Micro Grow Off Ideas!

You can wire the ballasts parallel.

Just treat it like your wiring up light sockets.

Hots to hot
Neutrals to neutral.

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as @jellypowered said, you would just wire up all the Load sides of the ballast to one position on a terminal block, and all the neutrals to another position, which you then wire up a standard electrical cord that you have kicking around to there corresponding sides, Load to load, neutral to neutral and you good to go. I suggest using terminal blocks just for the ease of it, but you could solder them all together as well, or even use marrettes if your lazy but you will have to solder extension wire onto the ballasts anyways.

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Slow progress this week, as I have to get ready for the holidays. I was looking through my seeds and have it narrowed down to either the Blueberry by Dinafem or some old bag seeds from some Mexican brick weed (tennis ball pheno). I call it the tennis ball pheno because the bag they came from was bright green like a tennis ball. Usually itā€™s dark green or even brown.

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I have some regs for you if you need something to grow. Just havenā€™t put the thread up yet.

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id run the bag seed for fun

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So Iā€™m slowly making progress on my 1x1x2 cab. I got it painted and caulked all the seams. I lined the bottom with panda plastic and lined the rest with reflectix. I also cut holes and wired up connectors for the lights and fan.

After a quick test to make sure it held water (it did), I was ready to start construction on my mini Soma SIP. First I filled the bottom with a layer of lava rock up to the bottom of the over fill holes. Then I placed the four air/fill hole tubes in the corners.

Next I added another layer of lava rock to just above the over fill holes. This gives an air gap of about one inch and should provide oxygen to the roots. On top of the lava rock is some 1/4" hardware cloth.

The hardware cloth was then covered with landscaping fabric.

And finally, the rest is filled with soil. It was just shy of two gallons of soil.

I put the door on, and hooked up the fan, and lights. I ran it for a couple of hours and it was a steady 70Ā°F the whole time. I got the hardware mounted, it looks pretty rustic.

All that I have left is wiring everything together. I decided to use my S&P TD-100 4" inline fan for the box. Overkill, I know. Iā€™ll have it on a thermostat, not on all the time. So Iā€™ll have to use a relay to turn that on and off. I also have a timer that Iā€™ll mount to the back along with a potentiometer to vary the speed of the circulation fan. All this will be shoved in a project box along with a fused power switch and power cord plug. Iā€™ll mount the fan and the two drivers on the back as well. Itā€™s not going to be super stealthy, but it should blend in and get the job done. Iā€™ll likely get rid of it after the challenge.

So whoā€™s still in this? Looks like @lotus710 has been absent lately, I would be able to run it if there is enough interest.

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Thatā€™s some nice construction. You have put a lot of effort into it and it shows

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I love building cabs, but might have to upgrade to building roomsā€¦

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When is the start date? I still have to move my whole setup to even get started. I want in though

We all were planning on starting on 1-JAN-18 but I donā€™t mind postponing if everyone still needs time to get their stuff assembled, ready to run.

@ReikoX Looks FANTASTIC. Way better than mine turned out. My free plywood has warped as itā€™s dried, and I need to seal the cracks again. Itā€™s holding my auto right now, kinda donā€™t care much right now lol.

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@ReikoX Nice build, im looking forward to the progress shots out of that box.

Also im still in, will be running the bucket, and also will be running at least one plant in a party cup just for the fun upcoming contest starting at the same time.

I cannot be built and prepared by the first, but I donā€™t want to hold everyone else up either

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Well, if Iā€™m running it, Iā€™ll set it up so that the end date is long enough away to allow a few stragglers to enter. Itā€™s all about fun and bragging rights.

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Everyoneā€™s boxes are looking greatā€¦ Iā€™m still in as well but I have work that has to be done still, gotta make mooves

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Not in this but enjoying watching, I have 2 micro grows going but they are in with my other plants ahah

When I say micro grow I mean in a small container like 6" pot lol

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Finishing up the electronics on the 1x1x2 cabinet. I got the cut outs for the project box done. This will hold the plug with power switch, timer, relay for the thermostat, and rheostat for the circulation fan.

Then I got the fan, drivers, and project box mounted. Ran the wiring, it still needs to be in some conduit.

After a lot of swearing and soldering, I finally got everything working. Fist I got the polarity wrong on the lights, then I broke the ribbon cable on the timer, and soldered the timer backwards (output to input). Finally hooked up the ducting. I have some light leaks to deal with, then Iā€™m ready to plant.

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Tidy little box there my friend. How noisy is your ventilation?

I really dig the use of a thermostat. Iā€™m assuming that is set to ā€œcoolā€ and have your temp set at a certain degree? Does it run on 24v?

Thanks and sorry for all the questions lol.

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The fan is pretty quiet, the sound of rushing air, not so much. Stealth wasnā€™t in the design parameters.

The thermostat runs on batteries and is set to whatever I like (77Ā°F), the internal relay is hooked up to the 12v power supply. If I was using a 12 volt fan, I would be done. Since the fan is 120 VAC, that 12 volts trips another relay in the project box to turn on and off the fan.

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Bump.

Probably the wrong thread anyway. :smile:

@Mr.Sparkle @MomOnTheRun

Iā€™m trying to plan before constructing & want your advice/thoughts.

If your micro gardens were in my environment and you had less money(no thermostat or humidity controllerā€“all manual! :blush:, how would you recalibrate things?

In the past experiments Iā€™ve tried, the problems were temperature & humidity, either of the extremes.

A 9x11ā€™ bedroom with a closet 4x2ā€™(approx.). Average humidity is low to very-low, temperatures are mild in winter, hot in summer.

Canā€™t drill/cut anything, (landlord issue). Only window air exchange from other roomsā€¦

This year I had half of that 9x11 taken up by a panda-film & lumber ā€œtentā€ that is now disassembled, thankfully, because it was a lot to sacrifice. :sleeping_accommodation:

At the moment Iā€™m considering a smaller footprint, full-height setup with 2 divided sections, from reflective something. No more walk-in grow tent. :kaaba: :blush:

A secondary issue is noise. I canā€™t stand it. (hearing disorder) So the cheapo fan I have will probably have to be replaced, but proper inline units are out of my budget range(for now at least).

The closet seems too small and the heat gain is a problem, but it is out of the way, which is an attraction.

Sorry if this is another wake and bake special :clipboard: from meā€¦ heh

:evergreen_tree:

Hmmmmmm

Sounds like the cabinets in my bedroom which is a 10ā€™ x 10ā€™ room that was added onto the house to hold 6 freezers my parents had when they lived hereā€¦

Left side of my bedā€¦2 3x3x8 cmh cabinets sharing ventilation with an upgraded 8" fan (the 6" worked but was noisy having to be turned all the way up) for the carbon filter and 6" fan for the lightsā€¦ducting going out a tiny narrow window

Right side of my bedā€¦the 2 stacked 2x3x4 quantum board (led) cabinets I am working on to finish. For now all the heat goes right into the room and works ok though can be better

Tents would have been easier though I wanted the ability to lock them up if needed and keep the dachshunds out of that spaceā€¦their doggie door is also in that room - yeah glutton for punishment lol One issue I do have is heat build up in June and July as the sun shines on that side of the house for most of the 19 hr days so I prefer to shut down everything then. If I cannot for whatever reason, the exhale Co2 bags works like a charm not seeing any deficits unless the temp goes over 85F

As for my micro-cabinet, that is in the mudroom (also a house add on) just outside of my bedroom which stays cooler on average than the rest of the house having more shade from the trees outside so the leds work perfect in there with a cheap 4" duct fan through out the yearā€¦though take into consideration that my set up is more geared for cooler weather (70f summers, -10f winters) and low humidity (10-25%) except for Aug and Sept where it ā€œskyrocketsā€ to 55-65%

All in all, I think smaller cabinets are easier to manually regulate than bigger ones and leds when heat is an issue or just want less equipment :wink:

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