best way to pull light dep tarp?

[CrushnYuba]

I can upload close up pictures of how everything is installed when it's light out. If you want to see some videos, emerald kingdom greenhouses uses the same motors and stuff. Farmtek sells the motors. They are all over ebay.
A bunch of local greenhouse companies use the same system. It rolls up as down. Anyone using a rolling system uses those motors. The arm hinge is literally a bolt.

It works well and it's sooo simple stupid. It's never gotten stuck. I haven't had to make repairs and non of my friends have either, but it's so crazy simple you can do the repairs yourself cheap. I have only had it for a couple years so I don't know how long motors last for but so what if it craps out on the third year. The motors are less then 200$ to replace. Call it maintenance cost.

I had to buy a kit from emerald kingdom to find out how easy it is and how taxed it was.

 

[CrushnYuba]

 

[CrushnYuba]

Excuse the ladder and wires and stuff. Not running for the winter. Everything is tied up or taken in for the winter storms.

 

[Rekoj]

Excuse the ladder and wires and stuff. Not running for the winter. Everything is tied up or taken in for the winter storms.

I believe I've found the motors you're referring to. Anywhere I can see how to actually set it up? Wanted to do a small light dep in a couple 10x50 PVC hoop houses this summer and this would undoubtedly be worth the extra coin.

 

[doublejj]

I believe I've found the motors you're referring to. Anywhere I can see how to actually set it up? Wanted to do a small light dep in a couple 10x50 PVC hoop houses this summer and this would undoubtedly be worth the extra coin.

^^this^^^

 

[Rekoj]

^^this^^^

Just found this, detailed link to the motors in the video comments...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLvqbOxpoog&t=14s

 

[stone meadow]

there's the two motors and a controller

 

[CrushnYuba]

http://m.ebay.com/itm/Greenhouse-cu...%3A2404e6d115a0a605d6ddc60afffd5128%7Ciid%3A1

 

[CrushnYuba]

That's them.. But awfully expensive. I got a set off ebay for 170 each. Grizzly hill in Nevada city and emerald kingdom in redding both used to sell them for 199. Not sure if they still do. They are sold as greenhouse roll up side motors or shade motors allot.
These motors are rad. They have 2 dials built into them that controls how many revolutions they make before they stop. You don't need a controller. You basically just need timers. I have an old wiring diagram from emerald kingdom from before they used controllers I'll see if I can find.

 

[CrushnYuba]

This weekend I'm building a greenhouse. I'm going to take some pictures through out. I'm having some tax problems so I'm starting a greenhouse company to keep the tax man paid. Going to build a handful of them and sell a few kits. We are going to do it for less then half the cost of the next cheapest gh manufacturer using the same materials. We just bend the steel tubing ourselves.

Rekoj: it would be hard to get this system to work with pvc. Not impossible though.

 

[einsteinlady]

Motors no controller

Motors no controller

Yuba,

I have the motors that you posted in eBay link.

How are you running them without a controller?
I don't understand how the motor knows how to roll up, stop, then roll down without relays involved.

Simplifying these without controller would be awesome.

 

[the_niño]

nice info here, thanks

 

[Bjorn to farm.]

Yuba,

I have the motors that you posted in eBay link.

How are you running them without a controller?
I don't understand how the motor knows how to roll up, stop, then roll down without relays involved.

Simplifying these without controller would be awesome.

I've got the motors ordered and my 24v power supply has arrived already.
I'll let you know what it takes to get them working.

 

[Stellarpandaz]

Rock & a rope. Dont waste money on something that could fail & herm the crop.

 

[CrushnYuba]

You have to build a controller. But it can just bee a couple parts. A dpdt relay and a timer. Both can bee had for 7$ on Amazon.
You also need a power source. A transformer is about 15$ on Amazon. So You are looking at About 30$ total.


Pm me and I'll give you links to what you need to get and draw you a wiring diagram.

Stellarpandaz: there are a bunch of reasons to go auto but no reason i can think of not to. In a few years, i have never seen one malfunction. I have had things come up and not been able to manually pull my tarps back before automation. I have had workers pull tarps late and uncover late. Tarps not be secured properly and wind pulled it off. Also manually pulling tarps is hell on the tarp and they always get holes. Yet with auto systems, i have Yet to get even a pin hole years in. Better chance of herms and issues manually pulling. Also, who wants to be a slave to pulling.
Also with an auto, you can cover for an hour at night, uncover when it gets dark, and cover for an hour in the morning. Have it uncovered and getting full ventilation all night while still getting you 12 hrs of dark. Way less of a chance of mold issues.

 

[Stellarpandaz]

Call me old fashion lol i can think of so many times something mechanical has broken & being 2hours from town its not exactly a easy drive to the store. Agreed there are many pros but also some cons. Alot of folks have been pulling the tarp at night before the automations were big tho. Lived it. Slave to the7pm<9pm< 430 am<7am schedule on a few 50'ers just me & 1other guy. The reason i say no automation is b/c this makes someone look at the crop each day as things progress & u can really see problems & nip them in the bud. To each its own. If a crew isnt dependable then yeah get some automation lol but ive scene more than a few of those things broke out in the hills just for people to revert back to primitive ways..& lets say you leave for a few days..open when u leave open when u come back day light hours right..how would actually 110% know those things opened & closed..w/o failure..those are my only issues with automation..

 

[f-e]

If I were pulling a 5m sheet on my own, I would try a pole along the edge I'm pulling, like you would find on a window blind. A product called 'pvc weld' resembles glue, but actually melts surfaces together. It would fix pvc poles to pvc sheet, very permanently. Where I wanted ropes, I would gaffer tape the sheet before ripping through. Gaffer tape surfaces are very 'rip stop' but gaffer adhesive dries up eventually. This is not a permanent build. Just sheet kept flat with rocks, while a pipe painted with sticky is dropped on.

One would lift the pole towards head height perhaps, using a telescopic washing line prop to keep it there. Then hoist it over the last bit.

The pole could be substituted for bamboo canes and gaffer. I think keeping the edge straight, could reduce energy spent on getting things out of shape, then recovering. While maybe offering a little more wind resistance to flapping about.

With no hands on experience, I could be some way off the mark. Perhaps the 5 meter length could be indefinite, using the right pipe and multiple prop points. So I could gradually ease it up along the length of the house. Or maybe the pipe weld would harden off the sheet. causing early fatigue. It can deform plumbing fittings. It's not messing about. Use sparingly is no joke.


Motor control on the pram roofs, might benefit from tilt switches. Like filling tanks, you do it on timer, with a slight over-run. So the float switch really controls the stop point, and the timer is just a second stop, if the switch fails.
It's very easy to set a tilt switch in a milliput resin case. Which in turn is set to a bar clamp. Perhaps using it to disconnect power to a short range timer. So you would have your mains powered segment timer, powering a precision short range timer used for fine adjustment. Which switches the main with its relay output. But the short range clock side is powered via the tilt, to stop the count completely.

 

[tiffa]

May I ask you good people a slightly off topic question just so I don't have to open a whole new thread, but why aren't autoflowers used much in greenhouse growing? No need for any AUTO or manual light dep tarp then no? ....I've looked hard at the forum but no joy finding this info.

 

[Lost in a SOG]

I think it is because people dont pay top dollar for autos.

In illegal countries or smaller and more personal scale people do do autos in greenhouses as its economical but for top dollar in many places now you need a known cut.

Lots of guys on here just run their autos outside guerilla style in the middle of summer. Greenhouses and polytunnels also can encourage pathogens like spidermite more from the environment and autos are pretty tough normally so dont need spoiling as much as light dependant genetics. imo.

 

[tiffa]

I think it is because people dont pay top dollar for autos.

In illegal countries or smaller and more personal scale people do do autos in greenhouses as its economical but for top dollar in many places now you need a known cut.

Lots of guys on here just run their autos outside guerilla style in the middle of summer. Greenhouses and polytunnels also can encourage pathogens like spidermite more from the environment and autos are pretty tough normally so dont need spoiling as much as light dependant genetics. imo.

Ok, that's great, thanks