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Custom Panels

Tactician

Member
This thread is for people to post their custom built lighting controllers.
 

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  • 200A Loadcenter Controller.jpg
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  • Panel 1.jpg
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  • Panel Ammeters.jpg
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Hammerhead

Disabled Farmer
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Nice pannel Im going go out on a limb did you build that. I have no need for ampmeters.. But digtal displays can be used for many diferant readings like PH and EC...
 

Tactician

Member
The three green ammeters were for amperage load on a three-phase panel and the first pic with two red ammeters was for a 200A single-phase panel.

Most panels I build use PLCs, great little controller to add a variety of parameters to monitor and control. The three-phase panel was programmed to power off lights if one of the phases goes above 160A (80% of 200A) and turns off four ballasts until amperage drops to 150A across each phase, was a pain in the ass to program.

Got pix of other custom lighting controllers.
 

Tactician

Member
three-phase loadcenter

three-phase loadcenter

This is a three-phase panel with digital ammeters.
 

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dxco

New member
This is a three-phase panel with digital ammeters.
That is a deluxe panel there Olyver. Do you have somebody cut out your boxes with a CNC laser table (like the 3ph ammeter setup) -Is that stainless? WHat is the board in the top right corner?
 

Tactician

Member
Nope, everything is all hand fabricated. I use a jigsaw with a 32 tooth blade to make square or rectangle openings. All the round holes are made with a heavy duty metal hole saw, from 7/8" to 3" openings, very clean cuts.

Only issue I had with that panel was all the contactors and PLC mounted inside the loadcenter, to satisfy the electrical inspector I had to add two 3" x 3" louvred covers on the bottom of the cover for the loadcenter and add a 80F thermal fuse to trip all the power to the contactors if the panel temp rises above 80F.

Now I just build loadcenters with an adjoining NEMA enclosure to house all the components, relays, contactors, PLC, etc.
 

Hammerhead

Disabled Farmer
ICMag Donor
Veteran
where is a good place to get those LCD displays... I can only find the ones from Omega for 120$
 
Last edited:

Tactician

Member
I got them off Ebay and the current transformers. The first panel controlled 48 lights. A selector switch controls the number of lights and reduces the number of lights on for the last 1 and 2 weeks of the flower or veg time cycles. The selector ranges are; ALL ON, 25% Lights ON, 50% Lights ON, Last Week 10 ON/14 OFF. The customer requested these specific lighting program selections.

Building another panel for the same customer and one of the selections will be cascade from 18/6 to 12/12 over 7 days, reducing 1 hour per day.
 

shirami

Member
Nice work Tactition.

I noticed in pics of flip panels with high heat shut-offs that there is always one for each room.

Is it not possible to run two sensors to one temperature controller?
 

Tactician

Member
The other option with 24 ballast flip and synced loadcenter, is any number of lights per room can be allocated to veg for 18/6 or even 24/0. Section off 4 or 8 lights with temp walls or curtain, and telll the PLC to have those lights on for 18/6, even when the other 16-20 lights are flowering.

If any concerns with ballasts being on when flipped, the loadcenter will automatically power off the ballasts, 2 or 4 at a time, then flip bulbs and power back on, from 2/100 second to a few minutes, any time variable.

Shitty thing is it's expensive for that level of control and automation. A thermal fuse is placed in the flip and linked to the loadcenter PLC to shut off ballasts if temp rises, even a smoke detector can be added to anything. Take one apart, and without the plastic it's pretty small. Mount inside flip and loadcenter and wire to the PLC and even more level of safety. Any parameter can trigger a PLC.

The best option with the flip is to have a PLC with enough outputs for 1 relay per output, more control of the lights. The loadcenter can be programmed to shut off the ballasts that are being used for veg after 18 hours, or to switch over to the off bulbs in the other room and turn on there for 6 hours. Use 4 or 8 bulbs in a spaced pattern.
 

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