This is the relay I’m using https://www.homedepot.com/p/Square-D-30-Amp-Power-Relay-8501CO7V20/202495853
110v coil
Your doing this to control lights? I will make it super easy. You will need 1 220v outlet(if that’s what your looking for), 1 two pole contactor(amperage rating?)with 120v coil, 1 smart plug from amazon. The coil goes connected to the smart plag and the smart plug connected to house power(or any 110v).
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You then download the smart plug app and set your schedule and control you lights from your phone or any device really.
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If the coil is 110v run 1 hot and 1 neutral on the sides of the contactor…
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yeah that’s essentially what I’ve done so far, it’s a lot simpler than my original design at the start of the thread. I only need to control 4 cmh 315’s with it, so not much amps are being pulled. Let me get a pic of what I have done so far.
The 110 plug is going to the sides of the relay, the 220 4 prong plug is wired into the left side, the 4 outlets are wired into the right side.
Also, I had nothing plugged into the outlets when it blew the breaker. I plugged the 220 plug in, then plugged the 110 to trigger the coil. The coil activates when the 220 is not plugged in. If the 220 is plugged in, it trips the breaker. I was trying to check the outlets with a multimeter and this happened
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So those 315cmh run 1.4a each. One 2 pole 20a contactor with a 110v coil and 1 smart plug. If you want to get fancy get a $25 ptz cam from Amazon and then you can control/watch your grow from anywhere in the world.
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Yeah, you really over complicated something simple. All you need is a contactor(2 hots in 2 hits out) and your 110v powering it on either side to your timer.
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that’s basically what I have done in that pic above, there’s just 4 outlets coming out vs one. I have 4 ballasts so I’ll need 4 separate plugs for each of them. I agree this is a very simple diagram, which is why I’m kind of baffled as to why the breaker tripped
Let’s star at the breaker(2 poll, correct?). Follow your two legs to your 2 poll contactor. From the contactor you should have a total of 8 legs(4 and4) going to 4 outlets( if you have them separate and not daisy chained). Make sure your two sets of 4 legs are on the same side of the outlets.
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yeah, its a 2 pole 30A breaker wired to a 4 wire 30A outlet. Reads 120v at the outlet on each leg and neutral. 240v across both hots on the outlet.
You can see in my picture, the top left is the 110v trigger cord. This goes white/black to each side of the relay, ground on the grounding block
Bottom left is the 240v cord. Red and black go to the IN on the relay. White goes to the white on the coil trigger, ground on the grounding block
Right side is the 4 outlets that are connected to the OUT of the relay. I did confirm the outlets are all wired the same way. All whites are with the whites, blacks with the blacks.
The one thing I’m unsure of is the 240v neutral wire. This is hooked up to the coil neutral. I’m wondering if this is the reason for tripping the breaker? If I unhooked that one, would it work? I won’t be able to try it out for a couple of hours but also want to make sure what I have hooked up is right.
It looks right to me no matter how many times I look at it.
The 240 neutral isn’t needed at all, and definitely shouldn’t be joined to the 120 neutral
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Ok, there is a total of 4 legs in residential power. 2 hot(110v each), 1 neutral and one ground. Your contactor should only be controlling 2 hot 110v legs. The coil it controled by a standard 110v circuit. If the 220v breaker is tripping then the short is in the 220v circuit.
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I guess I failed to mention which circuit is tripping. It was the 110v circuit that tripped as soon as I plugged the cord that goes to the coil in.
Ok, so 1 hot(110v) and one neutral on either side of the coil for your 110v circuit to control the contactor.
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The 120 is tripping because you tied the neutrals together causing a direct short, the 120v coil circuit should only be connected to the coil and should not be joined with any other wires in your control box (except for the grounds that all go together)
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yeah that was the problem. Stupid mistake…
I just removed that white neutral and taped it to the side in the box, everything is working as expected now. Coil activates and sends 240v through to the outlets.
Now it’s time to tear down the old lights and put the new ones up and mount the ballasts haha. Hard part is just starting.
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If you want it automated just get a smart plug for the 110v controlling the contactor.
That’s a really cool idea I’ll definitely add that into the mix. These cmh 315s are bright compared to my 600w hps lol I wasn’t expecting that with half the watts
Boy am I glad I just drop 80.00 on the 3x light controllers I use. Much easier and no wiring headaches.