The driver sits near the bottom and mounts at an angle to line up with the screw holes in the enclosure. And having the timer at the top keeps it clear of the driver and makes wiring it all up easier.
If I had thought about it further I would not have got the enclosure w/ the predrilled holes + plugs. That made fitting the plug itself a bit of a challenge, where-as I was able to dremel out the top pretty quick for the timer to snap into place. The plugs do make it easy to add top-mount fans if needed to cool the driver, though.
Now only time will tell if I built a stable circuit that can power my 6 solenoids reliably.
Decided to try out a new material for the lids. I grabbed a sheet of 1 1/2" blueboard and made some 2x2 squares. I got lucky and one of the snap lines was near the 1/3 point, so I broke them there and added some Gorilla tape to create a door to peek at the roots w/o disturbing the plant.
Iām not sure if Iāll paint the tops or just throw some panda film on there, but I do want to protect them from the lights just in case.
I was also playing around with ways to mount the nozzles again. I decided on this halo option fed by 2 solenoids. I can adjust the height, rotate the tee on the lines, and use the built-in swivels ā allowing me to fire the mist in any direction I want and adjust it through the grow.
The mist seems to have really good coverage and the hang time looked good. I tried to get photos but no matter what we tried we ended up with some blur.
First we tried with the lights on ā you can see the build up from multiple tests, but the mist is nearly impossible to see.
Using the cats laser toy we did get some good views of the mist in the beam, but itās still not a great shot. Itās so much cooler in person than I can get in a photo.
Tried to get a better video of the spray in the dark, but this phone just cannot pick up much once the lights go out.
After testing I wanted to empty the system, but I never put a dump valve in during this test so I was forced to run the nozzles until pressure was low enough to disconnect things. (It took way longer than I expected to go from 100psi down to zero.)
Another unexpected (but welcome) thing is even when running a single set of nozzles I raised the humidity in the room from 20% to 40% in about 5 minutes. Considering how big this room is I am positive now that I can get the perfect humidity in the root chambers and keep it there.
I managed to complete the plumbing all the way to the elbows after each solenoid. Now I just need to run the feed lines from there to each halo and plumbing is complete.
I also finished up the wiring and was able to run a full test of the timer and all 6 solenoids. Everything seems to be working as expected and a multimeter test at the end of the run shows Iām getting no voltage drop, so thatās a bonus.
Just need to finish up some insulation around the root chambers and complete the light-proofing, then run a final test of the cooling loop to the reservoir and weāre ready to goā¦
I have a small grow tent and HLG 65 on their way as well for a simple veg setup. This will house two bubble-buckets for my moms and my Dewey Mister for cloning, and still leave me room for the fodder I grow for the chickens.
The other day the new tent and light arrived and were finally setup out in the garage. Hopefully this will be used to maintain a few small mothers, the cloner, and our fodder system. If the cold garage becomes a factor I have room to move it upstairs into the unused 3rd bathroom.
The tent I chose was on the cheaper side but also included the built-in rack that Iād need for my fodder. Being able to separate the two chambers will be useful in the future as well.
Even being a cheaper tent I didnāt see any pinhole leaks, and the zippers are double-flapped so the light doesnāt shine through there like other cheap ones on the market. Since this will be a veg cycle with 6 hours of darkness coinciding with night I donāt think weāll have any issues either way.
The HLG65 was chosen as a low watt replacement for my old 8-bulb T5. I wanted a lower power light that didnāt cause too much early growth, and Iām hoping that by starting them with a smaller LED there will be less shock when theyāre moved into the big room under the 4 HLG300ās.
For a cloner I went w/ the ole trusty Dewey Mister.
Cheap, easy to maintain, and has always got the job done in the past.
Once I setup the tent I had to pop in the light just to see how everything looked, and so far Iām pretty happy with the setup.
I need to cut a few pieces of foam board for under each bucket to insulate them yet, but hat wonāt take too long. I will also be running an air line from the primary pump into the tent, then using a 3-way splitter with separate valves into each of the 3 air-driven systems. The pump I have should be plenty to run all of the air needed for the tent and the main res.
Last night my wife and I spent an hour applying the first coat of non-toxic rubberized coating to the sinks in the main room. Initially I had planned on painting the outside of the sinks black, then white, but that was so damn annoying w/ our cold weather and this was just way easier. (And stinks way less.)
Hopefully tonight Iāll get the final lightproof coating on, wrap the sinks in bubble insulation for thermal protection, and then this weekend test the gylcol loop.
I tossed 12 random seeds from my old stash into paper towels yesterday and set them aside. What ever pops from that will be tossed into some perlite to get its footing, then moved into the Dewey Mister to figure out if any are keepers.
I really need to go pick up some new genetics. The clones I have ready in the other grow are things weāve been smoking for years now. Iām ready for something differentā¦ Maybe when I run to Detroit next week I will grab something new.
The seeds in the towel have started to pop. Surprising since these were just randoms from previous grows over the past 10 years. No idea what I have here, but thatās just another adventure.
This is a new way to start seeds for the aerocloner for me, so Iām still playing around to find what I like here. I plan on dropping the seeds into the perlite tomorrow and once they get some legs theyāll be easy enough to remove and move to the cloner.
Now I just need to find a way to keep the temps up in the tent because this aināt gonna cut itā¦
Itās been a while since I updated and quite a bit has changed.
I think Iāll go ahead and post a new topic for my veg tent to document that grow separately. If all goes well weāll have new clones for the HPA room shortly, then Iāll continue on this thread as well.
Glad to see youāre back @anon32470837 ā and sorry to hear about the health issues.
I hadnāt updated here in a few weeks, but I might as well go ahead and let everyone know whatās going on.
The same heatwave thatās affecting most of the US really took its toll on my flower room. I was unable to keep the root zones at a decent temp and was really fighting the on/off timings. Either it was too wet or things got way too hot. Since I built this as D2W I was literally throwing nutrients down the drain. After a few weeks of fighting and going through 5 different plants in there I finally threw in the towel.
Iāve spent the past few days tearing out the HPA lines, solenoids, and sinks. Iāve got a few more drains to disconnect and then I am rebuilding using my backup plan. Going back to what I know ā recirculating ebb and flow.
I went ahead and picked up 8 of the 10 gallon medical planters from The Bucket Company. These will fill the room nicely and can be fed using the reservoir control system I built for the HPA.
But donāt worry ā the HPA is getting repurposed. I ordered a humidistat to control the solenoids and the pressure tank has been plumbed direct into the RO system. I will now be using the high pressure nozzles as a very expensive, built-in humidifier for the flower room.
I will probably open a new thread this week once I start to take photos of the new install. Iām really looking forward to getting this all operational since Iāve got tons of clones in the veg tent ready for a working flower room.
The HPA build was fun, running the systemā¦not so much. I havenāt harvested in a year now, so itās time to get back on track.
I am really sorry to hear about the issues youāre having with the HPA setup. I was really hoping the chiller would allow you to keep the root chambers cool enough.
I assume you tried lowering the rez water temp way down - or did the chiller not work as well as hoped for? Or?
If the over all room temps were staying too hi, then I can see you would have some real dificulty keeping the chambers cool. The nutes would tend to warm up sitting in the tubes between the rez and the chambers because the flow rate is fairly low.
That was one thing i really liked about my fabric chambers. I actually had to heat them up even on moderately warm days because the evaporative cooling worked better than I expected. Hot days are still an issue for me as well, but much more for the tent than the root chamber. My chambers always stayed 5 to 10 deg below ambient.
Let us know when you start the new thread. Im very interested in following along on that one too!!
Not that it matters now, but I was just re-reading that old thread on Rollitup - MY True HP Aero Plug&Play Pods - and it turns out youāre not the only one that had trouble keeping root zone temps under control. In fact, it looks to me like everyone who did the āpodā thing had that same issue.
That got me to thinking. I think the problem is that the root chamber/pods are in the same space as your plants. They have to deal with the same hi room temps, heating from the lights, etc.
Cooling the nute water would help, but the flow rates in HPA are so low, that the chilled water must not be able to remove enough heat energy to offset the heat coming through the insulation from the room. Insulating the pods wont really help unless you can remove that excess heat. The insulation will slow the heat flow, but not stop it.
One guy - I forget which one - wrapped chiller coils around the outside of his pods, but I didnt see if he said that worked ok or not.
Just an FYI in case you get a wild hair after this next (boring) ebb/flow grow
Instead of using those big ass shears If you have some PVC cutters they do great actually for chopping the main stock down 2.5 diameter is no problem and very easy since they ratchet anyways and will not harm the cutters any and makes very nice clean cuts and they are nice n small to get in places instead those big ass shears u gotā¦But looking great thatās a killer setup I like that how, nft idea too ā¦
For my cloner I run lpa with misters and fogponics and the fogponics does great for the fuzzy roots however they wouldnāt be too good in bloom and depending on ppm in veg maybe a issue since the foggers do steal ppm for the most part but they work great for cloners ā¦
But you CAN make electrolyically evolved oxygen OUTSIDE of the reservoir and pipe it straight into your air pumpās inletā¦
You have to exhaust the hydrogen, because, well, hydrogen is useless and flammable, BUTā¦
O2 is good.
O2 supplementation means that dryish spot between water level and the where the roots come out of the netpot becomes an a sort of Kratky zone on steroids. Add the ability to continuously drop the water level and it just means MORE oxygen to your roots, not room air, straight up fuckin gaseous O2, and youāre saving an assload of water, too. Use this in a RDWC or undercurrent setup and, wellā¦best of most worlds. Just gotta keep it all cool and relatively humid in the rooting chambers.
