2023 "Field of Dreams"

Dirt_Wizard · November 17, 2023, 1:14am

How about these? Just under 16” long and with built in heat sinking. These are made with much thicker PCBs than most boards for heat dispersion and diode life. Maybe that appeals as an engineer especially for DIY stuff you want to keep and reuse?

One on each shelf at a max 85w each, made for controllers to do sunrise/sunset and adjustable spectrum too! @Baudelaire is good with support too, but these are pretty plug and play for someone of your technical skill.

If you message him to talk about a setup he might let you at the Black Friday code early, it’s about time for it to drop anyways at the end of November

FieldEffect · November 17, 2023, 12:15pm

Sent him a message. It’s a little unclear to me without investing a significant amount of time which model is the best fit for my application. I’m assuming I want the higher effective color temperature, which may mean just running one of the two circuits.

With the X3-3050, there are present the 5000K LEDs but in a ~1/3 ratio, with ~2/3 being the 3000K. I’m guessing this is aimed towards a “flower” spectrum.

The X3-4030R2 seems to have twice the number of 4000K LEDs (~2/3) and also 3000Ks (~1/3). This appears to be similar to the HLG 65V2 I was also entertaining (which is just 4000K diodes from what I can gather).

I think ideally I’d want a board of 2/3 5000K and 1/3 3000K or 4000K but that doesn’t appear to exist.

I think I’m going to want to run these “dumb” at least in the short term. I want a suitable spectrum (maybe that just means using a fraction of the strip, I don’t have a problem with that) and won’t play with it for a while. I have to carefully select which rabbit holes to dive into and when, this isn’t one I want to dig into yet. But I do have a considerable amount of experience designing PCBs for high power so there is a level of intrigue there.

Cheers and thanks again for the suggestion.

FieldEffect · November 18, 2023, 10:28pm

I went ahead and designed my own light board. May be fun to play with, I’ll get the SolStix but nothing stopping me from a little DIY. I’m already into the rabbit hole far enough I may as well wind up with exactly what I want. I threw together a layout for a 9.5" x 9.5" aluminum panel with 192 LEDs. It’s flexible so I can use most LEDs, including the 301B and 301H, as well as the Bridgelux BXEN family. That footprint is popular so it also opens the doors to “generic” options.

Costing (with HONGLITRONIC HL-AM-2835H421W-S1-08-HR6):

That’s right, 5 complete boards (aluminum substrate 1-layer with white soldermask), custom-fabricated and assembled to my specifications, with cheapo 6000K LEDs are $90.

Now, I understand COMPLETELY that these are chinsy LEDs. A few things lead to wanting to try this, not necessarily price, as I’ve already invested a few hours even finding these, making them cost more to me than 301Hs would. The efficiency is lower than the 301s, probably ~20-30% lower. I think more LEDs, with reasonable thermal design gets around that problem. The next fundamental issue cited by others is reliability. I think the root cause of inexpensive boards failing frequently is the inability for (direct-parallel layout configurations I see everywhere) current sharing. I’m using load balancing resistors. The footprint and the part cost nothing. Curious how it’ll wind up. Each series string uses a 10R balancing resistor, which will cost about 3% efficiency but should allow for each LED Vf to vary by as much as ~100mV and keep my currents reasonably identical. I think that will dramatically improve reliability.

I’m going to try two panels (9.5" x 19" of panel) - about perfect for my space and a standard propagation tray. They’re configured for daisy-chaining so they’ll plug right together with a little jumper.

If they suck, I’ll just build a new version with 301Hs 4000Ks and be done with it.

Here’s the selected cheapo: 2304140030_HONGLITRONIC-Hongli-Zhihui–HONGLITRONIC-HL-AM-2835H421W-S1-08-HR6-SDCM-6-5700K-6500K60mA_C516134.pdf (1.7 MB)

Cheers boys, time for an experiment!

FieldEffect · November 19, 2023, 5:59pm

Ordered 6 assembled boards and 4 blank ones if I want to use different LEDs. ETA is about 2 weeks. I’m not saving ANY money doing this in small quantity. The complete boards are about $20 each shipped in qty 6. Qty 100 that drops to less than $8. If using LM301H, LEDs are 8-12 cents each, so you are talking about almost $16 just for the LEDs. So with high-end LEDs this would cost about $30/panel in small quantity and about $20 in quantities of 100. Add a decent driver and you’re talking about a $40 cost to build. No wonder the HLG 65V2 is $100. It’s thinner margins than I’m used to seeing. In fact, those margins are so thin, I wouldn’t be surprised to see that many manufacturers are not using genuine LM301s.

Here’s what she looks like:

I added some holes spaced to fit a fan on the back of the board on standoffs. Did some calculations regarding thermal performance and a small amount of air circulation will dramatically decrease the temp. I’m planning on starting with a 60mm fan because you find a good balance of compact size, decent air throughput and quiet performance there. There are holes that will accomodate a 40mm, 60mm, 80mm or 120mm fan, the lead wires will come through the larger hole and solder to pads that are available next to those holes. I opted not to include 100mm holes because I didn’t find many reputable 100mm 24V fans.

Putting together a Digikey order for some drivers, fans, misc hardware. I actually think this will be a really nice design whether it gets high-end LEDs or the inexpensive ones. Obviously, cost went straight out the fuckin’ window once I started designing something myself. If I’m learning something, $$$ don’t count anymore

FieldEffect · December 1, 2023, 12:04pm

Continuing the light build and indoor discussion on my dedicated tent setup and winter grow thread

Nitt · December 28, 2023, 7:51pm

You only used 9mL of alcohol (tincture) to make @ReikoX’s hard candy recipe?

12mL? I’ve lost myself in the numbers a bit. 160mL of tinc., reduced to 90mL of tinc., which you estimate has ~5.6g (5600mg) of thc. You used 9mL (1/10) of your 90mL final tinc. (not sure where 190mL came from, typo maybe), so I see where you get the 560mg in your batch.
I don’t get the 12mL though.

What’s in the syringe? Can’t be the hard candy liquid, can’t be that much blueberry flavor in this batch, what the heck? I’m gonna feel stupid after the answer.

FieldEffect · December 29, 2023, 12:47pm

Here’s the math presented as a flow chart so you can see the timeline. I made the green candies when the mixture was about half reduced.

I calculate THC content as total mass available because the volume was being reduced the whole time (evaporating the alcohol). We started with 10g of dry sift, I assumed we had an extraction/filter efficiency of 75%. That yields:

10g dry sift x 0.75 = 7.5g cannabinoids

I’m assuming the of the 7.5g 75% again is THC:

7.5g x 0.75 = 5.6g THC

GREEN CANDY

So, when I made the green candy, my total solution volume had reduced to 90mL. I took 10% out (9mL, corresponding the 5.6g x 0.1 = 0.56g) to make the candy leaving a solution of 81mL containing 5.6g - 0.56g = 5.04g which I just rounded down to 5g.

I further reduced the solution to only 12mL, still supposedly containing the 5g of THC.

BLUE CANDY

Down the road, I made the blue candies. This time using the much more concentrated 12mL tincture still containing about 5g of THC. I wanted ~3.3mg per candy, each candy cube is 1mL. The candy recipe makes 300mL of molten candy.

I want a total quantity of THC = 3.3mg * 300 candies (1mL each) = 1000mg

My concentrate has 5g/12mL = 416mg/mL concentration (I rounded down to 400mg/mL)

So to add a total of 1000mg THC, I need only 2.5mL of the fully reduced tincture. The fully reduced tincture is much more concentrated than it was when I impatiently made the green candies halfway through the reduction process. So you are correct, that the math is inconsistent. I don’t think it is wrong, but I can see how it would be easy to get lost.

Anyway the syringe pictured contains 2.5mL of reduced tincture containing a bit over 1g of THC, a drop of blue food coloring and half a dram of blueberry flavor oil (per recipe). A dram is 0.75 tsp or ~3.8mL. Half a dram is about 1.9mL. So the syring contains 2.5mL of tincture, 1.9mL of flavor oil and about 0.05mL of blue food coloring, or 4.95mL total liquid volume. I opted to mix the blue color and flavor in with the tincture rather than add seperately so I could visualize the distribution. If the mix is good, color uniformity should equate to THC distribution uniformity as well. And the candy does seem very consistent.

So the syringe is the THC+flavoring+food coloring only. That got stirred into the 300mL of molten candy just moments before pouring into the molds.

MissinBissin · December 29, 2023, 2:29pm

Morning @FieldEffect, I’m not a Candy eater yet but Sharing this recipe is one Hell of a Present

Happy Days in the Kitchen OG.
Have a spectacular day You madman !

FieldEffect · December 29, 2023, 2:43pm

Here’s the candy recipe: Not Just Another Tincture Thread - #12 by ReikoX

I make the base candy exactly as described and as it cools add the tincture/flavor/color slightly differently than suggested

@MissinBissin it should be a good day indeed. Maybe I’ll have a candy

Actually got a toaster oven to decarb stuff in the shed. I’ll be making new batches of candy soon, Panalawi Lime, IBG Bubblegum, and 907 Blueberry. I’ve also got a few ounces of mixed IBG/907 kief I’ll make watermelon candy with. I really like using the kief because it takes so little alcohol to dissolve it, the process is dramatically sped up and economical. If ounces of kief are economical anyway

Nitt · December 29, 2023, 7:16pm

Gotcha. And thanks for the added explanation.

This is a great idea! And it relates to something I was wondering about. Because I understand the addition of adding “x” amount of THC to the recipe, but wondered how much alcohol is actually required or “optimal”. It’s only there to facilitate this “transfer” of cannabis oil into the sugar mix as far as I know. And it just evaporates very quickly, leaving behind the cannabinoids/oil. So, I wonder if there’s a minimum (and maximum) amount of alcohol that should be used to facilitate the transfer and not be “too much” to evaporate, or something.
The original recipe calls for 1oz/30mL of tincture/alcohol (2oz that have been reduced to 1oz).
I wanna make consistently dosed candies.

I just ordered some flavoring for another candy test run. Also ordered a terpene “isolate” to try out.

This was my thought with wanting to use concentrates of some kind. I’ve just made some tincture with some decarbed bubble hash. But the bubble hash is quite dark (from oxidation / drying), and it’s just not the “best” quality. I don’t wanna have to use huge amounts of alcohol if I can avoid it.

Thanks.

Tejas · December 29, 2023, 9:30pm

You’re using the formula incorrectly.
(Thc% x mg x efficiency)/ml = mg/ml
THC% is your best % guess for the strain you are going to use, say 18%.
MG is the total grams you plan to use multiplied by 1000. In your case 7.5gr is 7500 milligrams.
Efficiency is extraction efficiency, 70% is a good number.
ML is the total liquid or solid your THC will go into. You will reduce to 90ml. So the formula will be the following:
(.18 x 7500 x .70)/90ml
945mg/90ml
10.5mg/ml
Hope this helps.

FieldEffect · December 30, 2023, 1:53am

@Tejas that would make sense for dry whole flower, but I’m using kief/dry sift…doubt it’s less than 50%

Edit: I may be totally in the weeds about THC content of that material. Seems there are estimates in the 50-75% range, also estimates down to 20%. I pulled the 75% number out of my ass using this logic: there was about 25% left after frozen filtering (wax, dirt etc) I called that my “efficiency” and my assumption was that the dissolved material would also be mostly THC, called it 75% like a good bubble hash or something. I wonder if I can send the concentrate to a lab and get it tested. I’d pay $100 just to learn what the actual numbers are. For curiosity sake

Tejas · December 30, 2023, 9:53pm

My bad. The THC percentage is based on the strain THC percentage. Regardless, good luck with the making the candy.

Nitt · January 1, 2024, 8:52pm

You can. I was asking here abuot it a few months ago. I’ve been considering it, very curious. I found a good place in canada. I’m sure there are plenty in the US.

Dirt_Wizard · January 5, 2024, 5:20pm

I gotta post some photos from my old work cookbooks, I was a bread baker not pastry but I’ve got a bunch of good professional manuals for sugar and candy stuff and food science. I’ll put some up here later today, but I will say now that if you don’t have a copy already @FieldEffect and @Nitt , the both of you would really enjoy and benefit from a copy of Harold McGee’s “On Food and Cooking” which is the most magisterial mass-market food science book there is, it’s in almost every really good restaurant kitchen or office even if they have nothing else for references. It’s completely changed how I cook and think about food as a professional and a home cook, along with these other food science books:

You can download a free PDF of the revised and updated edition here:

These are also always right next to McGee on my cookbook bookshelf:

Tejas · January 5, 2024, 8:24pm

DW, thanks for the links.

FieldEffect · January 6, 2024, 12:55pm

Holy Moly. This McGee book is blowing my mind. Just ordered a copy. I can’t fully enjoy this sitting in front of the computer.

I love cooking.

I was unaware this sort of thing existed. Generic cookbooks I usually find exceedingly boring because I don’t really follow recipes much. Like anything else, I try to read an adequate amount to understand what I am trying to create, and the “recipe” becomes largely irrelevant (in the manner of I don’t need to measure 1 tsp of this, 1 tbsp of salt, 1/5 cup of whatever). Baking is certainly an exception, and I follow recipes because I lack sufficient understanding to do that in a reasonable time. I subscribe to Cooks Illustrated which is the most detailed treatise of whatever they are covering. Whether it’s pancakes, which is a recent issue and a recent favorite, or mashed potatoes. I appreciate because they dive into what happens with different methods and why a certain method is prefferred. This book is a detailed look at EVERYTHING. The sauces chapter

One of my favorite cooking books is this one, not really scientific but certainly a fun read: https://www.amazon.com/Mustve-Been-Something-Ate/dp/0375727124

mota · January 6, 2024, 8:18pm

I highly recommend McGee. We have a hardback copy. It’s nothing but solidly excellent information presented in a way that is easily understood. Of course, it’s not a recipe type of cookbook. It’s more the science of cooking, ripping away the mystery! HA!

For a general recipe cookbook (besides Joy of Cooking), we like The New Best Recipes by the editors of Cooks. Ours is the 2004 edition.

Thank you very much for the links, @Dirt_Wizard!

Dirt_Wizard · January 6, 2024, 8:54pm

The best part is that it won’t stop, it’s so densely packed with information that it is almost bottomless as a reference! Harold McGee is also a pretty interesting guy to watch talk:

https://curiouscook.typepad.com/site/about-harold-mcgee.html

The rabbit hole goes even deeper though:

There’s also the work of Herve This, a French physical chemist:

Dirt_Wizard · January 6, 2024, 8:56pm

Nathan Myhrvold is somewhere on my short list of “most interesting men alive”:

“Myhrvold first made his name in technology: he became the first chief technology officer of Microsoft after the company acquired his software firm in 1986, and remained there until 1999. His scholarly credential run far and wide, from degrees in mathematics, geophysics, and space physics from UCLA (he started college at 14) to a doctorate in physics from Princeton University earned at 23 and studies with Stephen Hawking at Cambridge University in England and Anne Willan at La Varenne Cooking School in France. Before cooking school, he spent two years as a stagiaire at Rover’s in Seattle. He has also functioned as chief gastronomic officer for Zagat Survey”