Hilltophigh
Well-Known Member
I have been using a environment controller a friend let me borrow till he set things back up at their new place. It worked ok but it is kind of a piece of shit, it is the XGC-1e. My main complaints with this box are this. #1 It does not have any kind of battery inside to keep at least the timer on the correct time. I live out in the hills and we often get power outages for 30min or longer. I have to constantly keep an eye on the timer. My biggest and second complaint is this. I set up a flood to drain 4x8 table. The box has a timer to run the water pump to flood the table. The problem is this, The max time in-between floods is 8 hours. Yes you can adjust the time for each flood but it does not really work right because you need to flood the table not just put 1" of water on it. When the plants are small and do not have a big root system yet every 8 hours is to often and they get root rot. Yea they will still grow and produce but your quality and quants are way less. The roots should be white and healthy not rust or dirt colored. Also the co2 controller is annoying, It just does not seem to work right, I am not using it but the damn box turns the relay on and off the whole time the box is on. The really is not quiet either.
So my friend has set back up, I looked at other boxes. They want a small fortune for them, which i do not mind if they work flawlessly. But i decided to make my own. I went to lowes and started looking around at what they had i could use to build a timer that i could control exactly the way i wanted to, down to the minute. I found exactly what i was looking for. Strangely enough it was in the lighting area. I will attach photos of the things i used to make it. It is a digital timer with an internal battery to keep the time. It has up to 18 different programs to turn pumps, lights or what ever on, which is a bit excessive but whatever, it was only $20. It is a wall mount timer, meaning it is meant to go in a box in the wall.. I got a dual gang box to put it in because of the wire nuts and cables in the box needed somewhere to go. Then I bought a 9' extension cord with a 3way on one end just incase i wanted to ever use it for something else. I cut the cord in half, wired it to the timer and put it in the box. Here is how you wire it. Wirenut all 3 greens wire together, Timer wire and the 2 wires from the cut in half cords. Wirenut all 3 white wires wire together, Timer wire and the 2 whites from the cut cords. The black wire on the male cord, (the one you will plug in to your power source) wire nut it to the black wire on the timer. The last black wire, which goes to the female part of the cord, (where you will plug in the device you wish to have timed) Take that black wire and wire nut it to the red wire, labeled load. Screw the timer in the box and your ready to program it. Total cost less than $35.
So my friend has set back up, I looked at other boxes. They want a small fortune for them, which i do not mind if they work flawlessly. But i decided to make my own. I went to lowes and started looking around at what they had i could use to build a timer that i could control exactly the way i wanted to, down to the minute. I found exactly what i was looking for. Strangely enough it was in the lighting area. I will attach photos of the things i used to make it. It is a digital timer with an internal battery to keep the time. It has up to 18 different programs to turn pumps, lights or what ever on, which is a bit excessive but whatever, it was only $20. It is a wall mount timer, meaning it is meant to go in a box in the wall.. I got a dual gang box to put it in because of the wire nuts and cables in the box needed somewhere to go. Then I bought a 9' extension cord with a 3way on one end just incase i wanted to ever use it for something else. I cut the cord in half, wired it to the timer and put it in the box. Here is how you wire it. Wirenut all 3 greens wire together, Timer wire and the 2 wires from the cut in half cords. Wirenut all 3 white wires wire together, Timer wire and the 2 whites from the cut cords. The black wire on the male cord, (the one you will plug in to your power source) wire nut it to the black wire on the timer. The last black wire, which goes to the female part of the cord, (where you will plug in the device you wish to have timed) Take that black wire and wire nut it to the red wire, labeled load. Screw the timer in the box and your ready to program it. Total cost less than $35.
