@Zubenal please don’t take this the wrong way. I feel like you are going to be investing a lot of time and money into upgrading this Phototron, when, in my opinion, it’s not the best option to grow weed. The space is very limited. Part of the Phototron program was extreme pruning and using their nutrients, so not too sure what results you will get.
Doing a custom light build using a tent or closet will give you better results, again just my opinion.
Good luck on whatever direction you go.
Yea, you are right. I am impressed with your knowledge of the Phototron. When I pulled this out of storage and started looking into growing again I was surprised to find that there was no longer support for their growing system. I put it away about 32 years ago. So, my approach has had to adapt.
Considering that I am only growing for hobby I think I am ok for now. There are some people that are having good success with this unit. I am talking to them to help me along. I am working on setting it up for a Hydroponic grow and I am intending on doing the extreme pruning. I am going to play around with it and see how it goes. I have been blown away with how far the growing knowledge has come. Freekin female seeds??? wtf. I am amazed.
I imagine if I need to, I dont think setting up a tent grow would be difficult. In the mean time, the Phototron is an amazing piece of furniture that will provide! I look forward to journaling my progress.
I just don’t see much advantage to doing so. Seems like money and effort spent that won’t necessarily return much. Based on size of space one you have mature plant i don’t expect the light loss you have to make large impact on your grow.
If you could fit a 12" square plate in top of there you could almost follow build i linked above. I would probably drop current and maybe use couple less strips. So you can have light close.
Yep, things have progressed!
@monkman used a Phototron back in the day, maybe he can chime in.
zub and i have talked, he contacted me after he saw my phototron thread. as far as i’m concerned, if zub has folks messing around with phototrons and they are working more power to them. i am not sure about putting LED’s to replace the twisted fluorescents. the area is so tight in there. i decided that without my old manual i didn’t want to mess with it. my only reason for wanting to do a phototron type grow was because of how good the skunk #1 was on my only grow. i have yet to grow a plant in the last 4 grows that had the amount of trichomes on it that the skunk did, but i am growing good pot and am getting better at it and that enough for me.
Monkman, I am not going to replace the fluorescents, I am going to add to them. I had a hanging fluorescent that I got from the company (I wish I had ordered the self feeder). In the years I had the system put away, I had pulled that hanging light to use as a trouble light around the house. It was great, but it is lost now.
I am planning on doing the hydroponic grow and trimming like the original manual prescribed. I am going to try to do the system where the buds are harvested and then put the plant back into a vegetative growth. Cycle it between flowering and vegitating. I am hoping to get the yield that it was originally designed for, which was impressive if pulled off.
I am thinking a big part of my success is to start with the right plant. I am looking for a clone. I need to find someone who will sell me one. I was going to use the seeds I had stashed in the back of the drawer from 30 years ago. I am told that the seeds from todays plants have at least 4 times the thc and to not bother with those old seeds. Too bad, they were from killer weed back then. But killer weed from back then is nothing compared to what is around now.
Do you use clones?
i don’'t do clones and buy all my seeds from ILGM. and you are kinda right about the quality of pot nowadays, but that skunk #1 i grew in late 80’s and the thai stick that i smoked from the 70’s was just as good as most pot around. i had killer acapulco gold and panama red that were great also. most all of the strains now have come from various land race strains. we had a connection to humbolt for california purple back in the late 80’s and early 90s. but the point i’m trying to make is that there has been real good pot around for a long time it is just that now you don’t have to smoke mex dirt weed and that kind of junk. as a whole the quality of the pot now is heads and tails better because most of the pot around now is of the higher quality whereas in the old days you didn’t get the “killer” pot unless you knew someone and the availability was rare.
% agree dude! Had some kick ass bud back in the day with a lot of dirt weed in between.
Damn, I appreciate your view. I think I will pull the pack of old seeds I have and see if they pop. There is only killer weed that they came from. I remember a bunch of Maui Wowi, and I even think I scored some seed from some Thai stick. I only kept seeds from premium weed.
The guy at the Hydroponics store, who has been growing for a long time, told me to not bother with my old seeds. He gave me the name of his favorite web site.
I was thinking that a cutting would be a way to score into this new hyper weed, and see about keeping that recycling in the Tron.
Great. Keep us posted. Try presoaking a few in a shot glass with a cap full of peroxide added to the water.
@dbrn32 what driver from led supply will push 2 qb288 Bspec boards?
I looked at the other HLG kits I have and see: Meanwell XLG-240-M-AB, but I can’t find that on the site. Or if m not navigating it correctly…
I want ont that I can put a potentiometer on to adjust wattage so type B I think
I should add, this will run 2 of the 288 Bspec boards in a 2x4 mother/clone/veg only tent, so no need in super high wattage, I’m thinking 100 per board probably at max as they don’t need that much power
XLG-240-M-AB will run two 288 boards. Driver i usually buy is hlg-240h-c2100. If you want to attach external dimmer that would be hlg-240h-c2100b. If you are ok using the built in potentiometer to dim then get hlg-240h-c2100a.
Found one…also, I ordered this kit, which one should I use? I already have some 10k resistors on hand.
Swpeet 60PCS B5K 10K 20K 50K 100K Ohm Knurled Shaft Linear Rotary Taper Potentiometer with 20Pcs 3 Different Kinds Aluminum alloy Knob(WH148) and 40Pcs Washers and Nuts Kit for Tinkering https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZKJVZ53/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_S40V35JBTTYAVBHPT72Z
100k ohm for dimmimg a single driver.
Diablos on sale with heatsinks. Amazing. Can’t wait!
@dbrn32 I know I asked already, so apologies.
Can 2 Diablo HLG boards be ran with the same driver as 2-288 r-spec boards?
Not as general rule of thumb. Hlg-240h-c2100 a or b should. Fv max of board is listed at 58.8, two in series would have total circuit voltage of 117.6 (maximum) fv max total for driver is 119 vdc, should be good.
Some of the newer kits and knock offs come with drivers that wouldn’t accommodate the higher fv of Diablo boards.
Perfect! Thank you.
Do you think the Diablos are all that?
They are really nothing new. There’s just a lot of leds to distribute power on. Data sheet lists them at 2.872 umol/joule at 2200ma. That is similar to running r-spec board at something around 1400ma maybe. It would just take pretty much 2 r-spec boards at that current to get to similar amount of total light output that the Diablo board can do by itself at similar efficiency.
The growcraft ultra will be a better board than Diablo, on the same principle. It will just take some serious cash to get into them.