'm in! lol

Thanks! I've been having fun with this project for quite some time now. I started it a year ago, but it stalled as I had no space to work on it. But now that It's fucking LEGAL TO GROW MARIJUANA HERE!!!!!!!!! It spurred my desire to finish this.

 

[SoggerMom]

I must note that my 20 @ 1 watt 'daylight' LEDs will have 2 @ 10 watt (warm white) LEDs installed on the same frame, There will be switches to manually control each color, maybe even PWM to dim them separately.



I also built an acrylic tank for the bottom of the cabinet. I built it a very hard way and I have learned a better way! (I love the evolution of design!)

I cut the sheet to make a short sided box, then I used silicon adhesive to bond them together, drilled pilot holes, and then screwed them together to maximize the strength of the joint.



The way I would do it in the future is to cut the sides to fit the inside, then glue them in place against the walls while bonding the joints with silicon adhesive. So much easier, faster, cheaper! Such is the life of a first draft!

 

[Waximus]

If I may.. Did you DIY the circuit, or was it a found design?