Water cooled cobs

OneHitDone

OneHitDone

Well-Known Member
skoomd said:
This is what scares me. I did watercooled PCs for 3 years. Got leaks more times than i want to admit to. And i would make sure everything was barped/clamped really well and test all the parts before using in a PC for leaks.

Whenever water is involved with electronics, I back off. I think people who do RDWC are crazy lol. Risk vs. Reward.

It's great in theory, but if your goal is to extend the lifespan (and a tiny efficiency boost) of the LEDs but you're using a cooling system that costs so much more and can risk burning your house down, I can't see the point. If you can recuperate the heat, it's more sensible to me. But otherwise im happy with my heatstinks for my LEDs that keep the LEDs under 50c passively and never will need maintenence.
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Sorry to hear your mechanical skills are soo lacking when it comes to containing such a simple substance as water bro :P
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
skoomd said:
This is what scares me. I did watercooled PCs for 3 years. Got leaks more times than i want to admit to. And i would make sure everything was barped/clamped really well and test all the parts before using in a PC for leaks.

Whenever water is involved with electronics, I back off. I think people who do RDWC are crazy lol. Risk vs. Reward.

It's great in theory, but if your goal is to extend the lifespan (and a tiny efficiency boost) of the LEDs but you're using a cooling system that costs so much more and can risk burning your house down, I can't see the point. If you can recuperate the heat, it's more sensible to me. But otherwise im happy with my heatstinks for my LEDs that keep the LEDs under 50c passively and never will need maintenence.
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It's not hard to build RDWC that doesn't leak. It's even easier to keep the water on the floor and the electronics up off of it.

A lil more engineering and you'd have it.
 
shimbob

shimbob

Well-Known Member
ttystikk said:
Strange, I didn't have much in the way of problems with leaks.
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This particular leak is due to me being sloppy with the lapping. The outlets on these blocks come out the side and the barbs came into contact with the sandpaper when I wasn't careful. I had hoped I could just clamp it down real tight but the tubing is already slightly too big for these water block outlets, thus drip.

Got a pair of spare blocks lapped last night, ready to swap. The biocide was delivered, but can't put any in until it stops dripping into the grow space. That'd make for some really harsh smoke!
 
shimbob

shimbob

Well-Known Member
skoomd said:
Whenever water is involved with electronics, I back off. I think people who do RDWC are crazy lol. Risk vs. Reward.
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I put a funnel on top of the reservoir to top it off. Sometimes I pour too fast and it overflows. Right next to the 220v wiring down below, fun!
 
shimbob

shimbob

Well-Known Member
1212ham said:
For what it's worth, I was surprised when I tested lapped vs the milled and anodized finish, I measured no difference. I guess the Arctic MX-4 gets it done!

Have you measured coolant temps?
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Before and after picture of the water blocks I picked up for $9 each. They all came shipped in a single bubble bag, banging against each other. I think the lapping is warranted. You can also see the middle block has an inlet that's out of alignment, and the barb nicked by the sand paper.

Measured some temps this eve.
Ambient temp outside the tent: 71.1F
Ambient temp inside tent: 23.3C (73.9F)
Temp of the air after it passes through radiator: 23.5C (74.3F)
Temp of the water loop: 78F

There's some algae starting to grow in the tubes that feed the blocks, naturally.

I'm not a big fan of the arctic silver 5 I bought for this, relative to the generic white thermal grease I usually use. A.S. is harder to wipe down into the near-transparent layer that I get with the grease. *shrug*
 

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ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
shimbob said:
This particular leak is due to me being sloppy with the lapping. The outlets on these blocks come out the side and the barbs came into contact with the sandpaper when I wasn't careful. I had hoped I could just clamp it down real tight but the tubing is already slightly too big for these water block outlets, thus drip.

Got a pair of spare blocks lapped last night, ready to swap. The biocide was delivered, but can't put any in until it stops dripping into the grow space. That'd make for some really harsh smoke!
Click to expand...
It seems I didn't understand that you were referring to your LED blocks and not the RDWC.

upload_2016-6-22_9-52-22.jpeg
 
Randomblame

Randomblame

Well-Known Member
ttystikk said:
I've run half a dozen RDWC systems with 6 to 26 sites each. No leaks, and definitely no 240V wiring anywhere near the floor!

I looked closely at the Undercurrent system and then corrected its many flaws. The results worked extremely well for years.

That's a 26 gallon Tuffbox, for scale;
View attachment 4137717
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Whoa! How did you get these massive root ball through the hole, lol?
 
shimbob

shimbob

Well-Known Member
I'm thinking of getting four HLG-150H-42B to power these instead of the single 200W driver. Time to kick it up a notch. Swapped out the leaking block, leak-free until the next leak.
 
shimbob

shimbob

Well-Known Member
Finally found my clamp ammeter.

Cranking down the pot to minimum it measures 0.27A and at maximum it measures 0.68A. At 250v that's only 170watts. I'm being shorted some watts.
I wonder if it's because the total Vf of ~64volts is so short of the drivers' 96volt max.

Light has been great, fantastic vegging. No more leak since I replaced the waterblock with the botched bards. Added a few drops of biocide.

Time to move this light out of the flower tent and into the smaller veg tent to start lighting the next round. I really want to build a new flower light with F- strips but we cash strapped. I don't think I'll water cool that one.
 
shimbob

shimbob

Well-Known Member
Remeasured the output of the driver, as 64v was from fuzzy memory. It's actually 68v, still short of 96v. At the time I chose the driver I wasn't entirely aware of the importance of maxing out the driver, combined with not knowing exactly what Vf the cobs would settle at, I played it safe and picked a driver where the expected Vf (72v) was smack in the middle of the driver's range (48-96v).

Learning experience!
 
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