my gravity fed air atomizing aeroponic system

It would be worth beefing up the insulation value of the lid on your chamber, i didnt realise it was made of plastic. At 8 sq ft, its the biggest chunk of surface area on the chamber

i agree with you there. im going to cut some holes in a piece of 1.5" styrefoam and set it on top of the plastic. i doubled up all the houseplants today and added the solar coleuses, ill bet in 10 days they will fly past the jews.

do you think i could use my 1/2horse compressor, and 11 gallon tank to run a 4x4 and 4x2 chamber at the same time?
it is
1.9cfm at 40psi
and
1.1cfm at 90psi

is theres some kind of math on sizing a compressor?

also is your rule thumb still 1ml per 100liters of chamber volume, per misting cycle.

Assuming 4 nozzles on a worst case 1.5sec/60 sec cycle at 40psi and the 11gal tank running 40-90psi. Your compressor would run every 21 minutes for 4minutes and 33 seconds (ish) Its a good idea to time how long the compressor takes to fill the tank from 40-90 to get the real cfm.
The 1ml/100L is the maximum saturation per misting pulse (its actually 0.9ml), assuming you have full coverage and the correct droplet size range. Your 4x2 chamber is around 288L, using two #4`s with 40psi air you`d need a 1.8 second misting pulse to reach the 1ml/100L limit. Thats a lot of mist

Atomizer said:

Assuming 4 nozzles on a worst case 1.5sec/60 sec cycle at 40psi and the 11gal tank running 40-90psi. Your compressor would run every 21 minutes for 4minutes and 33 seconds (ish) Its a good idea to time how long the compressor takes to fill the tank from 40-90 to get the real cfm.
The 1ml/100L is the maximum saturation per misting pulse (its actually 0.9ml), assuming you have full coverage and the correct droplet size range. Your 4x2 chamber is around 288L, using two #4`s with 40psi air you`d need a 1.8 second misting pulse to reach the 1ml/100L limit. Thats a lot of mist

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damn thats a lot of on time, i dont have a lot of faith in this little chinese compressor, you think i should just stick with one chamber. so as not to wear it out prematurely, before im done prototyping, or is my faith weak?

also i got my #4s today

oxanaca said:

damn thats a lot of on time, i dont have a lot of faith in this little chinese compressor, you think i should just stick with one chamber. so as not to wear it out prematurely, before im done prototyping, or is my faith weak?

also i got my #4s today

Click to expand...

In my experience it is never a good idea to trust cheap hardware. I'm a firm believer in that you get what you pay for so my best advice is to try and get a new compressor asap and try not to over stress the one you have now

Trust me i had a cheap rope ratchet fail on me and as the situation may not be the same i seriously lost some cash cause of a 12$ part failing.

My buddy's got a cheap pancake from harbor freight and it has been ran for 2-3 hours every day for the passed two years.

1/3 horse oilless with a 3 gal pancake on sale for 50$
http://www.harborfreight.com/3-gallon-100-psi-oilless-pancake-air-compressor-95275.html?ccdenc=eyJjb2RlIjoiMjYzODUzODgiLCJza3UiOiI5NTI3NSIsImlzIjoiNDkuOTkiLCJwcm9kdWN0X2lk IjoiMzE0MSJ9

The HF would run for 9 hours a day with 4 nozzles

Atomizer said:

The HF would run for 9 hours a day with 4 nozzles

Click to expand...

Oh damn, your right. that pancake has a really low output ><' whoops

i think this may be more like it..

http://www.harborfreight.com/2-horsepower-6-gallon-150-psi-oilless-pancake-compressor-67696.html


**EDIT**
This one is almost twice what the last one is at 4cfm @ 90psi
http://www.harborfreight.com/18-horsepower-26-gallon-150-psi-psi-oilless-air-compressor-69669.html

Around 90 minutes a day with that one. Could be an option if noise isnt an issue, its probably 90db+
edit: the spec reckons 91db @ 3ft

Jesus are you telling me you need a belt drivin, v twin with a 60 gal tank to do this decently ? Damn. This is why I'm gonna stick to HPA then convert over to HPAAA down the road.

Atomizer: what is the ideal output range ? Like 10 cfm?

Dionili said:

Jesus are you telling me you need a belt drivin, v twin with a 60 gal tank to do this decently ? Damn. This is why I'm gonna stick to HPA then convert over to HPAAA down the road.

Atomizer: what is the ideal output range ? Like 10 cfm?

Click to expand...

This seems to be the most afforable option anything else is over 700$ at least from HF 5.7 cfm's @90psi enough?

http://www.harborfreight.com/air-tools/compressors-oil/2-1-2-half-hp-10-gallon-125-psi-air-compressor-67708.html

Dionili said:

Jesus are you telling me you need a belt drivin, v twin with a 60 gal tank to do this decently ? Damn. This is why I'm gonna stick to HPA then convert over to HPAAA down the road.

Atomizer: what is the ideal output range ? Like 10 cfm?

Click to expand...

The numbers were based on 4 nozzles running maximum mist, worst case scenario
A small shop compressor, 1.5-2cfm output with a 6.3 gallon tank would run a couple of nozzles.

i prefer a silent air compressor in my current situation, so this current air compressor is my only option currently. if the compressor dies i can bring out the 20gallon craftsman. so its no big deal really, if i have to get a little noisy for a while, just rather not.


i dont think anything from harbor freight would be an upgrade, everything there is junk, theres a reason when you walk into there stores you notice the prices are so low. i once bought a hammer there and the head flew off the first time i used it.

after i get this aa aero figured out im going to graduate to a 80gallon belt driven air compressor. my plan is to run about 16 nozzles. in 8 different 4x4 foot chambers,
gonna grow some good tomatoes.

so i ended up taking all the plants in my system today and putting them in soil. i just dont have time to do it right at the moment, and if my hearts not in something it always ends up fucked up.

im going to be constructing a new chamber, that i will be running inside. the goal is for it to be as sound proof as i can make it. i also will have an area underneath that will house either a drain pan or a drain pan and a siphon resevoir of some sort similar to the atomix, as i would like to test siphon feeding, seeing how g love was able to achieve high surface area roots this way. plus i can skip a solenoid per nozzle. i will construct the siphon resevoir so that it will always have the same siphon height, using a float valve and a resevoir on a table higher than the resevoir.

the main downside to siphon feeding from what i can see is that i will need more air per volume of atomized nutes, im also curious what this would do to my droplet size and spray angel. im pretty sure that the spray angle will be reduced as the fluid will have no pressure and be forced to do what ever the compressed air is doing.

if anyone has any ideas on the best way to soundproof my chamber please post how. when i say soundproof what i really mean is make it quiet enough not to piss off my neighbors.

Soundproofing gets expensive for sure if you go the commercial route. You can just add layer after layer of something with low density like foam, duct insulation, kiln bricks, adobe (which will be your easiest to make cheap if you can dry it well enough), etc. There are a lot of instructables, depending on your budget.
I haven't gotten to this point yet but I intend on soundproofing my diesel generator and air compressor, so I can run a portion of my energy on waste veg oil, 5.5k/hr.
So if you have success I'll be interested...

trouble with soundproofing is that with our application, like a heat producing motor in a compressor, we need to vent the chamber in order to keep the motor/pump cool, so the vent hole leaks sound. You could get around that with some copper tubing coiled around the tank/motor and have it connects to a coolant reservoir and pump. Pumps are 50-90 bucks, or way cheap if ripped out of a junkyard. OR get fancy and make an adsorption chiller ha...

jamesvagabond said:

trouble with soundproofing is that with our application, like a heat producing motor in a compressor, we need to vent the chamber in order to keep the motor/pump cool, so the vent hole leaks sound. You could get around that with some copper tubing coiled around the tank/motor and have it connects to a coolant reservoir and pump. Pumps are 50-90 bucks, or way cheap if ripped out of a junkyard. OR get fancy and make an adsorption chiller ha...

Click to expand...

the noise from the compressor isnt my problem. im not sure how much experiance you have with AA nozzles but they soiund like

HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

from what ive heard about sound deadening it sounds like i would do well with twin wall 2inch foam with a dead airspace in between them around the bottom and sides.
also i may cover the walls in my room with some of that accustical foam they sell on ebay

some thing like this


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pro-2-Acoustic-Foam-Pyramids-Wall-Studio-Sound-Proof-36-s-f-9X4-charcoal-tile-/190780883100?pt=US_Acoustical_Treatments&hash=item2c6b6d409c

i only want to kill the sound in my appartment if i were to run some thing bigger in a commercial setting i wouldint worry about the sound i would just have a reason for making those sounds.

so instead of potting the plants my friend decided to keep my system running himself. he seems to be doing very well.

i just drew out the plans for my new system. its gonna be sweet. the same dimentions as before 4foot X 2 foot X18"
it is a cedar frame. with 1.5inch styrefoam insulation. the outside will be made of tin of some sort. i will be bending it using a brake so it will be flawless and shiny like that one picture of the shiny atomix floating around.also the bottom and top will be made of marine plywood.
the system will have legs to raise it off the ground and there will be a drain pan underneith to catch runoff. i will have some sort of 1 oz collection cup that will give me recent runoff and PH activity.
i will also have a silkscreen lifted a 1/2inch off the bottom of the chamber. to keep my roots from standing water.
i will be installing one BETE XAAD nozzle to fill the box with mist. it is a presure fed nozzle. i own a 20 gallon 150psi pressure tank. so i will use that and my prufpump RP60 (rothenberger) to charge it up.
im thinking of continuing to run my current system in the greenhouse with my 20gallon 5hp shop compressor, as i will be using this in the house. to deal with the sound i will build a sound killing enclosure for my system/grow light/ plants

i will start them using a HP cloner that i am just finishing now. it was my 95 site ezcloner knock off

The shiny atomix used mirrored perspex/lexan. I dont have the tools to work with big pieces of sheet metal so i generally use pvc. Its cheap, easy to work with and never needs painting.
I made a start on a compact indoor/outdoor chamber today, it just needs some 2" insulation fitting and maybe a new lid that doesnt resemble swiss cheese