Mau5Capades: builds & grow journal

I'm starting a new chapter in my flowering room and building a new setup. I wanted to start this thread to have a place to show my projects while following along with my latest grow.

Grow space: 4' x 10'
Dissipation: ~1200w for 30 watts/sqft
mostly CXA3070 AD, mixed 3k & 4K run @ 1400mA

Strains Mattman's Payday, Grape Stomper13, Sin City Sin Mint, Sin City Tangerine Power, La Blanca (white strain), La Plata Labs: Sour Pez. 18 plants total in 5 gallon nursery pots.

I have really enjoyed building "fixtures" with multiple drivers, heatsinks, frames, enclosures. These lights work great for most purposes but lack the flexibility I am looking for in my flowering room. The concept of modular LEDs is by no means new. SupraSPL's modular COB diy thread from over a year ago was among the first places I went to research DIY LEDs. The simplicity and flexibility of this type of system has a lot of merits that I hope to showcase in this journal. Here are some pictures of the build as it stands right now, I'll have everything done, hung, and growing plants in the next few days.

Cheers
Growmau5

Looks awesome! Cant wait to see the results!

where did you get your covers made? can you share a parts list?

I made the covers by hand. Parts are pretty self explanatory; cxa3070, hlg185-1400, a fan, 36" x 5.886 heatsink & some computer power supply connectors.

CXA3070s are becoming a little "retro" when compared to CXB3590s. but at $27 each for AD bin it was pretty hard to beat pricing wise.

The decal is a nice touch. Nice work. Is the housing aluminum or steel? Spray painted or powder coated?

About a couple pounds I'd say.

@coolj thanks for the sub hommie, i took a couple pics, hope they help.

The shroud is a piece of 18" x 13" .040 aluminum from my metal supplier ($7), it is bent with an 18" harbor freight metal brake. I looked into anodizing, If I was going to build 20 or more, I might have gone with the setup fee to dip them all, but not for just 5. So i sprayed it with PPG candy apple red Chrysler color, with a couple scoops of metal flake.

Very nice work man!

im totally doing this design! this is crisp!

is the knob an on off or pot switch?

its a 100k potentiometer (for dimming) from amazon.com with a decorative knob

luv the candy apple red!

what did you use to cut the fan hole? standard bimetal hole saws?

@PurpleBuz i had to special order a 140mm bimetal hole saw , it was like 42 frickin dollars, lol. I attached a pic of it in post #7. It super scary having a 6" blade of death spinning around in a drill press, but it got the job done. Next time ill wear gloves tho, i got a nasty boo boo on my finger.

Nice clean work man! Great price on CXA3070 3K ADs, I thought the 3K ADs were only in CXB for $38. Hard to keep up LOL.

@SupraSPL This guy on ebay claims to be selling AD in 3000k. A few people on here have bought from him and contacted Cree to see if this is even possible. I bought 5 of them, hopefully its legit, maybe they are ABs and hes trying to pull a fast one, who knows for sure.

The sweetheart deal is over on verical.com (qty20) cxa3070 AD 4000K for $26.97 minus a 5% coupon code for orders over $500. The 4ks will be the bulk of the build.

O gotcha, the 4Ks probably are AD, very good price either way. Wasnt long ago I paid $48 ea for CXA3070 3K ABs bought in bulk LOL

You're making the rest of us look like slackers with these builds. Nice work.

Growmau5 said:

@PurpleBuz i had to special order a 140mm bimetal hole saw , it was like 42 frickin dollars, lol. I attached a pic of it in post #7. It super scary having a 6" blade of death spinning around in a drill press, but it got the job done. Next time ill wear gloves tho, i got a nasty boo boo on my finger.

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thanks, I'll be doing holes like that with my old black decker cordless ... scary yes , but go low speed.

I was thinking of getting a circle glass cutter to score the aluminum. I'v heard you can score thin aluminum and snap it almost like glass.

@BigYellowCob thanks so much for the kind words. I think we all play off of each others ideas around here, i just enjoy professional execution of the idea as my hobby.

@PurpleBuz im not sure about the glass drill bit on aluminum, but I have a bunch of diamond tipped glass holesaws, i can try it on some scrap alum and post a picture for you .

Growmau5 said:

@BigYellowCob...I think we all play off of each others ideas around here, i just enjoy professional execution of the idea as my hobby...

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I completely agree with you on this. My DIY LED wouldn't look the way it does without the inspiration and build ideas from the guys here. And I too, like a professional execution of anything I build.