Omega Garden's Volksgarden Rotary Garden

[WheeloFortune]

maxx,

its true, the light will be less intense, but then again a 1000w hps is generally recommended to be hung at least 24" away from the tops. an 8' wheel has a max distance above the light of 48". when the plants are done if they are 30-36 inches tall that puts them well within the sweet zone. I figure the max depth to be 6' with a 1000w. plus plants like strawberries or lettuce require much less intense light. A 6' diameter wheel 6' deep would be a happy medium i think. i might start there if and when i decide to put a new project together.

I've been working on a system to make it cheaper anyways with a parabolic mirror that focuses the suns light onto some fibre optic cables to run natural light into my room. a small solar tracker is used to follow the sun. My system is still only model scale, but its close to done. that , in addition to hps bulbs, could be a fairly cheap knockout setup. it should be able to reproduce the suns rays with less heat and be brighter than natural sunlight.

 

[Short Round]

Genius idea. I have been wondering myself about how to combine the VG with natural sunlight. Clearly you are more edtucated in this field than I am but it's good to know my instincts weren't completely off base.

Good luck and keep us informed on all your progress.

 

[maxximus]

WOF

I looked into this many years ago. When I was looking at it the largest fiber optic I could get my hands on only carries 3 watts worth of light. I was bouncing the light back from the focus location back through a hole in the center of the dish. It was fun to play with but I never found it to be that practical for this particular application (lighting). I am interested in looking at it once again from a power generating perspective. It's about as cool as you can get, and if you couple with a saline solution boiler with 1,100 F capacity then you can keep regular water boiling round the clock producing power.

Cheers,
Maxx

 

[WheeloFortune]

maxx,

man of many talents. nice.
there is a guy round your way i think that is trying to market this type of lighting already. kinda pissed me off cause i was playing with it at the same time. I saw him on the discovery channel, a phd student or maybe a prof. and i think in cali. he installed a half dozen or so parabolic mirrors with tracking on the roof of an industrial size building and used fibre optic fixtures to. he had the normal lights on a dimmer with a photocell to save more energy when the sun was out. . . which is like all the damn time in cali i think. lol.

i'll find it on the web and let you know if you are interested.

i had a couple of other ideas as well.

one was installing a couple of solar tube skylights in the roof. should be a south facing roof in the US. . . go as big as you can, 24" i think. these things can make turns with elbow pieces. you'd need to make them shine on either side of the wheel. the best thing about this system would be that its passive, and you can use supplemental lighting (hps in the cool tube. one note though- if using bright supplemental lighting like a hps, you'll need to cover the tubes so your not blasting light out of your roof all night. lol.
another thought. . . when leds get cheaper (and stronger) i was thinking about wiring up a 400 or 500 watt cylinder to fit in the cool tube. i know how to do it, but the only thing that would suck is soldering 400 or 500 led's. lol. might take me weeks. and good leds are still like $10-15 each. more expensive than two volks!

so much to do, so little time to do it.

stoned and blabbering yet again. . .

 

[WheeloFortune]

one more thing, 3 watts/fibre really isnt that bad, 200 fibres 10 feet long is 2000 feet. thats not outrageous pricewise, and its 600 watts. the real problem is how to disperse the light most efficiently. they make fixtures, but it would be expensive to buy 200, and might be difficult to get them to fit. something fabricated for the exact purpose would be much better.

i dont know why i like the idea so much, we can go weeks with no sun in the winter round here.

 

[maxximus]

P.S. hey maxx, how bout the lower nodes on your plants, are they filling out?

Some of the lower buds have been filling out nicely, mostly those
on the 600 watt side of the wheel. The other lower buds are whispy
but they have crystals and they are going to be perfrect for hash
making. On my last run I made an ounce of bubble hash from the
trim and this time around there is A LOT more plant matter. I am
really looking forward to that.

Cheers,
Maxx

 

[WheeloFortune]

so maxx,

you said on the 600 side, you have a 400 on the other side right? it only looks like one bulb in the pics.

 

[maxximus]

so maxx,

you said on the 600 side, you have a 400 on the other side right? it only looks like one bulb in the pics.

That is correct. It was sitting around collecting dust and there was room for it, so in it went.

There was mention of it earlier in the thread I do believe.

 

[WheeloFortune]

i was thinking about getting another bulb too. same one i already have. 600w dimmable. that would give me options for every multiple of 150w between 300 and 1200. and so far my cooltube has no prob cooling the 600.

when i was shopping around for my volks, i saw a combo that came with a 400w hps and it said it was really the largest feasible light for this setup. pish posh. fools. lol.

 

[WheeloFortune]

i was thinking about getting another bulb too. same one i already have. 600w quantum dimmable. best ballast i've ever had. that would give me options for every multiple of 150w between 300 and 1200. and so far my cooltube has no prob cooling the 600 with a weak ass fan.

when i was shopping around for my volks, i saw a combo that came with a 400w hps and it said it was really the largest feasible light for this setup. pish posh. fools. lol.

 

[WheeloFortune]

i was thinking about getting another bulb too. same one i already have. 600w quantum dimmable. best ballast i've ever had. that would give me options for every multiple of 150w between 300 and 1200. and so far my cooltube has no prob cooling the 600 with a weak ass fan.

when i was shopping around for my volks, i saw a combo that came with a 400w hps and it said it was really the largest feasible light for this setup. pish posh. fools. lol.

 

[maxximus]

i was thinking about getting another bulb too. same one i already have. 600w quantum dimmable. best ballast i've ever had. that would give me options for every multiple of 150w between 300 and 1200. and so far my cooltube has no prob cooling the 600 with a weak ass fan.

when i was shopping around for my volks, i saw a combo that came with a 400w hps and it said it was really the largest feasible light for this setup. pish posh. fools. lol.

I bet they have never even used one before. I am amazed at how many people wade in with their opinions without 1 spec of reason or experience needed to have an informed, valuable point of view. But if you have ever watched the Leno bits wehre he is on the streets asking peoples opinions ........ we are doomed

 

[WheeloFortune]

lol, i often refer to that bit on leno to illustrate a point.

 

[inferno420]

so is your 400 watt a mh? and do you think 2 600 watt hps would be better for one of these set ups or one of each ect... has anyone thought about putting a crap load of 1 or 5 watt leds in the middle of that thing the plants could touch it with no problem then and if u had say 800 wats of leds in there it would probly be like 1,400 hps wouldnt it?

 

[maxximus]

so is your 400 watt a mh? and do you think 2 600 watt hps would be better for one of these set ups or one of each ect... has anyone thought about putting a crap load of 1 or 5 watt leds in the middle of that thing the plants could touch it with no problem then and if u had say 800 wats of leds in there it would probly be like 1,400 hps wouldnt it?

Yes on the 400 watt mh

I can imagine 600 watts times 2 might be the best, though depending what issues you have for power usage vs space etc it may be better to have 2 VGs with a 600 in each or.....????

I would love to try the LEDs in it. I can see operating with very low power and if all it did was veg well there would be application for it of some kind.

Cheers,
Maxx

 

[WheeloFortune]

i agree maxx.

i think i mgiht try the 2 600's when i get some extra loot, but i think 2 volks withh 600 each would be better by 50% at least. i don't want more product however, im already getting more than i need, i just want to try to get the best product ive ever smoked, and i've been to amsterdam. so the extra wattage will go in the same wheel, for me.

the biggest concern for those of you in hot climates is can you cool 1200w 4 -6 inches from the cool tube to say, 80-85 degrees tops? its not as big a problem for canadian growers or northern growers like me.

i was thinking of building (.. along with 300 other things) a cylindrical led light for the volks.
the thing about leds is that they aren't really putting out more light per watt than hps, they're about the same as cfl, its just that you can concentrate the light in the bandwith (color) that the plant uses most efficiently. so 90w of r/b acts like 300-400w of white. i like how the new ones are putting in orange now.
I could build one at cost because i know circuits and can build the led driver, which has to be constant current, not constant voltage. there is a great website that will build a diagram of any wattage led panel but you still have to build it and the power supply. . . anyways the point. even buying the leds and building one yourself an 800w primo led panel would cost you about 6 grand. the bright 1w leds are about 8-12 bucks each depending on how many you buy (800). i think ill wait till they come down in price, which is happening quickly enough for me.
something like 2 100 watt cylinders on either side of the hps bulb as supplemental might be nice, or you could always get crappier leds. 5mm or something. just as supplenmental.

lol, im about to hit post "quick" reply.

 

[inferno420]

do you think the 400 watt mh could just have not as dense buds because its mh and not hps? i mean 600 is alot more power but its what 2 1/2 foot from the light so i still think 400 watt should still max the plants out

 

[WheeloFortune]

400 is just fine, 600 definately better, 1200-- yeehaw!

depends on what you mean max out?
adding co2?
how good are the nutes?
additives?
etc?
400w mh wont give the same results.
you never really max out.

 

[WheeloFortune]

also maxx,
i dont think id build an 8' its too big. 6' would cost basically the same, could do 6 1/2 or 7 just as easy too.

 

[inferno420]

what i meant was that 600watt hps and the 400 mh i was just wondering how much diff would it been if the 400 watt was hps not mh because he said the bottoms of the 400 watt side was under devoloped and was going to be used for hash so. if it was 400 hps and not mh would they been more devolped.

also 2nd question was 400 to 600 watt i know 600 watt is better but wonder how much yeild wise in this thing i mean it keeps it all close to the light so it may be very close