ReikoX's Workshop Rebuild 2020

ReikoX · August 26, 2020, 7:44pm

Today I pulled out all my drivers and controllers for the lights. I’m still deciding the best way to mount/install these. Can anyone tell which driver doesn’t belong? My stoned ass ordered an extra HLG-120H-24B instead of the HLG-240H-24B. The good news is, I have four extra strips in 3500K that will match up with that driver. Not exactly sure what I’ll do with it, but having a spare driver is never a bad thing.

The overall plan is to mount the drivers on the wall of the veg room, then run the wires through conduit to the flower room. I already soldered up the connections in the conduit boxes. I still need to solder up the connections to the lights and get testing that. I might make the driver board with a piece of plywood on hinges so I can run the wiring in the back. It should look pretty neat and clean that way.

I may go ahead and add another Sonoff 4CH so that I can have one for each light. I’m then debating whether I want to have the two Emerson boards on a separate driver from the Exotic boards, or if I want to run them all off the same one. I guess it mostly depends on the behavior of the lights when there is no PWM signal, if they will go to off when there is no PWM then I will run them all off the same driver. Otherwise, I will run them on separate drivers. This mainly has to do with me wanting to be able to have the IR on for an additional 15 minutes after lights out.

ReikoX · August 26, 2020, 10:41pm

After about 48 hours in a cool dark place, these two Ghost Toof x SBR seeds are sprouting tails. If you look close you will notice they are still floating on top of the water.

I got tired of buying rapid rooters to clone and start seeds, so I bought this little pot maker. These little pots are made out of paper grocery bags. Let’s see how they do.

invisible · August 26, 2020, 10:44pm

Those paper pots look interesting

Have you tried the jiffy pots made from peat?

pufferfishfiend · August 26, 2020, 10:44pm

You can use the heat sealer from a vacuum sealer to make fabric bags out of garden bed liners or any polypropylene fabric. It’s a nice way to get air pruning pots of whatever size you want.

cannabissequoia · August 28, 2020, 2:41pm

Will that funk up my vac sealer heat bar with gooey plastic?

coat hanger & a wall outlet should do it too…

pufferfishfiend · August 28, 2020, 2:54pm

In my experience it doesn’t get hot enough to goo-ify it, it just nicely seals it.

YMMV depending on your vac sealer.

This pot was one I made this way. Plant quality not with standing (it was my first ever plant, grown in a space bucket), the pot lasted the entire grow.

ReikoX · August 28, 2020, 8:49pm

Got some movement going on the GTxSBR seedlings. The paper pots are working out pretty well so far.

HaRdRoC · August 28, 2020, 11:48pm

Hey man, it’s been awhile, was great to see the transformation of you kick ass new grow room. Hat’s off, well thought out and executed.
Can’t wait to check back and see that bitch full of beautiful ladies.
Keep r green man

CANNACOASTLED · August 30, 2020, 5:48am

By far my favourite thread on the internet right now.

Looking stellar brother!

ReikoX · August 31, 2020, 1:31am

The Ghost Rose (Ghost Toof x Sugar Black Rose) autos were getting a little leggy so I transplanted them into 16 oz. cups. Each plant has two cups, both cups have drainage holes, but the inner cup has been cut down the middle. When it comes time to transplant them into the 3-gallon pots, all I will have to do is remove the inner cup and it should open right up.

My bonsai mothers needed trimming, so I took some clones. Will have to see if the paper pots work as well for them as they did for the seedlings. Back left in the rapid rooters are Jabba’s Stash I had to get back from my brother, back right are Skywalker Kush (HDR Cut), front left Zak Haze, and front right Cherry Tart.

Still fighting with these thrips. The sponosad is keeping them in check, but as soon as I ease up on that, they come right back. The bottle is about empty and three years old, I just ordered a new one. They got a foliar with spinosad, aloe, and a drop Dr. Bronner’s soap anyway.

Shadey · August 31, 2020, 11:29am

All looking good, nice to see you have gone straight into full on production.

argo945 · August 31, 2020, 2:27pm

Good Show.The devil is in the details!!!

ReikoX · August 31, 2020, 2:57pm

Just some autos in the veg room. Hope to work on the lights a bit more tomorrow.

cannabliss · September 2, 2020, 2:36pm

looking great as usual really coming together and goodluck with the thrips I guess that’s my one advantage to growing in my own little worldup her in cny worst thing I have to deal with is soil mites be safē out there folks

ReikoX · September 3, 2020, 5:40pm

Had a setback in the workshop last night. The night before, I had tested the PWM on my Emerson boards connected directly to the controller. No problem, so I decided to test out the wiring harness I made for my remote drivers. My multi-meter battery gave out on me, so I just wired it up anyway. I turned it on and one of the boards was flickering. Next thing I know the board LDD driver on the board is smoking. I turned it off. I disconnected the PWM and plugged everything in again, and again the LDD started smoking. I tried to clear out a piece of wire that seemed stuck in the connector and plugged it in one more time with the same results. I’m still trying to figure out what happened, but with a broken multi-meter I couldn’t really get any info. My best guess is I got positive voltage on the negative pin somehow, apparently that will fry these units. I tested the other board and the PWM controller and they both appear to be working. The driver is surface mounted, but I may be able to solder it on myself. The driver is only about $5 plus shipping, compared to $80 for the whole new board. What do you sparky’s think? Is it even worth my time?

I also got my new bottle of Captain Jack’s Dead Bug Brew I went ahead and mixed up a foliar spray and gave all the plants in there a good soaking. I then removed any damaged leaves and left them in the dark for a few hours to dry off. While spraying I noticed the Jabba’s Stash cutting had roots!

pufferfishfiend · September 3, 2020, 6:13pm

If you plug it in multiple times and it smokes each time, you’re probably not completely killing it.

If you fix your mis-wired harness (which is what I bet it is at that barrel plug, I’ve done it myself so many times) and plug it in, it still might work, if you’re willing to trust it.

Otherwise, if you have a good iron and a decent solder sucker, a few helping hands, maybe a heat sink and a fuck ton of patience, you might be able to unsolder the driver, which is going to be the hardest part without cooking the board. Putting the new driver in will be easy.

Me?

I’d just buy another one. Fuck that noise. But my fine motor skills aren’t great.

Howard.Crane · September 3, 2020, 6:46pm

Uh oh, you let the magic smoke get out

I suck at soldering surface mount stuff, and suck even more at removing it cleanly. I’d have to buy a whole new one to have any confidence in it

ReikoX · September 3, 2020, 6:33pm

Yeah, it has that awful smell too.

HolyAngel · September 3, 2020, 9:05pm

Ah, you let the magic smoke out of the driver huh? such a pain to get it back in there!

Honestly if you got a spare driver already or can get one cheap, swapping it should be cake work. I could do it in 10 minutes if you were near here or wanted to mail it to me. Just need some flux and good solder wick, some low melt solder would really help too to get the old one off the board, and then a decent sized and powerful iron and some good solder, I still prefer leaded solder myself but you need an airfilter to use that stuff really. but yeah, should be cake to swap it.

Clones and mom’s lookin good tho! I have that same rack so you’re giving me idea’s here

dequilo · September 3, 2020, 9:09pm

that equals badness

I have done that to many severs over the years

so hard to put it back

nice build for my skill set epic

all the best

Dequilo