Grow Room PC Case Micro ScrOG - LED Based Nano Stealth Grow!

[icanelectoo]

You mean you don't have an automatically generated update camera in there? I feel a project coming on. Lol

Sent from my comfy chair.
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It's certainly something I've thought about!

The controller unit as-is doesn't have a Wifi controller onboard, but that's something I'll definitely implement when I redesign it. I also haven't looked at any small camera modules, but if you have any suggestions I'm all ears!

 

[icanelectoo]

I'll follow along man - that's even smaller than mine!

Rupert is a boy's name though

Interesting choice on the lights - longer term I want to use some similar diodes to add some red/blue to my spectrum in my PC case but I've been a bit concerned with how close you can get a plant to grow up towards diodes putting out ~2W each without burn so it'll be good to see how it works out for you.

Hey @thelastrebel , I'm just seeing this now! Did you just assume my plant's gender-identity??? (just kidding :smoking She's my first plant, so I actually decided to name her after my favorite cat

These LEDs are special, you'll probably never see them on a commercial LED board like the ones on Amazon, as they are very expensive compared to those mass-produced LEDs (notice I said compared - they are still only on the order of $1 - $2 each ). Not only are they more efficient and way more reliable, but they also have a very wide viewing angle - I think it's around 115 degrees. In other words, the light is more spread out and the LEDs are less likely to damage the leaves below them - I'm not sure how that compares to the LEDs on other commercial boards, though. I'll keep yah posted, and we'll see how she turns out! So far she's only about 7 or 8 inches below the LEDs, and she's looking good so far

 

[thelastrebel]

Hey @thelastrebel , I'm just seeing this now! Did you just assume my plant's gender-identity??? (just kidding :smoking She's my first plant, so I actually decided to name her after my favorite cat

These LEDs are special, you'll probably never see them on a commercial LED board like the ones on Amazon, as they are very expensive compared to those mass-produced LEDs (notice I said compared - they are still only on the order of $1 - $2 each ). Not only are they more efficient and way more reliable, but they also have a very wide viewing angle - I think it's around 115 degrees. In other words, the light is more spread out and the LEDs are less likely to damage the leaves below them - I'm not sure how that compares to the LEDs on other commercial boards, though. I'll keep yah posted, and we'll see how she turns out! So far she's only about 7 or 8 inches below the LEDs, and she's looking good so far

I think things like the ChilLED boards use Xlamp diodes don't they? I don't doubt the component quality at all, the only reason I personally went with a mid power solution (samsung strips built with LM301B diodes) was to spread the light output out further and to eliminate 'hotspots' as far as possible.

Since there's very few growers who use bang up to date tech and like their plants to grow right up to a hair's breadth away from the lights there's not a lot of practical evidence to show what works and what doesn't in that regard, so it's always good to see people experimenting with different options

 

[icanelectoo]

I think things like the ChilLED boards use Xlamp diodes don't they? I don't doubt the component quality at all, the only reason I personally went with a mid power solution (samsung strips built with LM301B diodes) was to spread the light output out further and to eliminate 'hotspots' as far as possible.

Since there's very few growers who use bang up to date tech and like their plants to grow right up to a hair's breadth away from the lights there's not a lot of practical evidence to show what works and what doesn't in that regard, so it's always good to see people experimenting with different options

Hey @thelastrebel I'll have to look into that! One thing I will definitely be doing in the future - the line of LED drivers I'm using for this system have a PWM controlled dimming option, so I could possibly reduce the current being supplied to the LEDs as the plants grow towards the top of the enclosure. I'll at least be adding that capability to my controller board in the next iteration.

Edit: I just checked out those LED boards and it looks like they get their supplies from RapidLED, I've worked with companies who work with them and they seem like an excellent company! It breaks my heart that it costs so much to get things shipped from them here to Canada

I've almost bought a big ol' set of those circular heatsinks so many times, but I could never bring myself to hit that last button!

 

[thelastrebel]

Hey @thelastrebel I'll have to look into that! One thing I will definitely be doing in the future - the line of LED drivers I'm using for this system have a PWM controlled dimming option, so I could possibly reduce the current being supplied to the LEDs as the plants grow towards the top of the enclosure. I'll at least be adding that capability to my controller board in the next iteration.

Edit: I just checked out those LED boards and it looks like they get their supplies from RapidLED, I've worked with companies who work with them and they seem like an excellent company! It breaks my heart that it costs so much to get things shipped from them here to Canada

I've almost bought a big ol' set of those circular heatsinks so many times, but I could never bring myself to hit that last button!

The pwm dimming is a really interesting option - I just use a pot to dim mine, which is fine as long as you only want to adjust every so often, but a pwm controller opens up all kinds of options - for instance if you have a red circuit you could boost that in the last 15 minutes while dimming everything else down, or you could gradually move the brightness from a left circuit to a right circuit to roughly simulate the sun moving across the sky - or if you want to dim relative to case temperature as well. Yeah, that would be a cool thing to play about with.

 

[icanelectoo]

The pwm dimming is a really interesting option - I just use a pot to dim mine, which is fine as long as you only want to adjust every so often, but a pwm controller opens up all kinds of options - for instance if you have a red circuit you could boost that in the last 15 minutes while dimming everything else down, or you could gradually move the brightness from a left circuit to a right circuit to roughly simulate the sun moving across the sky - or if you want to dim relative to case temperature as well. Yeah, that would be a cool thing to play about with.

It's funny that you mention that! I had actually planned on building an LED board with independently controlled blue and red strings when I first started this project, but decided to wait until I could comfortably afford to get some aluminum PCBs manufactured. That'll come in the future for sure!

 

[thelastrebel]

It's funny that you mention that! I had actually planned on building an LED board with independently controlled blue and red strings when I first started this project, but decided to wait until I could comfortably afford to get some aluminum PCBs manufactured. That'll come in the future for sure!

Yeah definitely, half the fun of DIY lighting builds is that you can always chop and change at a later date.

As a medium-budget option I've considered working with something like the strip PCBs below for my single colour diodes and have different strips set up for veg/flower which would be nice and easy to switch out in one go. Or what I might do for even more flexibility is to use something like the solderless stars below that would fit in rows of 10 along the heatsink strips I'm using for my Sammies, then I could potentially wire a different driver for each colour, or anything else really.

EDIT - question for you actually, do you know how low you can reliably run the Xlamps in terms of current?

 

[Baphomatt]

Heck yes, I'm following this!!! Are you kidding? My friend, if this is successful you should get an award! In fact, I'm new to the forums and not real sure what "Reputation" is, so I haven't used it. But I assume it's more than "Like?"

Anyway - you're getting some just for out of the box...(or rather "in the box") thinking!

 

[icanelectoo]

Yeah definitely, half the fun of DIY lighting builds is that you can always chop and change at a later date.

As a medium-budget option I've considered working with something like the strip PCBs below for my single colour diodes and have different strips set up for veg/flower which would be nice and easy to switch out in one go. Or what I might do for even more flexibility is to use something like the solderless stars below that would fit in rows of 10 along the heatsink strips I'm using for my Sammies, then I could potentially wire a different driver for each colour, or anything else really.

EDIT - question for you actually, do you know how low you can reliably run the Xlamps in terms of current?

View attachment 953195 View attachment 953198

Yeah! Each LED will have it's own max current rating (if you're selecting LEDs of different colors from the same product line, try to choose ones with the same max current rating) - you need to make sure that the LED driver you chose will never exceed the maximum rating of any LED in your string. The datasheet for the LEDs will show you the voltage drops for each LED color at different currents. Here's a snippet from the XP-E line:

Most LED drivers will have a voltage region over which you can supply the rated current of that driver, so an example would be Meanwell's IDLC-25-700, which supplies 700mA of current if the LED string's cumulative operating voltage is between 24V to 36V, so you need to either select your LEDs so that the string is within that voltage range or select a different driver (you also wouldn't be able to select the amber LED from this datasheet, for example, because the current driver will supply 700mA, which exceeds the amber LEDs max forward current - however, you could have two identical strings in parallel, which would have the same overall voltage, but would split the current through each string in half). In short, design your LED configuration however you want, then find out what current you need to drive the string at without blowing any LEDs up, then count up each LED and find the voltage drop over the LED string as a whole, then select your current driver to supply your desired current within the voltage range of your led strings.

I'm sure that's confusing if you haven't done this before, I might do a video on designing LED strings from scratch in the near future.

 

[icanelectoo]

Heck yes, I'm following this!!! Are you kidding? My friend, if this is successful you should get an award! In fact, I'm new to the forums and not real sure what "Reputation" is, so I haven't used it. But I assume it's more than "Like?"

Anyway - you're getting some just for out of the box...(or rather "in the box") thinking!

Thanks Brother! I don't know what it is either but it sounds good, so I appreciate it!