IAm5toned
Well-Known Member
the 55 volts refers to the OPERATING VOLTAGE of the lamp.
what you need to be concerned with is the INPUT VOLTAGE.
the input voltage should be listed on there somewhere.. do you have a model number of the ballast?
A Bored Electrician to Answer Your Questions
- Thread starter IAm5toned
- Start date
what you need to be concerned with is the INPUT VOLTAGE.
the input voltage should be listed on there somewhere.. do you have a model number of the ballast?
Also, i will be using this room controller
http://www.hydroponics.net/i/133932
running a carbon filter and a fan that can push 900-1100 CFM and probably 3-4 oscilating fans with another intake and exhaust fan. Thats probably it as far as appliances being ran in the room
http://www.hydroponics.net/i/133932
running a carbon filter and a fan that can push 900-1100 CFM and probably 3-4 oscilating fans with another intake and exhaust fan. Thats probably it as far as appliances being ran in the room
IAm5toned
Well-Known Member
that is another bad ass peice of equipment. what did it run you?
IAm5toned
Well-Known Member
pc fans are dc power so what i did was take a cell phone charger witch converts it to dc power strip the wires and twist them together
IAm5toned
Well-Known Member
how many wires does it have on the LINE SIDE (side that connects to the power, not the lamp)
sometime commercial ballasts are multi-tap, meaning they have a different set of wires for each voltage they work on.
IAm5toned
Well-Known Member
someone else has asked me a similar question before:
all you need is a plug in wall adapter, just make sure its big enough to handle the fan wattage
IAm5toned
Well-Known Member
lol you have balls my man.....
your lucky it didnt shock the shit outta you when you ganked it
ha ha lol when i cut the wire sparks were flyen everywhere and made a pop noise and all the lights inside the back of the store shut of idk maybe blew somethin. but i took off the back peice and there was all the info on it. it turns out it was 120 v the whole time but i do got one more quick question for you if you dont mind. ok remember i said i cut the wires well how do i put a plug on the end?
The Good Doctor
Active Member
I have a friend who has a property on which he has done some power bypassing.
At the point at which the meter comes in the house, on the inside of the house there is a two fuse breaker with 80 amp each fuses. Two 110's come in the top of this, and out the bottom. This is the backside of the meter. They along with grounds and a neutal go to the main breaker for the property. In order to get some so called free power he bypassed one leg of the 110 from above the meter straight down to the house box. He even pulled that legs 80 amp in fuse at the point of the meter. But when he turns off all the fuses in the house but the ones on that leg of 110, and uses 110 only(not 220) from the so called free leg, the meter still spins.
What gives, technically this should be impossible?
At the point at which the meter comes in the house, on the inside of the house there is a two fuse breaker with 80 amp each fuses. Two 110's come in the top of this, and out the bottom. This is the backside of the meter. They along with grounds and a neutal go to the main breaker for the property. In order to get some so called free power he bypassed one leg of the 110 from above the meter straight down to the house box. He even pulled that legs 80 amp in fuse at the point of the meter. But when he turns off all the fuses in the house but the ones on that leg of 110, and uses 110 only(not 220) from the so called free leg, the meter still spins.
What gives, technically this should be impossible?
str8dropkid
Active Member
what do i hook my 120v 80mm cooling fans to?
IAm5toned
Well-Known Member
ummm i would hook them to 120v....
IAm5toned
Well-Known Member
this is technically possible
but very STUPID.
want to see someone that spent 5+MILLION on a grow op and did the same thing, and got busted because the power companies consumption vs. usage didnt add up right... so they went looking for where it was going.
whywe dont rip off the power company:
SO HOW DID THEY GET CAUGHT?
This place was a modern fortress. In addition to the secret entrance and the secret escape hatch, there were surveillance cameras everywhere. With such a sophisticated and well-hidden operation, surely you wonder how did these villains ever got caught?
I wondered the same thing. In October 2006 my friend Gary Richardson sent me an email that contained all the pictures listed above. The pictures had captions included, but there was no story that accompanied the pictures. I wondered where the Pot Farm was located and what the story was. I asked Gary if he knew anything, but he replied he didn't know the story behind it.
I loved the pictures! But without the story, my imagination was going wild. What could possibly have tripped up such a terrific operation? Where did they make their mistake?
Unable to be satisfied with just the pictures, I decided to give the Internet and Google a try. I had one very big clue: the first picture said "a house in Tennessee." So I typed in "marijuana bust tennessee". Within seconds, I had the story. Isn't Google incredible?
Now I was able to learn how they got caught. I will give you the answer in a moment, but first see if you can guess:
- A truck carrying marijuana got pulled over by State Police.
- Electrical disruptions in the area made officials suspicious.
- Husband cheated on wife and wife turned him in for revenge.
- Argument about how to split the money turned one man into a rat.
- Putting too much cash in one bank made a bank official suspicious.
- A Mexican farm worker hired to help harvest the crop tipped the authorities.
- A dealer got caught and pointed the finger up the chain to save his own neck.
- A nearby neighbor was curious to learn why no one seemed to live in the house.
- A huge infrared signature gave them away. The heat alone coming out from the ventilation system would appear on any thermal imaging device.
Are you ready for the answer? If you guessed "Electrical Power Disruptions", then go to the head of the class. Yes, suspicious fluctuations in the area's electricity led to their downfall. Personally, I wouldn't have guessed this in a thousand years!
The men started stealing electricity from the local power lines to supply their fortress. They spliced into wires and caused power disruptions to the local area. Supervisors at the local power company were losing power somewhere and decided to look into it.
Back when Fred Strunk and company were building their invisible fort, the local electric company was asked to install a much larger transformer than usually required by a residence. But once the growing operation began, Fred and his gang found to their dismay they still did not have enough electrical power to operate the grow lamps required to raise 1,000 marijuana plants at a time.
They were afraid to ask the electric company to install more power since this would be a very suspicious request without a "reason".
Afraid to risk exposure by making a second request, this left them with two choices: reduce the size of their operation or steal the needed electricity. They chose the latter path. The men spliced into the Tri-County Electric line and began to steal electricity.
The huge thirst for electricity proved to be their downfall. The electricity company detected that a large amount of electricity was disappearing. Since there was no simple answer to account for the problem, the company had to track the problem down.
Investigators eventually discovered the illegal splices and alerted the police.
(RICK ARCHER'S NOTE ONE: I wish I could be more specific with the details about how they got caught. As I previously mentioned, I have absolutely no direct connection to this story at all. Everything I report is something I gained from research on the Internet. I am very curious myself to learn more details. I must have read through a dozen different stories on the Internet and what I have shared with you is all I could find out.
For a while, I wondered why the articles were so were vague when discussing how the police tracked Fred down. After all, the same stories gave a thorough description of Fred's punishment. After giving it some thought, I decided that the lack of information was deliberate. Most of the articles I read were from Tennessee newspapers.
Since the newspaper articles about Fred's Pot Bust were written from interviews with Law Enforcement, I suppose the police didn't want to be too candid about how they got onto to his trail and take the chance that other potential bad guys might learn from Fred's mistake.)
(RICK ARCHER'S NOTE TWO: In April 2008, I received an email that answers some of the questions I raised above. I cannot vouch for the authenticity of the email, but my gut feeling is that this account is correct. I appreciate the help!)
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE DOWNFALL OF THE POT FARM
-----Original Message-----
From: Mike
Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2008 9:13 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Pot farm information
"I received your page in an email and have more information for you.
My brothers and I hunt just outside of Hartsville, TN (near Trousdale) and one of my brothers lives there. The story from my brother, who knows many people up there, is that an electric company official went to the property to investigate the power spike. He went to the front gate. Yes, the geniuses had an "estate" gate that you would imagine would be at the front of a mansion. The official could not raise anyone from the elaborate intercom system and hopped the side fence. He went to the house; found that there was nothing inside. The idiots didn't even put up heavy curtains or such to hide the vacant nature of the home. When the official was looking in the window someone came out of the woods with a shotgun and told him to get off of the property. Now, they may not be the most intelligent people in the world, but if you are doing something illegal, wouldn't you try to make the official leave without pissing him off? Well, you guessed it; the official went to the police.
My brothers and I have talked about this for a few years, and, being the stereotypical 'Monday morning quarterbacks", would have some other LEGAL operation going to account for the power spike and have some other explanation: small factory, brewery, computer server bank that could be turned off and on
Also, a few more points: They found a dead neighbor a few months before the bust. It is thought that one of the escape hatches came out onto his property and the victim encountered one of the pot farmers. A few days after that they found two dead immigrants on outlying properties. It is thought that the pot farmers were tying up loose ends.
I hope this gives you more information."
From:
Sent: Wednesday, March 18, 2009 10:26 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: pot farm
I was doing some web surfing and came across your page on the Tennessee pot farm. I grew up here in Nashville. All i have to say is Tennessee is the second largest producer of Marijuana in the country, next to California. It is very much a part of Appalachian culture and is used by just about everyone. Everything comes through Nashville. So much is produced and trafficked through here. And everyone knows everyone. Its a given here, you never say names and you never talk about who you know, because everyone knows everyone. I mean there is a serious underground marijuana movement in Tennessee. The old farmers have taught the kids everything they know. Now all the kids are grown up and pulling the weight themselves. Anyways, in answer to your question, how did Freddie get caught? It was a snitch. He didn't want to pay what the wizard was asking, got pissed, and snitched. It was that simple. His whole operation went down because of some jerk. People out here are pros. Its never carelessness that gets them busted. Its always some greedy kid new to the game, thinks he can push his own prices. He told the electric company, who then investigated. I don't know what happened to the informant, but I'm sure he was probably a low life that got busted on some other charge. As for the dead immigrants. I think that was bull. They were professional gardeners, not murderers, I mean its weed, not crack. Anyways, you're probably scratching your head wondering why someone is replying to something you posted in 2007.
DOES CRIME PAY?
The ancient axiom says "Crime doesn't pay". The Tennessee Pot Farm case gives an ironic slant to this saying.
If the men had simply "paid" for their electricity, no one would ever have said a thing. But they had a problem. Once they realized they didn't have enough current to run their operation to capacity, they had three choices:
You already know what their decision was. And their gamble paid off for a while. Mastermind Fred Strunk lived the good life with an expensive home in Florida plus a huge yacht.
- They could run their operation at half-capacity and settle for a slower return on their enormous investment.
- They could ask the electric company to give them more juice and risk revealing their setup.
- They could steal the extra power and hope no one would notice.
But now Fred Strunk, 63, is not only facing 18 years of prison, he lost every cent he put into his operation. His house and all his holdings were confiscated by the government. The pot house is now up for sale! In addition, he is expected to reimburse Tri-City Electricity $61,000 for the energy he stole.
$61,000. That's quite a light bill.
INSIDE THE CRIMINAL MIND
Did you enjoy the pictures of the high-tech operation? Take a quick guess who published the pictures. No, it wasn't me. The pictures were published by the authorities who busted Fred and Friends. Like trophy hunters, the crime fighters wanted the world to see the evidence of their good police work.
Obviously the police were proud of themselves and rightly so. I can't imagine that Fred is your every-day run of the mill criminal. In the game of "Cops and Robbers", it had to be a thrill to catch a smart guy like Fred.
Truth be told, back when Fred was building his underground fortress, I would have put money that Fred would get away with it. Given what little I know about catching bad guys, I cannot imagine how an operation this well planned would ever be caught!
Therefore I suppose another reason to publicize this remarkable drug bust was to discourage other would-be pot farmers from trying as well.
One reason to publish the story is to make a point to all the bad guys out there. If someone as smart as Fred can be caught, what chance does anyone else have? Better not try it!