I built a few versions of these for multiple veg tents I had. Total cost per unit is like $4.50. Sadly I can't find the code I was running on these, and I built them 2 years ago... so I need to check out a bunch of flash drives for a backup. Each box supports two drivers or driver groups (you could connect multiple dimmer leads together and then pigtail in to one dimmer lead).
I've dismantled most of my setups, but have a single 4x4 flower tent running with a 480 (light 1) and 185 (light 2) meanwell driver, so I'm using both jacks on the little box to control them independently. Some variants had headphone jacks on the side to read temperature from DS18B20 sensors. This one uses a single DHT11 sensor for temp/rh. The DS18B20s are more sensitive but I don't need that level of accuracy. All units can override dim settings if temperature exceeds a limit, which will show up on the app. It also triggers a push notification to my phone if a temperature is exceeded for a defined length of time. If my AC fails or something I don't have to turn the light completely off, it'll just dim, tell me, and keep record of it.
I wrote three modes in to the firmware. Fixed, sweep, and random. Fixed is what you'd assume, a set level. Sweep will go between the high and low wattage settings back and forth. Random gently bounces around between the high and low wattage, sometimes going bright, then brighter, then dim, then bright, dim dim, bright, you get it.. Completely random and is pretty cool to look at. Like clouds passing overhead. After a random time at a certain level, it'll gently ascend/descend to the next setting in a proportional timeframe. Not jerky.
I initially built these for veg tents and found that using random or sweep really helps with acclimation to LED.
Phone automatically switches 'Via Network' off if I leave my home network. If not at home, the polling period for new data is increased. Locally I get new data every 3 seconds.
Setting up the wattage was tedious. I made a calibration mode that loops over the steps (values 0-255, steps of 17 = 11 hard steps). Using a kill-a-watt, I got the wattage value for each driver at these different steps. Even if the driver is sweeping during a call to get data, it gives me an accurate wattage +/- 2 or 3w.
Settings persist if powered off, and you can tell it to run at a low wattage at a certain time for X minutes to achieve a soft startup of all your drivers when the timer kicks on.
Anyway.. just made the phone app a little more plain and remembered I've never really shared this anywhere.
I've dismantled most of my setups, but have a single 4x4 flower tent running with a 480 (light 1) and 185 (light 2) meanwell driver, so I'm using both jacks on the little box to control them independently. Some variants had headphone jacks on the side to read temperature from DS18B20 sensors. This one uses a single DHT11 sensor for temp/rh. The DS18B20s are more sensitive but I don't need that level of accuracy. All units can override dim settings if temperature exceeds a limit, which will show up on the app. It also triggers a push notification to my phone if a temperature is exceeded for a defined length of time. If my AC fails or something I don't have to turn the light completely off, it'll just dim, tell me, and keep record of it.
I wrote three modes in to the firmware. Fixed, sweep, and random. Fixed is what you'd assume, a set level. Sweep will go between the high and low wattage settings back and forth. Random gently bounces around between the high and low wattage, sometimes going bright, then brighter, then dim, then bright, dim dim, bright, you get it.. Completely random and is pretty cool to look at. Like clouds passing overhead. After a random time at a certain level, it'll gently ascend/descend to the next setting in a proportional timeframe. Not jerky.
I initially built these for veg tents and found that using random or sweep really helps with acclimation to LED.
Phone automatically switches 'Via Network' off if I leave my home network. If not at home, the polling period for new data is increased. Locally I get new data every 3 seconds.
Setting up the wattage was tedious. I made a calibration mode that loops over the steps (values 0-255, steps of 17 = 11 hard steps). Using a kill-a-watt, I got the wattage value for each driver at these different steps. Even if the driver is sweeping during a call to get data, it gives me an accurate wattage +/- 2 or 3w.
Settings persist if powered off, and you can tell it to run at a low wattage at a certain time for X minutes to achieve a soft startup of all your drivers when the timer kicks on.
Anyway.. just made the phone app a little more plain and remembered I've never really shared this anywhere.
