AI in the grow

[Zen_seeker]

It was the first thing I did, when I bought the lamp. I actually ordered the cable from Photontek, in my original order. It was one of the smaller reasons I bought it for...completely compatible with my 69 Pro +. I also purchased an adapter from ACI.

Did the 600w come with the staged dimmer like this?

 

[OLDCRO]

Did the 600w come with the staged dimmer like this?View attachment 103570

Both the 600 and the 2000 square came with this

 

[Zen_seeker]

Both the 600 and the 2000 square came with this

Thanks for the feedback. Do you have any limitations?

• PHOTONTEK - X, XT, SQ Series that are compatible with their Dimmer to RJ12 Adapter (Limited Dimming Range)

 

[Tremojem]

Did the 600w come with the staged dimmer like this?View attachment 103570

Yes and I ordered this too.

https://photontek-lighting.com/led/photontek-led-driver-5m-extension-cable/

 

[Tremojem]

Thanks for the feedback. Do you have any limitations?

• PHOTONTEK - X, XT, SQ Series that are compatible with their Dimmer to RJ12 Adapter (Limited Dimming Range)

No.
I am able to change any parameters at any time, right on my phone. No limitations on any functionality with regard to the lamp and ACI app.

 

[Zen_seeker]

No.
I am able to change any parameters at any time, right on my phone. No limitations on any functionality with regard to the lamp and ACI app.

G$ reminded me that the 67 won’t support lights. Need the 69 or higher, which came out right after I bought my fans.

 

[Tremojem]

That sucks.

I have literally purchased 4 ACI controllers. Always upgraded. Still using the outlet controller for simple lower canopy floor fans, and led lamp brick cooling, which is kept outside of tent.

 

[Zen_seeker]

That sucks.

I have literally purchased 4 ACI controllers. Always upgraded. Still using the outlet controller for simple lower canopy floor fans, and led lamp brick cooling, which is kept outside of tent.

I’ve got two 67’s but only the Photontek has the RJ11. Debating if I want to buy the 69 and UIS type-A. Son owes me a birthday/Father’s Day gift and the 69 is on sale…so maybe…

 

[Tremojem]

I wouldn't purchase anything less than a 69 Pro +.

AI+ $169
69 Pro+ $139

I would go for the AI+. Just add "Bassdropkeys" for an additional 10% off. Or use any other YT promotional code.

The AI+ is on sale now at $30 off. From $199 to $169. Just saying.

 

[OLDCRO]

I wouldn't purchase anything less than a 69 Pro +.

AI+ $169
69 Pro+ $139

I would go for the AI+. Just add "Bassdropkeys" for an additional 10% off. Or use any other YT promotional code.

The AI+ is on sale now at $30 off. From $199 to $169. Just saying.

Thats US prices

 

[Rootsruler]

I wouldn't purchase anything less than a 69 Pro +.

AI+ $169
69 Pro+ $139

I would go for the AI+. Just add "Bassdropkeys" for an additional 10% off. Or use any other YT promotional code.

The AI+ is on sale now at $30 off. From $199 to $169. Just saying.

Dammit! So close to pulling out the plastic......

The thing is, right now with the 67, it does everything I need it to do for the most part. The only thing I wish is if I was able to control the humidifier through the controller but the T3 has its own monitoring and I'm able to adjust the difference in readings on the controller so they match up so while it would be nice to have it all on one controller I'm able to get the same results with a little more effort. The only other thing that I would need to connect to the controller would be a fan for air movement inside the tent. I have a few of the ACI V2 fans but I think I'm going to be ditching those and going with the box fan above the canopy idea. When I do upgrade my controller maybe I'll pickup a UIS controller and hook the box fan to it so that the controller can regulate the fan speed if I see that it works well.......

I'll get all excited about buying a new controller only to remind myself that it really isn't "necessary". When I buy stuff I always ask myself "Do you want this or do you need this?" Need gets the purchase to go to the front of the line. Want has me think about if parting with my dough is worth what this thing will do for me that I can't already do for myself.

Perfect example is the recent purchase I made. The humidifiers in the tent need twice a day fillups. Sometimes, depending on what time I get home from work, they'll both be empty and humi levels will have dropped to 32%. I decided to run a water level control valve in each so that I don't have to constantly be refilling the humi's along with not stressing the girls out with the wide swing in levels.

$20 for two valves. Before I bought them, I tried to size them the best I could to fit inside the humi reservoir. After physically fitting them I'm excited to say that they fit perfectly inside the res. All I need to do is drill a small hole in the lid, attach the valve to the lid and connect the valve to my water source. For now, I'm going to connect it to a 5-gallon bucket and let it gravity feed as needed. 5 gallons should last at least a couple days. I want to make sure the system is water tight and there are no issues before I connect it to the house water supply.

 

[Skinnypuppy80]

I'm going to be ditching those and going with the box fan above the canopy

The fan box above is a good idea!! I may have to rig up something similar to that

I decided to run a water level control valve in each so that I don't have to constantly be refilling the humi's along with not stressing the girls out with the wide swing in levels.

Not a bad idea either! Once I get enough room I want to b able automate as much as possible, just cuz I'm getting lazy and just wanna check on em daily to catch problems early on

 

[Bandit420]

G$ reminded me that the 67 won’t support lights. Need the 69 or higher, which came out right after I bought my fans.

I thought I was running my UV lights off a 67?
Now I'm really confused. Maybe it's a 69 and the other I have is a 69pro or at least I think that's what it is.
Actually now that I think about it...The drivers of the UV wouldn't work thru the controller so I bypassed them and used a UIS plug to gain control of a schedule. So maybe that's how I get them to run off a 67? IDK.
What I do know is after this grow I'm tearing it all down to rebuild with the AI and for now, make intake and exhaust and at least two fans wireless. Possibly 4 fans if I can still daisy chain with the wireless.

All I really want from AI is a heads up alert to tell me "hey just in case you forget, shit's trending to you needing to water tomorrow" and I'd be like "Cool little techy gadget, thanks for helping out!" and I plan to water

The soft launch and preorder stuff is annoying. I much prefer everything or nothing and let me know what's coming so I can make better choices. I think this will be the 4th time in 3 years I've changed up my ACI gear layout. Granted each time it has been improved or streamlined better but dang.
The free fans were nice though.

 

[Rootsruler]

I thought I was running my UV lights off a 67?
Now I'm really confused. Maybe it's a 69 and the other I have is a 69pro or at least I think that's what it is.
Actually now that I think about it...The drivers of the UV wouldn't work thru the controller so I bypassed them and used a UIS plug to gain control of a schedule. So maybe that's how I get them to run off a 67? IDK.
What I do know is after this grow I'm tearing it all down to rebuild with the AI and for now, make intake and exhaust and at least two fans wireless. Possibly 4 fans if I can still daisy chain with the wireless.

All I really want from AI is a heads up alert to tell me "hey just in case you forget, shit's trending to you needing to water tomorrow" and I'd be like "Cool little techy gadget, thanks for helping out!" and I plan to water

The soft launch and preorder stuff is annoying. I much prefer everything or nothing and let me know what's coming so I can make better choices. I think this will be the 4th time in 3 years I've changed up my ACI gear layout. Granted each time it has been improved or streamlined better but dang.
The free fans were nice though.

Totally agree. Probably the only complaint I have with the company.

If you're going to release an AI driven controller to control EVERYTHING include what devices you'll be releasing that you'll need to do that so you can plan your rig accordingly.

Honestly, with the AI controller rollout, I'm waiting for the newb post talking about how his AI controller forgot to tell him to water..........

 

[Bandit420]

Here we go!



I'm taking baby steps with my new environment control and still not even sure how or if AI can add or help in any ways here.

First thing is I need to find out if I can use the wireless transmitters in a way that allows one transmitter to control two fans. It may not be possible.
There may also be some trade off there.
Like to be wireless, each fan or device needs to be plugged in.
But if using the UIS daisy chain feature then only one device needs to be plugged into a power outlet.

If this is what I think it is, the daisy chain feature is way more applicable to growing than wireless transmission.
Right now, I see wireless as being good for only one fan and in a very small tent. And it's not like it makes the fan wireless either, It still needs to be plugged in so the only wire not being used is a UIS.

The AI controller has two ports for sensors so that's where the moisture probe and environment probe will plug into. Later on there will be CO2 and pH/TDS probes so that means two ports will come up way short there and it will lead to a new controller being needed, one that has at least 4 sensor ports. So in a way, this new AI controller has already outdated itself by only having two probe ports.

Given that it's two ports, I plan on using both for soil probes so any triggers I'd use to control environment I assume will not work. Not using the environment sensor also reduces the controller to a single zone reading instead of dual. Basically, I've traded soil moisture probing for VPD on the control priority totem pole.

I'd like to see the soil probes have battery power and not be wired. That's where I was really hoping I'd be able to use the wireless gear but that looks like a no-go.

 

[Tremojem]

Nice haul there.

 

[OLDCRO]

Here we go!

View attachment 108096

I'm taking baby steps with my new environment control and still not even sure how or if AI can add or help in any ways here.

First thing is I need to find out if I can use the wireless transmitters in a way that allows one transmitter to control two fans. It may not be possible.
There may also be some trade off there.
Like to be wireless, each fan or device needs to be plugged in.
But if using the UIS daisy chain feature then only one device needs to be plugged into a power outlet.

If this is what I think it is, the daisy chain feature is way more applicable to growing than wireless transmission.
Right now, I see wireless as being good for only one fan and in a very small tent. And it's not like it makes the fan wireless either, It still needs to be plugged in so the only wire not being used is a UIS.

The AI controller has two ports for sensors so that's where the moisture probe and environment probe will plug into. Later on there will be CO2 and pH/TDS probes so that means two ports will come up way short there and it will lead to a new controller being needed, one that has at least 4 sensor ports. So in a way, this new AI controller has already outdated itself by only having two probe ports.

Given that it's two ports, I plan on using both for soil probes so any triggers I'd use to control environment I assume will not work. Not using the environment sensor also reduces the controller to a single zone reading instead of dual. Basically, I've traded soil moisture probing for VPD on the control priority totem pole.

I'd like to see the soil probes have battery power and not be wired. That's where I was really hoping I'd be able to use the wireless gear but that looks like a no-go.

I use the ecowitt moisture probes and with the hub can moniter 8 moisture probes. Also the probes are wireless battery operated . Work very well for me.

 

[Bandit420]

Nice haul there.

Ordered it the same day I ordered the Xhale so it was like a slow shipping jinx
I'm not sure I can use some of the parts the way I intended but sure they'll be useful for something else.
Also may need some male to female adapters for what I want to do.

I use the ecowitt moisture probes and with the hub can moniter 8 moisture probes. Also the probes are wireless battery operated . Work very well for me.

I'm taking this system for a spin to link soil moisture to environment control.
I'd like to correlate light intensity to drought as well as air movement and exchange to soil moisture. Also chart soil moisture to environment conditions for a more predictable routine
So instead of using triggers like timers/temp/rh/vpd to turn devices on or off, I wanna try to use soil moisture as the automated trigger and also with the two probes, take readings from deep and shallow depths then see if the AI in this gadget can tune it.

 

[Bandit420]

I cannot use a splitter dongle to get the wireless transmitters to work with more than one device so it's one transmitter per device, per port, if you want wireless which is really half wireless still needing the plug but not the UIS cable.

Personally, I feel like being able to daisy chain the UIS and eliminate a cord at the plug is a much more useful feature than wireless for me. I also like running two fans off one port which wireless doesn't allow.
The wireless will come in handy for the exhaust and air movers up in the rafters of my grow but I was really hoping I'd be able to make everything and especially the moisture probes wireless.

 

[Bandit420]

Orientation day

Inside temp display is replaced by one moisture sensor so far




Control parameters to link a device to soil moisture.

From here I could use soil moisture to trigger a pump to water the garden as well as adjust environment and or light intensity.
I could daisy chain the devices as well so one moisture probe port could control several fans or pumps at the same time but each one would have to do the same function.
I've also set it to start charting moisture so I can watch how water uptake happens day to day

 

[BlueCollarBob]

Orientation day

Inside temp display is replaced by one moisture sensor so far

View attachment 108134


Control parameters to link a device to soil moisture.

From here I could use soil moisture to trigger a pump to water the garden as well as adjust environment and or light intensity.
I could daisy chain the devices as well so one moisture probe port could control several fans or pumps at the same time but each one would have to do the same function.
I've also set it to start charting moisture so I can watch how water uptake happens day to day

View attachment 108133

Trying to follow along. Are you saying that you're restricted to choosing a single plant for the moisture probe and can control multiple devices set to target readings from the soil moisture reading, but have to assume the plants without the soil moisture probe have the same conditions as the probed plant?

 

[Bandit420]

Trying to follow along. Are you saying that you're restricted to choosing a single plant for the moisture probe and can control multiple devices set to target readings from the soil moisture reading, but have to assume the plants without the soil moisture probe have the same conditions as the probed plant?

Yes the way this is designed it's one moisture probe per garden or per controller.
I plan to work around this by using at least two probes but unplug one or the other since I do not believe it will take data from two probes at the same time.

This is an area where AI leaves me very skeptical. It can only adapt and learn from the data it records. If the data it records is lacking information then how can it adapt and learn if it doesn't have the whole enchilada of data?
Right now, taking data from one plant but not from the other 11 is only having a little over 8% of the needed info to learn from it. IDK of anything that can learn something from only 8%. Can somebody learn a new language with only 8% of an alphabet?

With that though yes I can control a myriad of devices that will be controlled by a set moisture point off that probe. There's 8 ports for devices on the controller and with splitter dongles I can increase that to as many as 32 but I can't imagine needing 32 fans and pumps here. At least not yet

Today I'm gonna deep dive into the system and get clarity on a plan and how to execute that plan.
I doubt 'll give total control to this device but I do want it to learn and correlate environment to soil moisture and basically help me be a better meteorologist and weather manipulator in the grow room.

 

[BlueCollarBob]

Yes the way this is designed it's one moisture probe per garden or per controller.
I plan to work around this by using at least two probes but unplug one or the other since I do not believe it will take data from two probes at the same time.

This is an area where AI leaves me very skeptical. It can only adapt and learn from the data it records. If the data it records is lacking information then how can it adapt and learn if it doesn't have the whole enchilada of data?
Right now, taking data from one plant but not from the other 11 is only having a little over 8% of the needed info to learn from it. IDK of anything that can learn something from only 8%. Can somebody learn a new language with only 8% of an alphabet?

With that though yes I can control a myriad of devices that will be controlled by a set moisture point off that probe. There's 8 ports for devices on the controller and with splitter dongles I can increase that to as many as 32 but I can't imagine needing 32 fans and pumps here. At least not yet

Today I'm gonna deep dive into the system and get clarity on a plan and how to execute that plan.
I doubt 'll give total control to this device but I do want it to learn and correlate environment to soil moisture and basically help me be a better meteorologist and weather manipulator in the grow room.

A quick poke around the internet shows you aren't the only one trying to figure out a way to connect to more sensors. I'm a little surprised that there aren't techy people out there developing and sharing hacks. Maybe an open source UI would be a good thing for some company in the grow industry.