New project! Led PC-growcase!

Hello RIU!
I've been inactive for a while (moved to an apartment rather than a house) and couldn't really get growing. As a matter of fact a police(wo)man lives in the apartment across from me lol...
But to the real ordeal! I've had plans for a while to make a stealth growbox, with some DIY led arrangement (I love leds). I've already made one LED light, with high-end Osram GD+, Cree's and some random chinese led's. I just haven't gotten around to testing it yet because of above reasons, unfortunately.
But now I will stop lurking and whine and shit, and get to it!

My PC case is a normal old one (I just got it for less than 4$ yay!), I've just removed most of the inner workings, and will try to smooth everything as much as possible, and put in some Mylar in the sides (still have to get some though).

Now to the LED's, I'm going to use a total of 85 watts true power draw from 13 LED's, yes 13. And not just any LED's, I'm using 5 Cree XML bin T6 (highest) cold white run at 2A each (6 w) and 8 LEDengin LZ4 660 nm unknown Bins run at 670 mA each (nearly 7 w each).
All of the LED's are mounted on stars and will be directly glued (with thermal glue) on to the top of the PC case, which will act as a heat sink.

A problem I will most likely encounter is that the LED's will become to hot, since my heatsinking is not quite adequate.. My solution right now will probably be to attach some CPU coolers on the outside of the casetop with some thermal glue..

I think I will end it here, as I can't really think of any more to write

Any que/suggestions feel free to post. And I will update tomorrow with pics and progress!

Ohh and btw, I only have the Cree led's right now so I will use those only during the short veg, the LEDengin should be here next week

Sounds pretty cool, can't wait to see you work some diy led magic. Subbed up.

Sweet. I've been thinking about doing something like this only with LED strips.

Hello guys and stoners!
A little update with some info on the XML led's I have 5 of them running at 2000mA each, so they should be drawing roughly 30 watts (maybe 33-34 in total because of power lost in the driver)
some info on them here

The XLamp XM-L LED is the industry’s highest performance, single-die white lighting-class LED. XLamp XM-L is 20% more efficient than XLamp XP-G at the same current, and can deliver 1000 lumens with 100 lumens per Watt efficacy. The Xlamp XM-L LED offers Cree’s industry-leading features: wide viewing angle, symmetrical package, unlimited floor life and electrically neutral thermal path.​

• At least 280 lumens at 700mA, 600 lumens at 1500mA and 1000 lumens at 3000mA
• Light efficacy(lumen per watt): 137@700mA, 112@1400mA, 75@3000mA
• Power: 2.03 Watt at 700mA, 4.65 Watt at 1500mA and 10.5 Watt at 3000mA
• Lifetime of at least 36.000 hours, only 2.8% brightness loss after 6000 hours

As you can see, I will get around 3300 lumens from those LED's (rough estimate from above numbers :b) which is pretty nice considering the power draw, comparing to metal halide lamps, the initial efficiency is pretty much the same (around 100 lm/w) But taking a look at the just 2.8% brightness loss after 6000(!) hours for the LED's, where MH will be close to the end of it's life, let alone much less efficient, I can pretty much say these LED's win big time
I will most likely take an actual measurement with a lux-meter at some point

I have already soldered the XMLs and glued them to the PC-case, now waiting for all of it to dry out! pics have been taken, and I'm just waiting for them to be sent from my phone, so a new update will be here within the hour!
Peace and love

Edit: Added title

ishitar said:

Sweet. I've been thinking about doing something like this only with LED strips.

Click to expand...

Thanks man

As for doing this with LED strips, I really cannot recommend it (as far as i've read) since most strips use diodes with roughly 0.1-0.2 watts each at max. This means you'd have to fill your entire PC case's wall with those strips before it's be effective. In addition, those LED's that are in strips, might be up to 50% less effective (if not more) in producing light as the newer high-end LED's. This means the strips might be drawing 60 watts of power, but the amount of actual usable light (µmoles per second) could be gained with only 30 watts of Osram Golden Dragon plus LED's (with less heat!).
Another thing (sorry for rambling on :b) is that you will have a harder time controling the thermal pathing. Controlling the thermal path with star heatsinks directly placed on the PC case-top, with lead most heat up and out of the case (without you even having to ventilate it away, yay) with the strips, they are not designed with a heat slug, so the heat will be thrown all over (though quite a bit will still go out the case, it is not as much as with single LED's)

Hope that helped
Peace and love

I just wanted to show you the progress I've made so far!

PC case: What I've done here is remove that big chunk that normaly holds the CD-drives and what not, and any other unnecessary things that were in the way , what I'm planning to do is cover up all holes to prevent light from escaping, and add a DIY carbon filter and fans, and lastly cover wall with mylar. In addition to this I might need to cover up the LED drivers, for their safety mainly, I might add some sort of column all the things can be inside...

LEDs: I've now mounted the XML's to the top and I'm waiting to test how hot the case gets from the LED's, hopefully the case will keep them cool... If not, then think about the heat when I add the 55 watts of LEDengin to it... Oh well, we'll see
And I'll just add, that those LED's are insanely bright It's like a light bomb in there!

And here are the pics..


Please comment, I've spent quite a bit of time on this, so I'll be very happy from some feedback

P.S. Can anyone link a guide on or tell me how to add pictures in the post (like large pictures i mean)

Edit: Woah triple post lol..

jubiare said:

very promising project, well done so far +rep for using xml

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Thanks man

So I've been running the system for 45 minutes, and the case-top is still touchable (roughly 40 degrees celcius) Which is just awesome! this means that with the ledengin leds, I can most likely just keep a computer fan blowing to keep them cool

Does anyone know roughly how deep the soil for the plant needs to be? Does it help if I expand more outwards instead of depth?

Hi Nick,

Always glad to see more DIYers out there.

Nikolaj06 said:

Now to the LED's, I'm going to use a total of 85 watts true power draw from 13 LED's, yes 13. And not just any LED's, I'm using 5 Cree XML bin T6 (highest) cold white run at 2A each (6 w) and 8 LEDengin LZ4 660 nm unknown Bins run at 670 mA each (nearly 7 w each).
All of the LED's are mounted on stars and will be directly glued (with thermal glue) on to the top of the PC case, which will act as a heat sink.

Any que/suggestions feel free to post. And I will update tomorrow with pics and progress!

Click to expand...

What is the make/model/part # of the driver(s) you are using? Are they dimmable? VDC or PWM?

Nikolaj06 said:

PC case:


Please comment, I've spent quite a bit of time on this, so I'll be very happy from some feedback...

Click to expand...

What are the exact interior dimensions of the case? (lwh)


Unless those pics are deceptive - and it's in fact as big as a large filing cabinet - you've got entirely too much light here. You should have no more that 25w max per sq. ft, with quality emitters like these.

With dimming capabilities, you can certainly (still use and) run your existing emitters, albeit at a lower mA, and pick up some nice efficiency gains (over your current planned levels) for the watts you eventually do end up running, too.

I agree; you also need to heat sink the backs of these at the earliest available opportunity. That thin sheet metal will only get you so far. Too bad you couldn't affix them directly to a nice Al (or even Cu) heatsink, rather than having to now use two thermal substrates between your stars and a primary heat dissipation surface. This will end up raising your equilibrium Tj a bit.

------------


I'm sure you've seen it already, but just in case you haven't, google 'Pinstripe's 2nd try: PC case + 22W LED'. 17 high-bin emitters (GD+), 22 watts, 38g - from 'all the way back in 2009'. Pictures are attached.

In any garden area, the plants will only produce a certain amount of usable biomass (which you can see as being rather apparent in Pinstripe's case, also, with his plants 'bursting out of the seams' like that), past which additional PPFD has rapidly diminishing returns, up to and including Photoinhibition, Phototoxicity, bleaching and breakup of the Chromophores, the creation of triplet states and prolonged singlet oxygen (not good), pH gradients across cell membranes, and worse.

You should try to avoid that at all costs.

Nikolaj06 said:

Does anyone know roughly how deep the soil for the plant needs to be? Does it help if I expand more outwards instead of depth?

Click to expand...

The deeper, the better. MJ likes a nice long taproot. If you're growing in a PC case you'll be height limited as it is, so it will be less of a problem, but you still want at least 6in of soil below the seed, if you don't want to limit your final size in an appreciable fashion.

Outward space will help a little, but the limiting factor will still be depth, not width. The taproot will start throwing more side shoots once it hits bottom, but growth (and height) will definitely slow without proper depth.

In hydro, this is not a problem. Even a small DWC (or E/F, but that requires more height, unless you can place your res under (well, below) the case and feed it in, which usually also compromises 'stealth') will eliminate the problem almost entirely, with enough reservoir volume (i.e. width 'works', here).

Good luck!


Cheers,

-TL

The Lurker said:

Hi Nick,

Always glad to see more DIYers out there.

Click to expand...

Thanks I'm just getting started, seems you have quite a bit more knowledge than me :b

The Lurker said:

What is the make/model/part # of the driver(s) you are using? Are they dimmable? VDC or PWM?

Click to expand...

The drivers are unfortunately some cheap Chinese drivers I got some time ago over Dealextreme.. So nothing fancy can be done with those :b
When they stop working (probably much sooner than the LED's) I'll switch to some higher quality drivers

The Lurker said:

What are the exact interior dimensions of the case? (lwh)

Unless those pics are deceptive - and it's in fact as big as a large filing cabinet - you've got entirely too much light here. You should have no more that 25w max per sq. ft, with quality emitters like these.

Click to expand...

The case is kind of small actually, its 37.5x15.5x43 cm (15x6x17 inches).. Looking at the pictures now I can actually see what you mean, it looks much larger xD

If I should get no more than 25 watt, I could change up how I use my drivers, and actually just use 1 of my 670mA drivers for 2 LED-engin and the 5 XML.. Hmm, that might work actually I will still be around 24 watts, but the heat should be much lower..

The Lurker said:

In any garden area, the plants will only produce a certain amount of usable biomass (which you can see as being rather apparent in Pinstripe's case, also, with his plants 'bursting out of the seams' like that), past which additional PPFD has rapidly diminishing returns, up to and including Photoinhibition, Phototoxicity, bleaching and breakup of the Chromophores, the creation of triplet states and prolonged singlet oxygen (not good), pH gradients across cell membranes, and worse.

You should try to avoid that at all costs.

Click to expand...

Hey could you elaborate on that? Or link to some pages explaining this in more detail, since I'm very confused on pretty much everything you just said ... :b

The Lurker said:

The deeper, the better. MJ likes a nice long taproot. If you're growing in a PC case you'll be height limited as it is, so it will be less of a problem, but you still want at least 6in of soil below the seed, if you don't want to limit your final size in an appreciable fashion.

Outward space will help a little, but the limiting factor will still be depth, not width. The taproot will start throwing more side shoots once it hits bottom, but growth (and height) will definitely slow without proper depth.

In hydro, this is not a problem. Even a small DWC (or E/F, but that requires more height, unless you can place your res under (well, below) the case and feed it in, which usually also compromises 'stealth') will eliminate the problem almost entirely, with enough reservoir volume (i.e. width 'works', here).

Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice, I thought it would be so.. I think I'll try with some DWC...

The Lurker said:

Good luck!


Cheers,

-TL

Click to expand...

Thanks for the long reply man! You made my day

sir you should do a diy on the leds you got goin in your pc case, im subbd and look forward to watchin it,

DO3SHA said:

sir you should do a diy on the leds you got goin in your pc case, im subbd and look forward to watchin it,

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I second that. Subbed for the grow

Beautiful! I would love to see what Cree is all about. This looks promising...

What happened here?

Did your cultivation stop? I'd like to see the harvest results in that space.