4x4 Tent - Blue Hash and A-Train

How can I plug in 3 600s? I'm not against it . . . I can't plug in 2 ballasts! The dual 600s are powered off 1 ballast. http://www.bghydro.com/BGH/itemdesc.asp?ic=HLBADILT06240D

I've got a built in timer on the power panel, but that turns off the 110v too (i think). It was really loud so I disconnected it, but I noticed that it claims to have a rechargeble battery and fuse in it so maybe I could fix it and it would be quiet? ...I don't know.

Then I would have to run a seperate plug in for all the other crap. I'm probably going to do this anyway so that I can plug a 110v AC onto another circuit. (I don't want to spend extra 300 on a bigger 240v AC)

laserbrn said:

Man you've lost your mind. You think you'll get better coverage and denser buds with 2x 1000w versus 3x 600w you're blowin' smoke instead of inhalin' it.

Your light intensity and coverage will be much improved with ultimately having 3 lights. 1800w's is also a nice number....but just for the sake of having fun with you I will point out that the average 1000w lamp puts out ~150,000 lumens while 600w lamps put out ~96,000 lumens.

Any way you slice it you're going to put out ~300,000 lumens except your 600's will be a solid 12" closer to the plants and spread more evenly.

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I'm not going to get into a drawn out debate with you on this, but three 600s in a straight line down the middle of thee garden will not have enough light to the perimeter 6" on either side.

You yourself said that your 600 doesn't adequately cover a 4x4 footprint, but works great in a 3x3 - so in an 8x3 tray, they'd work great, but in an 8x4 setup, the 6" on either side will be getting less coverage.

smokingrubber said:

How can I plug in 3 600s? I'm not against it . . . I can't plug in 2 ballasts! The dual 600s are powered off 1 ballast. http://www.bghydro.com/BGH/itemdesc.asp?ic=HLBADILT06240D

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You would have to upgrade timers. Or run it on another circuit. The benefit is that you could run dual 600w's right now on the single ballast and add the other one later. You could run a short extension to another timer and have them set for the same time too.

Short extensions are in short supply. I didn't find much of a selection online. Running another 240v line (or 110v line) into the garage may also be more than I'm willing to do right now. Remember, I am planning to move in about 6 months or so. Its a difficult ballance between "keep it simple" and conquer the world. (still need to pay the rent and buy my niece her xmas present too)

This is Phase II.
Phase I: was the first 3k I spent, and that would be good enough to get the first harvest.
Phase II: is kicking in a little sooner than i anticipated but it's the upgrade to a 4x8.
Phase III: will come after I move and I'll have two 4x8 flower rooms and my 4x4 set up for mothers and clones.

smokingrubber said:

Short extensions are in short supply. I didn't find much of a selection online. Running another 240v line (or 110v line) into the garage may also be more than I'm willing to do right now. Remember, I am planning to move in about 6 months or so. Its a difficult ballance between "keep it simple" and conquer the world. (still need to pay the rent and buy my niece her xmas present too)

This is Phase II.
Phase I: was the first 3k I spent, and that would be good enough to get the first harvest.
Phase II: is kicking in a little sooner than i anticipated but it's the upgrade to a 4x8.
Phase III: will come after I move and I'll have two 4x8 flower rooms and my 4x4 set up for mothers and clones.

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Then I would just get the dual 600w for now and upgrade to the third later. Seems like it's the simplest solution and you can upgrade when you move.

laserbrn said:

Then I would just get the dual 600w for now and upgrade to the third later. Seems like it's the simplest solution and you can upgrade when you move.

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Cosign on that; if going to two 600s is that much easier and less expensive then two 1000s, then I agree with Laser.

Bob Smith said:

Cosign on that; if going to two 600s is that much easier and less expensive then two 1000s, then I agree with Laser.

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It's a lot cheaper than going out and buying 2x 1000w lamps and ballasts and still having the timer problem. Go out and get the dual ballast and the lamp and a 1 reflector.

When you are ready to upgrade just add another hood and lamp and you're good to go. You already have the extra 600w ballast.

Slam dunk there...and you'll love the upgrade in ganja, believe that.

laserbrn said:

Then I would just get the dual 600w for now and upgrade to the third later. Seems like it's the simplest solution and you can upgrade when you move.

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I agree. I would've really liked to go 1800w or 2000w, but the added costs rise dramatically. Bummer.

If they made a freakin Y splitter for 240v my problems would be solved. Three 600w hoods in a row would be fucking amazing imo. But two 600s seems to be the most cost effective and power effective route.

I could use this: http://www.bghydro.com/BGH/itemdesc.asp?ic=HLLAILS4240&eq=TIIGSIILS4240&Tp=

? it sucks that I've got space to plug in 4 ballasts on my panel but cant use them cuz the timer is in the way. need a cheap timer on a leash. I could probably make my own short plugs, but the ends would total more $ than the panel above. grrrr

EDIT: I will call my electrician and ask him to take another look at the panel, and maybe he can fix the buzzzzzzz. That would beat spending $200 on a new panel.

Bob Smith said:

..................and I'm probably gonna have some electrical questions for you in a minute, assuming you know something about your setup and what's going on in there.

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I probably know enough ... how's the veg-majal looking?

smokingrubber said:

I probably know enough ... how's the veg-majal looking?

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Looking good, it's a finished product at this point

But as far as the electrical goes, I was wondering exactly what that box that you have in there does, and what value it adds?

I have three 20 amp circuits in my garage, and I'm going to be running ~14000BTU air conditioner on one, and then a 1K with my 400 on another, and then a 1K and all my pumps, fans, etc. on the third - was wondering if something like a relay switch or something else might allow me to control both 1Ks from one circuit, or if there was a product that I could buy to turn my 120V circuit into a 240V circuit and get two 240C 1Ks that would run on the same circuit.

Sorry for the lengthy questions, just trying to plan ahead (like you).

Thanks man.

1000w digital ballasts (Lumatek) are 4.5 amps each. You COULD run a max of 4 of those on one 20 amp 240v circuit. That would be pushing it though. The link I posted above would allow 4 lights to be controlled by 1 timer.

All of your pumps and fans and crap will run on the 110v circuit - 15 amps would be more than enough. (everything except AC)

Does that help?

The "box" I added came with my original craigslist package. It allowed me to splice into my dryer plug and run that panel out to the grow. It was just a better way to have all of my crap on one panel without a bunch of extension cords. It has a biult-in timer that would have turned all of my lights for me. Unfortunately, the timer was making a loud buzz so I asked the electrician to bypass it. Now I will ask him to go in and fix the buzz and give me the timer back. We'll see how that works.

smokingrubber said:

1000w digital ballasts (Lumatek) are 4.5 amps each. You COULD run a max of 4 of those on one 20 amp 240v circuit. That would be pushing it though. The link I posted above would allow 4 lights to be controlled by 1 timer.

All of your pumps and fans and crap will run on the 110v circuit - 15 amps would be more than enough. (everything except AC)

Does that help?

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Kinda, but I clearly didn't ask my question correctly - what I was basically wondering was if there something (like the big old thing that you have for your electric) which I could plug in and wouldn't need an electrician for, which would let me use 240V in my garage which is only wired for 120V.

I'm such an asshole, the electrician even asked me if I wanted one of them to be 240V and I said "no".

To get 240v they simply run 2 120v together. So if you've got several 110 lines already, then yes you should be able to have 240. How to wire that exactly is something I would ask my electrician about. It's pretty easy to wire the boxes up though cuz it's 2 hots and 1 ground - no common. If you get the box brand new, I would hope it came with some instructions.

If not, I've got an electrician I can ask. I've got to call him later today so I'll ask about that.

smokingrubber said:

To get 240v they simply run 2 120v together. So if you've got several 110 lines already, then yes you should be able to have 240. How to wire that exactly is something I would ask my electrician about. It's pretty easy to wire the boxes up though cuz it's 2 hots and 1 ground - no common. If you get the box brand new, I would hope it came with some instructions.

If not, I've got an electrician I can ask. I've got to call him later today so I'll ask about that.

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Thanks, would appreciate that - if there's any wiring involved, it's probably a no-go, but I'd love to hear what his answer is anyways - perhaps he knows of something that could do what I need.

That being said, it's not "needed", as I have 60 amps in there, but it'd be nice.

After seeing how easy it was to wire mine up I felt kinda stupid for not doing it myself. It's definately something I felt intimidated about, but I see it's really not rocket science to strip and connect 3 wires. As long as the juice is off and I have some instructions, I would do it myself next time.

FUUUUUK!


It's been a few days since I tied them down (3 days) and I should have been more on it. Specially now cuz it's the main turn and if they get fat at all it's very hard to bend without breaking them. Didn't realize this till they got too fucking fat and I tried to bend it. I didn't even push very hard! But where I had the first string was pretty fat and it just popped like ripe fruit. No bend . . . no gradual flex . . . POP! Right in fucking half!



I didn't know what to do with her so I used a BUNCH of profanity and put her back in the tent. The broken piece was pretty large so I chopped off all the parts that had any chance of cloning and set them next to the GDP clones.



FUCK

smokingrubber said:

FUUUUUK!


It's been a few days since I tied them down (3 days) and I should have been more on it. Specially now cuz it's the main turn and if they get fat at all it's very hard to bend without breaking them. Didn't realize this till they got too fucking fat and I tried to bend it. I didn't even push very hard! But where I had the first string was pretty fat and it just popped like ripe fruit. No bend . . . no gradual flex . . . POP! Right in fucking half!

I didn't know what to do with her so I used a BUNCH of profanity and put her back in the tent. The broken piece was pretty large so I chopped off all the parts that had any chance of cloning and set them next to the GDP clones.

FUCK

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Did the plant snap right off, or was it just broken? In the future, if just broken, you can simply duct tape it back together and it will heal itself in a couple of days.

It was 90% broken and dangling. Hanging by it's skin. Good to know about the duct tape, but the nodes are so close together I can't see that working in this case. I have 6 good limbs on her below the break and hopefully a clone or two.

Victim: A-Train #1

I looked in and noticed she had grown a lot so I wanted to get her tied down quickly. Shoulda started with the runt again! She's been my guiny pig at every step except today. WTF? ... Oh yeah, JUST got a new sack of kush and I was still working on the first after-work bowl . . . you know how that can get you twisted up. DAMN.