ballast flip flop

[Poker_Toker]

i think that all we need is a wiring diagram and how to connect each wire to the relay. I understand it to the point of the grounding thing. There is a diagram on another thread but it does not show the ground connections.

I am going to order one of these relays and worry about connections later lol

 

[00420]

sry guys i been so busy with work i have not had time the person i get them from has not got them in i called yesterday so im gonna order them off the net tonite, again sry for the delay

 

[Guest]

it is very easy to build. if you want help like Sad247summer

Nice signature, but do you think anyone is actually going to believe you're a genius?

[00420]positive side
[tokinsmokin] WOW how the hell do u know this
[00420]
[tokinsmokin]ur blowing my mind here dude this is some fuckin technical shit ur tellin me
[00420 done?>
[tokinsmokin]alright ur a genius
[tokinsmokin]u kind of scare me here man, u answer pretty much every question i've had so far and not onlyanswer it but answer it with the correct answer

When was the last time any true genius went around telling everybody how smart they are? They dont! Which is why its pretty clear you wished you were much more important, than you truely are.

 

[00420]

it only took u 24hrs to be banned from chat,let's see how long it takes from the fourm's
by the way let's stay on topic here...

Sry for the delay on the dyi guys I'm pulling 14 hr day at work

 

[cocktail frank]

idk agent 00420, that dude sure does have a hard on for you. he's been following your posts all over this site.
its fun to have haters, no?

 

[Raistlin Majere]

BUMP !!!

hello 00420 whut up bro, its been months now
you ever gonna make good on your words ???
still waiting............

:EDIT: 2 lights one ballest
step by step was the needed info, thanks

 

[Raistlin Majere]

bump !!

 

[00420]

BUMP !!!

hello 00420 whut up bro, its been months now
you ever gonna make good on your words ???
still waiting............

:EDIT: 2 lights one ballest
step by step was the needed info, thanks

i will allways make good on my word.....

life has had its toll on me for the past few months and i have been nothing but on the run..... working 12-14 hr days sold 2 house's moved from both into a rental tell the new one is built and shit has been in storage and on top of this i have a 7 yr old playing baseball.....

all start a new thread to night when i get home from work...

 

[00420]

sry for the delay guys again heres the start of the thread http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=96209

 

[Raistlin Majere]

thank you

 

[basilfarmer]

A flip flop box is not going to prevent spikes. If someone were watching your power line they would see a sudden drop to be followed by a slow ramp up of current starting a second later. When you turn a HID light on, the current starts off low and then increases as the bulb brightens.

Digital ballast will need to be turned off, then flipped, and then turned on again. At least that's how the Lumateks can work

Good Grief!

Is this true???? I thought flip-flop set ups would draw the same power the whole time and no spikes.

Kind of ruins the point for me.

Also, doesn't sound like a flip flop will work on a Lumitek Digi Ballast

I wish I would have known that before buying digi ballasts!!

 

[HenDokuYaku]

Standard flipflop (I made it) with no on off... just switch.... works great with my new quantum horticulture digi...

 

[green_tea]

they won't see a spike... (IMO)


think about it this way...

they charge you by Wattage.

you have Amps x Volts = Watts

a ballast just operating, say uses 420Watts when the bulb is completely on and everything.

When the ballast sees that "oh shit, the light isnt on right now we need to initialize it" (when the flip flop kicks in) it starts its turn on mode... All that it does is change from using 120Volts at 3.5 Amps, to what I believe is a very high voltage of something like 500 volts, which would be ~.9 amps.

when the power company is computing your bill they look at Wattage.

They don't monitor Voltage, because well, they know every house gets a 240V line.
(at least, I doubt they do)

now all they have to do to compute your Wattage, is see how many amp hrs you used, and multiply it by the line in voltage of 240V.

Your average meter is never going to notice a spike that lasts a fraction of a second. hell I bet your non digital meters don't even record usage.

NOW, if you think they would see that at the main base station, I also doubt that...

what happens is they have the huge poles that are carrying thousands of volts easily... these get spread between houses and transformed into a lower voltage. (easier for electricity to go long distances as long as the voltage is high and amperage low)

So the power company has distribution centers that monitor usage... cept they monitor usage going out to say a strip of houses in one area, vs whats actually going to House B.

House B gets charged based on what their meter shows up, this is why they come to your house every few months to check on it. and the meter itself can possibly report back to the station, but doubtful (the old ones)

anyway, say you were bypassing the meter...

the company doesn't really notice this right away... they see X KWH being used by this distribution box, When bill time comes, and they have checked everybody's meters manually that's on that distribution box, they will IMMEDIATELY see that they were paid for say 150KWHs, but the distribution box had pumped out 200KWHs over that time period, and now they know something is up.


One more trick they can use is to use FLIR on the transformers / distro boxes themselves...

They have in fact used thermal imaging to catch people stealing power from a distribution box, since the growers actually overloaded the box / made it nice and easy to find...



One thing you need to remember, the power company is a LARGE CORPORATION

Change takes a LONG time to trickle down the company... yes they may have some real new hardware at their corp office, but do you think they have put the same amount of money, multiplied by like 10000 times to all their other areas of operations? HELL NO.

Shit, the electric meter in my place is like from the 50s, and I doubt they will change that anytime soon.

 

[Indecent]

Thanks a lot for the link and flip-flop tutorial, they are really helping me out.

I have one question about the tutorial you linked (quoted below). Would it be possible (and safe!) to substitute the dryer outlet for 10 gauge wire connected to a 30amp breaker in a subpanel?

it is very easy to build. if you want help like Sad247summer you can save a ton all you really need is a dpdt relay (29.99) a 110 power cord (9.99) and a few other items i could post pics as well so if you wanna try it let us know

its just like this but you will have 4 poles (dpdt relay not the one posted in that web site) 2 for each light and insted of a 220 coming in it would be your light cord
http://www.hydroponics.net/learn/grow-light-controller.asp