Why is my grow light dimming ppfd overnight?

[TheDabEnthusiast]

Spider Farmer SE7000;

This happens once a week or so, I will wake up and see that my 4x4 tent is a lower temp than normal, I grab my par meter and sure enough what was 400ppfd at 25% power the night before is now 200ppfd. So I put it up to 50% power and then later in the day I will notice the temps are very high, so I will check it again and the ppfd is back to normal somehow??? and I have to dim it back down to 25%. What is going on, is my light dying? I bought my light in 2021 so I'm afraid the warranty has expired.

 

[Hiddenjems]

Spider Farmer SE7000;

This happens once a week or so, I will wake up and see that my 4x4 tent is a lower temp than normal, I grab my par meter and sure enough what was 400ppfd at 25% power the night before is now 200ppfd. So I put it up to 50% power and then later in the day I will notice the temps are very high, so I will check it again and the ppfd is back to normal somehow??? and I have to dim it back down to 25%. What is going on, is my light dying? I bought my light in 2021 so I'm afraid the warranty has expired.

What all runs on the same circuit? LEDs are voltage sensitive.

Not sure on the circuitry of your light, but the ones with potentiometer based dimming get buggy.

 

[TheDabEnthusiast]

What all runs on the same circuit? LEDs are voltage sensitive.

Not sure on the circuitry of your light, but the ones with potentiometer based dimming get buggy.

I have a lot running on the same circuit haha but it doesn't change the dimming when my other tents lights go off or when the window ac kicks on, I've been very vigilant and I haven't been able to tell why it happens only every so often and it always works itself out within a few hours of lights on. I'm leaning towards a faulty driver because it also doesn't turn off all the way when I flip the switch anymore. A new meanwell driver for my unit is $220 and I'd rather not fork that out if I don't have to!

 

[Rocket Soul]

Dimmers are well known to fail, if the resistive components start losing their juice the dimming will also go haywire.
Is it one of these drivers with an integrated dimmer at 25-50-75-100%? Those have separate resistance in each step so it may very well be that its only 25% that is failing. If any possibility try to see if theres any options for external dimmer on the driver. If you have a foto of the driver label and any wires coming out of it im sure we could help.

 

[TheDabEnthusiast]

Dimmers are well known to fail, if the resistive components start losing their juice the dimming will also go haywire.
Is it one of these drivers with an integrated dimmer at 25-50-75-100%? Those have separate resistance in each step so it may very well be that its only 25% that is failing. If any possibility try to see if theres any options for external dimmer on the driver. If you have a foto of the driver label and any wires coming out of it im sure we could help.

Thanks for the reply! It doesn't have a resistor dimmer, it's a PWM dimmer. I ended up buying a cable from ac infinity that hooks my old spider farmer light up to my ac infinity controller and I can use the controller to dim it now and it's working great so far. I also don't need my old mechanical timer anymore which is a plus!

 

[Rocket Soul]

Thanks for the reply! It doesn't have a resistor dimmer, it's a PWM dimmer. I ended up buying a cable from ac infinity that hooks my old spider farmer light up to my ac infinity controller and I can use the controller to dim it now and it's working great so far. I also don't need my old mechanical timer anymore which is a plus!

Then im out of advice, ive never tried the pwm and dont know what little kinks it may carry. Id still try to evaluate if this is a dimmer issue by disconnecting it and use the standard dimming. Otherwise it may be as you said that the driver is failing. Thats no biggie neither, and if it fails at just over a year it was probably bound to fail. Pics of the driver label and we can figure out what to replace it with.

 

[TheDabEnthusiast]

Then im out of advice, ive never tried the pwm and dont know what little kinks it may carry. Id still try to evaluate if this is a dimmer issue by disconnecting it and use the standard dimming. Otherwise it may be as you said that the driver is failing. Thats no biggie neither, and if it fails at just over a year it was probably bound to fail. Pics of the driver label and we can figure out what to replace it with.

This is the driver I'm working with, spider farmer has come out with a few different models of the "SE-7000" but I bought mine in 2021

 

[Rocket Soul]

View attachment 19017770 This is the driver I'm working with, spider farmer has come out with a few different models of the "SE-7000" but I bought mine in 2021

Thats not a hard driver to source. Do you ever max it out? If not then id rec to be open to getting the 600w version, it will be easier to source and you can use meanwell HLG. Anyways, if you need help replacing the driver later dont hesitate to ask me. For now figure out whats messing with it.

Drivers on the cheaper china lights (mars/spider farmer and more): im pretty sure they are sourced thru china by using drivers that didnt make the official quality control but not bad enough to be discarded. You should be able to expect better if sourcing from more standard outlets. Weve not had a failure of ours for many years, only broke one by dropping it hard, and it still works but on lower output.

 

[TheDabEnthusiast]

Thats not a hard driver to source. Do you ever max it out? If not then id rec to be open to getting the 600w version, it will be easier to source and you can use meanwell HLG. Anyways, if you need help replacing the driver later dont hesitate to ask me. For now figure out whats messing with it.

Drivers on the cheaper china lights (mars/spider farmer and more): im pretty sure they are sourced thru china by using drivers that didnt make the official quality control but not bad enough to be discarded. You should be able to expect better if sourcing from more standard outlets. Weve not had a failure of ours for many years, only broke one by dropping it hard, and it still works but on lower output.

I don't really ever max it out, I'm in pre-bloom right now with some monster plants in a 4x4 and I've been having it dimmed to 50% at about 3 ft thus far, its a super potent light for my space. It seems to be working pretty nicely with the ac infinity controller though and I'm not an electrician so I'm leaning towards "if it ain't broke don't fix it" for now haha. I took apart the dimmer box and noticed the cable going into it is pretty loose and possibly might have dislodged something inside from being jostled around.

 

[TheDabEnthusiast]

I don't really ever max it out, I'm in pre-bloom right now with some monster plants in a 4x4 and I've been having it dimmed to 50% at about 3 ft thus far, its a super potent light for my space. It seems to be working pretty nicely with the ac infinity controller though and I'm not an electrician so I'm leaning towards "if it ain't broke don't fix it" for now haha. I took apart the dimmer box and noticed the cable going into it is pretty loose and possibly might have dislodged something inside from being jostled around.

 

[mudballs]

Spider Farmer SE7000;

This happens once a week or so, I will wake up and see that my 4x4 tent is a lower temp than normal, I grab my par meter and sure enough what was 400ppfd at 25% power the night before is now 200ppfd. So I put it up to 50% power and then later in the day I will notice the temps are very high, so I will check it again and the ppfd is back to normal somehow??? and I have to dim it back down to 25%. What is going on, is my light dying? I bought my light in 2021 so I'm afraid the warranty has expired.

Where do you live? As in what country and state?
If too much or too little electricity is fed into the grid, the grid frequency can fluctuate
Maybe your electric company is borderline from capacity. if your grid has fluctuations this could cause light dimming and other weird stuff. They like using 50-60Hz but grids are not perfect systems

 

[TheDabEnthusiast]

Where do you live? As in what country and state?
If too much or too little electricity is fed into the grid, the grid frequency can fluctuate
Maybe your electric company is borderline from capacity. if your grid has fluctuations this could cause light dimming and other weird stuff. They like using 50-60Hz but grids are not perfect systems

I live in northern California, medium sized city with a decent power grid so I don't think that's it.

 

[Stone]

Thanks for the reply! It doesn't have a resistor dimmer, it's a PWM dimmer. I ended up buying a cable from ac infinity that hooks my old spider farmer light up to my ac infinity controller and I can use the controller to dim it now and it's working great so far. I also don't need my old mechanical timer anymore which is a plus!

I was going to ask about AC infinity controllers.
I have same light bought at around the same time, and I get weird things I attribute to the controller.
Light will switch off completely then immediately back on to same setting.
I have other older controllers that straight stop controlling the fans, even when the controller shields correct levels.