Greenblood's stealth floor speaker growroom

[greenblood]

Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy the photos, the ideas, and please by all means leave me some good advice

I'm still green at this (har har) and I'm not in it for anything more than the fun of it, so investment capital is light and DIY ideas are most definitely welcome. That said, I'm excited about the good info I've already learned and will try to do my best all the way through!

The Idea:

I have two floor speakers that reside in the living room on either side of the TV. They are used infrequently. They are only 22" tall, 16" wide and 8" deep, but that's huge compared to my tiny Mac case I've currently got rigged up! I want to try to get at least one floor speaker up and running, and focus mainly on stealth. If I cannot get it quiet enough and light proof enough to run in the living room, I will pretty much have to scrap the idea!

Unfortunately, spending $400+ on LED lights, which might be great for this application, is still not feasible at this time. Right now I want to run at least 4 27w cfl bulbs and need to figure out how much air I will need to move in order to keep it cool enough. I will also need to keep the intake and exhaust points from becoming light leaks.

I was playing around with Google sketch and came up with a simple idea, but which can probably be much better. Who has other ideas?

OK, you're looking at a simple, not-to-scale model of a speakerbox, without the front panel, speakers, or grill. Inside at the top is where I've mocked up a light baffle (is that what you call it?). The two green areas are where I would install fans, which would pull air from the grow chamber into the maze above. The rest of the maze would have a floor panel flush with these fans, but I've left it out of the model. The front of the maze and speakerbox would also be sealed, of course. Air would travel in through the green fans, above the blue panels, then sideways under the gray panels that run parallel to the sides of the box, back above the next blue panels, under the yellow panels and then is exhausted out the rear of the speakerbox.

I think that there are enough angles to block the light, but I've never built something like this so let me know if you have any thoughts. I also think I could leave enough room where the air exhausts on either side to add ONA blocks or carbon filters. However, I'm concerned that two 5" fans will not be enough exhaust for a box this size.

Happy Sunday, everybody, have a good afternoon!

 

[SK-Slappy]

wow.......that looks like some piece of engineering there (leave it to a stoner)J/K

An idea that might save you some height might be to mount a fan (or two) at the top back of the box to pull hot air out. Then run a piece of ducting (flex hose) from that. Maybe behind the entertainment center on the floor? Or maybe use pvc to make a "p" trap type vent (like a sinks drain)?

Just have at least two right angles in it and it won't leak light.

Do the same at the bottom and have it blow cool air in...

This way you have more room at the top of the box to stuff as many lights in as you can.

Of course this means you will see the ducting if you have a view of the back of the speaker so this might not work for you...

 

[greenblood]

Two right angles? Sounds good. I was thinking that the maze could be pretty short as far as the height goes, if I don't leave room for ONA blocks. I'm going to think of a few more designs and find a few good fans. Right now the rear of the speakers is visible to anyone who goes near the TV, as they sit on the floor. The TV stand is pretty small.

Using ducting sounds like a great idea though, I wouldn't have to use any wooden panels or anything.

 

[Stealthy1]

Oh you were serious about this? lol

if your leaving the speakers in you can cut the magnets of of them and detach (gently) the cone from the voice coil basically you just have the paper cone of the speaker left.
Unless of course you need em to function.

 

[greenblood]

Nothing like losing a long post. Sigh.

Let's try again!

OK so I think I am getting serious. I started working on my exhaust/light baffle/odor control system tonight. It's basically what I sketched up on google sketch, with one less panel in the outer chambers.

In this first pic, I've just put in the center rail, and one of the two middle rails. The middle rails have openings in them for air flow from an inner chanber to an outer chamber.

In the next pic, you can see the second middle rail is in place. The yellow box shows where I add a panel between the middle rail and outside edge, the green X's show where the 2 fans will be installed, and the red arrows show how the air will flow from one inner chamber through the adjacent outer chamber.

The next few pics show some of the outer panels being put into place, and a view inside from the front and from the back.

That last pic is what I'm calling the "front" of the box, which is the opposite side of where the air will exhaust. On the "back", the two outer chambers have been left open so that air will be able to travel through holes that I will drill into the back of the speaker box.

Here are some more photos, of me putting my box into the speaker box, I am happy to say that it is a perfect fit, including with the tweeter in place! The box measures 12" x 7" x 1.75"

Although I don't have my fans yet, I did cut a 3"x3" hole for one in order to make sure the box was light proof. It is!

Now, I was wondering, it will be easy for me to open the box back up, so if I put some activated carbon into the front side of the inner and outer chambers, can I make a carbon filter out of this? I've seen other people use regular household items and socks, can I do something similar? I'm guessing it couldn't hurt any. If anyone thinks it's worth trying, then I'm going to test it out!

I've still got a lot to do of course. My next steps will be to get some fans, drill the exhaust holes, mount the box inside the speakerbox completely and flush with the exhaust holes, figure out intake and light baffles for that, install and mount lights, and get some containers of course. I want to keep the speakers operational so I'm going to add some wire (the existing wire isn't long enough to stay out of the way). My plan is to have one speakerbox ready and operational no later than the end of this week! Wish me luck!!

Now, it's time to quit working and take a deserved smoke break...

 

[Stealthy1]

The baffle looks good. I dont see an easy way to make a CS out of it though...
You could try to fill the first chamber with carbon and use a screen to keep it from falling out of your fan hole.
I did use sock for mine but it was my wifes sock mens sock are too thick IMO nylons are good to but if it has to support weight of the carbon nylons and sock might stretch so a window screen might be better.
If you do go with that idea you need to find an easy way to replace the carbon.

A more simple solution might be those carbon impregnated filter pads used for unvented stove hoods.
like this one Amazon: HBH Enterprises Cut your own Carbon Filter Pad 10x18in

these are throw away items when they cease to work so its good to have extras.

 

[greenblood]

Thanks Stealty, I like that idea! I'll let you know how it works!