Cheap Dual Trigger Lighting Controller

I was looking at lighting controllers at my local grow shop and decided to build my own. I'm no electrician but I did a little research and built this in just a few hours for under $100. Bought everything I needed at Home Depot and Platt.
You could also use this idea to run intake and exhaust fans and have them turn off while you turn on a co2 system, then as soon as the co2 shuts off your fans can turn back on.
Parts-
8"x8" junction box
4- metal single gang boxes
4- 20 amp receptacles
1- 100ft extension cord
2- d3pf2aa-a2 eaton control 8 pin ice cube relay
2- 8 pin relay bases
1- 6ft 30 amp dryer cord
12-3 wire
8 gauge automotive wire 1 ft
2- 120v indicator lights - radio shack (not needed, but let me know when my plugs are hot)
Misc connectors




 
You can safely run 3600 watts and 4 lights per side. I'll post more pix in a few days after I get it installed and my lights hooked up
 

mrmadcow

Well-Known Member
very nice
but to warn anyone building this, the outlets are 120 outlets but its wired for 220 - not a problem unless your ballasts are 110 or your wife tries to plug a vacum cleaner into it.
 
Yes I did use 120 outlets and people should be careful, hopefully no one is plugging anything into your grow room except yourself :) I was just doing it on the cheap and didn't want to cough up $5.00 for an outlet that I could spend $.69 cents on
 

contraptionated

New Member
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the contacts of your general purpose (ice cube) relays are only rated for 1 amp inductive . I'm positive that these relays are rated 10 amp resistive / 1 amp inductive.

That means your lighting loads will either eventually weld the contacts closed or arc them permanently open. It is working for now and it may work for a long time but it is not certain as to how long it will work.

The White 24/7 digital timers that a lot of people on this forum have used are rated 3 amps inductive and they have failed quite a few people when they got overloaded by a 600 or 1000 watt hid. Your relays are rated 300% lower making them more likely to fail without warning.

Simply use a timer to power the holding coil of 2-Size 1 motor starters and load up those contacts instead if you would like this controller to be reliable. The relays are still very useful as auxiliary contacts for smaller loads that you would like to shut on or off simultaneously with your lights. For example: duct booster fans, hvac dampers and oscillating fans to name a few.
 
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