My First Time: AK47 & Gold Bar Kush

[Radogast]

Congrats

That's the first time I heard of rooting a leaf. My my my.

 

[MrGreene]

I'm not sure what will happen to the leaf but I'll give it some time and find out.

Both of the seeds had tails in less than 48 hours.

So they went into some soil and are sitting on the swick.

I also wired up the Mean Well driver tonight and was going to try it out but it only draws 2 watts when I plug it in and won't light the lights no matter how I adjust the pot. I cut one of the pot wires to make it go to max output and that didn't help. I got one of the deans connectors pretty hot when I was soldering so I'm hoping that the contact in the plug just shifted and is not making contact. I'll check it out tomorrow.

 

[Radogast]

I'm not sure what will happen to the leaf but I'll give it some time and find out.

Both of the seeds had tails in less than 48 hours.

So they went into some soil and are sitting on the swick.

I also wired up the Mean Well driver tonight and was going to try it out but it only draws 2 watts when I plug it in and won't light the lights no matter how I adjust the pot. I cut one of the pot wires to make it go to max output and that didn't help. I got one of the deans connectors pretty hot when I was soldering so I'm hoping that the contact in the plug just shifted and is not making contact. I'll check it out tomorrow.

Congrats on your seeds


This place where you bought your equipment, do they happen to sell residential wallplate type dimmer switches for LEDs? It is annoying my frugal nature that I can get a 600W incandescent dimmer for $10-15 but they want $30-50 for a dimmer for my 18x4 watt home light array.

It annoys me even more that most of the new dimmers won't fit in my pre-1980s switch box.

 

[MrGreene]

Let me do some research on that today Rad. Work should be slow today. It seems like the old switch boxes are pretty shallow, at least they are at my property that was built in the 50's.

What's special about the led dimmer? I just took one out because my daughter kept dimming non dimmable LEDs in her bedroom and ruining them.

 

[MrGreene]

I did a quick search and ended up on amazon first. Read about the Leviton 6674-POW switch. It's rated at 600w incandescent and 150w led and is only $18. I'm sure your box isn't deep enough. That seems to be a common complaint. I see they also have receptacle box extenders for $6 that give an extra 3/4" of depth. That might be the easiest solution.

 

[Radogast]

I did a quick search and ended up on amazon first. Read about the Leviton 6674-POW switch. It's rated at 600w incandescent and 150w led and is only $18. I'm sure your box isn't deep enough. That seems to be a common complaint. I see they also have receptacle box extenders for $6 that give an extra 3/4" of depth. That might be the easiest solution.

Thanks for finding this.

I had always heard that dimmer switches always draw a little current, even when they are off... With low wattage LEDs on a conventional dimmer switch, you can actually see the LEDs on low when the 600W dimmer is OFF. 95% of the dimmer adjustment does nothing with all the actual dimming happen in the last 5%. I assume it's a resistance thing.

I'll replace the receptacle if I have to, but then I will want to wire to the wall near the other door to add a 3-way switch. I should have done that before I painted, but the wife didn't tell me she wanted to replace the ceiling light with the kitchen chandelier.

 

[MrGreene]

That dimmer has a switch on the back to select between led and incandescent. It must be resistance.

At least with the extender for the box you won't have to open up the wall.

Women always know to save details like that till later. If she had told you too soon then you'd have enough time to come up with a different plan that she wouldn't approve of. Lol

I bet the three way switch will complicate things a lot more.

 

[MrGreene]

It looks like I have a defective meanwell driver. I double checked the wiring and it's ok, checked output voltage and it is 143v, but it still won't light the 4 cobs I've been using. I thought that maybe it would only light 3 so I rewired and that didn't help either. I guess it just can't push out any current.

 

[MrGreene]

I've had this driver wired up with the heavy duty heat shrink twice now. The heat shrink with glue inside is a real pain to remove. I've gone over the wiring several times and don't see any problems. I sure am glad I bought a few other less expensive drivers even if they aren't dimmable. Jameco is being a pain to deal with wanting me to pay shipping on a defective junk product and wait while they send it back to the manufacturer for repair. I won't be buying any more from them. Is TRC any good? Their prices are about the same but I don't know if their shipping charges and customer service are ok yet. Maybe I should look for something other than meanwell that is dimmable.

I am setting up everything so it will be easy to change drivers or cobs by just plugging and unplugging them. I even made a jumper with a male plug so I can run 3 cobs in series instead of 4.

I checked in on AK47 and she seems ok in the 32" tent. Temp is 76 degrees and humidity is 56%. I have three of the lights with 90 degree lenses and will change the fourth tomorrow. I still have her on 18/6. Should I go ahead and switch her to 12/12 or give it a while longer?

The first AK clone is a little taller, but I do have the light above her kind of high. It doesn't seem like she is flowering as much as she was.

I also looked in on GBK and she is so bushy that I can't decide where to cut another clone from yet. I think she is spreading out some now that AK isn't crowding her so maybe I should wait a few days and see.

There's still clones of AK and GBK in the bubble cloner waiting to have enough roots to go into dirt.

Oh, the seedlings haven't popped up yet but it has only been a day.

 

[SweetSue]

If the AK-47 is an auto you can keep her on the 18/6 schedule. She'll benefit from the extra light, and you'll benefit with a bit more goodies when you harvest.

Neat wiring on the driver. That's way past my pay grade. Lol!

 

[MrGreene]

Thanks Sue. The AK isn't supposed to be an auto but she must be. I'll leave her on that schedule and I guess she will either benefit from it or go back to Veg.

That wiring is pretty simple compared to the things I used to do at my old job.

 

[MrGreene]

I couldn't help myself and decided to do some more testing with that driver to see if I could make it work. I stripped off the heat shrink again and wired up some spare cobs directly to the output leads and found that it works great. It will even light 5 at a time which worked out great for testing to see which ones lit up evenly at low power. I still couldn't see why it wouldn't light the cobs in the flower tent when the other driver is. Then I started checking the resistance of each cob and found one that shows open circuit even though it still works fine with the other driver. The meanwell was seeing it as an open circuit. I will swap it for another one soon so I can use the more powerful meanwell.

I had a look in the bubble cloner and saw that the GBK top was ready for soil. When placing her on the swick I noticed that we have a new arrival trying to get her head up above soil.

Welcome Columbian Gold to the grow. I'm sure she will get over this shy phase soon and let us get some better pics.

 

[JimmyJames905]

I've been sitting here feeling depressed most of the evening thinking I didn't do something right and not knowing how to correct it. If I caused it then I want to learn what I did wrong. If she is an auto then everything is cool and I have no complaints because it was a free seed.

I've been moving things around in the closet just now trying to decide if I should put up the 32 x 32 x 64 or the 36 x 36 x 72 tent. The bigger tent will fit if I can find a place to put two tote bins that are in the way.

I also got out the lighting parts and looked at how to align and drill for the cobs and reflectors but couldn't motivate myself to get started.

Now I need to get motivated and set up a tent so I can cater to their needs.

I've also been trying to decide what seed or seeds to drop since there won't be any AK clones to veg into large plants. Here is what I have to choose from:

KC Brains Northern Lights Special
KC Brains Sweet Dreams
KC Brains Brains Choice
DinaFem OG Kush Fem
GYO AK47 (maybe auto)
Bomb Seeds Big Bomb
GYO Critical Carmel Fem Auto
Spliff Gold Bar Kush Fem
Nirvana White Castle
Spliff Haze No. 1
KC Brains KC42
Bomb Seeds Hash Bomb
Nirvana AK48
World of Seeds Columbia Gold
KC Brains Cristal Paradise
Spliff Afghan
World of Seeds Afghan Kush
GYO Cinderella 99 Fem

All seeds are reg photo except for the couple that are noted as fem or auto.

I've been debating between Hash Bomb or Columbia Gold but can't seem to make a decision. Any suggestions are welcomed.

Looking good mr G. That Meanwell will last you a lifetime.

 

[MrGreene]

Looking good mr G. That Meanwell will last you a lifetime.

Thanks Jimmy. It seems like everybody says that they are the best. Right now the inventronics 4 channel drivers are treating me better but I will get it sorted out soon. I think it's just more sensitive to out of spec cobs. I'll end up getting a couple more meanwell drivers and some vero 29 chips in the next few months.

 

[JimmyJames905]

Good stuff.
4 Vero 29 D series can run on an HLG-185h-C1400 perfectly. That's the cheapest pro build around. It will cost around $250 CDN for the driver and 4 COBs. You provide the 120mm SST heatsinks.

 

[MrGreene]

Good stuff.
4 Vero 29 D series can run on an HLG-185h-C1400 perfectly. That's the cheapest pro build around. It will cost around $250 CDN for the driver and 4 COBs. You provide the 120mm SST heatsinks.

I've been thinking about hitting you up for 4 of those 1750 chips.

 

[JimmyJames905]

I got a mail notice from Canada post that there was a package for me. I'll find out Tuesday what it is.

 

[MrGreene]

I got a mail notice from Canada post that there was a package for me. I'll find out Tuesday what it is.

I saw that and got excited. I read Fanleaf's journal every day. Love the light blue with the stripes too.

 

[MrGreene]

I think we will call these girls Easter babies since they both managed to get their heads above soil today. Happy Easter!!

I took a few more pics of AK too. 76 degrees and 53 percent. It is a lot brighter in there than it looks by the pics. I guess the phone is adjusting for the brightness. I used a light meter app to get an idea of the brightness at canopy level and it shows 22,454lx. Not sure if that number relates to anything in the real world since I'm sure it varies depending on which phone is used. I'll still add more light soon.

 

[MrGreene]

I had to leave the girls for a few days again. I wonder if they miss me.