Idea for homemade light mover equivelant

[samboo]

So i just read a thread before which involved a vertical scrog, thinking to myself "there's no point having the light above, you would need it on the side of the plant".

Well it got me thinking and this is what sprang to mind, since i am useless with microsoft paint i am going to try and explain, though i'm not much better at the latter either.

 

here's the plan...

this is for one plant but can be applied to up to 4 plants i would say, possibly more for larger wattage lights.

 

you would need

a lazy susan, remember those spinning plates at home

a small sized motor that could run off 5v or so.

 

simple idea really, you would sit the pot on top of the lazy susan. You would connect the motor up to a 5v source (phone charger etc, even batteries). On the shaft of the motor you would have to connect a rubber ring so it would spin like a tyre for example, then you would attach the motor to the ground point and have the tyre spinning either underneath or on the side of the lazy susan. Basically the little motor has a tyre attachment on it which is strong enough to spin the lazy susan.

Therefore allowing more light in to the middle section of the plant as well as all over for that matter.

 

In theory it seems like it would work well as it isn't just hitting all the canopies of the plants, it is getting in to the middle range where a light mover would not.

Materials would cost very little, lazy susans are on ebay for under $15 postage included. and hooking up a small motor would not cost more than $10 i wouldnt think.

 

What do people think? is it worth a try? do you think it would provide a benefit to the grow room?

[pauley]

How about keep the light in the middle and move the plant around in a 0 rotating it so that all of the plant gets some light have not yet growin so I don't know how well this would work.

[MaccaSpesh]

One problem you would have would be twisting/wrapping of the cord going to the light. Perhaps a stepper motor could be used to rotate the light one way then the other. Can you buy an electrical socket which can rotate?

 

Or pauley's idea would work but i would put the plant in the middle and rotate it on the lazy susan with the light on one side. This would obviously require the pot/watering system to be self contained and not have inlet/outlet/power lines lest they also twist/wrap which would be a challenge. This would also best be used with one plant only.

 

I'm not hugely up to speed with the types of electric motors available but most of them would spin too fast and require some form of gearing to slow them down. The hi torque motor found in a microwave might be slow enough if you were on a micro budget but something similar bought to suit would be preferable.

 

Great idea to use a lazy susan, I might give it a shot. Your estimate of $10 to hook the motor up seems a tad low to me, I'd budget $50.

Edited January 18, 2009 by MaccaSpesh

[hashbean]

or you could try and use this idea for MJ

 

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=CCTOR6m3k9w