Oasis Grow Box

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Peter Webb

New Member
That's a great point, I've been looking into getting plastic tubing that will join together those wires.

Main problem is that I want to be able to adjust the light and take it all the way to the top. The Hook on top of case is a magnet, and can be moved off and there is a magnet as well on top of light. This lets you stick the light directly to the top of the case when it gets crowded.

Any ideas?
 
Fast dog

Fast dog

Well-Known Member
Yeah I mean the magnet is a good idea and yeah maybe some plastic tubing and a roller so you can move the light up and down also what are those boxes on the side is a small space like that you need every bit of the head room but in your box it's taken away by those things on the side.
 
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GrowUrOwnDank

Well-Known Member
You put a lot of thought in your system. But... From an experienced cab guy.

Your cab is small. I find it difficult and time intensive to keep a plant tame in a 4' cab. I find it takes more effort to tame the height of the plant than I want to invest in it. At least you had the foresight to realise that the light will take away some of that headroom. Height is a real problem in a cab.

I don't do hydro. I truly respect the dudes that do it and I get why. The benefits are great. It's just that I don't want to commit to adjusting ph everyday. Plus, cabs heat up. Even though I am sure your light doesn't put off the kind of heat HPS or CFL does it will still generate some heat. The enclosed space will heat up fast. Keeping heat issues in check can be done it's just difficult and requires effort. I am not sure how you can keep reservoir temps in check. Unless the ambient temp around the cab is very low. Anyway, I think hydro should be optional. I would prefer soil or hempy bucket in there. Otherwise I do like your hydro unit. Just not my thing.

The light. Yes I agree. You need to encase that thing. Plus, I find that in short confined cabs, side lighting is the best way to go. A light on each side would be a better choice. In my opinion.

Otherwise man I like it. Encase that light and let people do soil in that thing to avoid root rot issues. I think this is an early design and you should make a few changes here and there.

Edit. Screw in some hanging hooks in the corners and at the top to run your wiring out of the way. Keep it off the floor and organize. Also the cab I built had like a 4-5 inch space in the top to put stuff, like the fan filter, power strip, ballast, excess wiring, timer, whatever. You could possibly put your heat sink, power supply and drivers up in their and just hang the cob on its on heat sink/fan. Encased of course. You have a good idea. Just needs a little refining.
 
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Peter Webb

New Member
Fast dog said:
Yeah I mean the magnet is a good idea and yeah maybe some plastic tubing and a roller so you can move the light up and down also what are those boxes on the side is a small space like that you need every bit of the head room but in your box it's taken away by those things on the side.
Click to expand...
So the box on the left contains a fan/carbon filter. There are circular vents on the sides of the box that each of the side pieces fit over. They are then secured with a magnet.

The other side is the electrical. There is a driver for the LED, as well as for the fans. This is all done inside the top right box. I know it seems like a waste of space, but I'd rather not have an ugly ball of wires, and this way the entire "electrical housing" is detachable, and can be installed/removed. Here is a picture of the contents prior to putting the lid on. image.jpeg
Then here is the inside of the carbon filter component. The change in direction also serves to block the light.
image.jpeg
 
Fast dog

Fast dog

Well-Known Member
You should of placed all that on the outside so it doesn't eat into your space and yeah I sort of agree with the guy above in terms of a grow cab it's fairly small I would of concentrated on building a good practical functionable box and let the customer do the work with deciding how he wants to run it in terms of pots soil hydro etc... If not then I would just advertise it as a clone cab or small stealth veg cab.
 
P

Peter Webb

New Member
GrowUrOwnDank said:
You put a lot of thought in your system. But... From an experienced cab guy.

Your cab is small. I find it difficult and time intensive to keep a plant tame in a 4' cab. I find it takes more effort to tame the height of the plant than I want to invest in it. At least you had the foresight to realise that the light will take away some of that headroom. Height is a real problem in a cab.

I don't do hydro. I truly respect the dudes that do it and I get why. The benefits are great. It's just that I don't want to commit to adjusting ph everyday. Plus, cabs heat up. Even though I am sure your light doesn't put off the kind of heat HPS or CFL does it will still generate some heat. The enclosed space will heat up fast. Keeping heat issues in check can be done it's just difficult and requires effort. I am not sure how you can keep reservoir temps in check. Unless the ambient temp around the cab is very low. Anyway, I think hydro should be optional. I would prefer soil or hempy bucket in there. Otherwise I do like your hydro unit. Just not my thing.

The light. Yes I agree. You need to encase that thing. Plus, I find that in short confined cabs, side lighting is the best way to go. A light on each side would be a better choice. In my opinion.

Otherwise man I like it. Encase that light and let people do soil in that thing to avoid root rot issues. I think this is an early design and you should make a few changes here and there.

Edit. Screw in some hanging hooks in the corners and at the top to run your wiring out of the way. Keep it off the floor and organize. Also the cab I built had like a 4-5 inch space in the top to put stuff, like the fan filter, power strip, ballast, excess wiring, timer, whatever. You could possibly put your heat sink, power supply and drivers up in their and just hang the cob on its on heat sink/fan. Encased of course. You have a good idea. Just needs a little refining.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the detailed comments! I want to address everything you said because you had some great points.

In terms of size: the cab is 36" tall, keep in mind your losing less than 2" on top to the light. The surface of the COB is 115, meaning a plant can be an inch away without burning. If you use that reservoir you'd be getting a solid 28" of grow space (36" -3" lights -5" reservoir). I know that's not big but a 4' cab with a 12" bucket and 12" for lights is smaller when you look at usable space.

You're so right about the soil, that being said would you think it smart to include pots/anything? On the final version the system will be run from a Microcontroller Arduino. This will regulate temperature and allow you to set a lighting schedule. Would it be useful to have a similar reservoir that runs to soil pots? The goal being to set up auto watering. I know there are methods to make self-watering pots, I could have that all set up In a soil version.

Wiring is organized, it's hard to see in these pics but little wire clips hold up all the wires.

I kept those components inside because I don't want it to be obvious at first glance that this isn't a regular box. It currently runs silent and having a box on the side filled with the electrical is going to make that not possible. That being said do you think that somewhere else in the box might be a better spot than there?
 

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GrowUrOwnDank

Well-Known Member
Peter Webb said:
Thanks for the detailed comments! I want to address everything you said because you had some great points.

In terms of size: the cab is 36" tall, keep in mind your losing less than 2" on top to the light. The surface of the COB is 115, meaning a plant can be an inch away without burning. If you use that reservoir you'd be getting a solid 28" of grow space (36" -3" lights -5" reservoir). I know that's not big but a 4' cab with a 12" bucket and 12" for lights is smaller when you look at usable space.

You're so right about the soil, that being said would you think it smart to include pots/anything? On the final version the system will be run from a Microcontroller Arduino. This will regulate temperature and allow you to set a lighting schedule. Would it be useful to have a similar reservoir that runs to soil pots? The goal being to set up auto watering. I know there are methods to make self-watering pots, I could have that all set up In a soil version.

Wiring is organized, it's hard to see in these pics but little wire clips hold up all the wires.

I kept those components inside because I don't want it to be obvious at first glance that this isn't a regular box. It currently runs silent and having a box on the side filled with the electrical is going to make that not possible. That being said do you think that somewhere else in the box might be a better spot than there?
Click to expand...
I'll be honest with you. I put a lot of thought in my own cab. It had a little cubby in the top. The top lifts up and all the electronics are kept up there as I mentioned before. Started with top lighting, then dropped the lights and went with side lighting to save headroom. You are correct. The bucket or pot will waste valuable space in a soil or hempy grow.

The honesty part? I only actually finished maybe 2 grows inside the cab. Even then, even with LED, I used to have to leave the door open and have a bigger fan blowing into it to move that heat around. So much for stealtth. Most of my grows ended up in the closest. Now I don't even bother with the cab anymore. Which is where the cab was anyway. I was just pointing out some of my own issues and didn't mean to imply I was a "successful" cab expert. Moreso I just gave up. Not to say it's not possible because people do it all the time. It just takes more effort. I'm kinda lazy. lol. tbh

I don't know man. I like your cob. It sounds like something I might want to invest in. I'm probably the wrong person to truly critique your cab since I don't do that anymore. I just wanted to point out a few of my own experiences to give you food for thought. I honestly think you're on the right track. Just need to tweak it a bit. I would sell the light, cab, filter/fan as one unit and just maybe throw the hydro/soil stuff in as an option. I do like your hydro unit tho.

Good luck bro.
 
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Peter Webb

New Member
No I really appreciate it. I've done a lot of research, but am inexperienced at actual growing. I currently have two of these set up with Peppers/Green Beans.

Yeah, it is a pain to worry about ventillation. That's what's so nice about being able to set a temp with a thermostat. Right now I can have my outside temp be 60-75 and keep the internal at 75 for sure, just using the heat from the lights. Here is the Arduino I have in one of the boxes now to control all of that:

image.jpeg

Thanks for your input, stay tuned as I will definitely look into a soil version.
 
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