AC Infinity Ionboard

[TorturedSoul]

Anyone know anything useful about AC Infinity's Ionboard products?

Specifically: Can one be controlled by the electronic temperature-triggered speed controller that comes with their Cloudline Lite B6 exhaust fan? I knotice they both have a USB-C port instead of a molex connector port.

Generally: Everything else, I guess .

 

[TwelveCoffee]

Not sure if your still looking but @Darade should be able to help

 

[Darade]

Sadly, Ion Grid and Ion Board weren't supported on any of the UIS controllers until UIS Controller 69.
You can totally ask their support team on their site as well, they've tested the Molex to UIS adapter for the ION Board for me before and measured a tent bag.
They go above and beyond to make sure you are left with the results you came for, at least within reason.

 

[Delps8]

AC Infinity is really ramping up their product line. Their variable speed works really well for my 2' x 4' tent, the inline fan seems to be a solid product, and I have two Bluetooth controllers work really nicely. I consider it money well spent.

I'm not a big fan of their lights, though. One concern I have about their products overall is that they look a little too "slick". It's not that I don't understand tech - I've been writing software for a living for 30+ years, including a stint at Apple when the iPod was introduced, so I'm very comfortable with tech and high visual appeal but AC Infinity is edging toward Bose instead of Apple, as I see it. Back in the day, Bose came out with some "revolutionary" speakers and they marketed the hell out of them. The problem was that, after listening to those speakers, they just didn't live up to the hype. AC Infinity impresses me as being a little "glitzy" and I think their lights are in the Bose 901 camp. I'll admit, it's hard for me to nail it down.

It's been a few months since I checked out their lights but, when it came down to getting photons on a canopy, their lights just didn't deliver the bread and butter//basics of what I look for in a light - spectrum, dismountable driver, uniformity, and PPFD output. Part of it is that they're not forthcoming about the details of their lights (well they weren't, at the time) and that's a big issue for me. My little 2' x 4' tent has been home to a Mars SP 3000, a little Vipar Spectra VS-1500, a Growcraft X2 (veg), and a Growcraft X3 (full spectrum). One reason for buying those particular models was that I could find info about them from a variety of locations (ppfdcharts.com, cocoforcannabis.com, etc.) or they publish independent lab tests (Chilled publishes lab tests for their 40" and 20" boards using multiple input amperages).

I just don't get a "let us show you what's behind the curtain" vibe from the AC Infinity lights. I'll admit that I didn't do an exhaustive comparison of PPFD values, for example, but my recollection is that, when I did check them out, it was a "meh" instead of an "Oh, wow".

There are a lot of great lights coming into the market, even in just the past year so there are tons of choices. Perhaps the only compelling argument I could make for one of their lights is that they do integrate well into a "complete grow system". The counter argument would be something along the lines of - "Who cares? I don't change the intensity of my lights so often that I don't need that."

One light that stands out to me as a really good buy is the Atreum Hydra 3200. I read a journal by a grower here on 420 who was using it and, when I checked it out, the response was "Oh, wow". The light has great output, excellent and uniformity, it looks like there's a lot of blue in the spectrum but I'm not expert enough to be on solid ground about that, the driver is dismountable, and I love the LED display of the dimmer percentage (I even wrote about that to Growcraft about). I'd take an Atreum any day over one of the AC Infinity lights.

Back to AC Infinity lights - it's part of a complete kit and there's some advantage to that, I'd guess but, judged on its own, maybe the way that I'd put it is they're a good version 1 product but get back to me they've got something that can go toe to toe with products from any one of at least half a dozen other vendors.

AC Infinity is expanding very rapidly, they have stockout in some of their products and they put products on their website that are still under development. Those are signs of an aggressive, growing company (pardon the pun) which is admirable but, when it comes to an a grow light, I'd save my shekels for another company that's got a more mature product line.

Yeh, yeh "I don't want to get off on a rant here but…" —if that brings back some memories. ;-)

 

[TorturedSoul]

The IonBoard lights suffer from a common LED issue - way too much output in the center. I contacted the company for advice, a while back, and they (multiple times) suggested the S33 for a square meter garden space. It would have been great in the middle, but insufficient around the perimeter (IMHO). I decided on the S44, which is marketed for a 16 ft.² space. Maybe if you don't fill it wall to wall? But it would be fine for a 1 m² one... except that there's still that "too much light on the center, when adjusted to be adequate for the perimeter" thing. And the dimmer operates in 20% jumps, which is not optimum.

In terms of quality, it seems to be on the upper end of "made in China." Which makes sense, because they're made in China .

Summary: Okay, but nothing special.

There is an IonGrid series that is an attempt to deal with the central overillumination issue. There's basically a square hole in the middle of the product, so no diodes there. From the charts, it seems to help... a little. But, other than the one sized for a 2'×2' space (which was sold out, and apparently still is), they all stated "in development, no ETA available." I think they still do.

Maybe the company isn't really serious about selling grow lights, IDK. They certainly don't appear to have any presence on cannabis forums, which would be the ideal audience for their products, other than the stuff sold to people who want to move air through their audio/video component closets.

 

[Darade]

So I’m just gonna point out a few things really quick.
In the diode layout they solved the hot spot in the middle by spreading the diodes out more in the middle to make what looks to be a cross pattern of “missing leds”, that takes care of the hot spot problem.

For PPFD I believe there is a mobile app for that now a days you can just shove your phone camera under the light and there’s an app that accurately tells you the PPFD.

Another issue I’m noticing is if you’re not using the app you’re not using the light to it’s fullest capabilities. You get 10 settings (so you get 10% instead of 20%, in the app) instead of the 5 options on the driver. You can set a time and never worry about the lights coming on or going out again, without any of the issues a mechanical timer would usually have.

However these lights I will agree are weak I keep them at 100% the whole grow I never dim them, and I’m not doing anything impressive that I’d like to be doing, I have x2 S22 Ionboards and I’m a 4x2 and reach nowhere near wall to wall.

Most of these products were slowly rolled out at the beginning of the year starting since Christmas (the s22 ion board was a stealth drop on the zon), they’ve been working their asses off trying to get them out. They had the ion board on the zon before you could even buy controller 69 and like you guys said the lights are subpar at best, but the app made everything worth it.

They’re not a growing light company so I don’t expect too much out of them, they’re just a nice compliment to all of their other gear, but no I wouldn’t be jumping over the hills for their lights vs say a mars hydro. There’s much better lights that do a much better job, but I think their point was let’s try it the ac infinity way first, and see how it goes. I would love a mars hydro light that did all the fancy things my ac infinity one does but with all the power that the mars has.

 

[TorturedSoul]

So I’m just gonna point out a few things really quick.
In the diode layout they solved the hot spot in the middle by spreading the diodes out more in the middle to make what looks to be a cross pattern of “missing leds”, that takes care of the hot spot problem.

But it doesn't. Take a look at the image you posted. Raising the light to 18" above the canopy still gives a "hot" (overilluminated) central spot, but it does get only about 8.5% to 9% over 1,000 in the middle four square feet of a... 16 square foot garden space. However, 12 of those 16 square feet show less than 750. It's actually not that bad, a higher "resolution" chart would show a more gradual drop-off.

They need diodes with a narrower beam around the outer... 50+% of the device, and those diodes should be angled outwards ever so slightly. Which would present a problem if they market it as a device that can be raised/lowered, and with adjustable output. The solution to that is to create one that has only two power settings - full, for flowering at 12 hours per day, and 2/3, for the growth phase and flowering autoflowering plants at 18 hours per day. With the full power setting providing 1,000μmol/m²/s, evenly across whichever area the product is advertised as being adequate for. With strict instructions to keep it at n inches above the canopy in order to achieve that. Then the only variable would be the reflectivity of the walls encompassing the garden space. So you do the testing/R&D in spaces which have walls that are painted in flat ultra-bright white paint, and if the customer decides to halfass things with Reflectix or some other sub-par wall covering, it's on their head, lol.

You'd need to design a jig that had some degree of adjustability where each diode was mounted, but not all of them, just the several rows/columns towards the outer perimeter. And you'd have to experiment with diodes that had different beam widths. You might even find that lowering the output of the central ones slightly would be helpful, but not necessarily so. Therefore, you'd have some hours of R&D in the project - but not hundreds of them. You'd have slightly higher manufacturing costs. But that's okay, because you could charge a premium. The newbies might not be inclined to spend the money - half of them are still buying $40 blurples for $125 on Chinazon dot com. But everyone learns sooner or later (or so one hopes). Once they got the angles/beam widths figured out, they could increase the output by 30% and market it as their "professional" line, to be used only with supplemental CO₂.

I'm guessing the real reason no one has produced the above is because they don't want to sell a person one light - they want to sell one today, another one in four months when the customer realizes he/she bought something inadequate for their garden space, then another one a couple years after that, then another one a couple years after that, then...

 

[Darade]

It’s the last statement, they’re banking on the fact you’ll just keep gettin the newer stuff as it comes out, because it’s better, but still not quite good enough so they get you on the next time around, and so on.
On the S22 the spacing in the center is wayyyy more dramatic than in the photo I provided, they just had to fit more diodes in the bigger board so it’s not as noticeable in the bigger lights.

 

[TorturedSoul]

On the S22 the spacing in the center is wayyyy more dramatic than in the photo I provided, they just had to fit more diodes in the bigger board so it’s not as noticeable in the bigger lights.

I was referring to the output charts. And, yes, the S22 has the issue, too. Most all panel/box LED grow light products do.

 

[Darade]

They were solving heat spots(temperature) in the middle, while maintaining the PAR in the center, as typically you’re supposed to only have a plant or so directly in the middle of the light. They weren’t trying to go for an even PAR across the whole board.

Although yeah that’s super crappy if you don’t have your plant directly in the middle, if you take a look at my set up none of my plants are directly in the center PAR, which is why I very much so dislike these lights going forward.

They’re alright for someone just getting started, but for someone that actually wants to grow real cannabis I’d shy away from their lights for awhile until they get it down pat, as everything about the lights are amazing but the actual lights…

Also let’s not hate on China, mars hydro is a Chinese company aswell and their lights are pretty top tier.

 

[Darade]

Ok, sorry for bumping this post, but I thought I'd just drop this here; It Seems to me the lights don't even have a year lifespan, I bought the lights in February, but it's now September, and one of my lights is dimming, and no longer running at full power, unless I smack the driver to get to click back on.

I don't quite know what I'm going to do to fix this, as I don't have a payday for a couple of days, but yeah just thought I'd throw it out there, very short life span for a production light.

 

[Delps8]

Ok, sorry for bumping this post, but I thought I'd just drop this here; It Seems to me the lights don't even have a year lifespan, I bought the lights in February, but it's now September, and one of my lights is dimming, and no longer running at full power, unless I smack the driver to get to click back on.

I don't quite know what I'm going to do to fix this, as I don't have a payday for a couple of days, but yeah just thought I'd throw it out there, very short life span for a production light.

Sorry to hear about the light crapping out on you.

Any update on this?

 

[Darade]

They just replaced the light, I however decided to just go ahead and buy a new 4x4 and the new adapter they just came out with, to connect My mars hydro light to the Ac Infinity controller.

 

[Delps8]

Glad you got things sorted out. I can't imagine being without a light.

The adapter is really smart. I'd bet they will sell tons of them, if they can get them manufactured. They come up with some great ideas but they've got to deliver on them. I got a notice that WiF Model 69 controllers were available to order. I placed the order and it came back as a pre-order so who knows.

I'm in north OC and keeping my fingers crossed that we don't get the electricity cut off. One more day!

 

[Darade]

Glad you got things sorted out. I can't imagine being without a light.

The adapter is really smart. I'd bet they will sell tons of them, if they can get them manufactured. They come up with some great ideas but they've got to deliver on them. I got a notice that WiF Model 69 controllers were available to order. I placed the order and it came back as a pre-order so who knows.

I'm in north OC and keeping my fingers crossed that we don't get the electricity cut off. One more day!

I've had my power surge a few times, but no official blackout here in San B, thank god. Yup, one more day of the rain, then it starts cooling off, hope it stays cool.

Ships out by September 31, 2022. Orders containing pre-ordered items will ship when ALL items are available. LIMIT 1 PER CUSTOMER.

Is what they put in fine print on the Wifi controller, so yeah I guess they're still in pre-order, however, the adapters aren't pre-order they're just limited stock, so not on amazon yet, but I'm sure these adapters are gonna stay for good, while their lights might fade out, or hopefully they fix their issues.

 

[Delps8]

I've had my power surge a few times, but no official blackout here in San B, thank god. Yup, one more day of the rain, then it starts cooling off, hope it stays cool.

Is what they put in fine print on the Wifi controller, so yeah I guess they're still in pre-order, however, the adapters aren't pre-order they're just limited stock, so not on amazon yet, but I'm sure these adapters are gonna stay for good, while their lights might fade out, or hopefully they fix their issues.

Heat's over. We got into the 90's here in OC, a lot cooler than the IE. I hope everything turned out OK with you.

Thank you for point out that the controller was on back order. I was so psyched to get my order in that I didn't read the details.

I hope they get the quality issue squared away. Grow lights present some design challenges but all of the components mature technology. Maybe it was just a bad batch of drivers - who knows?