`Expert Cultivator Products

Unattended Solar Drip Irrigator

A five gallon bucket or dozens of feet of line to a reservoir
spike with wet meter waters accordingly, low profile solar cell/battery
pack
motion activated ultrasonic pest repeller

soil water content wireless sensor net, wireless pump activation


Grow-Tron

For maximizing fruiting plant yield and vigor

Super High Efficient LED and Compact Fluorescents

Space-age Light Emitting Diode technology!
All-Electronic Instant Start High Frequency Compact Fluorescent
Ballasts!

Water-resistant and case grounded low noise regulated power supply and
electronics.

Uses less power than two 100W incandescent bulbs with the
photosynthesis efficiency of dual 1000W MH/HPS!

Inner reflective, light-tight design promotes photoperiod control.

CO2 generation module, simply add yeast and sugar for maximum fruiting
yield! Air insertion to grow media! Optional electonically controlled
regulator, tank, and CO2 counter.

Water bath temperature control, humidity controller.

Fan-vented, optional charcoal filter/deionizer!

Locking, Stackable, Modular, Closet Cabinet Design, grow compact plants
or full height, stack modules in vertical space and other restricted
space applications.

Digital controller of all automatic functions! Programmable via simple
USB connector and provided software for Windows, Mac, and Linux. SDK
available.

Variable photoperiod real daylight emulation! Community strain
performance optimization download!

12/24 VDC, 115/120, 220/230 V 50/60 Hz AC operation! Optional solar
module + battery pack!

Automatic Ebb/Flow Hydroponic

Optional Ph/fertilizer buffering and management, water and power alerts

nutrient drip solutions

electric plant stimulator

Instructions included in five languages.

$1200

Plant respiration diagnostics, Aeroponic and optional zero-gravity root
aeration module and water/nutrient reclamation and processing, closed
system air loop.

Flown on the International Space Station

$14000

Recommended Accessories: a bucket. International Space Station not
included.


Germination Chamber.

"Also, current MEA-type scrubber designs require gravity to work."
http://www.asi.org/adb/04/03/05/mea-co2-scrubber.html

Peak stomatal opening: 450-460 nm

spectral region of plant response, 380-750 nm

red/far-red reversibility

658/667/ 677 nm, "not statistically different"

electric stimulation,

electrodes in the grow media are gently pulsed to partially ionize the
electrolytes in the water

mini-electrode clips are connected to the plant branches stimulating
fruiting yield


reservoir flood/drain hydroponic

need a timer, a pump

basically have the reservoir in the bottom, and a single drain that is
a trickle drain

then, the pump fills the tray, because the pump has such high volume,
then it trickles out, so as long as the drain doesn't clog, which it
won't if correct, then the plants don't flood

otherwise for longer duration soaks there's the notion of an
electronically controlled valve, to drain the tray

sometimes the reservoir needs to be changed out, that can involve a
siphon hose, basically a hose into the reservoir

the reservoir can be smaller, and repumped several times. It is
designed for short cycles anyways, so that the reservoir would be
changed out every week or two anyways, with a mind towards buffering
and controlling pH and nutrient densities.

The idea here is still to fit the lights into the tank. The tank needs
a light-tight lid to be able to control the photo period. If this CF
reflectors are 22" long, and the maximum height in the tank is 26",
then that is not really enough. to have both a reservoir and growing
media in the tank at a four inch depth, to flood the entire level of
grow media instead of having separate pot systems.

If I want the center light to be variable in height, then it needs to
hang on some chain system or have modular ladder plugs or something.
For example, it could be a circle with legs on it, so it can be lifted
and thread through posts on the side supports. Then it only has one
wire to it, and the wire length if managed. Then, it needs to have
supplemental cooling. so the fan(s) can be on that board, eg low speed
CPU fans. They should be somewhat moisture resistant.

So the board is all red LEDs. The CF lights on the sides are these
blue lights, and white lights. It is presumed that contact with any of
these lights is not going to hurt the plants or be a fire danger.

So I'm thinking some hundreds of LEDs would go into the tank.

So, that will involve getting some scores of LEDs, and then powering
them with a regulated power supply. Also, I might want to be able to
control pulsing of the LEDs.

So, then there will be three sides with CF lights, barriered into the
grow medium dealie, which will be smaller than the tank size. In that
way, the sides of the tank are out of the way, yet still care must be
taken that there is no overflow of the reservoir which might lead to
water contacting the bulbs which is not to be allowed.
That might be good for it to be round so it can be spun around in the
chamber.

LEDs are in terms of mcd, millicandles, then the idea is to get high
efficiency LEDs, and they're already pretty high efficiency as they are
targeted wavelengths, and so on.

then, find some fully electronic CF ballasts for 55W CF bulbs to power
three CF bulbs, they are to be wired into the control board, which will
have simple switches for connection to a simple timer circuit or so on.

temperature to fan / constant fan

germinate-
sprout

transplant to grow media

CF

transplant to pots

vegetate-
blue bulbs and CF

nutrient solution for veg

foliar application

train

flower-
red bulbs, blue bulbs, and CF

sex

nutrient solution for fruit

plain water for leech

foliar application

So, have in the LEDs separate circuits for the blue and red, or
separate circuits for the various blue and various red, or separate for
each bank of the various blue and various red

lots of small LEDs means lots of wiring. That can be accomplished
wiring sockets into prototype board material. Then that involves
finding LED sockets besides LEDs. That would be good though for
modular LED arrays, and bulb replacement.

making LED clusters - get some plastic or similar material and cut and
drill it and insert the LEDs through to a circuit board.

well maybe I should put the reds on the sides and have the blue light
only from above, for having the growth directed up, but then again if
the blue light is from all sides and mostly from above that's as well
and might encourage side growths. Reds again should be all over.

Traffic lights are what to get, 3 eight inch, 200mm, red traffic
lights, because they run at 15 or 20 watts and peak at 657 nm. The
green light's photometry has peak around 500 with dropoff to include
low amounts of lower frequencies. Basically these red lights are to
supplement the light in the flowering period. So there will be
wide-spectrum lights for most of it, and then fo phototropic growth
they should be reflected off of the roof deck of the thing. Then, in
the flowering period the reflective roof deck is replaced with these
red traffic bulbs that are selected for the highest red wavelength
available, but not more than 700 nm, preferably 660 nm. Then, those
might be aroud only 30w of lights, but they will be extra and be good.

The traffic lights are designed to match daylight visibility instead of
660nm P.A.R. which is indistinguishable to colorblind people, so the
LED traffic signal lamps are not very good for the application.
They're OK for chlorophyll b primary peak absorption, but not really.
Some of the older red LED traffic signals were 660, now they're not.

Then there's a question of what lights to select for the side lighting,
and it seems that the aquarilux type lights might be the best. Then,
consider, if the traffic lights are slimline, having _them_ on the
sides, and the aquarilux on the top. Because, like, a dozen 200mm red
lights could be put in there.

Those will be cheaper, plus, the LED lamps are dimmable.

So, then, the notion is to have the CF aquarilux on top, er, and then
the red 200mm 657nm two per side. Then, if those are 9w, that is
around 108w, that is a lot of heat to dissipate. Then, they are too
big, the entire sealed housing is almost 4 inches thick, that is too
big, but it is nice to be in a sealed housing.

So, get six of the "High Powered 24 LED Aquarium Jumbos" in Red, and 3
in Blue. Then have six around and three on top to be risen. Then, I
still want a broad spectrum light, but something simple, even just a
nightlight, because otherwise its complicated in the power supply. How
about just a white LED?

6 red
3 blue
3 white

runs 10-14.5V, Volts Direct Current, with 120 mA, milliamps and says
480000 mcd, millicandelas. That doesn't seem right in comparison to
the 3 and 8 LED deals.

120 * 12 = 1440 mA = 1.4 A

So the power supply could be producing 120 VDC? That doesn't seem
right. They have a wall-wart that runs 11.99 that is said to be able
to handle 13 of the 24 LED domes, so that should do, then a dimmer will
be included.

So, put the blue and white on the roof deck. Then, there might be two
power circuits, one for those and the other for the red ones, and that
would imply the use of two of those transformers.

So, the roof deck is raised to start the plants, and then when they are
forced into flowering the red lights are put in on the side panels.
Either that, or they are fixed in anyways, and just turned higher on
the dimmer for that.

So basically then in a box would be a transformer, grounded power line,
urkh, scary, two or maybe four or six biggish capacitors, two power
diodes, er, and a couple potentiometers with dials out the box, with
room in the box for more circuits if there is not enough, but there
should be quite a lot, of light. .

I think I might order 6 of the Red ones, 3 of the Blue ones, and 3 of
the White ones, and maybe a couple of the power adapters. I'm
interested in something with higher power factor than a regular
"wall-wart" style transformer/rectifier. I'd like to have a regulated
or rather current limited power supply so as not to ruin any of these
nice LED arrays, and also I would like to have dimmers or
potentiometers in line to manage the various levels of two circuits of
LED array, arrays, one circuit with the Whites and Blues and the other
with the Reds.

I've heard that if the LEDs are pulsed they can be overdriven safely.
I wonder about that. Because if a half-cycle pulsed operation at 24V
wouldn't hurt the LED, then I would consider just half-waving a 5:1
transformer to one or the other circuit with a dimmer on each leg.
Does that make sense? What about having a half-wave rectifier for a
circuit of six of the LED domes with a 10:1 transformer, and then the
other half to the other circuit? Would that have a higher power factor
than a transformer/full-wave rectifier? Then again it could be that a
capacitor network could be charged to a higher voltage on the capacitor
side and then drip through the current-limiting resistor to attenuate
the half-wave.

The dominant wavelength of those is still not where it is best for
photosynthesis. A diagram from
http://www.ccs-inc.co.jp/eng/bio/pro...cubator_i.html has peaks for
phytochrome R of 660 nm, and peaks for chlorophyll a and b at 430/662
and 453/642. The dominant and peak of the LEDs varies, so look for
640nm LEDs as they will peak at 660nm sometimes.

Red: GaAlAs, 660nm

Back to Compact Fluorescent / Power Compacts, with electronic ballasts.
Also it would be good to find these traffic lights with 660nm red
bulbs and a slim form factor.

Thinking about 24W lamps with the 2G11 base, straight four pi