shotnva777
420 Member
Ah gotcha! And yes, that's it. I'll let yall know how it works when it gets here in 2 days
How to Use UV And IR For Growing Indoor Plants
- Thread starter Mars Hydro
- Start date
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- Tags
- marshydrour45 uv&ir
You are going to have to fit it just before the splitter and just after the switches or you will only be controlling 1 light bar unless you fit 2 timers for the UV , which seems a bit redundant when you can do it with 1 timer before splitter
you have to calculate the total voltage required by the leds to match the driver. to do this you need to know how many emitters you are powering, what the threshold voltage is, and how much forward voltage is needed to power the next in line.
underpowering them does nothing. overpower can lead them to pop, catch fire or both.
you'll need to know whether you are set up as constant current or constant voltage and calculate accordingly. the drivers should have that spec on them or you can specify when ordering.
Series LED Resistor Calculator - Engineering Calculators & Tools
This series LED resistance calculator is perfect for when you have a single LED or a number of the same color of LEDs in series and need to know which resistor you should use.
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edit : note resistors aren't needed if your led emitters use all the forward current. the majority of led rigs don't use them, the drivers are usually matched so they aren't needed. all a resistor does is scrub excess current and waste it as heat.
i assumed the rig in question would have resistors as the switches are after the driver and there should be a way to dump the excess current on whichever circuit is not being used. the driver sends a set amount regardless of how much gets used. something has to happen to the excess.
i thought they were splitting the driver into two circuits at the switch which would suggest the use of resistors on the switch to handle the excess current when one of the circuits is idle.
resistors are common in other led apps, but not in grow lighting. usually the drivers are matched to the emitter consumption in grow rigs and don't use resistors.
They did but as you can see on the picture of the circuitboard for the switch there are no resister used
and only 2 terminals on each switch so no option to fit a resister across the switch either.
They did but as you can see on the picture of the circuitboard for the switch there are no resister used
it means they are dumping the full current into one circuit when the other is idle, and each only gets half if both are running.
it's a real ugly way to build a rig. both sets of emitters need to be able to handle the full current, and yet still operate at half. it's super inefficient and means you either overdrive or underdrive the emitters.
it's impossible to tell when they'd be operating at optimum. it doesn't strike me as a serious fixture, more as a gimmick if they build them that way.
Not necessarily , since the light strips are switching negatives and each bar has 2 negatives and 1 positive in each they might have circuitry in each fitting to create a load (resister) when either light bar is off to balance things
they do not. rails or cobs aren't built that way. they only have one neg and one positive on each end. they are printed circuits on the board in series. each strip can be wired in series or parallel together to complete the rig.
this is out of date but has all the relevant info
it's an old site and focusses on cob. led emitter rails work exactly the same. you simply treat a rail the same as a single cob and calculate accordingly.
edit : the switch acts as a type of dimmer on the opposing circuit the way it is wired now. it's a cheap dirty way to build the rig. it's not a serious fixture.
Whats to stop them adding circuitry that when the switch for either spectrum is off (from breaking the negative wire at switch) it adds a load to compensate the spectrum being off its easy enough to check with a clamp meter on it to test current as 1 switch is turned off
the strip is pre-printed with the leds on it. all strips are printed the same. they don't change between mfgrs because they are all built by third parties and purchased by the builder later.
strip itself will be printed as a line of emitters in series. that's how i buy them. this one will have two. one uv one ir.
edit : fire up one circuit and see if it dims when you turn the other on or vice versa.
Ok I clamp tested it and the total current draw on my meter is 0.2amps and turning either light spectrum off drops current draw to 0.1amp.
There is no noticeable drop in lux when second light spectrum is turned on .
there is. just not enough for you to ascertain. the rig is built like i thought. i was hoping it would get brighter, which would suggest they calculated for the high load.
edit : if you look at the burples on my rig - each rail chews up about 1 amp. i have a simple 3 amp driver running them. the 3 rails can handle a 4 amp, which will increase the output, but lower the lifespan. i can run 5 amp if i add resistors. if i ran 1 rail on 2 amp, i'd have a fire.
the emitters have a range they can handle, but i've calculated for optimum with head room for safety.
shotnva777
420 Member
I'm kinda lost on what yall were saying regarding the unit itself, but some of it makes sense. Lol
That said, the timer I ordered and posted is simply going right after the splitter, on the UV side, in between it and the UV/IR light bar itself. ONLY ON THE LOWER WATTAGE UV SIDE.
The IR will remain the same and doesnt need to be touched... as it will cut on and off, before and after my main Fluence light, via a seperate timer for the UR45 as a whole. The UV only needs to be used a few hours a day, during the middle of the day. The whole unit will already be powered from the 110v timer and powered on, by the time the UV needs to power on and off in the middle of the day.
Honestly, both stock switches could be deleted entirely... as they are useless (unless I want to manually control them). As the power cycle will be controlled by each individual timer. But I will leave them and the unit in tact, other than the added 110v timer at the main plug, before the ballast, for the entire unit. And the new, added timer, for the UV side, via the part I mentioned.
That said, the timer I ordered and posted is simply going right after the splitter, on the UV side, in between it and the UV/IR light bar itself. ONLY ON THE LOWER WATTAGE UV SIDE.
The IR will remain the same and doesnt need to be touched... as it will cut on and off, before and after my main Fluence light, via a seperate timer for the UR45 as a whole. The UV only needs to be used a few hours a day, during the middle of the day. The whole unit will already be powered from the 110v timer and powered on, by the time the UV needs to power on and off in the middle of the day.
Honestly, both stock switches could be deleted entirely... as they are useless (unless I want to manually control them). As the power cycle will be controlled by each individual timer. But I will leave them and the unit in tact, other than the added 110v timer at the main plug, before the ballast, for the entire unit. And the new, added timer, for the UV side, via the part I mentioned.
give it a shot. it won't be hard to reverse if it doesn't work out. the switch shouldn't be a problem to swap with a micro timer.
Like I mentioned earlier if you place the timer after the splitter you will only be controlling the UV on 1 light bar .
The timer needs to be fitted between the switches and the spliter to control the UV in both light bars .
shotnva777
420 Member
Oh I understand now. So just splice in the timer between the switches for both lights and the splitter? I'm assuming only on the IR side?
Correct, or else if you put it after the splitter only 1 light bar will be controlled.
I would lever cover of the back of the switches and test which colour negative wire is the spectrum you are after.
If I was fitting that timer to make the installation the easiest and neatest I would drill 2 holes( the size of timer cables without the jacks )in the back of the switch cover at each end on the side where it transitions from flat to angled is (drilling from the inside of cover will stop drill bit skating around).
You need to solder the supply to timer to the red + and black - ,and UV negative is the yellow wire the IR negative is brown .
The only issue I see is if the timer you purchased is switching the positive wire then it will be of no use to you.
Easy way to check that is with a continuity tester ,test from negative into timer to negative from timer when no power applied and you should have an open circuit, if you dont do the same test on the positive in and positive out and see if positive is an open circuit. which ever is an open circuit is the one that is switched via the timer .
if it is switching the negative and positive at the same time ,don't worry about soldering the positive out of timer onto the switch its irrelevant ,we only need to switch the negative.
If you switch the positive and negative wire the spectrum you are switching will work but the other spectrum won't work .
I hope that makes sense.
don't think that timer works. it's a single channel timer and the switch is used to create a two channel. it's right in the specs for the timer.
edit : that switch would work great on my lights as it is a single channel. i have a switch with the same connectors for my rig. it's plug and play on a single circuit.
edit : that switch would work great on my lights as it is a single channel. i have a switch with the same connectors for my rig. it's plug and play on a single circuit.
this is the type you would need to control 2 separate channels / circuits.
read through the specs.
read through the specs.