Trying out induction

Splifferous

New Member
Hey Captain!

I was chatting up IG today and asked them if they had any information to share that might be useful on the circular shaped EFDL lamps you bought for reflectors. Darryl told me that the one thing to be careful of when you're building a reflector around these lamps is that the glass has a mercury amalgam tip or spur that comes out of the glass and will often times have a second spur that houses which is referred to as a 'gitter'. The gitter will have a tiny piece of indium in it that is used to help vaporize the mercury and attracts any carbon that might be in the glass from when it was sealed closed.

The biggest issue with inexpensive glass lamps from China can be illustrated in these photo's he sent me where an 'alibaba' 400 watt lamp was brought into their office for what the customer had hoped could be repaired. Of course there is no way to repair what happened to the glass. In this case it was just a very slight bump of the alibaba gitter spur that caused the lamp to lose vacuum and was rendered useless. The pictures below show the glass tube with the magnetic coils having been removed.

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In this picture you can see in the upper ring where the phosphor is missing. This is where the gitter had snapped off.

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What they found in this case was that the glass wall thickness from this manufacturer varied wildly from thick wall of .062" or 1.57mm to a thin wall of .026" or 0.66mm and at the gitter they measured only .034 or 0.87. Inda-Gro has a uniform wall thickness of 1.5mm. Since the gitter sticks out of the lamp this makes for a easily breakable appendage if you're not careful.

The following pictures show the tube variations and why you should be extra careful when constructing a reflector around these glass spurs. In the picture on the far left you can see with the naked eye how much of a difference there is in the wall thickness. Not only is it expensive when these get broken you do not want to get mercury on your plants or ever come in contact with it.

View attachment 2430979View attachment 2430980View attachment 2430981

On occasion you can actually get what you pay for. Quality glass and phosphors may run a bit more but in the end it's one less thing to worry about. Unless you really know the brand assume those babies can break without much effort. Hope that helps.
now thats real shit right there, bro! i always try to point out to people that EVERYTHING comes down to the finer details, and those pics illustrate that spot on.

thanks for sharing that!
 

Splifferous

New Member
I'm not really a NWO kinda guy but the benefit of having over a 1/2 decade behind me gives me some historical perspective to tap into.

On November 20th 2012 a world economic summit was held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Titled the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership this summit developed strategies and agreements as to exactly how future world trade is going to be conducted between member nations.

With all the force, arm twisting and personal charisma that our president could muster, during meetings and speeches, President Obama agenda was to influence the exclusion of China from this members nations agreement. Not only was our president ultimately rebuked in that effort, it was the USA that was excluded from that agreement. It was determined amongst the Trans-Pacific member nations in attendance that, among other things which the US is falling short on ie innovation, exports, etc., the US dollar lacks the stability (gold went from $300/oz to $1,700/oz in 10 years) and foundational value to allow it to remain as the worlds reserve currency for international trade. It was agreed that the new standard reserve currency will be the Chinese Yuan Renminbi or CYR and not the US dollar.



The dollar's value in the Asian market will continue to fall as it's relevance to these member countries is less dependent on their exports to the US and the strength of our currency falls. Prices for Chinese manufactured goods will rise and quality will fall as our dollar means less and less to these countries economic success. The very countries in which we export our jobs and voraciously import their products.

In these volatile economic times the support of US manufacturers and those that supply them I would put at the top of our responsibilities as citizens. I will do everything within my limited universe to not support Chinese imports but with the Federal Reserve working overtime to print more paper (Quantitative Easing) can anyone really blame the member Asian nations to look for alternatives? What a fucking mess.

This is one sobering read that you won't likely catch from our media. Get through it and you'll see what I mean. From the 11-27-12 Asian Times: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/NK27Dj02.html
damn chaz! your posts are so on point and well constructed, i love reading them. i just wish i found more other posts that are rep worthy, cuz you got like 3 or more posts that i wanna +rep, but can't yet :fire:
 
I do work for Inda-Gro.... catch me here or if you are in the NW US, I can help you ditrectly with questions and ordering, including expert design and consult for room/space design......
 
you've got Inda-Gro, right? I have them myself and will be the company's NW US rep soon..... I can tell you that with IG, you can get the light far closer to the plant than with anything that develops any grand amout of heat. My lights ride within about 2 inches (yes, 2 inches!) from the plant with no ill effects (although my space is usually a cool 66 degrees). MH or Sodium bulbs fall of in tensity so quickly (like about 12-16 inches) that you can't get the same performance out of them. And none of my plants seem to be suffering from lack of light at the lower leaves.....
 

captainmorgan

Well-Known Member
Stage one of my DIY induction reflector,$1 pizza pan.It's 13" across which is perfect. I have aluminum coil stock that's used for siding trim work and I'll use that to make a flared hoop which I can pop rivet to the pizza pan to direct the light down. Haven't figured out what to use yet for a concave cone to mount in the center but I can add that later. All I need is a couple small eye bolts,some small chain and a can of flat white spay paint and I'm in business.
 

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chazbolin

Well-Known Member
Hiya Spliff! Thank you so much for the kind words. I appreciate that there are places like this where a common passion get's people of all skills and backgrounds together. At a micro levels it's a place where techniques and ideas are exchanged in the interest of making us better gardeners but at a macro level I can't help but bring up the impact that issues such as;


  • how the increased levels of radiation is effecting our planet and our health by the foods we eat
  • a political/judicial system that holds contrary Federal vs State positions on cannabis (as well as many other issues, i.e. healthcare, border security, etc. ) to the peoples will in those states that have made a clear determination that this is a plant that they want to treat ailments homeopathically and in two states to date recognize even it's recreational use.

My relief comes from the joy of growing and enjoying the fruits of my labor with all the plants I grow. However with cannabis I'm afraid that no matter what the states say, the fed will never back off the schedule 1 status of cannabis since it means an undermining of the currency and an assault on the Petrochemical, Pharmaceutical, Military, Industrial, Transnational, Corporate, Fascists, Elite SOB's that must hold control over the masses.

I pay homage to those that have come before me. As to how the currency devaluation affects cannabis and to us as citizens I would encourage everyone who happens upon this post to listen to the immortal words of the recently departed Gatewood Galbraith. Timely words that at this moment in time (see fiscal cliff) ring truer than ever. You won't believe how fast 15 minutes of video will trip on by;

[video]http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play;_ylt=A0S00MmcwMRQ6zUAAK37w8QF;_ylu=X3oDMTBrc3 VyamVwBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDdmlkBHZ0aWQD?p=gatewood+galb raith&vid=789b5522a614df5bd2390f0c7b971949&l=15%3A 17&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts3.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3D V .4532093285367958%26pid%3D15.1&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fw ww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DTzPFZukWYrc&tit=Gatew ood+Galbraith%3A+Running+for+KY+Governor+Against+A +%26quot%3BCulture+of+...&c=1&sigr=11as5i0v7&fr=gr eentree_ff1&tt=b[/video]
 

chazbolin

Well-Known Member
Don't want to hijack the good Captains thread so this will be the last divergence I make. In 1991 Gatewood and Willy Nelson drove a car fueled entirely on cannabis biofuel across the State of Kentucky. Listen as Gatewood describes his work @ the 2010 Seattle HempFest.

[video=youtube;fmYEh13GjOQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fmYEh13GjOQ#![/video]

All is not doom and gloom. Our current masters in Washington do have sound policies and strategies in place when it comes to bringing the jobs back from China. All it takes is paying the workers $.023 per hour and keeping our prisons full by simply not reclassifying our favorite plant from a schedule one status.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/15/unicor-prison-labor_n_1778765.html

For decades, small U.S. factories have battled for business with government-run operations that outsource labor to Americans behind bars. And the tension is only growing as job creation and the role of government take center stage in Washington.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CySzoJFkTA8

Don't you wish all politicians had a healthy dose of Gatewood DNA in them?
 

captainmorgan

Well-Known Member
Well I've been sick the last week and had no energy to mess with the new lights until yesterday. But I got them finished up and running today.So 360 watts of 5000k induction should out perform 432 watts of T5 HO in veg right? I'm planning on adding 108 watts of T5 660 nm to it when I flip to flower.

I mounted the ballasts on the outside of my cabinet and the temps inside are 5 degrees cooler than with the T5's,it's now just above room temp.
 

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captainmorgan

Well-Known Member
My mainlined asymmetric clones under the new 360 watts of induction.I can see that mainlining from seed must be much easier than asymmetric clones.
 

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captainmorgan

Well-Known Member
The new ballasts on the side of my cabinet.I'm glad I decided to mount them outside,temps inside are very nice now.I know it's not the neatest job, but I was in a hurry.
 

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hyroot

Well-Known Member
Newb question coming.If the leaves point up towards the light, this is good right?
When the leaves point towards the sky / light. That means the stomatas on the leaf surface are opened up more than usual. Transpiring more co2, o2, and absorbing and processing much more light.

When you have the right spectrum balance whether its induction, plasma, led, or par t5. That will happen more often than not. That also causes faster vegative growth.

Its a good thing.
 

chazbolin

Well-Known Member
Well I've been sick the last week and had no energy to mess with the new lights until yesterday. But I got them finished up and running today.So 360 watts of 5000k induction should out perform 432 watts of T5 HO in veg right? I'm planning on adding 108 watts of T5 660 nm to it when I flip to flower.

I mounted the ballasts on the outside of my cabinet and the temps inside are 5 degrees cooler than with the T5's,it's now just above room temp.
The ballasts should not be mounted to a combustible surface like wood. You need some airflow around them. Thermal runaway on a digital ballast can easily push the housing temp well above 150F. IMO removing the ballast is not worth doing since the lamp surface temp runs around 200F and the driver housing is only going to normally run 115F.
 

captainmorgan

Well-Known Member
The ballasts should not be mounted to a combustible surface like wood. You need some airflow around them. Thermal runaway on a digital ballast can easily push the housing temp well above 150F. IMO removing the ballast is not worth doing since the lamp surface temp runs around 200F and the driver housing is only going to normally run 115F.
chaz thanks for the info. I have the entire cabinet, lights and fans on it's own 15 amp GFCI circuit. Shouldn't that offer me protection from any problems? And I also added stand offs to the ballasts so they have air flow behind them.
 

chazbolin

Well-Known Member
The 15 amp circuit and feet behind the housing is good but I would not be on a GFI for my room. GFI's trip when a differential transformer sees just a 5 ma difference between the hot and neutral. This to prevent shock to humans around sinks or outdoors. This GFI trip can easily occur during a lights on cycle any you'll miss a daylight schedule or more if it's been a couple of days before you catch it. I bypass GFI's and just make sure everything is grounded.
 
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