8000w Lighting Controller "What Brand and Why"

[paulycali]

Help me find the next best lighting controller

One that can run 8000w of power possibly more for T-5 lighting

Thanks farmers and hope you can help :)

 

[ProdigyGrower]

Thats simple hommie Powerbox it is hands down the best on the market made in cali and you could drop that thing out of a air plane and wouldnt bread rock solid construction simple to hook up and the best built in timer out there and priced really well also.

 

[Smokey503ski]

Honestly, I would have one built by a electrician. This way you can get better relays and the quality will surpass what you can buy at a grow shop.
if you do go the grow shop route, stay away from ones with the timers built in. Reason why is if the timer goes, your SOL! Better off going with the trigger cord that plugs into a standard timer.

 

[paulycali]

Thanks guys

Yeah i have seen the powerbox controllers. Most likely the likely candidate. Well see though

Hopefully a few more farmers will chime in

 

[ProppinFloppys]

Sentinel HPH-8 is a solid product. works great paired with a MDT-1

 

[dankworth]

I got a CAP mlc-8dx cause I was on a budget.
You would want to go through the thing with the panel off and tighten all the screws just in case.
When I am better funded, I will pm Olyver for the pimp shit.

Nowirenuts.ca has the nicest looking work I have seen.

 

[thunderfudge]

I got a CAP mlc-8dx cause I was on a budget.
You would want to go through the thing with the panel off and tighten all the screws just in case.
When I am better funded, I will pm Olyver for the pimp shit.

Nowirenuts.ca has the nicest looking work I have seen.

For all you mlc users the timers do go out and is the Achilles heal of the unit.it happened to my mlc-4 in veg.the 8 I use is newer but I still watch it.play on...

 

[dankworth]

For all you mlc users the timers do go out and is the Achilles heal of the unit.it happened to my mlc-4 in veg.the 8 I use is newer but I still watch it.play on...

Mine does not have the built-in timer, I use the timer from the grow stores with the red slider bar and the 15 minute captive trippers.
Those timers can be found at harbor freight for $6. I have all of my timed equipment on those timers. This is important. Especially during outages. Digital timers with battery backups will not synchronize with these analog timers, so I got rid of them. Irrigation is timed via a CAP art-dne cycle timer plugged into a regular analog timer that is on for 12 hours during the lights on period.

 

[thunderfudge]

Nice.the dne's are nice.have you had any prob's with cap equipment?

 

[dankworth]

Nice.the dne's are nice.have you had any prob's with cap equipment?

No, but I read others have. Sometimes their digilux lamps(3 of 4 MH anyways) did not want to work right off the bat and had to be "conditioned" before they would work 100%.

 

[thunderfudge]

Lol yes the 600mh bulbs had a few issues.I had horrible luck with them.3 nexgen400/600(though I have had my two originals for 2 years)and a art-dne.they didn't want to send my buddy the slip to return them.for a while he was selling them like hotcakes and two months later they were coming back faster than they left.lol.I still rock the light controllers though.

 

[Papa]

I got a CAP mlc-8dx cause I was on a budget.
You would want to go through the thing with the panel off and tighten all the screws just in case.
When I am better funded, I will pm Olyver for the pimp shit.

Nowirenuts.ca has the nicest looking work I have seen.

+1 !

 

[smartcalyx]

Was about to grab one of thes

 

[joehank]

^ This. I have been emailing back and forth with the owner. Sounds like a good guy. I will be ordering mine this week. He can add many options to whatever size controller you chose, such as High Temp Shutoff, Digital Ammeter, Startup delays, etc. For what you get it is also way cheaper than Powerbox. I have heard that the construction of the inner components are not well thought out with these units, such as using only one contacter to control 10+ lights.

 

[joehank]

Just placed my order, check it out :
I will give a review when I have it hooked up. Dan has stayed in contact with me throughout the whole ordering process, making sure I get what I need. Such as an optional switch and trigger cable incase I need to use my own environmental controller, and not the built in timer. Good to have options.

 

[paulycali]

I think i am going to place an order with them

Looks to be the best option

Thanks for the help everyone :)

 

[paulycali]

Can i plug one of these boxes directly into my dryer outlet or do i need another accessory?

Kinda confused lol!

 

[fishwhistle]

No you cant,you need a lighting controller that plugs into dryer receptacle(something like a dpc 7500 240v if you wanna use powerbox) and then you plug the power cord of the ballasts into that and the other end into the flipbox and then out to the lights.The problem you have is most dryer plugs are 30 amp and i dont think you can safely run more than 4-5k at a time off that.

 

[paulycali]

No you cant,you need a lighting controller that plugs into dryer receptacle(something like a dpc 7500 240v if you wanna use powerbox) and then you plug the power cord of the ballasts into that and the other end into the flipbox and then out to the lights.The problem you have is most dryer plugs are 30 amp and i dont think you can safely run more than 4-5k at a time off that.

Thanks fishwhistle. Yeah i need the dpc-7500 and then plug the flipbox lsm-12 to that. Yep got that lol! They say you can safely run 6k of lighting off 30 amps. I wont be using the washer or dryer. Should be fine. Right? Sure hope so. Thanks again for your help :)

 

[fishwhistle]

NO!!Its not right,thats too many amps to pull through a 30 amp dryer plug,safely you can pull 80% so that would be 24 amps,a 1k pulls 4.5-5 amps @240volts so you can run4-5 1ks MAX safely or any combination of lamps up to 24 amps.In grow room design forum you will find an electrical thread run by hiboy,go there and you will learn alot of invaluable info and have your questions answered by a real electrician,I learned and still learn there myself.