light timer recs

[wingwing]

Hi, hoping a few of you pros can help me with this.  I used the sonoff timer that came with my light, realized the design flaw of last state resuming and planned accordingly but made a mistake last night - loadshedding ended after 2 hours and the resume state was on when the plants should already have been sleeping. 

Is there  a digital timer out there that is recommended? that checks the required state before turning on or off? I've looked around but can't always find if that's the case for each model. 

any help massively appreciated!

wing

[Pants]

Been looking for a solution to this for months now. Smart home stuff is not smart enough for loadshedding unless you run your own home server.

Most grow shops should have digital timers with a small battery to keep time. Work’s best imo


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[Naughty.Psychonaut]

was just gona say, a timer with a battery that keeps "real time" and doesn't stop with loadshedding will solve your problem. they're available at most hardware shops and electronic shops. quite easy to come by. 

however, when it comes to loadshedding you don't really have to worry about light schedule. you should be worried more about PM and keeping your fans on.

when all your fans go off the RH in the grow space will spike to 80 - 100% with no wind. perfect environment for PM spores to take host. especially if you got a full tent and when you're in flower it's much more risky as buds are dense and have a lot of moisture in them already. during flower you want around 30 - 40% RH, a plant can handle a little more humidity during veg, but still shouldn't be sitting in a closed tent without ventilation for anything more than 5min at a time. otherwise you testing your luck as with PM you can never be too safe. 

If I had to choose one thing I need to keep running through loadshedding I would rather choose my inline fan over the light.

your light schedule doesn't have to be consecutive. I thought it would be much more of a problem during flower, after 5 years or so of indoor growing I haven't had a single light schedule related issue with the whole loadshedding bullshit and I have only the cheapest analogue timers that also shuts off with loadshedding.

 

[Prom]

4 hours ago, Naughty.Psychonaut said:

was just gona say, a timer with a battery that keeps "real time" and doesn't stop with loadshedding will solve your problem. they're available at most hardware shops and electronic shops. quite easy to come by. 

however, when it comes to loadshedding you don't really have to worry about light schedule. you should be worried more about PM and keeping your fans on.

when all your fans go off the RH in the grow space will spike to 80 - 100% with no wind. perfect environment for PM spores to take host. especially if you got a full tent and when you're in flower it's much more risky as buds are dense and have a lot of moisture in them already. during flower you want around 30 - 40% RH, a plant can handle a little more humidity during veg, but still shouldn't be sitting in a closed tent without ventilation for anything more than 5min at a time. otherwise you testing your luck as with PM you can never be too safe. 

If I had to choose one thing I need to keep running through loadshedding I would rather choose my inline fan over the light.

your light schedule doesn't have to be consecutive. I thought it would be much more of a problem during flower, after 5 years or so of indoor growing I haven't had a single light schedule related issue with the whole loadshedding bullshit and I have only the cheapest analogue timers that also shuts off with loadshedding.

 

This covers it more or less.. you get those load shedding LED lights in the supermarkets. They turn on, when there is no power on the plug they are connected to. One of those serves easy a 1.2x1.2 area and they are 250-300 bugs, recharge once power is back. Main issue.. they don't know the Eskom schedule, so you have to set em by hand if they should turn on or not (as is dark time anyhow when Eskom shuts you down). Nothing will grow but they emit enough light to keep the light receptors happy till power is back. For stage 8 you need 2 lights you turn on when the other gets empty.. more hassle but stage 8 and ventilation is a way bigger challenge ^^

Light is cheap to bridge.. your ventilation system most likely needs 1 to several serious batteries to bridge 2-12 hours off time. Ventilations runs 24/7, way easier to sort a uninterrupted run time... just a lot more expensive to sort cost wise.  

[Naughty.Psychonaut]

yeah, I agree, would recommend going with the battery for your fans from the start, that way you can easily plan to make accommodation for your lights aswell. 

if you focus on lights and go with a special timer or even a UPS just for the light you still sit with the issue of the ventilation and you wouldn't be able to accommodate that with the UPS or special timers.

battery power is the future for us here in SA, generators out of the question

[Ill_Evan]

I used to also use the Sonoff switches but have since moved on to the Major Tech digital timer. Was a bit pricey to replace all the Sonoff switches but at the end of the day well worth it. 

[Prom]

35 minutes ago, Ill_Evan said:

I used to also use the Sonoff switches but have since moved on to the Major Tech digital timer. Was a bit pricey to replace all the Sonoff switches but at the end of the day well worth it. 

I only use those digital timers.. just do yourself a favor. Take some pliers and pull out the random ^^ put some scotch tape over if you hate the hole. But getting on that random button by accident can be hard to notice.. get rid of it ^^

[Ill_Evan]

4 hours ago, Prom said:

But getting on that random button by accident can be hard to notice.. get rid of it ^^

I've heard the horror stories 

[wingwing]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I'll go for a major tech then, I also see I have a Toptronic that was connected to an old geyser... probably could've used that but it's over a year old so not worth the risk. Found the isolator switch for the old geyser in the roof so gonna run that down and use it to clean up the electrics now that the setup won't change for a while. A secondary db board is required for it to be properly safe. Will leave the heater to run off a normal house circuit so that old geyser circuit will easy handle everything else, has a trip and can be surge protected at the db. 

@Prom Yah I see those I've found one that is reviewed as actually being trustworthy from a battery point of view and have ordered a couple. here's the link if anyone's interested (UK brand) aurora lithium 

@Naughty.PsychonautAs far as air is concerned, I'm busy installing a little 12v inverter to run the extraction and circulation fans and also the dehumidifier if I need to. I know this is going off topic a bit but I've been measuring the RH under canopy, in canopy, above canopy and at the extraction fan. I am now convinced that a lot of growers try to compensate for poor air circulation by turning their fan up. It's crazy how humidity sits under that canopy. I now have 4 fans in various arrangements to test and it made a huge difference, a massive difference, in evenly distributed humidity. My fan running on about 6 (with filter attached) will empty the air every minute... turning it anything higher than that you're barking up the wrong tree. 

Thanks again everyone

 

[wingwing]

Just as a side note I see sonoff sell a din switch that recognizes when loadshedding hits and then sets off scenes accordingly for things that are connected to inverters/generators/etc. Handy thing to know about.

[wingwing]

@Prom  Will the wattage of that little globe be enough to trick the plants? I think you were talking about much stronger battery lights. Is there a minimum light requirment that you know of? I know you have lots of testing equipment!!!