Best light timer

[papasmurf99]

Those anologue timers are the ones that fuckup. Cos of the sudden surge in power.

Under what sort of load SE?

 

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[micmac]

Does your ballast start straight away?

Mine all come on but the ballasts might take up to 15 seconds

They all don't come on at same time which decreases the startup load on your timers n power boards

I've used a couple of manual timers for ages without any dramas

Magnetic ballasts don't have this feature nor do some digital ballasts

 

 

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[potepete]

This might not fit this conversation but what sort of power usage when growing under lights .

 

 

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[bakedcake]

This might not fit this conversation but what sort of power usage when growing under lights .

 

 

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My flowering light is about $1 a day and veg light .66c

[Serrated edge]

As far as I know it's only a problem with magnetic ballasts ..and maybe not a problem in newer homes ,my place is old and so is the wiring,,I went through too many timers ,even the heavy duty timers ,they'd last a bit longer but eventually would crap themselves.,I never ran more than one light per timer,,so just 600 w was enough to ruin the timers. I used to run 400w lights years back with magnetic ballasts but can't remember any problems with timers on 400 w magnetics.

 

Once I started using relay timers for 600 w magnetic ballasts the problem disappeared,,,I now use digital ballasts so doesn't matter what timers I use now Digital ballasts have slower startups ,,so no surge to fuse the points.

[itchybromusic]

Been looking at the nanolux control unit and the wireless USB setup

 

Can set the time with that and also set the sunrise and sunset feature

 

It's also decently priced

Any one used it

didn't end up buying any nanolux gear but reckon there DTU controller was pretty good 

they were planing on being able to control the whole room not just the lights with it , not sure 

how far they got with that though  

 

keep in mind the sunrise / sunset feature will only work if your nanolux ballast has dimming 

the 315w cmh dose not have a dimmer 

[galil01]

As far as I know it's only a problem with magnetic ballasts ..and maybe not a problem in newer homes ,my place is old and so is the wiring,,I went through too many timers ,even the heavy duty timers ,they'd last a bit longer but eventually would crap themselves.,I never ran more than one light per timer,,so just 600 w was enough to ruin the timers. I used to run 400w lights years back with magnetic ballasts but can't remember any problems with timers on 400 w magnetics.

 

Once I started using relay timers for 600 w magnetic ballasts the problem disappeared,,,I now use digital ballasts so doesn't matter what timers I use now Digital ballasts have slower startups ,,so no surge to fuse the points.

Ok. Well it's a sub $200 digital ballast . I don't really care if I cook a timer or 2 my main concern was fire hazard. Most of the time I'll be around during light changeover but weekends might b different. I'll buy a digital timer if the analouges are a bit howdy doody and c how it goes.

 

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[galil01]

Ok. Well it's a sub $200 digital ballast . I don't really care if I cook a timer or 2 my main concern was fire hazard. Most of the time I'll be around during light changeover but weekends might b different. I'll buy a digital timer if the analouges are a bit howdy doody and c how it goes.20180621_172021.jpeg20180621_171959.jpeg

 

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Probs not the forum for it but what would cause this leave discoloration. Almost looks like a fungus. Cheers all

 

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[Indycar]

As far as I know it's only a problem with magnetic ballasts ..and maybe not a problem in newer homes ,my place is old and so is the wiring,,I went through too many timers ,even the heavy duty timers ,they'd last a bit longer but eventually would crap themselves.,I never ran more than one light per timer,,so just 600 w was enough to ruin the timers. I used to run 400w lights years back with magnetic ballasts but can't remember any problems with timers on 400 w magnetics.

 

Once I started using relay timers for 600 w magnetic ballasts the problem disappeared,,,I now use digital ballasts so doesn't matter what timers I use now Digital ballasts have slower startups ,,so no surge to fuse the points.

 

Nah, the analogue ones still shit themselves even on new purpose built circuits, S.E. I went through 3 or 4 of them on a single 600w before I got a decent digital timer.

 

And yeah, once you've pulled a toasted one apart. I'd dare say the odd one could possibly pose as a potential fire hazard. I'll never rely on a analogue one again for operation of a light.

[Brim]

didn't end up buying any nanolux gear but reckon there DTU controller was pretty good

they were planing on being able to control the whole room not just the lights with it , not sure

how far they got with that though

 

keep in mind the sunrise / sunset feature will only work if your nanolux ballast has dimming

the 315w cmh dose not have a dimmer

The whole range of other controls was meant to be released late last year but never was , I sent them a message and asked when it would be released in Aus but no reply

 

Kind of annoying knowing the ballast can be its own timer but only if you have the dtu setup

 

It's on my list of things to get next round but