My Laminar Garden Project - Finally Installed

2 things.

1st, is there any water enhancer in the photos shown above? That is just incredible!!!!

2nd, I have my circuit all set up to control the lighting and the stepper motor, but now I don't have enough power to do everything at once. I have to get a new power supply that can handle more wattage.
Do you just have one power supply or two power supplies?

John wrote:2 things.

1st, is there any water enhancer in the photos shown above? That is just incredible!!!!

2nd, I have my circuit all set up to control the lighting and the stepper motor, but now I don't have enough power to do everything at once. I have to get a new power supply that can handle more wattage.
Do you just have one power supply or two power supplies?

Hi

the Fotos are long time aperture fotographs, otherwise you cant catch the light as good as the human eye can see it. Its not that bright in real person, but close to it in complete darkness. I Just wanted to show the other enviroment lithning, same problem, with a ordinary picture no way to show it how iot looks. Its more than 20 seconds open on F9.

Yes i use a 12V 5A power source.. enough for all this stuff and more. I was not expensive:
http://www.led-tech.de/en/Technic-und-Supply/Power-Supply/Power-Supply-MeanWell-12V-/-5.0A-/-60W-LT-721_29_32.html

HEre you can order up to 8.5A
http://www.led-tech.de/en/Technic-und-Supply/Power-Supply-c_29_32.html

Cheap. Yes Electronics needs time. I know. But maybe try a PC power suply like Leonarde was talking about, i am shure this is the best for our LEDs and enough for a Stepper.

Keep on working,

Mario

I just happen to have an older computer power supply!!! I just need to hack it apart and get the powers that I need.

This is just a little update, i made some paintings on my white Electronic box, now its much better and it looks much more naturally. Yes, i am not a big artist, but i think its ok for this one.

mario: that is sick !!
Your garden WILL be on a Magazine cover someday
The idea of painting the electric box green was great..

Well not only the box is great, your damn garden is great
btw: when does the winter arrive at your place ?

We have already have one night here with -0 degree !!
And there have been some snow up in the mountains

So my "garden" project with water is for sure over for this season......

Hi

I made a more or less good Video to show my finished work in action. Let me say a view things, my Camera, a simple logitec is not very good at night shots, the light you see there is much more brighter in real person.

The cut / uncut is not as good than it was, because i need to push up the pressure of the pump in the garden setup, so i have more problems than bevore. But at the moment it works perfect for me, and i don't want to change anithing now.

I hope you like the video, cheers Mario

Hy folks, Wintersleep is over! I feel this, every day 2 -3 questions from youtube users ...

I just want to let you know about my Updates on my Nozzle. First my System runns Perfectly again and is installed in the garden now.

Chnges:
I break apart my nozzle, and can't beleve my eyes, so much calc in it, that was the reason for the bad stream at the end last year.
So i made new straws with a smaller diameter, had 8mm 700 of them (Mc donalds style) now i have 5 mm 1400! ohh man cutting it to the right length was hard ... *LOL*

And i made an extra space after the sponge with a mesh and a aluminium ring. And my stream is really better now, can shoot higher and longer!, Not that mch, but better *YES, YES , YES*

Light:
Then i made in the most powerfull leds out there in it, Green 5W luxeon, Blue 5W luxeon and 2x Red 3W, So i have now 16 watts of light, last year 9W, ohh man, this looks cool at night! Its now much brither, i love it! Too bad luxeon is discontnued for this power leds wit hthe perfect small output. So i need to buy a replacement set.

Wagter: i will use from the beginning swimmig pool chemicals to have a clear alge and calc free system.

So thats all for the Moment, i go now outside 9.50 PM and enjoy the show in the Garden, I love it.

Kind regards, all the best for you
Mario

I'm jealous! It's snowing today here in Utah!!!

John wrote:I'm jealous! It's snowing today here in Utah!!!

Hey John, Hi. how are you! What Snowing, you are kidding, right?
Mario

Mario, that is fantastic! Thanks for the video. I'm in Jamaica for the next 18 months doing humanitarian service with LDS Charities, so I can only observe what others are doing. However, the weather here would be great for a fountain!

wow Mario, is your fountain up and running already
I still have 1-2 meeter with snow in my garden
Maybe the snow is away after 1.May :-)


Cheers

Therons wrote:Mario, that is fantastic! Thanks for the video. I'm in Jamaica for the next 18 months doing humanitarian service with LDS Charities, so I can only observe what others are doing. However, the weather here would be great for a fountain!

Hi Theron, Wow, you do a really a good thing. All the best for you in Jamaica and good Luck. Yes, lets build a the first Jamaica Fontain .. mayme with some smoke and grass ... So we will have you back in 18 Months??? Have a good Time, Mario

liteglow wrote:wow Mario, is your fountain up and running already
I still have 1-2 meeter with snow in my garden
Maybe the snow is away after 1.May :-)
Cheers

Hi Filip, What? 1 - 2 Metrs Snow???? NO!

The Light: i was going the easy way, changed from 3W Hi power leds to 5W hi Power leds and adjust the electronics to drive it at Max (Thanks to Leonardo for the great help study the datasheet), thats all. From my point, the only useble leds in use with coated 3mm fibers are the Luxeon lambertian LEDS. Too bad they discontinued. But you can find it still here and there in webshops. Another nice solution is when its really working, one guy in this forum find a 9W RGB led, mounting it in the nozzle. I was looking for this LED, but cant find it anywhere. And if this led is really 9W ... its the only in the world, so i think its a chinese Fake, with 5W or similar. As you can read above, i changed the straws and made a mesh in, so i have really a better stream i think, and i was able to come just a little closer to the Nozzle outlet with my fibers.

Here some Pictures how its looking now. Yes, we had snow yesterday, what a nice Picture, Laminar in Winter

That must be the first SNOW-able laminar jumping jet the in the world
I think that even Mark Fuller would be proud of what you have done there

What is you talking about straws and mesh???
pictures pictures....

Yes, it looks pretty awesome outside. I made some Pictures, yesterday, in the early evening, before sunset! Look how bright the light now is! I couldn’t believe my eyes. No long time exposure, no water enhancer, that’s the reality. Can you imagine how the light will glow in the darkness? Ohh man, you got to see this in live! I never have seen RGB light during daylight before in my laminar stream.



Also red is now that powerfull, 2x3W Red Luxeons, just cool.


Sorry, no pictures from the inside.
Straws: I just changed it from 8mm to 5mm diameter.
Mesh: I made a ring, 25mm length, and 1 mm thick and fasten it with one rivet. Then I push it in the tube, and clamp the mesh between wall and alum ring. That’s all, so i have the full size inside, the water makes a straight flow and my straws stays in place. I am now with my 4 fibres approximately 1/2 inch from the outlet. Amazing that light. Yes, i loose a bit of the laminarity when i come that close, but its ok.

How many FIBER cables do you have inside ? (you use 3mm correct?)
And how is do you hold the fibers in place? My fibers bend away from the hole when I push them inside my nozzle :\

What exact LED do you use, and drivers?

To make everything more simple, how much do you want to sell a complete RGB setup with the LED


Where is the mesh, on the bottom or the top?
Is it an aluminium mesh or plastic?


many question, but I did have some serious problem last year with my nozzle to stay laminar after some time.
And the light was just so depressingly bad....
All my 4 3mm fibers did break when I tried to push them inside my nozzle, and after I did try one more time, I was not able to make the fibers hit directly into the output hole.

Hi Flip, I think you know all that answers. But no Problem, here again in short Lines.

4 Fiber Cables, Red 3W 2x, Green 5W 1x, Blue 5W 1x that makes 4. Red is the one that is not as bright for the human eye, so i use 2x 3W, there are no 5W red on the Market.

Led’s, Driver and Fiber setup is written here: https://laminar.forumotion.com/laminar-nozzle-talk-and-pictures-f1/the-guide-for-a-perfect-rgb-light-with-pmma-fiber-optic-cable-t93.htm

To adjust the Fiber outlet, you need an Aluminium or better a Brass rod, because when installed you can bend it in the right place, and brass stays 100% there. Just the fibers, i think there is no way to get success.

Only use fibers with a coat! No coat is so sensitive, a little scratch destroys the light flow and a little over bend breaks the fiber.
Look in another post, they ordered cheap cable 3mm with coat on eBay! My fibers i use are nearly unbreakeble.

Mesh (Aluminium) is just after the empty space 1" from the sponge right under the straws.

Open your nozzle and remove everything and clean it! Calc and dirt destroys the laminarity, which was my problem end season.
I use now a lot of pool chemicals to prevent from bacterial slime, calc and algue.

Also i use spongefilters in the water inlet and one inside the Nozzle and one arround the pump. If you have open water, you need a pool clearing device, otherwise your system won’t work for a long time. Maybe you need to think about the open setup in your garden, because so much dirt? Or use a water cleaning device. But that is expensive.

Sorry, i don’t have time to build led setups. But it’s really easy to build a LED setup. Just buy a RGB controller for a 50 euro or similar and follow my guide. 2 Days work if you have all the parts, and you can ask me anytime. But think about order it now because the cool led’s Luxeon 3 lumiled 3W or 5W are discontinued. Really bad if you want to use fibers.

Thanx for refreshing my memory mario :-)
Maybe i did know some of the answers, but after one year most of them was forgotten...

I also did try a mesh after the straws (on the top) and it seems to work out fine.
But something terrible did happen when my aluminium mesh react into my metal screws !!!

I have very cheap 3mm fiber with no protection, and when I have them lighten up I can see light all the way in the fiber.
(the light is supposed to ONLY be on the output and not all the way along the fiber)
So I guess I need to buy a new fiber with protection !

I will also find some LED to buy.
I maybe need to find it today, as the snow is smelting pretty fast in my garden now

You remember all the tools from last year?... yes a 4 tonns Caterpillar help allot to remove the snow in my garden LOL
So now the sun need to do the rest.


I did check my water-meeter from my nozzle boxes !
And it show that there is 2of10 levels with water inside it
That can be very very bad if the water have been there all winter, if that water is actually ICE, my hole system can be frozen to death !!!

I hope the best for your pipes in the ground ... freezing .. not good! I am shure the snow will melt and you will have some fun this year with the nozzlels.

Mario,

That lighting is AMAZING! That is why you have the Title NOZZLE GRAND MASTER! You are constantly amazing me with new stuff!

Flip,

I agree that you need to use high quality fiber, but the most important is NOT to use glass fiber!!!! Water will degrade glass fiber overtime and make it cloudy. You must use PMMA fiber. As far as the clading and coating go, if you are going to use long fibers make sure to get the protective coating on it. If you are just going to do small runs (almost all of it is internal in the nozzle) then you may be able to get away with just the fiber (no jacket).

I hope the water didn't freeze your pipes!!!!!

Thanx for the reply John..

I have bought 100FT with Jacked fibers now but I dont know if it`s glass or not.

What I need now is to find a HIGH power LED and driver !

As far as the LED goes. Seoul Semiconductor claims to have the highest output per watt on the P4 series of LEDs. I have a couple of these and though I haven't hooked them up yet, I'm sure they will be great! I'm hoping to put in 7 LED's this year in one fountain!!!!! It should be really bright!

Like Mario, I am having problems with algae. I need to go to the pool store to pick up some chemicals for treating the water. MARIO, what chemicals do you use to kill the algae.

Thank you John. I am now so happy with the power of the Light! Can stare hours tonight on it.

the seoul P4/P5 are great, but have not the same power than the luxeon 5W. but use 6 of them together, perfect!

I am up and going but the stream is not uniformly lit. WHY WHY WHY???

The plexiglass rod is around 1.5 inches from the nozzles and is BRIGHT !!! But the stream is not uniformly bright - there are light and dark segments.
What is the best viewing angle to see the lighted stream?
90 degree's (sideways to the stream) yields a very poor light show but as you come around towards the end of the stream the you see much more of
a lighted stream.

Magic - I noticed that all of your photos and videos are from the angle I am talking about. Is there a reason for that.

But even then there are light and dark segments to the stream.

HELP

Hi, Yes there are a lot of little points on the way to success. First, 1 1/2 inch is ok, closer is better, but you loose some laminarity.
How did you polish the ends of the fibers? you need to high gloss polish it, no scratch nothing, as clear as possible, i made a little wood block, exact fit for the fiber, then i use wet sand paper 1200, this was the best i can get, you need a specilal plexi polishing paste and use the dremel with white felt to high gloss polish it.

then, i made a little wire arround the fibers at the end in the nozzle to hold it together. Make shure the LEDS shooting 100% in the center of the fiber. on the pictures i see. you using a led with 4 emiters, that is not that good maybe, the luxeon i use has only one tiny point 5W emiter, that makes it so expensive.

If you got bright and dark spots, you are too close with the fibers to the outlet, laminarity is broken a little. Check all this things and i ma shure you got sucsess.
And if i can help let me know
Good luck