Mr Wizard makes another stab at it

Indoor Growing Hydroponics
#121

Chopped this plant and threw it in the river today, hope it wasnt a rookie mistake, looked like balls to me! Kinda felt bad about it, pretty plant, weighed 800g minus the rootball.

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This allowed me to give the last plant some much needed elbow room. She isnt flowering yet but definitely saw some pistols during pre-flower. Kind of strange, both plants from same pack, same rDWC rez, the girl has shown some tip burn all along, the males never showed it a bit. Wound up with 3 males…

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This experience has me warming up to the idea of Auto Fems. Limited to 4 plants by law, in a 3x3 light leaky tent, doing rDWC. Hard to allow 4 plants to show sex given these parameters. rDWC doesnt lend itself to transplanting well.

This is a Gorilla tent, 3 grows, about a year old. Light leaking through the needle marks in the stitching.

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9 Likes
#122

Day 60:
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DLI: 41 Lights on 11.5 hours

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Down to the last plant, still think it is a female based on pre-flower pistols, but no definitive flowers forming yet. Did some defoliating where it made sense, then spread the branches out with yoyos to fill the entire 3ft of width available. It is about 27" tall and 30" in girth.

Weather here got warm and humid so I turned the AC back on again, was getting nervous about the humidity levels.

Now I wait…

9 Likes
#123

Interesting event. It appears the cooling outlet on my Inkbird has failed. It doesnt turn on even though the cooling indicator is on. Tested AC on another outlet and the AC turns on just fine.

With the dehumidifier going full blast trying to drop the humidity, it also adds more heat.Tent was getting too warm and humid.

So I disconnected the dehumidifier and plugged the AC into the dehumidify outlet on the Humidity Inkbird. In essence using the AC as the dehumidifier instead.

Appears to be working ok, or at least better than without the AC.

Blue line is when I figured out the Cooling Outlet failed, Red line is where I swapped out the dehumidifier for the AC.

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4 Likes
#124

Wondering if the AC is just too much current for the Inkbird and led to premature failure.

Think I will have to route the power through a relay to turn the AC on/off, and just use the Inkbird to energize the low current relay.

2 Likes
#125

Yeah was definitely a male plant. Sucks to put in that time but is what it is with regs. I said f the plant limit, will keep the limit for flowering plants but not veg. I can’t search through regs quick enough to get meds otherwise but I’m sure that’s not legally sound where you are. Fems might be the better choice like you’re saying ^^

6 Likes
#126

I would be electrocuting myself at this point for sure. :I am not allowed to play with electricity… :slight_smile:
GR

4 Likes
#127

Pretty sure those Inkbird controllers are rated for 10A.

4 Likes
#128

Well, a few plants over is akin to a Parking Ticket, unless they somehow try to go down the manufacturing path and nail you hard.

My wife agreed to this when I started, her only request was that I remain legal. Out of respect for her, I am. Otherwise I wouldnt care about a few extra plants that were is some state of pre-flower.

5 Likes
#129

Small AC but it is very possibly over that. Wont now for sure until I get home after work.

I will have to use my relay solution, the relays are rated for 20A.

4 Likes
#130

I run the “Window” A/C in my grow room off an Inkbird with no problems. It is rated at 7A, but I believe that is Max draw when the compressor is starting.

Was your A/C cycling rapidly by chance? If it’s that kind of problem, your relay may just allow you to push the A/C unit harder than it is designed for.

4 Likes
#131

AC is rated at 11.5 A in-rush load.

A little too high for Inkbird. Deployed my DIY gadget and working fantastic.

Inside the box is a small IDEC Relay with contacts rated at 20A. The large cord on the left goes to a set of normally open contacts on the relay. The smaller cord on the right goes to the coil of the relay.

Plug the large cord into an outlet, then plug the small cord into the Inkbird. When the Inkbird turns on, the coil is energized providing the full wall current to the outlets on the box. The coil only pulls a couple of milliamps.

I originally designed this to power a heavy duty Expresso machine via a Zwave (think wifi) controlled wallwart, which was only rate for 3A.

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5 Likes
#132

Man I wish I understand electricity better but alas I’m too slow to get away and I don’t care to get shocked.

Very cool gadget you made though.

3 Likes
#133

Excellent and elegant solution Mr Wiz! :+1: :+1:

If you get a chance can you post a pic of the outlet box with the cover off so I can see how you fit the relay inside?

3 Likes
#134

Seconded… I have an AC unit that I’d really like to try using as a dehumidifier since the real dehumidifier raises temps higher than I’d like, but I can’t plug it into the Inkbird because it’s too high a draw. Wouldn’t mind being able to rig that so it can turn on/off based on humidity rather than just the temperature, if this is simple enough for an amateur to do without killing themselves.

3 Likes
#135

Is it a portable AC unit or a window unit?. The portables do not usually de-humidify, but they do cool. You will still have to run the dehumidifier. My grow house has a window unit and dehumidifier running. Remember when you cool it down… the humidity goes up!

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4 Likes
#136

It’s a portable unit… but I’m quite certain it dehumidifies as well. I tried setting it up a month or two ago when temperatures were still in the high 70s out but it was also getting to 70% or higher humidity here, and venting the exhaust out through a cracked door to the rest of the basement resulted in a gradual drop to about 40% humidity in the room long before it got the temperature down. That’s why I stopped using it, completely unable to control it without linking it to the humidity rather than temperature. Otherwise, it’d be more convenient to use than the dehumidifier, since it rarely needs to be hotter in there.

2 Likes
#137

It will push the air out humidity and all but check to make sure it has a dehumidifier on it. You usually cant run both the humidifier and AC on it at the same time.

Have you considered dehumidifying the air on the outside of the tent? Kinda like using the room outside of the tent as lung room?

That is how I do it. I have the dehumidifier sitting on the intake side of my tents on the outside of the tents set on 40% sometimes 35% if it is really wet outside. My window unit helps too but if it is cool in the grow house it won’t cut on and then the dehumidifier has to work harder.

Instead of using the port AC unit why not get a 6 or 8 inch exhaust fan and get the humidity/air out of the tent quickly. That is the other piece of equipment I have in the top of my tent. Pushes 368CuInch of air ppm. You can pick up a 6inch exhaust fan for 99$ at vivosun. I have no equipment outside of lights in any of my tents to control environment except the exhaust fan.

GR

5 Likes
#138

The air on the outside of the “tent” is my house, garage, or outdoors. I don’t flower in a tent, it’s half my basement. And yes, I’m experimenting with other methods to keep the environment stable and where I want it. The AC is another tool I can use. Every time it’s been used, it’s cooled and dehumidifies the room it’s in. Not sure why you want to argue with the results I’ve observed from it… I don’t particularly want to. I know fans are also an option, and if I end up actually carving a hole in the wall to exhaust I’ll see if they’re any better than the AC as well. I can’t use the AC for humidity at all without having it plugged into the Inkbird though, which is why I was asking about that little trick. Now I’m having it explained to me that when temperature drops, RH rises as if I’m a child… oh well. Guess there’s no pictures forthcoming, I’m out. Thanks anyway.

2 Likes
#139

Dude I am not arguing anything I am just sharing my research… Why did you make a post about it if you didnt want people to comment on it? Don’t worry my friend your on your own… Have fun!

GR

1 Like
#140

That’s why.

1 Like