DIY dual 150W Cooltube

  • Thread starter The Hemp Goddess
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city said:
Hey chica. so my question is. how many plants at what hight with this grow?
Great job by the way. i want to do this myself now. and lord knows i have enough mission bands lying around...
i have a 3'x4'x5' grow box. could i fit 2 sets of these in there?

Hey, City, good to see ya back here again.

I am doing an experimental 2 plant SCROG grow with these. I have 2 Satori in a 10 gal plastic reservoir. The screen over the plants is about 2 x 2--it should have been larger. Heh-heh. I am able to keep this light just inches from the top of the plants

I would think that 2 sets of these would cover your area just fine. You have a nice sized area for this IMO. Are you planning on doing LST or SCROG?
 
Hey, THG, nice project! Did you buy new sockets (and where) or did you buy a side mount kit for the socket that comes with the light? Thanks!
 
ArtVandolay said:
Hey, THG, nice project! Did you buy new sockets (and where) or did you buy a side mount kit for the socket that comes with the light? Thanks!

I actually had purchased several of these side mount sockets for light fixtures I was making for my bathroom and had 2 left over. When I started trying to figure out how to attach the socket to the no-hub coupling, the side mount socket seemed to be the answer. The threaded pieces that you can purchase in the lamp parts section come in different lengths and have 1/8" IPS threads. You may be able to find side mount sockets at your local home improvement store. Otherwise you can do a search online. I live in such a small place and I hate going into "town" so much that I order almost everything I can online. Make sure that you buy wiring with insulation for high heat situations.
 
The Hemp Goddess said:
I actually had purchased several of these side mount sockets for light fixtures I was making for my bathroom and had 2 left over. When I started trying to figure out how to attach the socket to the no-hub coupling, the side mount socket seemed to be the answer. The threaded pieces that you can purchase in the lamp parts section come in different lengths and have 1/8" IPS threads. You may be able to find side mount sockets at your local home improvement store. Otherwise you can do a search online. I live in such a small place and I hate going into "town" so much that I order almost everything I can online. Make sure that you buy wiring with insulation for high heat situations.

So it sounds like they're regular old light sockets? The ones that came with the lights say things like "600 volt 660W" and "starting Pulse Rating 4KV", making me think that was important?

Thanks!!
 
ok. so reading this thread i got another question. so those lights.. do they not come with a ballast inside of them? do i need to order one to run those 2 lights..? crap now im all confused....my lights will be here monday
 
city said:
ok. so reading this thread i got another question. so those lights.. do they not come with a ballast inside of them? do i need to order one to run those 2 lights..? crap now im all confused....my lights will be here monday

The $20 150W HPS is a complete unit, other than a cord and reflector. The ballast is "inside of them". There are a couple of threads on the DIY about separating the ballast. If you have electrical questions, you probably know a sparky or two.

My next go with these, I am considering hanging them vertically and have plants all around them, utilizing 360 degrees of light. Probably want to turn the plants every day.
 
thanks hemp. ya i know a couple of sparky's. can we get a pic of your complete set up with these lights? explination of your room, so on so forth. i cant wait till they get in.....
 
city said:
thanks hemp. ya i know a couple of sparky's. can we get a pic of your complete set up with these lights? explination of your room, so on so forth. i cant wait till they get in.....

The lights that I started out with are somewhat different than the ones you ordered. They look like this: http://www.e-conolight.com/Product/EProductDetail.asp?ProductFamilyID=3&FGNumber=E-HC1H151Z. I got them at a yard sale for $2 each. The scrog unit is 2 x 2. The light hangs over top of this in my DIY cooltube. I have a piece of sheet metal bent that goes over the light for a reflector. I'll take some pic after the lights go out tonight.
 
so how did the wiring work for these? I'm still slightly confused, did you connect both the bulbs to a 300w ballast like in parallel? or did you keep the internal ballast and plug it into the wall.
 
gurubomb said:
so how did the wiring work for these? I'm still slightly confused, did you connect both the bulbs to a 300w ballast like in parallel? or did you keep the internal ballast and plug it into the wall.

Each bulb has its own ballast and cord. What I actually did was remove the socket from the light and locate it in the cooltube. I put the glass back on the light assembly, which is now basically just a remote ballast. I didn't use the socket that I removed because I wanted a side mount one. I ran 4' of wiring (suitable for high heat applications) from the socket to the ballast and connected the wires (from the socket I cut out) with wirenuts. I also needed a power cord. I had an old 14 g extension cord with a bad end, so I used a chunk of that and put an end on it and wire nutted this to the power wires from the light.

scrog 018 (2).jpg
 
thats how i seperated mine lol now just need to make it into a cool tube ,,eventually ,,thanks HG ,,great thread :48:
 
The Hemp Goddess said:
Each bulb has its own ballast and cord. What I actually did was remove the socket from the light and locate it in the cooltube. I put the glass back on the light assembly, which is now basically just a remote ballast. I didn't use the socket that I removed because I wanted a side mount one. I ran 4' of wiring (suitable for high heat applications) from the socket to the ballast and connected the wires (from the socket I cut out) with wirenuts. I also needed a power cord. I had an old 14 g extension cord with a bad end, so I used a chunk of that and put an end on it and wire nutted this to the power wires from the light.

dam, nice! thanks for the pic
 
Just wired it up for a temperature test run! Runs about 1 degree hotter than my CFL hood, not bad!!!! Need to clean up the wiring, of course.

Thanks, THG!!! Those 3 inch no hub couplings are perfect!

;) I'm an HPS Flowerer now! ;)


THG1 (640 x 480).jpg

THG2 (640 x 480).jpg
 
ArtVandolay said:
Just wired it up for a temperature test run! Runs about 1 degree hotter than my CFL hood, not bad!!!! Need to clean up the wiring, of course.

Thanks, THG!!! Those 3 inch no hub couplings are perfect!

;) I'm an HPS Flowerer now! ;)


View attachment 93141

View attachment 93142

Wow, it looks great! LOL--Your reflector looks better than mine. Yeah, the no-hub couplings...I went into Home Depot and just started roaming up and down the plumbing and heating aisles looking for things I thought might work.

You are going to love HPS. I was happy with how cool these lights run.
 
The Hemp Goddess said:
... Yeah, the no-hub couplings...I went into Home Depot and just started roaming up and down the plumbing and heating aisles looking for things I thought might work.
...


You're quite a girl, THG!
 
first time attempting to set up a grow. i'm a pretty capable guy as far as DIY stuff goes. thinking of getting 4 of the $20 HPS. i figure with about $100 i could knock out my lighting. but on the other hand, i'm thinking of waiting til taxreturn tim-ish and goin with a 600w lumatek digi. thinking with the first one i may go as cheap as possible. i mean the main goal here is keeping everything cheaper... let me know what ya'll think. some pics of this DIY light in action would be a great help!. thanks in advance
 
Cannabiscotti said:
first time attempting to set up a grow. i'm a pretty capable guy as far as DIY stuff goes. thinking of getting 4 of the $20 HPS. i figure with about $100 i could knock out my lighting. but on the other hand, i'm thinking of waiting til taxreturn tim-ish and goin with a 600w lumatek digi. thinking with the first one i may go as cheap as possible. i mean the main goal here is keeping everything cheaper... let me know what ya'll think. some pics of this DIY light in action would be a great help!. thanks in advance

How big is your space? If you have $100 to spend for lights, you can probably get a 400W HPS for around that (if you need that much light).

For pics of the light in action, check out the scrog grow in my sig. This grow is lit with the 150W dual cooltube. I also have a Satori that is about 3 weeks into flower under it now. I have been doing remodeling to my flowering room so used my veg closet and this set up to flower while the regular flowering room is being worked on.
 

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