There's a Black Dog in my Jardin: mc130p's horticultural adventure

mc130p

mc130p

Well-Known Member
So, it still works after a few hours:) The back of the COB mounting plate is cool to the touch, so I took off the fan to see how hot it gets.

So, it get's pretty warm with the fan off, but not too hot to touch. I put the fan back on, and it keeps the heat sink really cool. I don't have a thermometer, but it's not much above room temperature. The fan is 12V, but I'm just using a 9V wall wart to power it for now, and it is really quiet.

The 1.7A power supply is fairly warm to the touch. It won't burn you, but it isn't something you'd want to hold in your hand. I'm going to mount it on a big aluminum heat sink that I have and put it outside of the tent.

These things are why I didn't do a permanent job of wiring/installation(it's not pretty, i'm not proud at all, hah)...no switch on the power supply and a wall wart for the fan, lol.
 
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mc130p

mc130p

Well-Known Member
Hi everyone,

I was so excited about putting the light together that I forgot to mention that all 3 Liberty Haze seeds popped open, so I planted them yesterday. Unfortunately, the 1024 hasn't popped yet, and it's been since Saturday, so I'm calling that one a no-go. I really like the 1024 smoke, but I'm not happy that 2/3 seeds failed to germinate. They were small, and looked immature, imo. Also, I don't see a lot of 1024 being grown on the interwebs, so they might be old too. I'll give them one more shot with a 3-pack, but if I get the same results I will not blame a bad batch. All 5 of the LH seeds that I bought germinated, so I know it's not me, hah. So, I decided to put a Dinafem Super Silver into a wet paper towel to germinate:)

Edit: So, I was checking out the COB hanging in the tent and with the white light in there, I could get a good look at the Black Dog light...well, bad news on that front. A number of LEDs look fried. So, it took a year and a month for it to crap out, even though technically, it still works. I think I only had about 3 months total that it wasn't in use-I ran it either 12/12 or anything in between that and 24/0. Now we can see how the warranty process works out. I'll put a pic up once I get my camera battery charged and an email sent to BD.

More importantly, I get to add some more COBs to the tent sooner than I thought:) I was thinking I'd put a single 5000K 3590 in the center and flank it with the 3000K 3070 I already have and either another 3000K 3070, or a 2700K 3070. What do you guys think?
 
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FranJan

FranJan

Well-Known Member
Sorry bout the diodes MC :(. Never had any of my panels based on that design not do that. Classic example. Even with all that cooling the BDs diodes are just driven too hard for that design. Just too many diodes too close together. It's not a good design fo a grow panel IMO. Are those the greens and or blues that got baked? Personally I never bothered pursuing any warranty claims since I had the feeling they were just going to try to give me a fat discount on another model which I bet BD tries, but I could be wrong.

It's a mixed blessing bro. Just like you said, more COBs :)!
 
stardustsailor

stardustsailor

Well-Known Member
Marks of 'violent' outgassing ,of some sort ..

Overheated(and ' exploded ' )- from silicone len's - or case's polymer ?

- Volatile Organic Compounds ... ?

Maybe so...
If so ...
Low quality materials used.
Low quality leds.

I think it's about time,to exclude any type of grow led light using plastic cased -8 mm Dia. leds ,
from the 'new led grow light era' ...
They belong to 'Led History',already ....
For plenty of reasons ...

One good reason ,is their ridiculously high thermal resistance ...
Today's ceramic - tiny -leds or Cobs ,have almost 10 times lower thermal resistance from junction to case...

That ,translates to higher efficiency,already.
And longer service life,of course,if cooled properly.

Cheers.
 
mc130p

mc130p

Well-Known Member
Yeah, you guys are definitely right, and it was only some blues that overheated. They all still work, but I'm not going to run the light anymore until it gets fixed. Tbh, I'm not really sure when it happened, I just noticed it yesterday. I will say that I think I had a bit more stretching last grow, so they probably went out towards the beginning of the last grow. I don't take too many looks at the light these days, though I'm glad I did.

But I agree with both FJ and SDS...too many diodes too close together. But, that is the only way they can get proper intensity out of the setup I guess. BD called me today, they're paying shipping to send the light back to them, so hopefully they just replace it:) If they do try to give a discount, I won't be buying. They can ship the light back and, I'll keep it as a spare, or I'll rob the power cord, fans, drivers, and heat sink from it for a COB or two.

Edit:
So, I just ordered a 3590 2700K and a 3070 5000K to add to the rats nest:) I will drive the 3070 at 1.7A and the 3590 at 1.1A. Now to get heat sinks. With all the power supplies moved out of the tent, it should be significantly cooler than it was with the BD :)
 
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mc130p

mc130p

Well-Known Member
Hi everyone, I hope you're doing well:) I've had some bad luck in the tent that I've never had before: 2 seeds didn't make it out of the dirt-I dug them up and they had grown into a little knot...strange.

The third girl is fine, and the Dinafem girl cracked open yesterday, so she's in the dirt now too. I had to order some new seeds since I'm out and one plant in a 6 inch pot won't cut the mustard. I considered popping the party cup girl and growing her full size, but I really want to participate in the comp, so I didn't do it. I've got BF LSD and Liberty Haze and HSO Trainwreck coming, plus a number of freebies:) I hope they make it!

Also, the 3590 2700K and the 3070 5000K arrived, along with their power supplies. Now we're just waiting on heat sinks-between now and then I've got to get to the electronics shop and buy some splices, wire, and a few switches.

Think it would be overkill if I added two more 3000K 3070's?

Also, BD is not paying full shipping price, but they are paying half and they say they will fix the light under warranty. I'm sending the light back to them on Monday, so we'll see what they end up doing to it.
 
epicfail

epicfail

Well-Known Member
mc130p,

I was always hesitant and skipped over your thread because I had no interest in BD panels. I am glad I looked, there were some beautiful photos of top shelf buds you have be posting. I cant wait to see your party cup, also that heat sink is awesome. I just sent 6 feet of heat sink out to be anodized black now that I am done lapping, its the last step before final assembly.

Adding 2 more 3000k should be fine, you don't have to run them as hard but feel free too. Sorry to hear about your BD, sell the new/refurb BD panel and get more COB's with the money. I've got 8 cxa3070 3000k AB's, enough for 1 per ft² running at 1050mA in a 2'x4' gorilla tent. Plus two Z4's at 1400mA that I'm not sure what to do with, its an addiction.

Do you have a kill-a-watt type product to see how much power you are drawing from the wall?
 
mc130p

mc130p

Well-Known Member
epicfail said:
mc130p,

I was always hesitant and skipped over your thread because I had no interest in BD panels. I am glad I looked, there were some beautiful photos of top shelf buds you have be posting. I cant wait to see your party cup, also that heat sink is awesome. I just sent 6 feet of heat sink out to be anodized black now that I am done lapping, its the last step before final assembly.

Adding 2 more 3000k should be fine, you don't have to run them as hard but feel free too. Sorry to hear about your BD, sell the new/refurb BD panel and get more COB's with the money. I've got 8 cxa3070 3000k AB's, enough for 1 per ft² running at 1050mA in a 2'x4' gorilla tent. Plus two Z4's at 1400mA that I'm not sure what to do with, its an addiction.

Do you have a kill-a-watt type product to see how much power you are drawing from the wall?
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Thanks a lot epicfail, I appreciate you stopping by, and I'm happy that you like the buds:) That is a really good idea on the BD panel....I hadn't thought about selling the light once it gets fixed. I don't have a multimeter or a kill-a-watt, but I plan to get one eventually.....I'm just estimating power usage by using the datasheet's Vf vs I graph, so I think I'm using about 60-65 watts on the first 3070 at 1.7A. I was thinking I'd be at a little less than 200W with the 3 lights. I've been kind of lazy about this...never actually did the hard calculations, just back of the envelope estimations.
 
mc130p

mc130p

Well-Known Member
Ooh! Finally some luck! One of the Liberty Haze girls that I left for dead, (it still had a little green on the cotyledons despite being underground so I gently untied it and put it in the proper orientation just below a super thin layer of soil) well she sprouted out of the ground!! Holy shit. She's not pretty, but she's alive and growing:)
shelives.jpg
 
mc130p

mc130p

Well-Known Member
PSUAGRO. said:
Put some form of aeration into your soil-mix^^^ friend......seems to moist too me.................it(fem?) will bounce back, good luck!
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Yeah, you're right-thanks for lookin out! ....I've been thinking about adding some aeration-usually it's not a problem because the pots are tiny and they dry out pretty fast, especially when the plants get big, but definitely not ideal.... but really it looks soaked because I just watered it about 30 seconds before I took the pic :) She's still alive and doing well:) A bit off-center in the pot b/c I kind of said "fack it," but I'm glad she made it. Well, hopefully it's a she...they're feminized seeds so we'll see :) Usually, every seed I put in the dirt germinates and gives me nice buds, but maybe I got sloppy?

I moved the power supply for the COB out of the tent and put a small fan blowing on it...stays nice and cool now and I have removed probably the biggest heat source from the tent! I'm excited to see how cool all the COBs run once I get them put together. I figure that in the winter, if it gets too cold, I'll just move the power supplies into the tent for a free heater. Should be getting the heat sinks in the mail next week! And my attitude order is already "dispatched!!!"
 
C

corytrevor2014

Member
nice thread MC130, appreciate the insight with your BD240u, beautiful nugs too! can’t seem to locate your results tho, your gpw ratio? I’m interested in the 360u to cover a 2.5’x2.5’ footprint, but now that i seen your lamp have a few diodes blow out, I’m quite skeptical of BD and now I’m leaning towards the pro source UFO 180w, to cover a 2’x2’ instead.. any advice? Thanks and keep up the good work.. and id like to see your finished DIY LED panel, might just go that route although i have absolutely no idea where to start with all that!!! seems kinda crazy to me!
 
epicfail

epicfail

Well-Known Member
mc130p

mc130p

Well-Known Member
corytrevor2014 said:
nice thread MC130, appreciate the insight with your BD240u, beautiful nugs too! can’t seem to locate your results tho, your gpw ratio? I’m interested in the 360u to cover a 2.5’x2.5’ footprint, but now that i seen your lamp have a few diodes blow out, I’m quite skeptical of BD and now I’m leaning towards the pro source UFO 180w, to cover a 2’x2’ instead.. any advice? Thanks and keep up the good work.. and id like to see your finished DIY LED panel, might just go that route although i have absolutely no idea where to start with all that!!! seems kinda crazy to me!
Click to expand...
Thanks a lot for stopping by:) Yeah, I don't own a scale- I smoke all the buds myself, so the total weight doesn't matter as long as I have as much green as I want...sorry man, I've said it a few times, people don't like it, but oh well, I'm just a random schmuck on the interwebs. But, since I entered the Party Cup Comp, I'll have to buy a scale in a couple months.

It does suck that the BD light is temporarily out of commission, but I still think it is a decent light, especially since BD says they're going to fix it. I hesitated on even putting up the pic of the broken light, because I know lots of people here don't like the company and I think it's at least decent, but in the end I don't really give a shit, so I put it up.

tbh, I don't like telling people what to buy or not to buy, unless it's a total piece of crap. Plus, I haven't used many other brands of light, just Advanced, Black Dog, and Black Star(never buy), so it's hard to say if something is better or not without experience with the light.

But from what I've seen with the other threads though, you're probably better off going with a white/red combo like Apache.

epicfail put up the threads that I used to figure out what I wanted...there's a lot of good information on the site, and like I said before, my setup is pretty "home-made" so it's not impressive like the builds others on this site have done. However, it works and it won't start on fire, so I'm happy with the COB-job so far:)
 
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