DIY Grow Cabinet & LED

[oh666god]

Just wanted to create a thread for my DIY LED and grow cabinet in case someone wanted to replicate the setup or wanted some sort of inspiration. I never thought of growing marijuana until legalization. I figured it would be pretty cool to not have to buy marijuana anymore and to have high quality, organic, home grown bud.

I considered building a space bucket, however I stumbled upon people growing out of bigger household furniture such as wardrobes and cabinets... I fell in love with the idea. I needed something sleek and something that wouldn't draw too much attention. I went with a 3 door IKEA wardrobe. It was perfect. It had a pretty spacious grow area considering it was inside a wardrobe and had a completely separate section for my controls and fans.

What has been done:

• insulated it with 1/2" foam board
• Caulked everything
• added mylar sheets (still not done)
• Cut out 6" holes for intake and exhaust
• added weather stripping around the doors to ensure a full seal
• tested for light leaks - PASSED

What needs to be done:

• Finish installing the mylar
• Figure out a way to keep my cabinet doors closed and sealed. Right now they kind of stay slightly propped open from the insulation and weather stripping.
• Install intake and exhaust system (still need to purchase fans, ducting, filters, etc)
• Install light fixture
• Install trellis netting hooks
• Make more hole for power cables

Custom DIY COB LED spec:

I wanted something that was better than blurples and cost effective. DIY was the obvious route.

This build consists of:

• x4 CXB3070s @ 3000K
• x4 CXA2540s @ 5000K
• x2 48" aluminum angle brackets, cut in two, creating x4 24" brackets
• x2 HLG-185H-C1400B
• x2 100k potentiometers + x2 8k resistors
• x2 on/off rocker switches
• x8 CPU coolers + fans

Things that need to be done:

• Install drivers and small components in a project box. My drivers will not be INSIDE with the lights, they will be in the isolated section of the wardrobe along with the fans and other stuff.
• finish wiring and terminating cables, I will be using DEANS connectors because I have a bunch on hand. The connectors will ensure full interchangeability
• Install ratcheting pulleys for mounting the light inside the cabinet
• Attach the two arrays together with a 3" spacing in between. I will most likely be using 1/8" thick aluminum.
• add a 4 in 1 watt meter, because why not.
• add fan splitter to connect all 8 fans to one power supply

My build is made out of two 4 COB arrays. Each array will be dimmable and have it's own on/off switches. My COB choice focuses on red and blue spectrums. With each cob being actively cooled, and close to the exhaust in my cabinet, heat shouldn't be too much of an issue. I treated each cob exactly like a CPU when installing them onto the CPU coolers.

All 8 fans wil be connected to a fan splitter and powered through a 12Vdc power supply. No speed controls needed. These are low rpm fans and all heat will be exhausted out.

This is a work in progress and I will be updating this. I am putting in a couple hours of work every week as parts and components get ordered in. Feel free to ask me any questions or give me any type of suggestions! Its never too late to change anything in my build, and if it means a better quality end product, please let me know!

 

[Old Salt]

Figure out a way to keep my cabinet doors closed and sealed. Right now they kind of stay slightly propped open from the insulation and weather stripping.

Barrel latches for one of the doors will keep that one tight. The latches used on sliding doors (windows) could be used on the other door. Ball latches can also be used all around for less fuss opening and closing the doors.

 

[oh666god]

All done. Just need to get some gardening stuff. When lights are at full power and exhaust fan is on, the internal temperature only reaches about 26-27 degrees Celsius, the lights will only be used at half power and lower throughout the grow. When all doors are closed the fan is audible but not loud at all. All in all i had a great time building this, but im now ready to put it to the test. I am wanting to get atleast 100-150g per plant in this.

 

[Old Salt]

Looking good. It's time to get my rear in gear, and finish mine.

 

[oh666god]

Looking good. It's time to get my rear in gear, and finish mine.

Yea I could have finished this a week after starting this thread, but it was actually a lot of work so I just kind of did a few things here and there. And to keep the doors shut nice and tight (one of my biggest challenges), I had to add "draw latches" two on each door, one at the top one at the bottom. The barrel style swivel latches don't do anything expect keep some even pressure throughout the door.

It's so nice being done though, I can finally focus my research on the actual grow now. Hope your progress is going good!