Programmable Lights

I'd say get the SS550 and if you want a UV kit you can have my spare kit with xtra lamps. It will be free but all I ask is you donate what you think they're worth + shipping costs to Moe for the site.
Wow Bandit, thanks bro for such a cool offer to me and to Bud Builders, awesomeness.

Let me think on the UVB thing, I think @Moe.Red does not believe there is much science behind UVB being beneficial but I could be wrong, can't remember. I wanted to hear what the CLW rep has to say too, supposed to talk with them later today. Either way, I'll probably just get the 550 and the controller with this info, if I decide to go UVB, I'll reach out. Thanks again! đź‘Š
 
I think I am going to pull the trigger on a new CLW light but trying to decide if I should get the UVB or not. I plan on getting their controller with the light and assume that you can control the UVB there along with the rest of the light spectrum adjustments. Here is the light I am thinking of getting-

SOLARSYSTEM® 550 UVB

They sell the Solar System alone without the UVB. Has anyone ever used this light or UVB in general? Wondering if it's worth the extra 150 or so for the UVB. I think the light alone is going to be great but don't want to spend more than I need to.
Those UVB are florescent tubes and the fixture that holds those tubes is very cheaply made. I bought them as stand alone fixtures and was not impressed with the quality. You can buy the CLW UVB fixture at Grow Generation. If you have one in your area, it might make sense to look at them before including them in your purchase.

Edit: Here's a video of the UVB light from the CLW website https://shop.californialightworks.com/products/solarsystem-uvb
 
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I think I am going to pull the trigger on a new CLW light but trying to decide if I should get the UVB or not. I plan on getting their controller with the light and assume that you can control the UVB there along with the rest of the light spectrum adjustments. Here is the light I am thinking of getting-

SOLARSYSTEM® 550 UVB

They sell the Solar System alone without the UVB. Has anyone ever used this light or UVB in general? Wondering if it's worth the extra 150 or so for the UVB. I think the light alone is going to be great but don't want to spend more than I need to.

i never used uvb with my SS550's but as for the lights and controllers themselves i'm very happy with them.

just a note, like Bandit said about the timers and cords it is just an add on kit that is not controllable or recognized by the controller in any way. it is just a fixture and a cord that mounts to the 55 frame. the controller will only control blue/red/white spectrums along with timer and a sunrise/sunset option and has battery backup for any power outages but does not show or control UVB in any way.
 
Thanks guys for all the great info! Got the SS550 and controller ordered, fixen to up my game in the 3x3, hell yea đź‘Š

Very nice!
I've been kicking around the idea of getting another second gen SS550 and selling my oldest gen 1 on ebay.
Still going thru light testing though so still not sure. Feels like the Gen 2 is better in the beginning of a grow and there's less Far Red that can bleach colas later in flower.
+ My oldest light is nearing 8 years old and there's no wear or decline! I've never kept or ran a light that long so I kinda think that says something about the quality in CLW lights
 
Very nice!
I've been kicking around the idea of getting another second gen SS550 and selling my oldest gen 1 on ebay.
Still going thru light testing though so still not sure. Feels like the Gen 2 is better in the beginning of a grow and there's less Far Red that can bleach colas later in flower.
+ My oldest light is nearing 8 years old and there's no wear or decline! I've never kept or ran a light that long so I kinda think that says something about the quality in CLW lights
Thanks Bandit, appreciate it bro. They ended up still having their 420 sale going on and got a pretty good deal I thought, just shy of 600$ for the light and controller.
 
Thanks Bandit, appreciate it bro. They ended up still having their 420 sale going on and got a pretty good deal I thought, just shy of 600$ for the light and controller.
That sounds like a solid deal! I'm glad you skipped the UVB. I stopped using it. The UVB didn't have any noticeable impact on my grows.
 
Current electronics with digital control uses pulse width modulation. Leds blinking on and off quickly with the on and off duration setting intensity. You can see it in the pictures I take under my kush lights.
Man this perfectly explains why my CLW is visibly flickering at anything below 20%. Like a fluorescent fixture... headache inducing. I first kicked it on at 10% and thought I got a lemon 🤣
 
Man this perfectly explains why my CLW is visibly flickering at anything below 20%. Like a fluorescent fixture... headache inducing. I first kicked it on at 10% and thought I got a lemon 🤣

I'd call CLW Bro. That aint normal. I've run mine on 10x3 lots of times and it's never flickered. That's pretty much my go-to germinating spectrum
 
I'd call CLW Bro. That aint normal. I've run mine on 10x3 lots of times and it's never flickered. That's pretty much my go-to germinating spectrum
Damn... I'll send out an email tonight. Thanks for the heads up.

I'm pretty sensitive to the flicker of fluorescent lights. Hopefully it's just my stupid sexy eyes.
 
I submitted a help ticket. Have you dealt with their customer service before?

once... i had an issue with my controller a few years after having. i sent an email and they didn't want to try to help me troubleshoot it, they only offered for me to pay for shipping and give them $100 just to evaluate it. this was in the middle of a sale so i thought about it.

the problem was the clock kept changing, it took me a bit but i figured out that every time i lost power or turned the switch off it would reset to 12:00.. i changed the battery inside and all was good. i never told them, i don't think she was even interested.
 
Damn... I'll send out an email tonight. Thanks for the heads up.

I'm pretty sensitive to the flicker of fluorescent lights. Hopefully it's just my stupid sexy eyes.
Man.. I swear I have issues until I bring it up here. I came home and tried the settings 1/0/0, 0/1/0, and 0/0/1.... no noticeable flicker.

Maybe I'm losing it...
 
no man, mine are steady and don't flicker one bit, not even powered via my generator. i put them on 0-1-0 a lot for pics and watering. 1-1-1 is never an issue either.

I had totally spaced out all the times I've tried to create a photo session spectrum and have used settings like 1-5-10 and stuff like that.
Maybe that is the next venture is to create that spectrum rather than try to adjust my pics after the fact on the PC.
I guess I need to go back and read up on how to create multiple programs. I never really learned how to do that and just adjust the one program.
I've never even set the calendar or any of those other features.
My lights on will always start at 00:00 and I just adjust that to an actual time. So even though my CLW clock will read midnight, it might actually be 8am or 9pm, my usual lights on times depending on time of year.

:

The only issues I've ever had with CLW lights are old solarstorm models and the very old and probably extinct CAP Xtreme which was built before they were CLW.
Some solarstorms would not turn off 100%. There would always be a very dim glow but not enough to prevent flowering. Those lights could also flash very bright right before shutting down.
And the CAP had units that would overheat, burn up and shut down for good but again those are outdated lights not around anymore.

No issues at all with SolarSystem lights so I think those bugs were worked out. And only issue with Spectramax is heat but nothing mechanical.

The only other thing I can think of @GrumpAzz is to make sure the switch on the end of the light is set for controller and not for 100% output without the controller
 
I’m certainly interested in what you’re all doing with these programmable lights! Mainly, what I’d like to experiment with (some day), is trying to emulate exactly what happens during a normal day from excessive reds early and late (just after sunrise and just before sunset), to the slower conversion from reds to blues as the sun rises, then a slow conversion back.

For now, I’ll just let that big ball of hydrogen and helium in the sky do it all for me!
 
I’m certainly interested in what you’re all doing with these programmable lights! Mainly, what I’d like to experiment with (some day), is trying to emulate exactly what happens during a normal day from excessive reds early and late (just after sunrise and just before sunset), to the slower conversion from reds to blues as the sun rises, then a slow conversion back.

For now, I’ll just let that big ball of hydrogen and helium in the sky do it all for me!

I think you can do this type of stuff with CLW lights.
I'm fairly straight forward and dumbed down in how I use it and adjust spectrums and sunrise/sunsets but I know this thing can do a ton more than what I ask of it



 
I’ve heard good things about CLW, but they seem pricy!

How many grows have you done with their light? I’d be interested in your results and improvements.

Countless grows, 100s of plants, spanning 8 years. 2 years prior to that using older models they made. Before that I ran Philips/SunSystem CMH and before that Hortilux HPS.
Today, if there was a better grow light for what I want to do, I'd be using it but nothing has come along to kick CLW out of my room. Only light maker that might come close would be Fluence
 
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