DIY light mover?

[Bud]

I’ve been toying with this idea for a few years now, I’m trying to Imamate the suns movement thru out the day, by using a light mover ( very slowly ) in a 12 hour period from one end of the room to the other.
The ones they sell on Amazon move back and fourth to fast and reduce the life span of the bulb imo

 

[TorturedSoul]

How... What gives you the impression that they'll shorten the life of your bulb? Not that you're wrong, necessarily. It's just the first time (as far as I can remember) that I've ever read/heard that. And they've been on the market for, IDK, maybe 20+ years if you count the old Sun Circles.

The LightRail (type) ones that I've seen have either a four or six RPM motor, something like that. They move pretty slowly. Not slowly enough to imitate the sun's (perceived) movement, of course. But that's not necessary (IMHO). Neither, one assumes, is occasionally turning the ballast / power supply down to 35% to imitate a cloudy day. Although it does seem that hitting them with certain frequencies of light at/after lights-off can help speed the transition to "dark period behavior," so who knows?

Mainly I'm just curious about the "shortening the life of the bulb" part. Just don't set up one that moves the bulb so fast that it cools below its optimum operating temperature range, lol (which would be a real neat trick, IOW, very unlikely to occur by accident).

A friend of mine once had one of those el cheapo lightweight aluminum reflectors that he'd tied a string to and attached the other end of the string to an oscillating fan. Yeah, stoner moment . I don't recall him ever actually saying that it provided any benefit - but I don't remember him complaining about his bulbs losing output faster than normal (and he was kind of a cheap SOB, as you might already have surmised by the "fan-driven light mover" thing, so I'd probably have heard about it).

If you have any sources for such information, that'd be greatly appreciated. I occasionally get asked about light mover products, and would feel a duty to convey this kind of data to those who ask.

 

[Bud]

I run 315 CMH with the bulbs pointing downward ( not that it matters ) the shaking and stop and go action shaking the contact point between bulb and base causing a short or worse!! If u know what type of bulb I mean, it has two contact points and screws a half turn and locks once loosened by movement they die a early death, I believe I read about this on GWE as well as first hand experience only once....thank the weed gods,

 

[TorturedSoul]

Yeah, if your light-mover is that rough on the equipment that it's causing a momentary loss of contact, that'll be hard on the bulbs for sure. Be about the same as standing there playing with the power switch.

On the other hand, and again, decent light movers are slow. As in two to four feet per minute slow. Two feet per minute equals one foot per 30 seconds equal four tenths of an inch per second. I think your CMH bulb can handle the stops/starts at that speed. Especially with the ability to have a delay at each end so it's a "stop, then restart" as opposed to a "bounce."

Here's a random video I just grabbed to illustrate:

Watch the thing start back up at 14m 50s. It's really pretty gentle. Get a decent-quality socket that isn't "sloppy" and I can't envision an issue.

Unfortunately, I cannot back that up by stating that I'll buy the light mover and replace your bulb if you DO have problems, lol, so use your own judgment.