Recommended upgrade for a light controller. Autopilot nearly burnt the place down

Was looking to upgrade light controllers. Was thinking of going with helios. Any recommendations?

Got a pic of the burn unit… we love photos

3 Likes

I use the Titan Helios, funny as I upgraded from an autopilot too. Making me nervous though as I have a room using a autopilot now! LoL

1 Like

I Have 3x light controllers in use.

What exactly happened?

I also use 2x autopilot master greenhouse controllers as well.

I recommend building your own controller with 30amp DPDT definite purpose relays. It can be scaled from 2kw to 100+kw, designed to simply fire one room or configured to flip rooms.

I built this controller to flip 40kw for a friend. Please don’t pay attention to the lack of code. This design can be housed and easily become compliant. It was an emergency retrofit in his facility, as his initial controller failed mid grow.

1 Like

Autopilots can’t handle high amps right?
We have one now, but it’s just being used for a water pump cycle timer.

I’ve been using a powerbox 12000 for a few years, but wouldn’t recommend it.

do you have a basic wiring diagram for setting these up? Very interested in building my own for my upcoming upgrade

Curious why you would want this setup? Much easier to get a light controller and plug into that.

1 Like

well literally every controller I’ve seen so far has reviews where someone said it ruined their lights or almost caught fire. Seems to be kinda sketchy to pay that much for something that has a high potential to destroy your equipment or burn your place down

It blows my mind that these lighting controllers from reputable manufacturers have so many problems. I guess that’s what you get when something is built down to a price. I’ve assembled and installed a ton of lighting controls for big operations (100+ lights per room) and small operations alike and I get the occasional call about a chattering contactor, but never anything like some of the horror stories I’ve heard about folks almost burning their facilities down.

Could it be just some people are maxing their controllers out? Maybe people aren’t sticking to the 80% rule?

Part of the problem is some of the outlets on the controllers are only related for so many amps, but people like to use extension cords and overload the outlets.

Make your own controller.

I actually use a light controller as a power trigger for my ac so I dont burn another master green house controller again

1 Like

not to mention you could build one for under $100 easily

1 Like

You guys are also forgetting surge amps/watts. All my lights come on one after the other. Can’t have them all pop on at one time. I think thats why your ac kills your controllers, too much surge when coming on. Just my opinion, I’m not savy enough to build one of these controllers so I work with them.

Here is the electrical diagram I made for flipping rooms. It uses 30amp definite purpose contactors (loaded under 10 amps for two lights per contactor) and an 8-pin 120v could relay to do the switching. This design is rated for 10 000 switches and will never fail unless the contactor itself is defective.

Contactors are $27 each and the single 8-pin relay is $17. You absolutely cannot buy a more reliable controller for that cost. If it has to be certified, have an electrician pull permits and perform the work, pass inspection and lights on.

Problem with the original controller was that some relays welded under load and didn’t switch back. Lights on 24 hours in flower.

2 Likes