Dry-fit Complete, Final Prep Beginning

I have finished as much of the painting as I'm going to do on the stands, the lower ramps, and the upper ramps.  The uppers and the stands each received two coats, but the lower ramps received one.  To help mitigate water intrusion from rain, I have decided to place 3 mil plastic underneath the lower ramps, so that it can be pulled up along the sides of the DWC tank.

To the right is a picture of the ramps, on the plastic, near final position.

If nothing else, the plastic will keep the ramps from adhering to the concrete floor.  I am not sure it will completely prevent water intrusion, but I also have no plans to completely or hermetically seal the plastic to the DWC, so there should at least be some free air movement.

Having placed the DWC on top of the ramps, and adjusting the whole configuration to sit roughly where it will probably be staying, I placed the stands into position.  Everything appears to be fitting together correctly.

After placing the upper ramps on top (not necessarily in their final resting positions), I noticed one of the ramps had twisted rather badly.  I may have to reduce the count to four ramps, which wouldn't be the end of the world.

I am generally pleased with the way the system is coming together.  I do remain slightly concerned about the headroom between where the DWC rafts will be, and the assembly that will support the GB.  All in all, there should be enough room to pull rafts in and out, complete with plants (assuming the plants are not very tall), or to pull out plants directly and harvest them one at a time.

Speaking of rafts, I finally received my new adhesive, but haven't had time to try it out.  That will happen soon.

Moving forward, I have put the GB onto the sawhorses for painting.  I'll need to procure more paint, but I'm tossed up between getting a gallon or a quart, considering that a quart is half the price of a gallon, and I may need two quarts to finish the job.

I'll soon be fitting the XPS Styrofoam to the DWC.  I need to make a decision, and soon: I must either double-up on the XPS for the end that will receive the pump plumbing, or I must cut and paint a piece of plywood for that section, OR I must put the pump inside the DWC.

My study of electronics is proceeding, slowly.  I now have enough knowledge that I can start to make some more intelligent explorations into available components.  I highly doubt I'll have the expertise in time to assemble my own current-source, let alone outfit it with all the safety features one finds on such devices as to be available in Digikey's catalog.  This is partly because I am rapidly approaching an area of the topic where differential equations will be required.  I didn't fare well in that course, and since diff-eq requires a solid grounding in the calculus, I am engaged in reading a calculus book.  So, while I will continue both the calculus and the electronics studies, I will need to concede that my know-how will be limited to simple resistive circuits, powered by robust and commercially available supplies.  And that's fine!

As far as the lighting choices are concerned, I must also concede a sort of defeat there as well.  But not really...  Instead of building out full arrays from the get-go, I plan to build some test assemblies and try some plants under them.  This isn't really ideal, but unfortunately it's the best I can do under the circumstances.  I just really can't afford to buy ten massive LED components at nearly $20 a piece, and find out I was wrong about them.  This isn't really a bad thing, though.  This is another opportunity to explore and experiment, and obtain a good working result that I can expand upon.  What I have to do now is resist the temptation to purchase (at around $500) a full spectrum quantum sensor from Apogee Instruments.  Theirs will work with LEDs and provide the necessary data to quantify the actual light output.  Of course, maybe that investment wouldn't be entirely unwise...