iPonic 600 controller

agoutihead · Mar 17, 2012

Does anyone have one of these in their grow room?

http://www.ehydroponics.com/?action=product&id=8765&cid=508

It looks really awesome with its blue touch screen and also sends alerts/notifications to iPhones, iPads etc.

It seems to have more bells and whistles than any controller, even Sentinel chhc4 and looks amazing.

Just wondering how smooth it operates.

thisoldhouse · Mar 17, 2012

looks cool... just spendy :/

agoutihead · Mar 17, 2012

A lot of controllers are around a grand, especially the ones that send alerts to smart devices, which is a must for me.

And hell for a few dollars more it blows other controllers out of the water in the looks department!

thisoldhouse · Mar 17, 2012

I wish I could justify it, but I just don't have that many things being controlled. I'm also leaning toward independent devices for various functions after dealing with a faulty controller, not the one mentioned in this thread, and having my a/c not turn on. plus, I'm switching to a mini-split which means my chhc-1 only handles co2. so it is hard for me to justify all that just for messaging capabilities. but if I were doing a remote grow, I'd be all over it just for that messaging and pc control!

ZinksInk · Mar 27, 2012

I have the Sentinel CHHC-4 and its alright. I got a model a year or two ago and it will shut down before reaching the max 15 amps its suppose to control. I hear you can upgrade the breaker in it but im too lazy. I also don't want to buy their PMX relay power module for 100 bucks so im looking at the Link4 products. The Iponic 600 seems cool but i might rather have one of the igrow models. If i sell off extra equipment which is my plan to procure it; then ill post up an official review in its own thread.

The sential products work well but i still feel like their lack of support makes em only a Pro-Consumer product. Their RS-232 port = useless on the sentinal chhc. Yes they do have some software in a beta form for monitoring which you have to inquire about to procure. No thanks.

I have also had intermittent Issues with the CHHC-4 Getting 0 PPM readings and a faulty sensor error. Aside from this the features there work. Deadbands feel high tech and the inter-link option is powerful. All of these should be basic features for a controller.

Tyga · Mar 28, 2012

Got it in @ my local hydro shop, looks really cool! Deff consider picking this up.. Just don't really run a big enough op to justify the money. But boy... I do love new toys...

LandscapeEscape · Jul 16, 2012

I'm seriously considering grabbing the 600. I need a co2 controller, and when you look at every company, their "do it all" controller is always only 80-100$'s more than their co'2 monitor. With the iponic, you can also utilize it as an actual thermostat. Since i grabbed a 3 ton central air unit, this is a huge plus for me. If i can wire this bitch up for central air, co2, and possible get some emergency drippers set up WHILE monitoring it from my phone i am totally cool with the price. Just gonna have to eat pb&j's and ramen for the next month or two.

LandscapeEscape · Jul 16, 2012

I had the sentinel Chhc-4 and like zink and thisoldhouse said, it's not set up to run a lot. I'd consider that a veg room controller. It's good for tents; fans,dehuey,humidifier,co2. Once you're looking at a room full of gear you realize you can't really plug anything in. Just gotta use it as a sick illy thermometer/hygrometer.

LandscapeEscape · Oct 7, 2012

iPonic owner. Worth every penny and puts other controllers to shame. Post a question about the unit and ill reply asap. Here are the points that stood out for me.

Internet connectivity. And guess what. The app actually works. And it works really really well.

The iPonic is set up to work as a thermostat so you wire it up to low voltage terminals and lock channel 7 (the condenser) to channel 8 (the air handler) so they both kick over together. The inlines that go through the hoods are on all the time, they turn off if the temp drops down below 70 to build up heat in the room because the iPonic doesn't just run off a schedule, you can set parameters that will override the schedule based on current conditions.

LandscapeEscape · Oct 7, 2012

its got 8 channels spread over 8 outlets and two low voltage terminals. Every channel you can start from scratch and assign them as you wish. You name it, then designate what general type of device it is so the iPonic recognizes it, then set a schedule or parameters accordingly. Each channel can have multiple parameters at the same time.

cocogroguy · Oct 7, 2012

I like how you can program the channels to do whatever device you want.............countless configurations for any set up. The remote access is just to ill too. That next gen shit for peeps with the brains to use.

LandscapeEscape · Oct 7, 2012

Comes with a thumb drive so you can export graphical data based over the last 12(?) Months that the until has run. You can easily catalog data on your environment. You can also open up a logger to import a schedule that runs over the course of 4mo. Things like ramping daylight hours down over the course of 2 weeks opposed to just dropping the hours down manually. Ramping co2 values over time.

And its worth noting that their customer service is fantastic. Try calling sentinel or cap. See how long you wait. Any issue I had with setting up the unit they talked me through and I got the same rep each time. They knew my name. That right there is worth the extra loot. Great controller.

LEDNewbie · Oct 7, 2012

LandscapeEscape said:
Comes with a thumb drive so you can export graphical data based over the last 12(?) Months that the until has run. You can easily catalog data on your environment. You can also open up a logger to import a schedule that runs over the course of 4mo. Things like ramping daylight hours down over the course of 2 weeks opposed to just dropping the hours down manually. Ramping co2 values over time.

And its worth noting that their customer service is fantastic. Try calling sentinel or cap. See how long you wait. Any issue I had with setting up the unit they talked me through and I got the same rep each time. They knew my name. That right there is worth the extra loot. Great controller.

Thats awesome to hear!!! That alone is worth $1000!!!! :woohoo:

Let me run this scenario by you then, I will be running a 14" Max fan, I'm also going to buy the Can-Trol Speed Controller that way I can slow the Max Fan down to 60%. The fan will be my exaust fan and it will draw air in passively threw the intake. The intake will be setup with two motorized dampers, one drawing air from inside the house and one damper drawing air from outside the house. I want the fan to run at 60% drawing air from inside the house(Stage 1 cooling), if the temps start rising in the room the dampers will flip and the room will start drawing air from the outside(Stage 2 cooling), if the temps continue to climb I want the fan to switch to full power drawing air from outside(Stage 3 cooling)

I would like all 3 stages setup for day time temps, and then the 3 stages setup for night time temps. Do you think I can do this all with this controller?

Also with all this happening, I want to run Co2 in the room with a solenoid and bottle. Will the controller shut my exaust fan off, close the damper to ouside that way no smell escapes and run the Co2 till the room reaches 90 degrees? Then shut Co2 off and resume exaust fan control until room reaches say about 80, shut fan and motorized damper again and resume Co2?

If this controller can do all of this that would be AWESOME!!! Any and all help would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks for your time :thank you:

LEDNewbie · Oct 7, 2012

Sorry, one more questions :biggrin:

While the controller is managing everything I listed above, is it capable of controlling my separate Veg room lights and exaust fan? Or is that asking too much?? :laughing:

If it can't thats no biggy, I can control the veg room with simple timers. Thanks again.....

qupee · Oct 7, 2012

I suggest reading through the controller's manual, in there it did say that you can setup different stage settings for different times of day. As for the veg room it probably just comes down to having enough outlets, count up the different ones you need.

LandscapeEscape · Oct 7, 2012

Led I'm working off my phone so I apologize for any spelling errors.

Yes to all questions except adjusting your fan speed. But you can solve that problem with another function.

First you would wire each damper to channel 7 and 8, which are low voltage terminals. I would name them as channel 7 = lung room

LandscapeEscape · Oct 7, 2012

Sorry....fucking phones.

So label channel 7 as your lung room, and channel 8 as fresh air. Then you would designate each as ventilation. You would go into stage settings and cool stage 1. Select your lung room as on and assign a temp range while your in there. Then set up stage 2 with temp ranges and select fresh air. So we have 7 and 8 accounted for. Then assign channel 5 as your Max fan. This is a 15amp outlet. If your fan speed can't be triggered by a trigger cable, then that will have to stay as a fixed value. Then go back into stage settings and select your Max fan for both stage 1 and 2. For stage 3 I would suggest getting a cheap floro and plugging that into channel 4. Then set stage 3 as lights off, floro on, fresh air on, fan on, lung room off

cocogroguy · Oct 7, 2012

I know Landscape will chime in cuz he obviously knows his device good...............but as I understand it there are 8 channels and you can program each one to work any device pluged into that channel.......i.e. a fan...co2....dehuey.....etc....and each channel can be programmed by a set factor......so if you had 3 dif cooling mechanisms as long as each one was set to turn on at a certain temp and shut off at another then I dont see why you couldnt do exactly what you explained.

lol beat me to it bro

RespectGreen · Oct 7, 2012

I was looking at these too, gab gave to read this when I'm home.

I've got a agrowtech , and I think it's great..... Data logs, emails, and other things.

LandscapeEscape · Oct 7, 2012

As for your co2 yes. You would set your ppm and there is either an option for "vent lock" or something like that. If your venting try to set your cfpm on the regulator as high as possible without going crazy. You can set your cfm to 10 and set your logic to second increments. 3 seconds on followed by 10 sec off. Repeats until target is reached. If there isn't a designated option for turning vents off during co2 feed then you can set a reverse lock between your co2 and your vent fan.

You can definitely run your veg lights off the sucker at the same time, just make sure none of your bloom room settings will effect that channel. Also if your nervous then you can plug your veg lights into channel 2, then open the front of the unit and you can see a series of 8 hardwired dip switches. Even if the unit becomes faulty you have a switch that controls each outlet manually. You can select the switch to auto (controlled by the computer) force in and force off. These switches run independent of the system and will override any setting. So in this case you would select channel 2 to force on.

iPonic 600 controller

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