First time grower - new tent and light AGAIN!

Great and thorough update! No wonder you wanted to copy/paste to the lab lol.

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All these pictures have me a little envious of soil growers. You don’t have to worry about racks for run off. Your tent looks great. Must be nice to be able to work off ground level all the time :grin: Seeing all the work you do makes me tired just watching :grin:

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Holy cow! What an update. Everything looks fantastic in your entire garden. How do you find the time? You don’t know how far you can go until you break a few branches. Best way to learn anything is to screw it up a few times and learn all the ways not to do it first lol! And if the roof is in the way, raise da roof, yo. :v: :slight_smile: :+1:

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If you build it . . .


They will grow

:heart_eyes:

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That’s a really big difference! You’ve done a fantastic job and your girls are amazing :heart_eyes:

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Seems like only a few weeks ago you were showing you had got the green house. it didn’t take you long to fill it. It looks great full.

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Mothers Day until today! So stoked! And the super cropping had a really positive impact on filling them out!

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You are going to have LOADS of buds! That greenhouse is amazing!

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Awesome greenhouse! :green_heart:
My closet is starting make me question this whole perpetual thing lol! We might have to move soon, too…more to come!

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Happy Saturday fellow growers!
It’s a rainy day here on Cape Cod so no outdoor gardening but also no water lugging! I used to have to carry 12 1 gal jugs down to the greenhouse and one 14qt bucket, but ever since I transplanted all the girls into bigger pots last weekend I now have to lug 16 jugs plus the bucket!

So today was light build number three for me! Although I love my EB strip lights, I have been dreaming of of Quantum Board light since March or so!

The Light Master (@dbrn32) made me my shopping list and all the parts arrived yesterday. The boards from HLG and the driver from Jameco. I had the other assorted parts from my previous light builds.

There is a great video on UTube for reference - I don’t know how to link it here but if anyone needs it for their builds - I’m sure Rob can get it to you.

The first thing is to mount the boards to the heat sink


Make sure you flip one of them upside down so the positive lines up with the negative

Then take a short piece of your 18g wire - strip the ends and insert them into the + and - connectors on the board

Then on the top connect one 18 g wire to each of those connectors (I used a black wire and a gray wire so I could tell positive from negative) and run those wires through the hole so they come out on the other side of the board where the driver is. The colored wires coming off the driver are very clear about which is positive and which is negative - so then I inserted those colored wires into the wago and matched them up with the gray or black 18g wires.

Then you take the other end of the driver wire (there are three colors ) and snap those into wagos according to their colors and connect them to your power cord. The power cord (you can literally buy a heavy duty extension cord and cut it to the length you want) - pull it apart and you will see three colored wires. You can see the end of the power cord and the end of the driver in this pic

Here they are connected except for the last ground wire. See how the wago orange part is open - they are so easy to use. Insert the stripped wire end in as far as it will go and then clip it down.
IMG_2784

Once you have the all the wires connected and the driver is secured to the top of the heatsink. You are ready to plug this light in! Easy-peasey!

Now, I want you to all understand - I have never, and I mean never messed with anything electronic in my life before I built my first light. And my second light was easier, and this one though a different set up and driver -was the easiest by far! So please - before anyone buys another Chinese blurple light - you might want to give this a try. I spent $200 on the boards and heatsink and $67 on the driver!

And though that pic might not look bright, it lit up my entire living room like a flood light! I will post an update pic as soon as I get it in my 3x3 tent!

And lastly, when you plug it in - make sure you have sunglasses already on - because if you are a nutcase like me - your first instinct will be to look right at it - and you will see dots for 5-10 minutes!!

Installed in the tent UPDATE:
Last pic with the Viparspectra


Light hung at 30"

And the girls getting a taste of the new light

So happy! :hugs:
@blackthumbbetty - it is much easier than you think to build!
Hope this might help bring it even more alive for you @PurpNGold74
@Whodat66 I built this on for my 3x3 growing space with dbrn’s help :+1:t3:

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:star_struck: :clap: :clap: :clap: Another great build. I’m anxious to be able to upgrade.

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You got that finished quick. Nice job :grin:

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The light looks great in there. Great step-by-step! Thanks!

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Awesome job! Thanks for taking pics along the way and the instructions too. I know a lot of members get intimidated by having to assemble, but I think you’ve shown it to be very easy.

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Is that a 260 kit for 4 plants? If so, I’m thinking that for my 2-plant space that might be the perfect thing. What does it put out heat-wise compared to the Viparspectra?

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Good morning @Whodat66 I saw your post on the DIY thread which is why I tagged you into mine. It is my understanding it is the perfect light for my 3x3 tent size and the footprint I want to cover (I could just as easily have only 2 plants). I only ran it for a couple of hours before it was lights out and it did run warmer than the Vipar by about 5 degrees but that only put the tent up to 83 so I am not concerned. Today I will adjust my intake and exhaust fans to compensate. Please know I have no lighting experience and do not comprehend half of what dbrn says. I am just a happy grower who can follow his instructions! Hope this helps, Jeb

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Awesome light build and great tutorial :wink: can’t wait to start mine!

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I’m right there with you. If I buy the right thing, I can follow the directions and put it together. Beyond that…

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Thanks, @Momtomask! You all make it look so easy. Next new light, I think I’m going to try this whole build my own, thing.

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now you have that light you may have to reduce #of plants because of overcrowding…lol
i :hearts:new grow toys!

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