I have a futurebrite 400, 4in can fan and filter, easycool 6 hood over a stinkbud style aero system in a closet that's roughly 3x4x7... Been growing in there for years using fox farm trio and ocean forest.. I just built the aero system and bought a nutradip tri meter... Question is... Could my ballast make the ppm's give a false crazy reading? When the light comes on the ppm's shoot up to 5k n all over the place?? When the lights are off the meter is dead nuts on... Also when I add ph up or down the ppm's go a lil crazy too.. Faulty equipment or probe or something??? Please give some input, I've been tinker with it for days and can't figure it out. Tuesday I'm taking the meter to the shop to if it's good.. But how can it be good??? Thanks guys
Help!
- Thread starter akizzil
- Start date
Lil Neutrino
New Member
I'm not familiar with your light but ballasts can give off an electromagnetic field. Newer ones based on "digital" technology are much "quieter" than their older counterparts that utilized older technology. It is possible that some ballasts could cause the internal circuitry of nearby electronics to malfunction due to the induced voltage and currents caused by EMF's.
Lil Neutrino
New Member
Yeah, you're right, it is a slim chance...I didn't insinuate that very well lol
- Thread starter
- #5
Well I Hooked up a new breaker.. Ran a new line and it still didn't work rite.. So off to the shop I went and he says that in some digital ballasts they use some kinda black resin to cover up diodes or something, that throws off some kinda rf frequencys.. So I had to hook up my old agrostar ballast and the meter is now perfect!! Don't fluctuate one bit.. Sucks I can't use my new ballasts though.. Thanks for the input guys!!
Lil Neutrino
New Member
Good to hear you found the problem but I think something was lost in the translation of his explanation lol. I don't know how a resin of any sort can emit any kind of frequency...best I can think of is that the resin causes the diode to overheat and malfunction which in turn could throw something else in the downstream circuitry to the point where it changes the operating frequency of the transformer circuit or something enough to make your equipment sensitive to it. If you happen to talk to him again and remember please ask him to explain it one more time and post back! I'm curious as to what exactly was going on. Thanks!
- Thread starter
- #7
Yeah I can do that.. I still don't understand what the hell he was talking about either, not sure if he knew either..lol but anyway atleast it's working!! This is my first time on aero so I can't wait... Lil nervous tho so I'll keep some good ol fox farm going too! I love this site!
Lil Neutrino
New Member
Yeah, that is the important thing...and beware these forums, they can be like crack
StinkFinger
New Member
That's totally freaky you posted this.
Last night I was mixing up a new batch of nutes and had taken a measurement with a Milwaukee SM802 meter. Reading said 1480. I had to reposition the meter to do some modification and had laid the cable of the unit across the top of my electronic ballast. The reading showed 2380. For about 15 mins I couldn't figure out why the reading had changed. Finally, I just decided to accept the reading and placed the cover back on the reservoir. I also decided to take one more reading and this time the meter cable was no-where near the electronic ballast. Low and behold the reading was back to 1480. I thought the meter was possessed, until it dawned on me that the only differing factor was where the cable was positioned. I decided to put the cable again over the ballast and the reading shot back up to 2380.
I too had no idea that a ballast could affect the reading on the meter, and for future, will keep the bugger far away as possible so as to avoid any electrical interference.
I just thought the timing on this post was just too freaky to not point this out!
Thanks for sharing that.
SF
Last night I was mixing up a new batch of nutes and had taken a measurement with a Milwaukee SM802 meter. Reading said 1480. I had to reposition the meter to do some modification and had laid the cable of the unit across the top of my electronic ballast. The reading showed 2380. For about 15 mins I couldn't figure out why the reading had changed. Finally, I just decided to accept the reading and placed the cover back on the reservoir. I also decided to take one more reading and this time the meter cable was no-where near the electronic ballast. Low and behold the reading was back to 1480. I thought the meter was possessed, until it dawned on me that the only differing factor was where the cable was positioned. I decided to put the cable again over the ballast and the reading shot back up to 2380.
I too had no idea that a ballast could affect the reading on the meter, and for future, will keep the bugger far away as possible so as to avoid any electrical interference.
I just thought the timing on this post was just too freaky to not point this out!
Thanks for sharing that.
SF
