iPonic 600 controller

[ZinksInk]

Thanks LandscapeEscape, I had a big post written up on my phone then it would not let me post it..... The diagram and photo helps a lot.

For thoose wondering about controlling other gear with the low power outputs on the iponic....
There are prebuilt relays you can buy often for about as much as you spend making your own depending on how cheep you can source parts. Search for RIB (Relay in Box) You would want to buy one with a 5volt trigger. You would then wire the 5 volt out from the iponic to the power relay, wire up your power and the device to be powered.

They use these types of relays to control sprinklers so there is a lot of options out there which can support quite a bit of juice. ...

I was building my own relay and could only find a cheepo switch, It feel out of my lap while wiring it up and broke on the spot. After that I just returned all the parts and bought a 120v CAP relay for my dehumidifier. Not as nice as what I could have built, but I didn't have the time or patience to order parts online and cost of parts at homedepot and other stores for the relay exceeded the cost of getting the cap with a 3 year warranty... Money i saved was used to buy a tank of co2 ;-)

 

[macdiesel]

LandscapeEscape- What if you run your ballasts at 220v? How exactly would that configuration work with the iponic?

 

[LandscapeEscape]

Macdiesel. The iPonic can handle 20amps I believe. Your best bet is betting a lighting controller with a trigger cable. Download the PDF instruction manual for exact amp specs. I'm on my phone or I'd do it for you. You could possibly swing 2k on one of the double outlet channels.

 

[LandscapeEscape]

Its handles 15 amps. You can get around this like I said with a lighting controller or a sentinel plc(?) Which is basically an extension cord with a trigger cable.

 

[LandscapeEscape]

Sentinel pxm*

 

[ZinksInk]

Do not try and plug your lights into any kind of atmospheric controller with out a relay, its just a bad practice. Chances are each outlet on it really isn't meant for more than a couple of amps even if the unit says its rated for 15 amps. You may trip the units fuse which could mess up your grow or worse damage the controller. My dehumidifier is 7amps which i don't dare plug straight into the iPonic unit.... so I am using a120v relay from CAP (the UPM-1)

http://www.hydrogalaxy.com/timers/universal-power-module-15as-120vac/

for my lights I bought the Sentinel HPH-8 @ around 200 bucks not bad... Supports 8K and can be wired for 120 or 240.
http://www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/sentinel-hph8-8000w-8light-controller-p-2784.html

The Sentinel PXM (comes setup for 120 or 240 depending on model [PXM-1 or PXM-2]) is basically a more expensive version of C.A.P.'s UPM-1 (120v only?) Not really what you want for lights tho...

 

[macdiesel]

Its handles 15 amps. You can get around this like I said with a lighting controller or a sentinel plc(?) Which is basically an extension cord with a trigger cable.

Do not try and plug your lights into any kind of atmospheric controller with out a relay, its just a bad practice. Chances are each outlet on it really isn't meant for more than a couple of amps even if the unit says its rated for 15 amps. You may trip the units fuse which could mess up your grow or worse damage the controller. My dehumidifier is 7amps which i don't dare plug straight into the iPonic unit.... so I am using a120v relay from CAP (the UPM-1)

http://www.hydrogalaxy.com/timers/universal-power-module-15as-120vac/

for my lights I bought the Sentinel HPH-8 @ around 200 bucks not bad... Supports 8K and can be wired for 120 or 240.
http://www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/sentinel-hph8-8000w-8light-controller-p-2784.html

The Sentinel PXM (comes setup for 120 or 240 depending on model [PXM-1 or PXM-2]) is basically a more expensive version of C.A.P.'s UPM-1 (120v only?) Not really what you want for lights tho...

Thanks you guys. I didnt know about trigger relays. So your relay gets connected via trigger cord to controller, and then has it's own power cord?

 

[cocogroguy]

Thanks you guys. I didnt know about trigger relays. So your relay gets connected via trigger cord to controller, and then has it's own power cord?

If you get a lighting controller like a cap it has two cords. It has the power cord that handles the load of the lights......30 amp....50 amp etc......It also has a trigger cable which is just a 110v plug head that plugs into a regular wall socket. So you would plug the trigger cable into the Iponic600 and it would act as your timer.

did I get that right Landscape?

 

[macdiesel]

If you get a lighting controller like a cap it has two cords. It has the power cord that handles the load of the lights......30 amp....50 amp etc......It also has a trigger cable which is just a 110v plug head that plugs into a regular wall socket. So you would plug the trigger cable into the Iponic600 and it would act as your timer.

did I get that right Landscape?

After doing some quick research, I do believe you are correct.

 

[TURBD]

This thing is the shit. I don't know why more people are not on this.
It would be sweet to have a iponic sub section.
GSC. Sceduals.
OG kush sceds.
Etc etc. it's only time.
I can't wait till I can afford this.
I also bought a ps3 and new iPhone when they came out too. So that may say something.

 

[LandscapeEscape]

I'm going to agree with zink's correction on my part. especially after going back and seeing it handles 15amps versus 20. You might be able to start up the unit and have a dehuey and lights running on it, but it really does point out the possibility of tripping the fuse due to power spikes when equipment is kicking on and off. I'm glad he pointed that out and i didn't even think about that.

Coco grow you got it. It depends on the unit but typically they have a regular low load trigger cable, and then a heavy load 30amp or 50amp pig tail. A lot of them also simply have the hard connections for romex copper so you can hard wire the bitch to your board or make your own pigtail tailored to the length and bends you need.

TURBD i would post the shit out of that subsection. the fact that these units have a fucking thumb drive means you can pass enviro cycles with genetics. you get a cut and thumbdrive. you throw the cuts in the room, plug the card in, and you now know the levels that worked out best for that strain. the future is dope as fuck. people could post up a library of settings that have worked the best with certain crops. photos and all. use something like HerbIQ to record feedings and nutes and you have 100 percent accurate emperical data on your grow. you have everything on a day to day excel sheet.

 

[ZinksInk]

I have not used the Sentinel PMX but i believe thats where the extra cash you spend comes in. This unit has a cord to your power supply and a power cord to act as the trigger along with the outlets for the equipment to plug in.

The C.A.P. units have no cord to plug into your power supply, so it plugs straight into a socket. They then have a trigger cable. And outlets on the face of the box...

If my assumption about Sentinal's PXM is correct then they are a nicer unit. But you can build your own for around 100 bucks farily easily...

The C.A.P. unit has a 3 year warranty which is good enough for me and works for my needs. No need to spend more money than ya have to get the same job done.
You could use them with an extension cord but make sure you get one thats gauged for at least 15 amps... (12 Gauge to be safe)

 

[ZinksInk]

LandscapeEscape have you used the growth curves yet? I tried play around with it but when i turned it on, iPonic decided it wanted to run my lights during daylight hours, which I don't like to do...

On a side note
I just got done doing my first cycle and noticed there was no alert for my 8 week cycle ending. Looked at the start date set on the machine and then a calendar and the iponic still said week 8, 3-4 days after week 9 would have started... (if i had said I had a 9 week crop)

Not a big issue as I use excel charts for determining my feed and to track things like foliar....

 

[LandscapeEscape]

i have not used the growth curves. i have used the ramping for co2 adjustments from veg to flower pretty successfully.

for lights, go on the safe side and use a master lighting controller like a titan or a cap. these do NOT plug into a wall outlet. the trigger cable plus into the controller which uses less than an amp, and there are physical terminals; a postive negative and ground; which are used to hardwire romex cable to and you run your new romex line to either your breaker panel or 20/30/40/60amp receptacle via a pig tail (the big ass plugs an electric stove or dryer use).

so if it can be run off a wall outlet, use the pxm. plug your equipment into the pxm, then plug the pxm into the closest wall outlet. there's your power. the pxm has a trigger cable. use your extension cord to plug the trigger cable into the iponic if you need to.

if its anything more than 1k, use a lighting controller that is running to a proper high load outlet. Something that doesn't look like a typical wall outlet. remember you always want headroom when you load your amps. got a 15 amp outlet? only run 10-12 off of it.

 

[ZinksInk]

You got it LandscapeEscape, I should have specified that the CAP relay mentioned above and Sentinels PMX are for smaller devices under 15 amps such as an air conditioner or dehumidifier. Not designed to power lights.

I have a Sentinel CHHC-8 which supports up to 8K. I have it wired to its own sub-breaker box with a 60 amp breaker in it. It works like a champ. Never had any issues with it. Only had to wrestle getting my thick ass power cable into the slots and securing it.

 

[LandscapeEscape]

Zink,

Yeah I sliced my hand up pretty good getting the Romex up in the receptacle. Hardest part was that when everything was wired, I had a 50amp line that I had to step down to a 30amp. Swapped the breakers, then swapped the receptacle. Ended up with a spare neutral wire that I couldn't figure out for the life of me. Through process of elimination and my extensive knowledge of percussive maintenance, I got it running without tripping a breaker.

 

[ZinksInk]

ATM my sub is wired only for 240...

I had it properly wired for 120/240 but had to tear it down due to inspections. I ended up replacing the wire with one from my old minisplit line which has one of the wires clipped as its not needed for 240. ;-0 Now i try and only buy 220-240 gear.

I remember the day i switched over. Saw my power-bill drop a few weeks later.
Same thing happened when I installed my minisplit... That was until i decided to run more lights.

I always wear gloves these days when working with cable cause if your buying the right stuff its unbelievably heavy and thick.

All this talk about getting wired up reminds me of my own horror story...

I actually had to rewire from my meter box, to my sub.... Was a hell of a job. Had to consult with PGE to make sure the line coming in from the street was large enough and then get them to disconnect the power while i upgraded main breaker.

Luckily I had a legit reason for them to do the disconnect. I had to replace my main breaker any way... I was running all outlets maxed out and I think I broke it... Half the power to the house was out one day. Upon checking all breakers with a multimeter I tracked it back to the main. Upon unclipping it one of the plastic tabs that was part of the clip in was broken and completely missing. Weirdest part was nothing looked melted, more like it had snapped off. Was so relieved when I swapped it out and all worked again. Was a serious oh shit moment for the day.

Always always double and triple check that you can pull the kinda power you need. If I setup any where, now it's the first thing I check. Whats that, you don't have at least 100amp main, then forget it and keep on looking, find a new place. Lesson learned... the hard way. Doing an upgrade the way I did is no joke.

 

[LandscapeEscape]

speaking of shit wired for 240 this is what i found today.

Cap melted the front panel. Still not sure what happened. i checked the light graph on the iponic and it shows the lighting controller failed 45min after it flipped on. didn't trip the main breaker and just fried.

Swapped out with a new unit. keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[ZinksInk]

Shit, That looks smelly. What kind of light controller do you have and is that the controller? Id say go with thicker cable if you got it wired up right.

 

[LandscapeEscape]

10/2 Romex is what they said to use and thats what i used. that is the controller and it's a Cap MLC-4 with a trigger cable not a timer. I think the wire for the relay light crossed the terminals. ended up arcing on a fluke. again not sure. I had an electrician double check everything on the new unit and he said it is correct.