Electrical Question: Is setup good or will length and thickness of cable cause voltage drop?

Cold$moke

Cold$moke

Well-Known Member
I actually probably read it when i did my research on the gavitas :)

I was just tired of hobby stuff and i wanted something designed for major industry.....

At least thats what the marketing made me believe lmao. But i can say to my eye my gavi at 600 would kill my digi 1000 single ender no doubt .

I could put that 1000 2 ft over my tops no problems . The gavita WILL NUKE THEM lol

I will stop hijacking as well
peace all
 
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Fubard

Well-Known Member
Sam&Max said:
Thank you very much!

What does a voltage drop of 3.8 % mean for the perfomance of my lamps?

What do you mean when you say, that you would up to 2.5 purely because of the load? I will run on one circuit two lights, which equals 1500 Watts. Technically the circuit would be able to do more than 3000Watts.

And maybe you have an answer to another question... I need to time some solenoids, so i would need reliable digital time switches. Reliable in the sense that they don't get a time drift with time, because the I need to use them synchronized with the other time switches. Reliable also in the sense that they don't just fail. Digital, because it seems you can set the digital ones by minutes, but the analog ones only by quarter hours). Do you know any good time switches?
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Voltage drop of 3.8% will do nothing as the voltage that goes into your house is allowed to vary by 6% maximum.

If you're running two circuits, then 1.5 is more than enough with 20m as I was counting all 4 of your lamps together which would have been more like 3KW including ballasts. Split them and 1.5 is more than ample.

Time switches? That's coming down to cost as I don't use the digital ones.
 
Sam&Max

Sam&Max

Active Member
Fubard said:
Voltage drop of 3.8% will do nothing as the voltage that goes into your house is allowed to vary by 6% maximum.

If you're running two circuits, then 1.5 is more than enough with 20m as I was counting all 4 of your lamps together which would have been more like 3KW including ballasts. Split them and 1.5 is more than ample.

Time switches? That's coming down to cost as I don't use the digital ones.
Click to expand...
Ok thank you very much for the information about the voltage drop.

About the time switches. The problem is that I want to be able to use some devices synchronized. Like if I start the pump, then open this solenoid1 for 5 minutes. Half hour later start pump again and open solenoid2 for 5 minutes. It seems like the analog time switches which you plug into the electrical socket are not accurate enough (quarter hour settings is not enough). The digital ones I saw on amazon seem to have a time drift after some time. So if I set two timeswitches at 10pm. In a month they might start at different times, because their internal clocks are not synchronized anymore (e.g. maybe drift of one or a couple minutes). When I work with solenoid and pumps I don't want that to happen and I am still looking for a solution where I don't buy a pump for every solenoid.

What I am looking for would be something like which lets me program electrical circuts logical. Like in computer science: if this condition is met then do this....

There are sort of other time switches like this:
http://www.legrand.com.au/products/energy-distribution/energy-management/digital-time-switches/

I never used some like these. But maybe that is what I need? Can somebody tell me if can just install them into my circuit anywhere or if I need to install them into the breaker box? Will it allow several cables to go out from it and will it allow logical operations?

Also I did find a german one which seems to have 8 channels. Whatever that means :/ :-D But costs almost 300 Euros.
http://www.legrand.com.au/products/energy-distribution/energy-management/digital-time-switches/
 
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Fubard

Well-Known Member
They don't have to go inside any box, you could fix a bit of suitable DIN rail to the wall and clip them on there. A small enclosure would look more professional, and would be better against any moisture flying around. It doesn't have to go all the way back to your breaker box, you just need a supply to the point where you want to put the solenoids.

And you could get a programmable board that could do all you want with multiple outputs, but I shudder at the thought of the cost of that. But, then again, I'm tighter than a camel's arse in a sandstorm so I wouldn't go that far anyway. You might also be able to find a local who does all that fancy automated lighting and stuff in people's houses to knock something up which would do the job but even then it will not be cheap, imo.
 
Sam&Max

Sam&Max

Active Member
Actually I have somebody at my hand who would does me all kind of electrical wiring for free. But I wanted to inform myself independently before, so I know all good solutions available and what would be best. Also I am pretty versatil in computer programming.

What is a programmable board? Sorry I had no time to investigate right now, as I am in a hurry.
 
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Fubard

Well-Known Member
Well, if you think of all that home automation stuff that's the rage now, where everything from all your lights, etc, goes back to a central controller and all your light switches, etc, are controlled by everything from touch switches to automatic control to remote control, when lights, etc, can be set to work on whatever schedule you wish. Something like that could be, depending on how much power your pumps use, easily set up to work in precisely the way you want. There's obviously other solutions used in commercial horticulture to manage everything regarding lights, watering/feeding, etc, and can be programmed to suit whatever schedules you need.

But, of course, they're expensive, it's all going to depend on what you want to spend.

Try asking some people who are involved in that sort of thing, tell them it's for the likes of tomatoes, etc, so they don't know what you are up to (depending on the legality of growing where you are, of course), and see what they come out with.

How crazy you go comes down to how much you want to spend.
 
OzCocoLoco

OzCocoLoco

Well-Known Member
Sam&Max said:
Ok thank you very much for the information about the voltage drop.

About the time switches. The problem is that I want to be able to use some devices synchronized. Like if I start the pump, then open this solenoid1 for 5 minutes. Half hour later start pump again and open solenoid2 for 5 minutes. It seems like the analog time switches which you plug into the electrical socket are not accurate enough (quarter hour settings is not enough). The digital ones I saw on amazon seem to have a time drift after some time. So if I set two timeswitches at 10pm. In a month they might start at different times, because their internal clocks are not synchronized anymore (e.g. maybe drift of one or a couple minutes). When I work with solenoid and pumps I don't want that to happen and I am still looking for a solution where I don't buy a pump for every solenoid.

What I am looking for would be something like which lets me program electrical circuts logical. Like in computer science: if this condition is met then do this....

There are sort of other time switches like this:
http://www.legrand.com.au/products/energy-distribution/energy-management/digital-time-switches/

I never used some like these. But maybe that is what I need? Can somebody tell me if can just install them into my circuit anywhere or if I need to install them into the breaker box? Will it allow several cables to go out from it and will it allow logical operations?

Also I did find a german one which seems to have 8 channels. Whatever that means :/ :-D But costs almost 300 Euros.
http://www.legrand.com.au/products/energy-distribution/energy-management/digital-time-switches/
Click to expand...
I use this series of timers and control gear by Schneider quality is as good as I’ve seen.
https://www.schneider-electric.com/en/product-range/62198-ih,-ihp,-ita
F8DD4E85-C633-454F-A1CA-8336370BF926.jpeg

Sounds like you could use a P.L.C or an Arduino based controller they can be made fairly cheaply.
 
Sam&Max

Sam&Max

Active Member
OzCocoLoco said:
I use this series of timers and control gear by Schneider quality is as good as I’ve seen.
https://www.schneider-electric.com/en/product-range/62198-ih,-ihp,-ita
View attachment 4072331

Sounds like you could use a P.L.C or an Arduino based controller they can be made fairly cheaply.
Click to expand...
Yeah... PLC and Arduino sounds interesting. Unfortunately I am still in a hurry and can't investigate myself. But do you know of anybody who uses PLC or Arduino for growing or is there a community for that? Acutally I already did some stuff with Arduino in university...

About the Schneider stuff.... how complex could I go with a timer like in the picture? What is the degree of freedom I get with these devices? Or is it something that I need to combine with an Arduino or something.

Maybe you can give me an example if I have four inlet solenoids which I want to open and close one after another and only when the pump is running. Also I want to open three drain inlets after the pump stops.

When I am back I will read a bit more into these devices.... Thank you very much for the advice!!!
 
F

Fubard

Well-Known Member
jarvild said:
Don't go thinner. Price difference is minimal compared to peace of mind knowing your within safe limits.
Click to expand...
As long as he doesn't drop below 15 gauge, 1.5mm², he'll be well within safe limits provided the ambient temperature is below 100°F (well, higher than that in reality but I doubt many people will be growing at temps much higher than that)
 
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