Emilya Green
Well-Known Member
This is the basic X-10 appliance module. They are readily available either new from the company or used on ebay for very good prices. Using these modules it is possible to control everything in the grow room, from lights to pumps to fans and anything inbetween. By using the same code, you can make multiple units come on and off at the same time, and you have the ability to switch on and off as much as once a minute.
Using the computer program, things can get very fancy. You can put date conditionals in your programing, allowing an automatic changing of a lighting schedule based on date. You can create macros that will repetitively do tasks based on time of day or on other triggers. You could automate changing your lighting period every day if you wanted to, simulating the sun outside.
My house lights know when it is sunrise or sunset. Some of my house lights come on 20 minutes before sunset without me touching a thing. Only at night, if there is movement in certain areas of our house, lights come on automatically and if I hit a switch, they stay on until 1/2 hour after sunrise, when all unneeded lights are turned off automatically. If I leave my house, a random setting makes it look like there is activity in the house at night with lights going off and on all evening, simulating someone walking through the house. I have a dryer box that I use with its own special timer. Its fan comes on for 3 minutes, every 20 minutes and does a wonderful job slow drying, keeping smell down, and preventing mold or mildew problems. I can easily automate a watering system, whether it needs to turn on a pump every 4 minutes or for 10 minutes every 5 days.
The drawbacks to this system is that the X-10 company is a bit hard to deal with. I had to send back the first control unit that they sent me because it did not have the battery backup that I required so that my system would not go stupid if the power failed. Then it was very hard to get them to give me the software that I had purchased. I finally found a copy in europe that worked and have been happy with it, but dealing with the X-10 folks for me was a bit stressful... you might have better luck.
Here are a couple of views of the software... Once you get it all setup and working, it is a beautiful thing. Now, via the internet, I have total control over my system... from anywhere in the world, but for the most part, it is totally automatic once I get it programmed in. If you are willing to deal with the hassles of getting it set up initially, being able to have precise control over your electronics via computer is a very cool thing.