Oh My God, He Turned It INSIDE OUT!!!

[Texas Kid]

Take 4 foot light rail and stand it on it end and let the motor just track up and down it like t does when its horizontal..gotta figure out a trick lamp mount but thats about it...

You could also put one of those fan speed reducers on your motor and not use a gear reducer setup, do it electronically instead of mechanically

I've taken a 1k and put a 8" round screen around the vert bare buld and had that on a 8 foot mover that went right down the middle of a tree run

 

[ttystikk]

Take 4 foot light rail and stand it on it end and let the motor just track up and down it like t does when its horizontal..gotta figure out a trick lamp mount but thats about it...

You could also put one of those fan speed reducers on your motor and not use a gear reducer setup, do it electronically instead of mechanically

I've taken a 1k and put a 8" round screen around the vert bare buld and had that on a 8 foot mover that went right down the middle of a tree run

I thought about the light rail thing, but the wheels would slip. Also, the rail would block a lot of light.

DC motors typically turn at very high rpm, and have low torque. Gears are better to transfer power, and low voltage wouldn't provide the power to lift anything. The gear reduction is cheap, it's included with the motor, and can be assembled to provide any of several different reduction ratios.

The mover for the tree grow sounds pretty cool; I could see a bunch of them going back and forth, both ways like the lines on a checkerboard... Might have to appoint a robotic traffic cop!

 

[El Cerebro]

mount a rail-style mover horizontally as normal, then attach cable(s) with 90 degree pulley(s) to drop down for the vert action. you could use one mover for multiple verts that way. careful design to be sure nothing getting tangled. i've been waiting to apply this idea for a long time.

 

[One Flip]

I'm working on an F-15... We'll see how it flies soon enough!

Load that badboy up with some Starfighter for your first flight;)

I believe 1k's for your vert is a no brainier.. Your covering lots of sqft and getting a lot of bang for your buck.

Will your chiller set up for cooling keep up with you switching from vented to bare?

 

[ttystikk]

mount a rail-style mover horizontally as normal, then attach cable(s) with 90 degree pulley(s) to drop down for the vert action. you could use one mover for multiple verts that way. careful design to be sure nothing getting tangled. i've been waiting to apply this idea for a long time.

Thought of this, too- attaching a string to the real and tugging sideways would still cause the wheels to slip. My way is simpler anyway, lol.

 

[ttystikk]

Load that badboy up with some Starfighter for your first flight;)

I believe 1k's for your vert is a no brainier.. Your covering lots of sqft and getting a lot of bang for your buck.

Will your chiller set up for cooling keep up with you switching from vented to bare?

I already have a stain that stretches like crazy and I'm very familiar with it. I would love to get ahold of starfighter, considering what everybody says about it!

I chose 1kW bulb for my idea due to the forgiving depth of its 'goldilocks' zone, or the depth of the distance between too close to the bulb and too far away. As the buds swell and grow towards the bulb- this is during the bulking phase after stretch- they will grow towards the center from the edges. They will grow out of the goldilocks zone and get to close- too close, that is, for a bulb not on a light mover.

 

[El Cerebro]

the cheap chain drive ones won't slip? but no pause at the ends, maybe ok since it's vert.

 

[ttystikk]

the cheap chain drive ones won't slip? but no pause at the ends, maybe ok since it's vert.

My solution is all mine, and much simpler than chain drive. Cheaper, too. I want no pauses, because the whole point of the moving light is for it to keep moving. If the light can sit in position for a minute or more without burning the plants, then it's too far away for the approach I'm trying to take.

This, by the way, is the secret to setting up light movers; if you've set it up so the light can stop and it won't harm the plants beneath it, then why bother with a light mover? We're trying to increase the light on the plant, not merely spread it around.

 

[ttystikk]

Will your chiller set up for cooling keep up with you switching from vented to bare?

No, unless this setup is so efficient it doesn't shed any more heat- and I'm not counting on that. The first step is to do a proof of concept- only one cylinder, so it won't overtax anything. Second step is buying another 2 ton chiller, and setting up a second circuit for it. This second circuit will run at 45F and will handle dehuey and some air cooling. The current chiller will continue to handle the rest of air cooling plus chilling my RDWC water.

At 4 tons total capacity, I estimate enough capacity to cool, chill and dehuey 20 bare bulbs altogether. That's 10 at any given time, 20 in total using a flip strategy.

I think I can do all the above and stay on my 100 amp circuit, but we will see about that one!

 

[El Cerebro]

My solution is all mine, and much simpler than chain drive. Cheaper, too. I want no pauses, because the whole point of the moving light is for it to keep moving. If the light can sit in position for a minute or more without burning the plants, then it's too far away for the approach I'm trying to take.

This, by the way, is the secret to setting up light movers; if you've set it up so the light can stop and it won't harm the plants beneath it, then why bother with a light mover? We're trying to increase the light on the plant, not merely spread it around.

uh, without the delay, yer gonna end up fatter in the middle and thinner top and bottom. i think you set the pause in seconds not minutes?

but by all means, take apart some microwaves, i'll watch.

 

[ttystikk]

uh, without the delay, yer gonna end up fatter in the middle and thinner top and bottom. i think you set the pause in seconds not minutes?

but by all means, take apart some microwaves, i'll watch.

The microwave motor idea came from an engineer friend of mine, and it's a good one. I don't have to buy a reversing switch or a power supply, I just need enough headroom above the cylinder. I may yet go this route, but for now I am building a Tamiya kit that includes a motor and reduction gear set. This gives me more flexibility while I'm still tuning the system.

As far as uneven lighting issues are concerned, I'm moving the bulb from the top of the cylinder to the bottom- between this and the short height of the trellis, I feel like the light distribution will be acceptable. Now, this is a timing issue that I can tune; if I want more time at top and bottom, switching to the microwave motor approach would allow me to create an eccentric cam profile that distributes light any way I like.

 

[Texas Kid]

mount a rail-style mover horizontally as normal, then attach cable(s) with 90 degree pulley(s) to drop down for the vert action. you could use one mover for multiple verts that way. careful design to be sure nothing getting tangled. i've been waiting to apply this idea for a long time.

Brilliant!!!

 

[ttystikk]

Give that man a Guinness!

 

[psilo]

My solution is all mine, and much simpler than chain drive. Cheaper, too. I want no pauses, because the whole point of the moving light is for it to keep moving. If the light can sit in position for a minute or more without burning the plants, then it's too far away for the approach I'm trying to take.

This, by the way, is the secret to setting up light movers; if you've set it up so the light can stop and it won't harm the plants beneath it, then why bother with a light mover? We're trying to increase the light on the plant, not merely spread it around.

There is a limit to how much light the plants can use. You may want to ask Wazzup about that.

 

[El Cerebro]

hey maybe if you balance the load in both directions, bulbs up on one side while down on the other, no slippage on the wheeled style either?

 

[ttystikk]

There is a limit to how much light the plants can use. You may want to ask Wazzup about that.

This is a phenomenon I have seen many times before, it works very well.

 

[Texas Kid]

Wazzup will make your head spin with knowledge...

 

[homebrew420]

Sorry tty I don't really get it. Why reinvent the wheel? If you can do one and pull down over 2 lb a light then I am all ears. I am not trying to be rude, and I am sure it is coming off that way. Just don't see the point. You ask for a #, 2lb. People can and do make this happen with horizontal set-up. Assuming that is the point of the build.
Also not sure why bother with the reflectors? Anyone who has grow herb knows the light level under the canopy/behind in this case, is not enough to give and additional yeild. For the cost of materials to build a mover would you better served to purchase a 600?

 

[mrfixit]

No alzheimer's here... yet, lol. I do have a few secrets to my improbably youthful appearance, but those involve sex magic with young women...

We have more parallels than I imagined :-)

 

[Texas Kid]

Talkin to Wazzup gets expensive though because all you want to do is go buy Gavita's and really get to gettin....lol