Lighting Lets talk Fanny! ... seriously now, LED fan upgrades!

[Gonzo]

water under the bridge flat9... wasnt my best day either.

Anyways... the assholes at the store wrote my number wrong and never called back because of the NB1's. Called in and they had sold most of the fans at that great price. Still had 12 in stock, but had to get them from the supplier. Promised a call within a few days. Its been two weeks...

The Queen of the Silence.

This is the way I have partly resolved my problems. I test them now and if they will be OK i will buy some more and sell noisy ones.

I am very, very fond of them and I really believe that Gehl, the chinese manufacturer puts a lot of energy in improving them. I bought them in factory.

Why do I believe that? Because Haydn, Chinese that have sold these lights to me, constanly comes back to me asking if everything ok and asking me for growing pictures or any input. I also get greetings for chinese holidays recently.

I have had a lot of thinking about changing fans but I have realised that even the most silent fans turn around the air and that air makes noise if nothing else.

You can solve your problem with changing fans if you run two fans in one light, but if you run tens of them I do not believe that you will have something like silence at the end.

Well, I do have silence if I turn out clip fan, Hortiline 6 inch (marketed as: 5w Brushless Motor for Longer Life Energy Efficient, Low Voltage Ultra Quiet ...)

If you want a really good sleep also this really quiet fan disturbs you. Unfortunatelly.

 

[kaibosher]

Great thread thanks Groff!
I got my first Gn ms0006 yesterday and have been researching fan upgrades (I have a sleeping disorder, and NEED quiet cooling.)

I found NB X1s for 4.49.
Today I came into work and my boss asked me to get a bunch of replacement fans asap (Dell, you let me down again)
I said I was going to get some myself anyway and he offered to pay for mine:clap:

Anyway - is the airflow from the X1 definitely enough to cool the 0006 Groff?


FYI: NoiseBlocker also do an X2, same as X1 but it does 26,00 CFM - 18db - 1800rpm instead.

Cheers:stylez rasta smoke:

 

[Groff]

Havent done it yet. The idiots at the store dont seem to want my business. Had to order through ebay at that price too. Waiting on them, should be here within a week and I got a friend of mine to do the actual snipping and soldering. Cant find any bloody connectors.

Yeah, the X2 are better, more RPM, more dB though, slightly higher CFM. I went with X1 because of noise. Dont forget moving air also produces sound. I definitely think it is enough, especially now winter is creeping in. Real test will be during summer time.

 

[kaibosher]

I think local computer shops get so little business these days that they forget wtf to do when a real person walks in.
Soldering is best left to the experienced.... an under appreciated skill.

The Winter factor is swinging it for me too. Its pretty cold here.

I will...
1. Hang 0006 in the closet. Leave on 24 hours. Take a couple of min/max temp readings over another 24 hours as a baseline for what the current setup cools to in my climate.
2. Get 4x NB X1s, 4 mini connector blocks, cut fan connector plugs/sockets and install X1 fans - The (quality) mini connector block will allow me freedom to swap out fans quickly. I will also measure up heatsink dimensions for later project.
2.a. Die a little bit inside from having mutilated my lovely shiny new toy
3. Test as per item 1, with X1's. Report comparative results here

If these aren't cutting it in the summer, I might just invest in external fan speed controller box, mount to ms0006 and use higher RPM fans. Controller box will set RPM presets as per temperature dictates.


Now... how the F am I going to convince the boss that the office garden needs 15L airpots, pronto :brow:

 

[Groff]

I think local computer shops get so little business these days that they forget wtf to do when a real person walks in.
Soldering is best left to the experienced.... an under appreciated skill.

The Winter factor is swinging it for me too. Its pretty cold here.

I will...
1. Hang 0006 in the closet. Leave on 24 hours. Take a couple of min/max temp readings over another 24 hours as a baseline for what the current setup cools to in my climate.
2. Get 4x NB X1s, 4 mini connector blocks, cut fan connector plugs/sockets and install X1 fans - The (quality) mini connector block will allow me freedom to swap out fans quickly. I will also measure up heatsink dimensions for later project.
2.a. Die a little bit inside from having mutilated my lovely shiny new toy
3. Test as per item 1, with X1's. Report comparative results here

If these aren't cutting it in the summer, I might just invest in external fan speed controller box, mount to ms0006 and use higher RPM fans. Controller box will set RPM presets as per temperature dictates.


Now... how the F am I going to convince the boss that the office garden needs 15L airpots, pronto :brow:

I might have to +rep slap you when you bring in those result! Well played man, take some pictures if you please!

I also looked at cheap Zalman mini voltage controllers, but I dont know electronics properly enough to even think about that. What connectors are you speaking of? Do you have a link? I tried finding the ones used in the fan but had no luck

EDIT: Is the closet vented? If the heat cant escape the closet, there is no point, the fan will just recirculates whatever air stays in the closet and build up.

 

[kaibosher]

X1's should arrive next week. Will take some photos for sure:stylez rasta smoke:

Search Scroogle images or fleabay for "terminal block strip". Your insert the bare wire and clamp with a little screw. A 2 or 3 watt is plenty. Small ones required here because fan cable is usually thin.
It's best to make the wire more 'meaty' by twisting and folding. To get a good contact with the block.
For me, this is temporary. I will solder and heat shrink the fans when happy with the setup.

My closet is vented by 1 fan mounted in the back wall. Not 100% about it so ducting is on the cards (silent fan on each end, pointed at the light's air output.
I think another fan is required in the closet for air input too.

7 fans!!! I hope I can sleep with these. Eh. I mean I hope they don't blow too hard so im up all night. ah goddamit you have dirty minds you know what i mean.
:smokebuds:

 

[Groff]

Mission GN complete!

View attachment 307927
View attachment 307928
View attachment 307929

[video=youtube;ahDe4jFVXDA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahDe4jFVXDA[/video]

Here is the link if you cant see the embedded video - GN Fan MOD - YouTube

Both done now and WOW!! Totally worth it for extreme stealth mode.

:dance2:

 

[kaibosher]

Loving the video and pics "Munch..munch..munch The effort is appreciated!

How have they performed since? Any noticeable temp differences in the lights?

my little experiment is underway atm... temp data from the factory fans is in. New fans are about to be installed.

"LED Help..?"

"Ho..ho..ho..." = scary santa

 

[Groff]

Well, the temperature exiting the side vents is just a little bit warmer due to lower airflux, but just slightly. Apart from that, nothing much to report.

Seems perfectly solid, fingers crossed. The Hydrogrow are slightly trickier. Much easier to dismantle, but the fixing holes on the underside are not standard and are bigger, so the replacement fans have to be drilled.

Thinking of getting an extra light, so might wait out on that to do both at the same time

 

[kaibosher]

Here's some data on factory vs. low rpm X1 fans.

Note:, has to be said, I don't condone anyone taking apart their hard earned grow lights - i have a medical condition which makes me take things apart, so it's ok

Note 2: I have requested max. temps and factory fan CFM from Grownorthern. No response yet.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You can see a picture diary in my gallery - "1st indoor adventure: Part 1 - Shit hits the Silent Fan". Pics are summarised for info.

These figures are rough averages and im not using fancy equipment. The room temp fluctuation between tests kinda screwed it up a bit to be honest. This experiment is for comparative purposes only.


Method:
GN0006 left running for 4 hours with factory fan - max temps (closet, room and heatsink) and decibel levels were then recorded. New fans were installed, unit was left running for 4 hours - same details recorded.

Results:
....................... |Closet temp.|Heatsink temp.|Room Temp.|Near db.|Far db.|
Factory Fan........|.....23.3c......|.......35.2c......|......16.4c....|...~68...|..~55..|
noiseblocker X1..|.....28.9c......|.......52.1c......|......20.9c....|...~47...|..~38..|


Initial thoughts:
X1 fans have much lower airflow. In a hotter country/hot growroom, this setup might not have enough active cooling potential.
LEDs can cope with high temps BUT the whole point is to maximize efficiency of power used and increase LED lifetime.
However I can accept my max of 52C on the heatsink with the following justifications:

With factory fans running, room/closet temps were quite low. I assume the heatsink would be pushing 40C if the factory fans ran with same ambient room temps.

My max room temp during the experiment was ~21C - this would be the max I allow the room to reach. I am confident in the setup for now but I am considering X2 (higher CFM) fan upgrade in the summer.

Overall - if the ambient temps arent too high, the X1's should be fine. They are QUIET as fook and so stealthy!!

BTW, I have a Zalman 130mm quiet fan running for closet ventilation @ 5v from a usb charger (see pics). This will be upp'ed to 7.5 or 9v soon.


Anyway, that's about as complicated a procedure that could be managed after the christmas comedown:smokebuds:

Here's a photo of the X1's :dance:....