Fiber optic cables direct light straight to fan leaves.

[gradolabs]

And I would be kind of disappointed if it didn't have an optional pollen catcher for male plants, if they produce pollen, so you could take it and put it in a female plants system so it could autopollenate plants... and if it was weatherproof we could use them outdoors too. Easy enough to add CO2 delivery if its necessary. The list goes on...

 

[gradolabs]

My primary measure of success in this endeavour is this lonely often unheard of meter.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=kill+a+watt

The kill a watt! Measures kilowatt hour usage so you can see how much eletricity you're using. Getting mine all dialed in...

 

[gradolabs]

The 3d scanners can track plant growth and help project yield, also we can see how different variables affect growth, either positive or negative. We can speed up the life of the plant digitally and plot light positions in advance. Growth data could be stored and accessed for known genetics so you can see how your plant compares to other phenotypes. Once you have a digital representation of the geometry of the plant, you can see what shape you can lst the plant into for increased light penetration and packing efficiency in a scrog grow. Hopefully we can get a robot to do this automatically. If not, its a good idea anyway.

 

[gradolabs]

As you know light emitting diodes run off of direct current. An advantage of using leds means you're ready to convert over to an alternative dc power supply as soon as the efficiency of batteries and transmission capabilities of power lines improve or are innovated upon. Also if you have access to clean energy such as wind or solar, as such technologies develope you may incorporate them directly into your indoor grow. With DC power supplies, large capacitors are used to smooth out the flow of electricity. And smoother power means more stable lighting conditions, some might say photon flux density. So now, not only can we use lasers to track the growth of cannabis, but flux capacitors as well.

Thank you very much, I'll be here all week.

 

[Red eyed c]

Im following along bro,i don't fully understand all the techy stuff in this thread,but I understand what your trying to achieve and the way your documenting every idea and thought makes it a great thread to read,its a live evolving product :group:
+rep

 

[gradolabs]

I figured out in clear terms what my initial goal is, namely to bypass the inverse square law of light with fiber optic cables bringing more intense light to the lower areas of the plant. I also got my 150w led in the mail. It's bright as hell. I'll post my opinion in the LED's from China section since it's not really a blackstar, grownorthern or cali light works. Like I said, I got it from Amazon from a supplier that made grow lights and led lights for the automobile industry... So, who knows what the actual performance is like... time will tell and I'll divulge all of her secrets, good or bad.

Anyway, I made another illustration of one of my FOLED ideas. You'll see the light hanging and several short solid core FO cables with a lens on each end to gather and distribute unused side lighting. More details and experiments to come now that I have hardware and more coming in a few short weeks. Should be fun.

 

[gradolabs]

See how the intensity varies inversely with the square of the distance? Is that conserved inside of fiber optic cable which has it's own signal attenuation to factor in, or is the whole idea too inefficient? Stay tuned!

 

[gradolabs]

I hope this link works for you guys. I'm reading up on measuring light.

http://files.intl-light.com/ILT-Light-Measurement-Handbook.pdf

 

[gradolabs]

Another idea is a cannabis specific spectrometer with preprogrammed recommended levels of PAR and a fiber optic probe. Place the probe at various points around your plant and adjust your lights according to the data. I think since the device wouldn't need to respond to any other conditions but ideal plant growth that we could get the cost down to something everyone could afford. It would be indispensible.

 

[gradolabs]

Also I figured out why red and blue leds are measured differently... luminous flux verses radiometric power. It's cause the energy a photon carries varies with its wavelength. Allow me to introduce Planck's equation. Planck's equation, this is AFN, the best site on the internet.