THE TRAINWRECK. Brought to you by thcfarrmer…..

[PlumberSoCal2]

 

[SunshineSupergirl]

Have you checked all your connections ? Everything tight and right

Yep, tight as chicken lips


There was something happening when I moved the dimmer from 35% to 40% it seemed to jump down in intensity instead of going UP , but that stopped happening last 3 days.

Maybe something is wonky with the dimmer? Maybe that's where moisture got in.

My Spider Farmer SF1000 is working 100% normal again, no flickering, very bright at 100% , no sudden intensity shifts, dimmer seems fine.

 

[SunshineSupergirl]

Yep, tight as chicken lips


There was something happening when I moved the dimmer from 35% to 40% it seemed to jump down in intensity instead of going UP , but that stopped happening last 3 days.

Maybe something is wonky with the dimmer? Maybe that's where moisture got in.

My Spider Farmer SF1000 is working 100% normal again, no flickering, very bright at 100% , no sudden intensity shifts, dimmer seems fine.

I have a cord mounted dimmer switch, it's a tiny little box.

How can I inspect that ?

 

[MartyMcFly42oh]

I have a cord mounted dimmer switch, it's a tiny little box.

How can I inspect that ?

I would be careful with electronics if you are unfamiliar with with that sort of thing, you could easily and inadvertently get zapped, or accidentally cause damage to internal components and potentially cause a fire hazard, or shock hazard. If you aren’t comfortable working on it, see if there’s an electronic repair shop nearby, or approach the manufacturer about service and repair issues. One thing is certain though, you should have high water resistance rating on your grow lights, if you don’t humidity can damage your gear. You want a light to have an IP rating of IP65.

 

[SunshineSupergirl]

I would be careful with electronics if you are unfamiliar with with that sort of thing, you could easily and inadvertently get zapped, or accidentally cause damage to internal components and potentially cause a fire hazard, or shock hazard. If you aren’t comfortable working on it, see if there’s an electronic repair shop nearby, or approach the manufacturer about service and repair issues. One thing is certain though, you should have high water resistance rating on your grow lights, if you don’t humidity can damage your gear. You want a light to have an IP rating of IP65.

Yep she's rated 1P65.

Still flickering in intensity just now though.

I think it was the high stream of vapor in a small space for over a month at 100% intensity but they were short bursts.

Turning down the humidity intensity helped, now I'm not running the humidifier at all.

Maybe it just needs more time to dry out.

I really have no idea what the real problem is.

I could take it to an electrician but those are extensive at least like 50 bucks an hour and I could almost buy a new light for that.

I got this light for $93 with a coupon and it was on sale too so it is something like $300 normally.


* Edit, my light all of the sudden went back to normal intensity just now all the white lights are bright again.

 

[Putthataway]

Yep she's rated 1P65.

Still flickering in intensity just now though.

I think it was the high stream of vapor in a small space for over a month at 100% intensity but they were short bursts.

Turning down the humidity intensity helped, now I'm not running the humidifier at all.

Maybe it just needs more time to dry out.

I really have no idea what the real problem is.

I could take it to an electrician but those are extensive at least like 50 bucks an hour and I could almost buy a new light for that.

I got this light for $93 with a coupon and it was on sale too so it is something like $300 normally.


* Edit, my light all of the sudden went back to normal intensity just now all the white lights are bright again.

You know water and electricity is a fire hazard right? If vapor is causing that turn it off. Your life and property are not worth the risk.

 

[SunshineSupergirl]

You know water and electricity is a fire hazard right? If vapor is causing that turn it off. Your life and property are not worth the risk.

Yes but these lights are rated for high humidity. I'm not actually pushing water into the light directly

I just had to much vapor in the window , didn't realize it was too much for the light.

 

[MartyMcFly42oh]

Yep she's rated 1P65.

Still flickering in intensity just now though.

I think it was the high stream of vapor in a small space for over a month at 100% intensity but they were short bursts.

Turning down the humidity intensity helped, now I'm not running the humidifier at all.

Maybe it just needs more time to dry out.

I really have no idea what the real problem is.

I could take it to an electrician but those are extensive at least like 50 bucks an hour and I could almost buy a new light for that.

I got this light for $93 with a coupon and it was on sale too so it is something like $300 normally.


* Edit, my light all of the sudden went back to normal intensity just now all the white lights are bright again.

How old is your house,or more importantly electrical system? Don’t tell me that there’s a fuse panel, instead of a circuit breaker.
A true IP65 is dust proof, and capable of being hit with water jets at any angle. I don’t know if high humidity would create an issue unless the waterproofing failed. Was there water droplets collected on surface of the lamp or driver?

 

[Thatoneguyyouknow_]

Yep, tight as chicken lips


There was something happening when I moved the dimmer from 35% to 40% it seemed to jump down in intensity instead of going UP , but that stopped happening last 3 days.

Maybe something is wonky with the dimmer? Maybe that's where moisture got in.

My Spider Farmer SF1000 is working 100% normal again, no flickering, very bright at 100% , no sudden intensity shifts, dimmer seems fine.

sounds like theres corrosion or build up on the carbon strip in the variable resistor (dimmer knob)

id recommend contact cleaner into the potentiometer.


The biggest danger in these voltage ranges is a boo boo on the finger lol. You will also see smoke and smell very obnoxious unwanted smells long before it causes a fire at these kinds of amperages.


I strongly recommend every living soul obtain, and learn to properly use a multimeter, and good luck finding an electronic repair technician in todays world even willing to work on something like an LED driver, theyll recommend replacement od the driver, or contact cleaner on the potentiometer in a retail environment on a repair job for something thats technically a disposable chinese made electronic lol.


If its flickering with knob turning, and there arent noises or smells coming from the driver, and there are no dulled or dead diodes..... youre going to take that to a repair technician to get told exactly what im telling you now because their bench fee is probably going to save you as much as that light is worth new. Thats not an antique tube radio or something.


Source: Electronic repairs on the side, and before LED panels got beefy and cheap enough i made my own from single diodes on aluminum bars with scratch made linear power supplies to supplement my HPS setups lol.


If that light was sold in the USA legally, it has no less then half a dozen safety features built into the driver as well. If the flickering isnt consistent, as in 1 second on, 1 second off, and stay consistent, the driver is not trying to tell you anything is wrong, the problem is somewhere in the signal path beyond the driver, and if all diodes are lighting properly when signal i flowing consistent, then the issue before the panel circuit. Meaning its very likely the potentiometer. Back to try contact cleaner lol. If you got it wet, theres probably corrosion or build up on its carbon strip. Pretty much all decent grow light drivers are sealed watertight, but the housing for the Pot usually isnt, and its a problem ive rectified before. Assuming its the same problem.. with contact cleaner lol.



Seriously, when i said you're in my wheelhouse on this i wasnt just cracking a funny. Theres not going to be any caps in that driver storing voltage longer then a couple seconds after powering it off. The voltages at work are pain level, not deliver lethal amperage to your heart level. Its barely above what is even considered "potentially hazardous" in the right contexts... like standing barefoot in a pool of water on the cement or bare dirt with a source that wont immediately shut off if amperage goes over 4a lol


The only actual risk comes from tinkering between the transformer and the 120v in. And theres never a reason to do that with these things. Ever, dont ever play with an open driver plugged into the wall, but thats common sense.


using a multimeter on the 35-60v 3a or whatever comes from the output of the driver is a little different. you dont even have to get into a driver to do that, and most panels have two exposed solder joints specifically for this purpose in QC lines at manufacturing plants. And most panels can have drivers replaced toolessly. But people arent aware because they never look into it and treat it like alien technology.

My singular purpose for running my trap on the internet right now about this is to get ya up and running as quickly, and as cheaply as possible and in a way maybe someone will learn how simple this actually is in the process lol.


Some truth: In real-world life, if your electronic device makes it to my solder bench, and past all my mouth running and arm flailing, you already owe me a $50 bench fee because im doing technician work for you at that point, even if its not fixed in the end or i just end up cleaning a potentiometer or two. I have been payed $50 to spray and wipe contact and carbon cleaner on many occasions in many electronics and give the nugget right back with nothing else to be done. If its a modern chinese made nugget like a full system led grow light, and its not covered by warranty, ya gotta figure the thing out yourself or fork up probably most of the cost of replacing the whole light to get it fixed. In most cases.

 

[SunshineSupergirl]

How old is your house,or more importantly electrical system? Don’t tell me that there’s a fuse panel, instead of a circuit breaker.
A true IP65 is dust proof, and capable of being hit with water jets at any angle. I don’t know if high humidity would create an issue unless the waterproofing failed. Was there water droplets collected on surface of the lamp or driver?

There's a grey circuit breaker in the apartment, switches for each outlet, they remodeled this hotel into an apartment complex a few years ago before I moved in, used to be a swanky hotel.

It's an older historic building, but newer wiring with the redmodel.

I didn't have a problem with this light in the same window when I 1st bought it.

I didn't notice the flickering problem in the intensity problem with both lights until I started using that humidity too high.

That's the only thing that changed, maybe that intense stream of humidity got into the dimmer switches on both lights and it's still trying to dry out.

 

[Thatoneguyyouknow_]

There's a grey circuit breaker in the apartment, switches for each outlet, they remodeled this hotel into an apartment complex a few years ago before I moved in, used to be a swanky hotel.

It's an older historic building, but newer wiring with the redmodel.

I didn't have a problem with this light in the same window when I 1st bought it.

I didn't notice the flickering problem in the intensity problem with both lights until I started using that humidity too high.

That's the only thing that changed, maybe that intense stream of humidity got into the dimmer switches on both lights and it's still trying to dry out.

its an analogue potentiometer in these things. you could just have some perlite dust in there or something. Anything electrically conductive will make those act a fool. They have a little carbon strip inside that has controlled resistance along its length, and its a very precise thing. very tiny too. A sweeper moves across it controlling the resistance, telling the driver what voltage to output. humidity alone shouldnt mess with it at all, even directly spilling water across a modern led grow light probably wont cause any problems at all. Most problems that arent a dead driver reside iin the ddimming knobs, especially when they have a separate housing on the panel. Most housings on non high end grow lights are water and dust proof for the driver, but the pot is just a pot and not much thought is put into it. same kind of pot in everything these days tho, the same little el cheapo linear carbon pots.


And its largely harmless, just annoying.

 

[SunshineSupergirl]

its an analogue potentiometer in these things. you could just have some perlite dust in there or something. Anything electrically conductive will make those act a fool. They have a little carbon strip inside that has controlled resistance along its length, and its a very precise thing. very tiny too. A sweeper moves across it controlling the resistance, telling the driver what voltage to output. humidity alone shouldnt mess with it at all, even directly spilling water across a modern led grow light probably wont cause any problems at all. Most problems that arent a dead driver reside iin the ddimming knobs, especially when they have a separate housing on the panel. Most housings on non high end grow lights are water and dust proof for the driver, but the pot is just a pot and not much thought is put into it. same kind of pot in everything these days tho, the same little el cheapo linear carbon pots.


And its largely harmless, just annoying.

How do I clean the potentiometer?

What do I need for that?

 

[SunshineSupergirl]

its an analogue potentiometer in these things. you could just have some perlite dust in there or something. Anything electrically conductive will make those act a fool. They have a little carbon strip inside that has controlled resistance along its length, and its a very precise thing. very tiny too. A sweeper moves across it controlling the resistance, telling the driver what voltage to output. humidity alone shouldnt mess with it at all, even directly spilling water across a modern led grow light probably wont cause any problems at all. Most problems that arent a dead driver reside iin the ddimming knobs, especially when they have a separate housing on the panel. Most housings on non high end grow lights are water and dust proof for the driver, but the pot is just a pot and not much thought is put into it. same kind of pot in everything these days tho, the same little el cheapo linear carbon pots.


And its largely harmless, just annoying.

Well, it's annoying but it also affects the PPFD output from the light, it keeps changing when it does that, I feel like that would affect the growth

 

[Thatoneguyyouknow_]

How do I clean the potentiometer?

What do I need for that?

usually the knob just pulls off, press fit most of the time, then theres a little nut around the collar of the knob you take off, and to answer any more detailed then that id need to see the housing of it.


You might just be able to turn it from off, to 100% like 50-100 times then plug it back in and it might be good to go lol. Most of the time i have potentiometer issues i try that before busting out contact cleaner


The best cleaner for a pot is a spray called deoxit. But you probably just need to work some dust out of the thing.


And there may still be something wrong with the driver, disassembling the knob housing would void warranty, which would cover such a problem if all it was exposed to was humidity. Warranty would cover a faulty potentiometer too. When you first said moisture i thought you meant water, not atmospheric humidity lol


And not as much as youd think performance wise. Plants see clouds all the time lol. a +/- 5-10% intermittent inconsistent swing wouldn't impact performance as much as you might think if the baseline average is still fine.

 

[SunshineSupergirl]

usually the knob just pulls off, press fit most of the time, then theres a little nut around the collar of the knob you take off, and to answer any more detailed then that id need to see the housing of it.


You might just be able to turn it from off, to 100% like 50-100 times then plug it back in and it might be good to go lol. Most of the time i have potentiometer issues i try that before busting out contact cleaner


The best cleaner for a pot is a spray called deoxit. But you probably just need to work some dust out of the thing.


And there may still be something wrong with the driver, disassembling the knob housing would void warranty, which would cover such a problem if all it was exposed to was humidity. Warranty would cover a faulty potentiometer too. When you first said moisture i thought you meant water, not atmospheric humidity lol


And not as much as youd think performance wise. Plants see clouds all the time lol. a +/- 5-10% intermittent inconsistent swing wouldn't impact performance as much as you might think if the baseline average is still fine.

Here's the dimmer switch and the LEDs

You can also see that the humidifier was blowing up into the fan on top and then getting circulated by the other fan on the bottom.

But when I had that humidifier at 100% it put out a really strong stream of vapor, and ever since I've turned it off because it doesn't even need it right now anyway the top light has gotten better and it doesn't even flicker anymore and the bottom light only occasionally does that now.

That's why I think moisture got in somewhere.

* The dimmer switch has it's own cable which I can apparently tighten and loosen, I don't know what those cables are four but I'm assuming it's fuse.

There's another cable just like it going from the driver to the power outlet.

I took a picture of the LEDs but I had to turn the brightness settings on my camera down

They are still bright just occasionally flickering with it intensity and then sometimes the lights more yellow and sometimes it's more white, like it was originally, last month
.

 

[SunshineSupergirl]

Oh I meant to say that the performance of the light keeps changing, not the humidifier.

 

[Thatoneguyyouknow_]

Oh I meant to say that the performance of the light keeps changing, not the humidifier.

lol, thats not what i meant either. Nvm on that. i was saying i misunderstood you, you didnt say anything wrong lmao.



As for the dimmer, is that a threaded waterproof connector i see attaching it to the light?

If it is, Just remove the dimmer and see if it keeps flickering, if it does, id (try to) send it back on warranty claim when/if you can. (My carambola light with removable dimmer switch still runs when its taken off, it just satys pegged at 100%, yours might not idk)

if it does stop flickering, then id worry about cleaning the dimmer switch.


Yea, with direct blast from the humidifier theres probably some corrosion going on on a solder lead or in the dimmer knob.



Chances are though, if you just keep the humidifier off the light and wiggle the knob a bunch, itll settle back out to fine. theres no srious issues or saftey features in the ballast would trigger and make it seem totally dead, or it would do something like a 1 second on 1 second off flash if there was a capacitor failure or something.

the 1 second flash, Thats not a safety feature either, thats just a by product of the way capacitors and LEDs work together on the same circuit when theres component failures between the transformer and IC, and the panel.

 

[SunshineSupergirl]

I'm guessing that's a waterproof cable yeah

You mean just like unscrew the cable?

 

[Thatoneguyyouknow_]

I'm guessing that's a waterproof cable yeahView attachment 2443353

btw im a grower from the old HPS bulb days, when i say ballast, what i mean is driver.


yea that barrel looking connector on the line, see if thats twists apart to let you remove the dimmer knob. it may be firm, and make a pop sound like its airtight, because it should be lol. And see if the light still turns on without it. Would be an excellent troubleshooting step if that comes apart. Depending on how the dimming function works, direct voltage or by IC reading the resistance of the pot, it may not turn on without it. most modern lights are IC dimmer controlled so it should i would think.


IC = integrated circuit (basically a tiny computer lol)

 

[SunshineSupergirl]

I'm guessing that's a waterproof cable yeah

You mean just like unscrew the cable?


View attachment 2443353

The Spider Farmer SF1000 has the dimmer switch on the board.

Perhaps that would explain why the flickering stopped quicker on that light?