Cola’s starting from scratch garden

I used a constant current (350mA) driver with 3 strips wired in series. It worked out just fine, but modularity suffers.

1 Like

I’ll stick with parallel for strips and series for cobs myself. Just seen your sonoff and ammeter purchase bro. I like. Feeling a new level of light automation is about to take off

3 Likes

I’m excited to check it out, lots of possibilities, shame there isn’t a model with PWM control… oh snap, look at this I need this now even at $200USD?
https://aquarium-led-controller.com/product/bluefish-led-controller/

4 Likes

My mind is screaming YASSSSS

My wallet is screaming NOOOOOO

damnit.

1 Like

Nice but pricey bit of kit. Things are moving fast in our world now eh. For a low budget workaround i recon you could auto dim an led array if the room heat went too high by using a cheap ATC-800+ controller and a relay. You would need a dimmable driver to start with though.

2 Likes

Already have B type dimmers. I could DIY something with Arduino, but this is one integrated package. Yeah, I did it. My wallet is a bit lighter already and I just got paid. I’m still spending less on this hobby than my Jeep buddy does on his by a long shot. You know what Jeep stands For? Just emty every pocket. :joy:

5 Likes

lol folks here used to say Ford stood for fixed or repaired daily. At least your hobby belongs in the future unlike your buddy’s :grin: i’d say you get better mpg too :sunglasses:

1 Like

Now you’re getting a bit too technical for me. I mean I’m using pwm fans on sinks and a fan speed controller to automate fan speed to temps but no way I thought dimming via temp was a possibility

2 Likes

Mount this on the frame and will have maybe 15cm of wire to the strips and I’m gonna do my utmost to keep them neat

2 Likes

Well, the B type drivers can be dimmed via PWM, luckily you have A type drivers. Imagine a controller the starts out at, say 50% light and slowly increases to 90% over an hour, then dim down at the end of the cycle, just for example. This thing looks crazy configurable. The reef tank folks have this automation shit down!

2 Likes

I understand external pots etc. Just didn’t think there would be a way to automate. Can see this rabbit hole bankrupting me :joy:

Imagine how much the “reefers” spend automating their shit and they can’t even smoke the end product.

Guess you could smoke a fish though

3 Likes

Yeh it’s doable mate, it increases complexity a bit but not vastly. The ATC unit and a variac can switch heating on below a preset temp, off again as it rises and switch your extraction to full blast when it gets too hot. Extra terminals on the relay could also be used to open the circuit to the potentiometer you already have for dimming your led driver which would normal be either bypassed altogether or have an upper limit set by a second pot in cases where you cant run em at full wick Then as the extractor/s went on full the led’s would also dim to what you had preset them at until the room temp went back down again. This could be very handy for shed or loft grows i recon.

1 Like

:grin: :laughing: :joy:

2 Likes

How about COB grilled trout :grin:

3 Likes

Already twitching waiting for these cpu mounts to come. It’s literally that and a fan speed controller and my build is done obviously a couple of bits of wiring and setting up the Sonoff. Going getting a few last bits of cable etc.

Almost forgot…bastard T sliders to mount the strips still haven’t arrived. Damn China post

3 Likes

Still not looking like any beans have germed for me yet. So asked my mate to take 3 cuts of goji og last night (@Jellypowered from the sad one that was in my cellar. Yeah she’s still going :wink:) I’ll give the ssdd I put in actually jiffy7s until the cuts are rooted and if not I’m running goji. Still bodhi. Still :fire:.

@Gaz29 some more bits have arrived bro

3 Likes

That poor plant looked so neglected, It’ll be good to see you do it justice this time around lol.

1 Like

It was neglected it was bare bulbed in a dank cold cellar. She actually turned out a nice berry pheno though. Kinda leggy in bloom but my strips could keep that under wraps. There’s actually c99 ready right now rooted but ffs I wanna run some bodhi

2 Likes

A moment of silence for the lost package that never made it across the pond to me >.< I still feel bad about that even though it was out of our hands.

2 Likes

I had 4 Christmas cards containing cash and other niceties not show up. People that sent them looking at me like you ungrateful cunt. no thank you very much but for what again :joy: I can still send you a couple ssdd over. There are literally 2 left

2 Likes