Jandre2k3's Intelligent-Gro Testing: Phase 2

Hey I will say one thing about a many time breached tropic, that captain jacks is a great product for caterpillars for sure. One spray 2, 2 1/2 weeks before harvest and not a worm in 2 years running. I've never used it on anything else myself but who knows. It does work for something.................. GL and Keepem Green
 
Jandre2k3’s Intelligent-Gro Testing: Phase 2

Testing:

12/13/2014
I see bad leaves under the GFB . . . Not a real problem. I found that it was caused by the plants pushing up against the front door and getting no airflow. So, to fix it I have resurrected the old ScrOG screen from The Cardboard Flower Box, and am using it to keep the plants off the door and moved a fan around to blow air along the front between the plants and the door. I also trimmed to even the canopy out, and to thin the bush underneath for better airflow. It now looks as though the GFB is wearing a miniskirt... Glad there are no males to worry about.



Team iGro


Adventurer Biscuits


Green Fluffy Bunnies
 
Hey Jandre,

Looked through this Journal but I did not see if you are running the lights on a "custom" setting ....or "Sunny"? If Custom, are you following the manufactures suggestions?

Ohhh and any ideas on how to keep the stetting during a "Short power outage"?

I am still setting up my 8x180w's and still working out he "Kinks"
20141207_235019.jpg


Cheers,
WG
 
wizgrow said:
Hey Jandre,

Looked through this Journal but I did not see if you are running the lights on a "custom" setting ....or "Sunny"? If Custom, are you following the manufactures suggestions?

Ohhh and any ideas on how to keep the stetting during a "Short power outage"?

I am still setting up my 8x180w's and still working out he "Kinks"


Cheers,
WG
Click to expand...

Hey, sorry for the slow reply. I was using the Custom Vegetation Setting



I will be using the custom Bloom setting as well when the time comes... (this weekend or next, I think)


But as we all know, I have a special cycle I use for a month or two to prepare my plants for flower. It's was first popularized here by a good friend of mine Twelve12:Gas lantern Routine. And that, as reported in the last journal about the controller, is not well done because of the "Dimming" feature that is built into the controls. As such, only the GLR timing is done on an external timer. Otherwise for vegetative growth, and the soon-to-be flowering stage, it is done completely with the controller.


Your controller should have an "on-board memory" to retain the custom setting. Is yours losing it, because mine doesn't. May wanna talk to DankyDave: Intelligentgro@gmail.com and see if anything can be done there.

Grats on the new grow room, too!
 
Thanks Bro,

I think I am going to run the same. Power is crazy expensive in my part of Central America!

Battery must be dead on controller :( I got a 2nd one though (Back up) and will give it a shot tonight.

Appreciated,
WG
 
Jandre2k3’s Intelligent-Gro Testing: Phase 2

Flowering:

12/19/2014
12-19-20141.jpg












Tonight's the night folks! Transition starts tonight heading into Flower. So the timer is coming off, and the hour of light in the middle of the "night" is going away. I will be using my "Midnight Sun" 12/12 custom setting on the iGro light controller. I call it midnight sun, since I run my lights at night when the electricity isn't on "Peak Hours" and twice the price per kwh than any other time- At 270w, actual, it can get up there...

Oh, and I call this Day ZERO of flower, because this is the last day of 12-1. when the lights go off in the morning, they will not come on again until 7pm tomorrow night as the "Sunrise" cycle begins on the first "day" after a full 12 hours of darkness.

4-My-Bloom.jpg


Flower Day ZERO is 12/19/14. Expected first harvest is in 6 weeks, by 02/01/15


I will also be attempting the same transition daily pics as in the last journal to see if there is a change in transition time from last run with the 270w single fixture.
 
jandre2k3 said:
Your controller should have an "on-board memory" to retain the custom setting. Is yours losing it, because mine doesn't. May wanna talk to DankyDave: Intelligentgro@gmail.com and see if anything can be done there.

Grats on the new grow room, too!
Click to expand...

Soooo I was not "saving it" correctly or something! I got it all set now but one issue seems to be hanging out there for me. Tonight I purposefully went in to check on my setup to make sure the lights would come on at 8pm. It was 7:47pm and the lights were already on and starting to slowly climb towards the first setting. From that point on and for almost 4 hours now the climb (I did not realize they slowly worked themselves up to the setting - I assumed they would just switch every hour like the preview) has been steady and accurate.

Question is; Is this normal; The lights turning on before 8pm or 2000? I have verified the setting and @ 1900 all settings are set to zero.

For all I know they turned on way before 1947. Unfortunately I won't be home tomorrow night for lights on! If I put them on an external timer as well I guess I can make sure they don't but that will leave no power to the controller for 12 hours and I am not sure if will lose my settings.

I am going to make sure and watch the lights go off to see if the slowly dim down after 8 am.

Any help much appreciated!
WG
 
wizgrow said:
Soooo I was not "saving it" correctly or something! I got it all set now but one issue seems to be hanging out there for me. Tonight I purposefully went in to check on my setup to make sure the lights would come on at 8pm. It was 7:47pm and the lights were already on and starting to slowly climb towards the first setting. From that point on and for almost 4 hours now the climb (I did not realize they slowly worked themselves up to the setting - I assumed they would just switch every hour like the preview) has been steady and accurate.

Question is; Is this normal; The lights turning on before 8pm or 2000? I have verified the setting and @ 1900 all settings are set to zero.

For all I know they turned on way before 1947. Unfortunately I won't be home tomorrow night for lights on! If I put them on an external timer as well I guess I can make sure they don't but that will leave no power to the controller for 12 hours and I am not sure if will lose my settings.

I am going to make sure and watch the lights go off to see if the slowly dim down after 8 am.

Any help much appreciated!
WG
Click to expand...

If your Controller is set, for example, for 0-0-0 at 19:00 and 100-100-100 at 20:00, the lights will slowly come up to all 100's starting at 19:01 and finish 100% at 20:00. likewise if you have the dark hour set for 100-100-100 at 7:00 and 0-0-0 at 8:00, they will slowly dim to 0 and go completely off at 8:00. This is normal, and is set like this to mimic nature more closely. Your plants will still get 12 hours of light, never fear, but it will slowly brighten, then dim, for "Sunrise/Sunset".

Also, this is why the GLR (12-1) does not work well with the controller, because the lights would only be at 100% for about 10 minutes, and below 60% for half of the hour. This is the ONLY setting I use an external timer for. I also find that my controller loses the "Custom" settings I've programmed for the previous Veg cycle during this time, but is of no consequence, because after the GLR I need to reprogram anyway for flower.

Curiously, however, the Date/Time stays set. . . it's been a minor quandary ever since I discovered it even though it's no dificulty at all.
 
I always get lost my friend. You take it to the next level, but I do get the jest. I'm not sure if you ever found out what with the contents of the weeds. Myself I guess that's really the only way to do a real compare. I'm not sure what's what as far as afew extra bucks, but these are pretty cool. 5 plates and each plate can do 4-5 samples........... Interesting. I'm thinking of E mailing Santa. I've never looked into a lab testing but 165$ for 25 tests sounds pretty cheap. Looking foreword to seeing the buds get started. Keepem Green
 
jandre2k3 said:
If your Controller is set, for example, for 0-0-0 at 19:00 and 100-100-100 at 20:00, the lights will slowly come up to all 100's starting at 19:01 and finish 100% at 20:00. likewise if you have the dark hour set for 100-100-100 at 7:00 and 0-0-0 at 8:00, they will slowly dim to 0 and go completely off at 8:00. This is normal, and is set like this to mimic nature more closely. Your plants will still get 12 hours of light, never fear, but it will slowly brighten, then dim, for "Sunrise/Sunset".
Click to expand...

Confirmed all off at 0800 as planned. Understood on the 1900 ramp-up to the 2000 hour settings.

But does this not give the plants more than 12 hours of light? Is this OK?

1 more question (I think) - the controller seems to stay "On" during lights off - does the blue glow interrupt the light cycle at all? I stuffed mine in a sock until I get that figured out.

Re-arranged my schedule for today/tonight to get this finished up and solidified - I still got AC to "Configure" during lights out!

Disclaimer: I got a whole whopping 1 little test grow under my belt to date so I am just starting on the learning curve :) Yes- I should have had all this ironed out "Prior" to throwing my girls in there but ...... they were getting out of control in the veg room! Please let me know if I should start an Intelligent Gro/Ctlite thread if interrupting your thread :)

Thanks,
WG
 
wizgrow said:
Confirmed all off at 0800 as planned. Understood on the 1900 ramp-up to the 2000 hour settings.

But does this not give the plants more than 12 hours of light? Is this OK?

1 more question (I think) - the controller seems to stay "On" during lights off - does the blue glow interrupt the light cycle at all? I stuffed mine in a sock until I get that figured out.

Re-arranged my schedule for today/tonight to get this finished up and solidified - I still got AC to "Configure" during lights out!

Disclaimer: I got a whole whopping 1 little test grow under my belt to date so I am just starting on the learning curve :) Yes- I should have had all this ironed out "Prior" to throwing my girls in there but ...... they were getting out of control in the veg room! Please let me know if I should start an Intelligent Gro/Ctlite thread if interrupting your thread :)

Thanks,
WG
Click to expand...

First, it's about the very lights we're testing, so it's very much welcomed to continue in this thread.

Second, the LCD backlight on the controller is not enough light to cause any problems as it is way less that even 1% of the moon, but, if you want to turn it off, press the "LEFT" arrow on the control pad for three seconds. Your LCD will be turned off so any worry about errant light rays at night will be laid to rest.

A plant can actually get 14 hours of light and still flower and finish, but you're actually only getting just over 12 hours of photosynthesizing light. Until the controller gets over about 23%, the plant doesn't get enough light to drive photosynthesis, much less disturb the flower cycle.
 
Appreciate the info - Really Great stuff - I have been researching this for about 6 months now and never came across that!

Happy Happy Happy with the lights so far :)

I really like that I can see and take pic's that are not as "red" as my TopLed lights.
20141219_010425.jpg
20141219_010613.jpg


One thing I should note about the lights - Power cables: I had 8 x 180w daisy chained and did not feel comfy with the heat being put off the first cable. I switched it out to run off 2 power lines and all good to go.

Tent is getting a little too warm (84F - more light heat than anticipated) right now but dialing it in with some AC today shooting for a steady 78F +/- 2. 6 days into flower and very little stretch with Bianca strain and day night temps only +/- 4 degrees.

WG
 
Very nice setup, Wixgrow!

I like the portable scrog in the middle that lets you get to the others. :thumb:

And you have many smaller Intelligent-Gro panels widely spaced - beautiful! If I had it to do again, I'd get nine TRU90s for my 4x4.

I've also wondered about daisy-chaining and the effect on the wall cord. So, you could actually feel the heat, eh? The same thing must have been true of the first interconnect cord, too. Good thinking - and fortunate that you had another circuit to use. :cheesygrinsmiley: I wired two 15 amp into my room, and would kinda like a third. :cheesygrinsmiley:

I'm still liking my I-Gro TRU540. I've been keeping an eye on LED tech, and the other manufacturers are toying with COBs and programmable drivers, too now. We're on the leading edge with the programmability and the 63 watt COBs. I'm eagerly waiting for a WiFi interface and app. :cheesygrinsmiley: Imagine having full control over spectrum and timing from your phone or laptop!

:Namaste:
 
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