@Hopalong SpiderFarmer has a controller: NEW COMING SOON Spider Farmer GGS Pro Controller Kits | Integrated Climate Management of 8 Large-Scale Independent Grow Spaces | Ideal for Industrial & Commercial Grow planners| Temperature, Humidity, VPD Monitoring, Scheduling, Data Tracking, Bluetooth & WiFi - Spider Farmer Official
OOPS! That says coming soon.
@Cannabian I’m enjoying my AI controller. Like I said above, I have not given it control of the lighting hours, but everything else it is running. I am using the pre-sets that AC Infinity sends with it. I was curious how good those are, and man, they are working well. I changed from the veg cycle to the flower cycle and let it run.
It’s possible it’s just the way I have stuff step up. I run a Midwest basement grow and there are drastic changes throughout the fall and winter. Some days I have to run a humidifier and cool my tent. Some days it’s dehumidifier and warm the tent. It just depends a lot on what hvac needs for rest of my house. It also might be that I didn’t give the ai time to learn. What I will say is that where the ai was pushing while it learned would have caused possible mold issues. I’m sure if I was upstairs in a steady environment things would be different. But where I am temps went from almost 80 and pretty humid outside at night when temps dropped to -10f outside over the course of a few weeks. Naturally, this cause me to take lots of measures outside the tent to stay in the window I’m comfortable with.
I have 5 autos filling an 8 by 4 wall to wall. I went from needing an 8 inch exhaust running at 3 to keep humidity under 53 and temp under 78 to needing to go back to smaller exhaust to keep humidity around 45 and temps about 73. In one scenario im running a dehumidifier and the other a humidifier.
Basement not ideal but it keeps everyone else happy and I can smoke down there.
Now the question is can I get another grow in before spring. Because my dehumidifier uses almost as much power as the rest of my grow. I’m nearing harvest for autos that sprouted sept 1 so it’s a long run. Going to yeild very well but 14 -15 weeks is crazy. But I have found; longer in veg increases yield in a big way. So I’m not even getting to flower till 6-7 weeks. I run 24/7 and can’t find a good tent short enough at 8 by 4 to stop light leaks.
Are you using all ACI gear or are you using any UIS blocks?
Yes there is a couple ways you can do it but the easiest is to buy an ACI controller that uses their UIS blocks … look em up, they resemble a wall wart with a cellphone charger cable that connects the block to the controller. You can plug anything you want into it… a light, a non ACI humidifier, a television or a coffee pot. Set the controller to turn the block on or off at either a specific time or whenever the temperature changes. This is why the new ai unit is so interesting, because it averages the environment out for you over time. You can use some non ACI lights with the correct connectors to control light intensity too. Unfortunately I think my Spydrx light doesn’t have the correct plug for that, but I can just control the intensity manually.
I believe the intial setup for the ai controller takes averages and brings them together over time. To accomplish this, Im guessing.. but not too sure, the controller likely needs to create a base line by setting things up at the extremes and then averaging them over time. As an example, your basement likely averages out a specific temperature and humidity over a week. If not… that might be too inconsistent for the controller to average? Most homes have a coer nightime period and a warmer daytime period. As an example, the controller may suggest to run the light at night to control temperature because you may not have an air conditioner in the system. The way I understand it, the more environmental equipment you plug into it, the greater the degree of control you get, but the controller will attempt to get the best environment with the least equipment as well. That’s my take on it? Just guessin’ it makes sense when you think about it.
I feel you described very well why I won’t use AI with my current equipment. I love my AC Infinity gear but with my tent in the garage, my current T3 heater (already pre-ordered the T7) and humidifier can’t maintain my environmental conditions within a narrow enough range where I’m willing to give AI the final say. If i had the indoor commercial level HVAC and humidity equipment that can keep levels within a very narrow range, cool, let AI average the trends and take control. In my case the equipment can’t provide that control and in an example where my equipment could come close to the set temperature but might be slightly under the VPD target I would be okay with that compromise rather than letting AI dump too much water via the humidifier and sink my temperature. Inside in a well controlled climate I would have a different take on AI I feel.
Light would be the least important to manage with the controller, I habe no issues handling the light the old fashioned style. The heater, humifidifier and dehumidifier would be the ones I’d like to automate.
You can just use the ai controller for everything else. You can use your light however you want. You could simply use the controller as a timer so you dont need an external light timer? Not sure what else to say? Except the beauty of it is that whatever you have plugged into the ai controller is visible on your phone as long as you have a wifi router with 2.4 and cell service. Nice feature… you can turn stuff in and off remotely, or if they are ACI you can control individual parameters. Not so easy with non ACI products… only real downside. Plus they make a moisture sensor so you can set up either remote or automatic watering. I think thsts what I will be doing.
I did some digging and since I don’t have any ACI gear it would make sense for me to just get the Outlet AI’s for my tents. It’s like 80€/piece and no need to buy adapters to make other brands work.
Basically the same fuctions as I would get out of the Controllers.
I think I know what I want for Christmas…
Not available in Europe…sighhh…