TS1000 daisy chained ;)

I'm very surprised there isn't a thermostat to be honest. I would think of that as an essential safety feature. In the heat of the summer, my plan is to only use the 1000's and turn them down. I'll time things so I can do a veg period in august. I wish I could do electrical stuff myself, but I'm so scared of electricity and fire that I just won't risk doing anything. What I'd like is some sort of sensor connected to a plug with a plug socket in the back. That way I could plug the light into the back of the sensor plug, which would switch off the current to the lights if things got too hot. I'm not so worried about the plants, but without a thermostat cut out, I am, probably unnecessarily, scared of anything electrical catching fire. Of course the easy solution would be a fan to cool things down I suppose. I just hate white noise. I'm an awkward sod. I'll take a look at your creation in a minute, let me just upload a couple of boy pics.

Bruised nuts


Black Ghash

Closer


Damn this hayfever, the worst thing about making seeds is all the sneezing.

Man you've got a lot of albums, post it in here or post a link to the thread its in in here will ya please f.e.

Perhaps a THERMOSTAT PLUG would suit you better.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/thermogaurd-plug-in-digital-heating-thermostat-/170809599898
It allows power through when the area is cooler than it's set for, and switches the power off when it's warmer than set for. It's for heaters really, but it's just the same job. Put a portion of your lighting load through it and that might be all you want. I'm sure with a few extension leads you can get it in the top of your grow area somewhere. They cost from about a tenner. I wouldn't connect hid's as the constant on/off cycling wouldn't be good for them. LED's though... not a problem.

It's possible I didn't get past the drawing stage with my uploads. I know it's in a thread somewhere. My first trial I actually got it backwards, but it's working now for about the same £10. Perhaps not worth the effort unless linking lots and lots of lights, but I do like messing around

Edit: I had a look.. I had drawn it wrong anyway. corrected

Oh that's cool, they exist, what's the difference between the two wattages talked about though? One says over 3kw and the other says 460w. Both on same product. Its a pity the top temp is 85 f. But I suppose that would do the trick really. I can put the 300w tsl2000 on that plug and have the two ts1000's set to 50%. That will keep them in cool light while the big source goes on and off. But would it be safe to have it going on and off so often? I could sit with it for a few days I guess, with a bucket of water. Yeah that solves my concerns for the hotter weather, thanks f-e. I've book marked that product for the next eBay order.
Your design looks a bit more complicated than plugging something in though. How are you actually connecting that to the lights?

The link was just the general idea. This one has the temp sensor on a wire and can go up past boiling point. It's even cheaper, though needs a different plug or an adaptor
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Electron...596752?hash=item5d965c6790:g:-0IAAOSwEtRdLFzb

Many plug in switching things such as timers are happy with big heaters, yet struggle with other loads. It's why we often use contactors to take the strain. It's hard for me to make an actual recommendation though the first one should be alright at about 500w. Though it also says 9A which is a lot more than 500w. China.

The £25 inkbird does 2200w but is rated heating and cooling. Cooling is usually a difficult load so it should have a reasonable capacity. You can set the switch on and off points some distance apart. So you could switch off at like 36c and back on at 32c for example.

Or you could get a £10 one and use a contactor with it. Just like you would with a cheap timer. IIRC contactors are quite cheap these days.

I had no idea there were so many options for exactly what I wanted. I honestly thought it was just wishful thinking. Thanks man, I need to look at all the options now, but I still like the first one you found at the moment. Well that's tomorrows job list replaced.

I just got an Inkbird temp controller, with heater and cooler (work 1/ work2) socket.
I only need heating as I live in the UK hahaha.
I have a heater cable attached to it that comes on if temps drop below 18C and the cable is loosely on the floor in the flower compartment (not touching any pots though as it gets quite warm) and only draws 100W which is just enough to heat my tiny space.
Was trying to get a humidity controller too to try and get the VPD right but I couldn't find one with day/night settings so the dehuey wouldn't run uselessly at night.
There are good options on the big online marketplaces, most of them labelled reptile vivarium/terrarium exotic pet stuff etc...

CC

GMT said:

Yeah they are happy at the moment, I'm just wondering whether or not to cut their heads off.

Click to expand...

sounds cruel

f-e said:

I like their use of common cables for the daisy chain. In wiring terms it's putting the controls in parallel. Hence any one can do the dimming. I wonder if they will add a thermostat to their accessory range. I have one up top to dim the lights if things get too hot. It's just switching in another resistor. It's nothing difficult but handy in the summer months if your extraction rate is fixed. Pics are in my album if you wanted something similar

Click to expand...

We might consider to add the thermostat next year

Mars Hydro Led said:

We might consider to add the thermostat next year

Click to expand...

or something like the gavita light controller would be nice,acts as a timer,has auto dimming to bring temps down,or auto shutoff at too high a temp...

GMT said:

This is the last girl to show I think, bruised nuts tri. That makes 2 bn girls, one bghash girl. Not as many as I was hoping for, but still, at least we got 3. Pics of this one below, just potted up into her final home:
View Image
View Image
View Image

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Jesus they're tight...

Chevy, nice, mine have to tough it out through the cold winter. If I have to, so do they lol.
Mars, if it sounds too cruel, I may let them keep their heads. Will make for nicer photos anyway.
U.F.S. that sounds perfect, but probably an expensive option to implement, I just want them to turn off if they are about to go up in flames.
H.A.F. yeah they do seem to enjoy led, I'm giving them 300 first and last four hours, and 450 middle four. I'll up those numbers as I create their summer period. Only just upped it to those numbers though, so I'll watch them over the next two weeks.

Photos of the girls




Black Ghash at the back


Sorry some of them have the yellow tint, I still can't control the white balance on the phone, its hit and miss. I may get a photography app for it.

unclefishstick said:

or something like the gavita light controller would be nice,acts as a timer,has auto dimming to bring temps down,or auto shutoff at too high a temp...

Click to expand...

That sounds really nice!

Chevy cHaze said:

I just got an Inkbird temp controller, with heater and cooler (work 1/ work2) socket.
I only need heating as I live in the UK hahaha.
I have a heater cable attached to it that comes on if temps drop below 18C and the cable is loosely on the floor in the flower compartment (not touching any pots though as it gets quite warm) and only draws 100W which is just enough to heat my tiny space.
Was trying to get a humidity controller too to try and get the VPD right but I couldn't find one with day/night settings so the dehuey wouldn't run uselessly at night.
There are good options on the big online marketplaces, most of them labelled reptile vivarium/terrarium exotic pet stuff etc...

CC

Click to expand...

I run a dehu with humidistat built in. sh3021 to be precise. There are many others though. You can get a plug adapter type thing, but many newer dehu's won't restart after a power cut. The older ebac units with simple mechanical switches work with the plug adapters. Which in turn can go in a timer. So you only keep the humidity down in the day.

If you have electrical skills, then a panel mount humidity controller is a tenner from eBay. You could chop one into your existing dehu using it's isolated relay contacts to fake the float switch into thinking it's full when you want the unit not to run. Something like the sht2000 though that's a temp&humidity controller from the same range.




Plants look nice there GMT.


The only problem with auto-dimming is catering to the growers needs and skills. At 28c a plants growing at it's fastest but many feel it's too hot. By 32c growth is only slowed about 5% so do you respond by dropping the light to achieve something? lets say you can get back to 28, it's likely to need at least a 10% drop in light. So you don't get your 5% growth back. The only time to drop your light is when you are really coming out of the sweet zone for temperature and starting to hurt them. That's upper 30s before they might grow better on less light.

These are my numbers, where it could be 32 in my space without lights anyway. So I have to accept working around the upper limits at which a plant just looks unwell. I actually reduce by 25% at 35c where I'm starting to flog a dead horse. I can't say if it's effective, It's just what it is.

I don't run any temp altering devices, so they spend the day at 15-20c and nights at the mo around 10c sometimes less. At the coldest part of winter they will get pretty close to freezing during the nights. At the height of summer they will get near 100f. Sorry I do cold in c and hot in f. I truly can't say I've noticed any difference to anything winter or summer.

GMT said:

I don't run any temp altering devices, so they spend the day at 15-20c and nights at the mo around 10c sometimes less. At the coldest part of winter they will get pretty close to freezing during the nights. At the height of summer they will get near 100f. Sorry I do cold in c and hot in f. I truly can't say I've noticed any difference to anything winter or summer.

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Jesus. My selections just won't get out of bed at those temperatures. I have an outdoor strain complaining it needs more P and an electric blanky because it dipped below 20 at night. Most of my things have a requirement of 18c through the night with 16c a bare minimum. At which point the growing tips are really light green for the first half of the day. We are coaxing very different genes to come forward it seems.

I suspect the sativa leaners would be more finicky. Is that your chosen pool to swim in? Mine are fairly indica dominant selections, as you can see from the leaves. I do sometimes run crosses, like my hush line, (black Ghash x ecsdxsssdh) or the shakespears (bruised nuts x chem D x casey jones), but I'm taking them to the dark side too lol.

f-e said:

I run a dehu with humidistat built in. sh3021 to be precise. There are many others though. You can get a plug adapter type thing, but many newer dehu's won't restart after a power cut. The older ebac units with simple mechanical switches work with the plug adapters. Which in turn can go in a timer. So you only keep the humidity down in the day.

If you have electrical skills, then a panel mount humidity controller is a tenner from eBay. You could chop one into your existing dehu using it's isolated relay contacts to fake the float switch into thinking it's full when you want the unit not to run. Something like the sht2000 though that's a temp&humidity controller from the same range.

Click to expand...

Hey f-e,
Thanks for the input, this is exactly what I came up with too. I have an old dehuey that's now on a timer so it only comes on during lights on and it works a treat so far. I have one of the panel mount thingies but gave up upon seeing the wiring diagram ( I reckon it's straight forward, but admit I have no idea what I'm doing, wiring my fan controller already maxed out my capability in this area hahaha)


Cheers,
CC

GMT said:

I suspect the sativa leaners would be more finicky. Is that your chosen pool to swim in? Mine are fairly indica dominant selections, as you can see from the leaves. I do sometimes run crosses, like my hush line, (black Ghash x ecsdxsssdh) or the shakespears (bruised nuts x chem D x casey jones), but I'm taking them to the dark side too lol.

Click to expand...

I have an 8 week cutoff point, so we are probably growing quite similar plants. It's surprising how two people can take the same cutting and grow completely different plants. With seeds it's almost expected. Even over time a plant can adapt to new circumstances. My plants under LED's are still adapting to them, 5 years later. Going from the massive N consumption seen when I first switched over, to being happy enough with the extra N from the Calcium&Magnesium Nitrates they now get. In fairness, I think the early N demand was in line with the huge amount of foliage they started to make, which is now about back to normal.
I noticed signs of the cold in your early pics. Some over squat growth with growing tips that looked like they might stunt a little. They have grown through it now. An adaptation has taken place that would see our growing styles produce different plants. I know one grower here (is it doug?) likes it very cold. I like the action I see at around 28c which tests show is the best temperature for a number of important plant mechanisms such as chlorowhatsit production. The green stuff. Though at the same time certain tastes and smells are long gone at 28c. In the 90s we were reading 21c in literature coming out of Holland. I just couldn't see any progress until 25c though and at 21 that same squat almost stunted appearance that comes from poor P uptake. As a screen type grower, squat plants don't really interest me. I want things with maybe 25% sat genes to get filling the space. So the higher temp environment is a big part of what I'm doing. To get elongated growth from otherwise slow going plants. I have not always grown this way though. When I used to grow individual plants in pots I wanted to be able to move about, I wanted no room filling stretch at all. The only plant support was string between apposing branches to stop them snapping off. They're much more ornamental looking how your doing them. Screens are just a big hedge with no interesting symmetry


EDIT: Chevy, get a photo of your stat or find a link to it, then start a fresh thread and I will show you what to do. It's a bit much to be filling GMT's thread with it and easier for others to find if it's on it's own

Oh the earlier growth restriction wasn't a cold issue, it was because I restricted their root growth in small tubs. No point in growing males big. So as soon as the girls showed sex, I repotted them to allow for growth. That's why they appear to have grown out of it, but they are just reacting to the space available for their roots. I'll get a comparison pic with a girl in new tub and a boy in restricted root space later, so they can be compared.