Gpaw’s Phase II

Here’s today’s attempt to generate a sketch in paint. (First stab at it)

Yuk, kind of small, I’ll see what I can do. No, just the same

I’ll do better next time, Just realized the zoom is surprising…

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Ok, lights.. 

I need mild lighting for the cloner and clone area.

Suggestions?

Light bottom left, this should a nice veg light.

Suggestions?

Question: Do you need IR and UV in Veg?

Light, bottom right. This needs to be variable intensity. from strong veg to mild (for mother storage). I’m guessing something like 30W/Ft to <5W/Ft.?

Suggestions

Cheers
G

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Hi @Gpaw!

I can only +1 what Athos said, becareful about water and electricity! All systems are bound to fail at one time, Murphy is dead but his law is still up to date!

Regarding the lightning, I would look for a global solution so you could swap things if needed.
I have the feeling that strips are the most versatile in the case of closet grow: you can run them low, spread them, run them on top or on the side, have the driver mounted remotely…
Maybe multiple small sets of short strips each on a low power driver so you could play on power and/or spectrum by switching the drivers on and off.

Cheers

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I bought one of these from local home depot and the lil bastard works perfect for clones and seedling.


It even comes with hangers lol…I’m going to buy another one. You can link them together

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I agree with you, I pulled the automatic watering system. No point tying up high value real estate with relocatable support equipment!

I’m leaning the same way, if I can I’d like the same strips and individual drivers.

Cheers
G

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I can help you out with electrical part, im electrician… And with final sketch if youll like… you will either way have clone chamber above lights, having some kind of bottom protection (like tents have) will do the trick, plus there are ways to ensure youre safe even if there comes to sparking with some specialised device… Sorry i was not here these days, my last wisdom tooth is coming out and it hurts like hell, im barely working, even hard cocktail of valium/xanax/ibuprofen halves my pain, but ill try be here when and if youll need advice, like i did here (checking for american standards of wiring, making scheme, tips about wiring):

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You americans even have those devices in your outlets, we in europe only in breaker box, i pressume for kitchen and bathroom:

It shuts down circuit almost instantly, and your drivers should have protection (i can check when you find the one you want) not to catch on fire, so if something happens to diodes and you have drivers out of the way of the water, it will be ok…

Edit: i just saw i allready offered my help, i forgot XD anyway, ill see what i can do about the drawing, ill put you measutements so you can print it out and have as a tool in about 6-7 hours when i finish with my work…

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They also have them on retractable extension cords which can supply 4 things at once, for use outside if it’s wet or raining, mainly used in construction as they are expensive.

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Thats nice! Yea, they are, but its cheaper than a burnt house! We in europe have one large for the whole house as a must, and one smaller for bathroom, i have yet to see american breaker box… You can do a cheap trick with microcontroller, sense if there is water connecting 2 areas and shut down main switch, altough that dont prevents in-circuit leakage (youll still get shoked if you touch live wire, but it doesnt hurt that much)…

Edit: having square foil bottom with raised aides like grow tent here:

Should do the trick good enough…

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Hi @vo_o Thanks for the kind offer!
And thanks for pointing out that automation thread, I missed that somehow.
Excellent calls on the relay capacities, terminal block wiring and the European ampacity differences! :+1: :sunglasses: that scores bonus points!

(edit) now I see you are Europe not US!

I was thinking everything including the cloner should be in plastic trays (belt and suspenders…)

I’ve been thinking about the wiring (I always forget something). Power will be coming in top left to a modified power bar (added 2 varistors and a gas discharge tube). The plan is to have the drivers inside the exhaust air plenum.
I need to have AC on the top right (maybe a heating mat). Now that I’m thinking about it, it might be smarter to bring the AC in to a terminal block in the air plenum if there are multiple drivers in there.

Sorry to hear about the wisdom tooth, must be the bottom (they are buggers). The top ones just pop right out (one root instead of four). Careful when working, I find pain is a major distraction.

Thanx and Cheers
G

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Yea, fucker is bottom one, yea im operating a machine, but im so high from pills its fun and philosophical… Its a cool combo of suffering and pleasure, meanwhile machine cannot stop running, so my experience is even more meaningless to the environment im in, it makes me kinda sad, but free… Cool idea about that protection, ive never done it myself, ill look into it more when ill be home… And cool idea about putting drivers in exaust! I would never tought of that… Nice heat management… Will steal it for my things :stuck_out_tongue: anyway, in practice, terminals are always in a discrete place (box with ip rating), wherever you have big juction (3 drivers on one incoming cable) you should put it in a plastic box like this:

And have a proper wire gauge (rated by your consumption), you saw example of that logic in that thread… That being said, what is air plenum? Couldnt find anything that would make sense to me online, is it like an air duct? I think most drivers come with screw holes so you can easily screw them on a plate or in cabinet frame, and have a junction box nearby… I would recommend box with protection and junction to top part of lights/mat, and one box for bottom, so you have one cable to bottom junction box, connect there the lights, and in top box connect cables to 2 lights plus 2 sockets for water pump and heating mat (so you dont have to cut outlet of those devices, but if you dont want to buy outlets you can always save money and connect them directly to terminal), but i gotta ask, will the lights be on timer? If so, all on one timer, or do clones go 24/7? About light, afaik ir and uv is used only in flower production, far red as emmerson effect in growth, but you need to control strength or spectrum? There are dimmable drivers if youll go diy light route, and there is some solution to dimming leds (it depends on leds and driver, i think if its constant voltage then you can), but i dont remember exactly now anymore, i can find it tough… I mean, if you go all way into diy, why not do your own lights? :smiley:

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First thing I did was swap in a GFI receptacle for my tent power, and put a smoke detector in the room. Safety precautions are something usually overlooked. Which reminds me I need to check to see if the other receptacle in the room is on the same Cct. or not.
You are correct, the RCDs are meant as a retrofit for bathrooms and kitchens in older dwellings. You can also get them as a replaceable breaker for the panel. New construction is that way.

(edit) There is actually a loophole in the Canadian Electrical code in regards to the number of wire connections in a junction box. If you solder the connection it doesn’t count as a connection. I ran that by my nephew (an electrician). He looked at me like I was ‘unhinged’, shook his head and said nobody is going to solder!! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Cheers
G

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I started to draw a pic for you, cause im more of a pic guy than of a words, and im not good in english, but my machine started bitching and bit me:

I gotta give her full attention, its just her thing… Ill get you after my job… Have fun!

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Oh, cool, so you know a thing or 4 about wiring and electricity (should have connected the dots when you said youll implement surge protection)… Yea basically there is difference between cabinet and and junction box, you can always go tarzan on it and save cost, but i dont explain how to people cause reasons… Ill hit you then with the sketch…

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Bro, how bad did you mess up your hand? (that knuckle didn’t look good…) :worried:

Yeah, I’m way past ‘do it yourself terminal blocks’ using wood screws and washers :rofl:
Full disclosure, I ran the prototype operations for a electronic PSU manufacturer for a few years, retired last fall.

Cheers
G

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It could have been worse, if i hadnt ripped it off, the thing that grabbed it would crush my hand and a metal pole would puncture it from right… But its our thing, its like a bdsm, she knows she must punish me, but not break me… XD I could see the bone inside on that bigger wound (or something white, dunno), but im patched and all good… :smiley: oh, seems like a nice job! Ran the operations eh… Thats good to know! <3

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Here mate:

its without text so you can maybe print it out and scribble on it what you want, 1 feet = 100 pixels, light has 3 inch height plus that small area (i didnt even try to calculate that XD im a metric guy), thats how much cheap chinese led lights have, doted line is movable shelf… maybe it will help you with visualisation… ill go on to make 3d model of that… somehow, all this time i tought youll go diy led route (my adhd brain got stuck on that :confused: ) so thats why i assumed youll need junction boxes, cause most led drivers come without a plug, sorry for wasting time on that… meditating over this, something itches me to have 2 veg sites, plus i just saw i didnt put any ventilation holes on drawing, but that ill leave it to your pen… :stuck_out_tongue: i need food before i go full retard on sketchup (still have to learn how to use it)…

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Brother! You are doing all of this with a mangled paw and a handful of painkillers?!?

I really, really appreciate it! but I think you need to take care of yourself, you have to be running on spit and fumes right now. My suggestion is a couple stiff ones and crash, you have had a bad day.

I’m Canadian, I’m bilingual (metric and American) :rofl: :innocent:
3" is what I was figuring on for the lights too.
I find myself focusing on the veg/mother area thinking about different configurations and scenarios…

Look after yourself!
G

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actually it was a good day, the machine im working with, ive repaired some parts and now it can work normally (i just started on my new workplace, got this hooker in my hands, told her she is beautiful and she is worthy, and she smiled, but she bites when i dont pay attention to her, she is a needy one), and i did highest number of products output since i came, so its a win… the hand will comply to anything i need her to do, pain is inevitable, suffering is just state of mind (painkillers ftw)… but yea, as i ate, i crashed lol, im gonna skip this 3d modelling for tomorrow or some other day, i need to wake up in 4 hours to go to doctor and a dentist later (i cant pull all-nighters like i used to) before my afternoon shift… yea, seems logical to have adjustable shelfs basically in every section (expandable in future), but i dont know how they would hold up to the weight (or should i say, how to make them removable and adjustable with capacity to hold about what, 30 kg?), all i can think of is that ikea model with pins that go half way inside of cabinet wall, and i have a shady feeling about them… its that god damn pirate cave and his usage of all space possible that keeps me in a “maybe i could” state of mind and keep on searching for what can be done here, its like theres gap for one more grow but not so much, and its a funny puzzle… cant wait to see end result! just dont take 6 months to make like Reiko did :smiley:

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You attract what you are pal…your a go getter with a lot of energy! I cant wait to see your drawings in real time…

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