Intelligent gro: How to get a supplier to fix their product?

[Squeeg]

I told David about cables in early September. This is my response from him.
On Tue, Sep 9, 2014 at 7:58 PM, Intelligent Gro <blablabla@gmail.com> wrote:
The so run hot them cables. I am looking into getting a cable that can be more thermally insulated.

Last I heard on it. It wasn't an insulation problem. It's an impedance problem. Can't stuff 10 pounds of shit in a 2 pound bag, no matter how hard you try.
Yes 10 gauge is overkill! But it was that or 14. 14 would be fine, no problems at all. But I had the other lying around looking for a good home.

 

[Techhead]

Hahaha LOL there's no way I was cutting on you for using 10G, if I had it laying around I would have used it too, or 12G, that's what my system came with. Did you check it out? It's on the thread I started, Home made POWER led here someplace.

 

[Squeeg]

Yea I've been reading that. This summer I will build a small electronics lab and start playing with this kinda stuff.
But living off grid in the summers is tough and long days so I don't starve in the winter.
I'm building everything myself. From trees to house. Sawmill and wood shop. Winter is the only time I can goof off like this and it's really only about 2 months a year. I've already planted my seeds and will start transplanting into hoop house next week. But come December, I should be good to go on a number of experiments I wanna do, and the vast majority are electrical or magnetic. I'd like to try to come up with my own personal design for lighting my food crops in the big greenhouse over winter, and it's just not feasible to do with hps or t5's even in an off grid capacity. I have no power lines on my property and rely on diesel generator to run my wood shop even in the summer. The cnc router sucks a lot if 3 phase juice that I cannot produce with a 10 KW solar array. Still doing research on that, light waves and spectrums for lettuce as an example.
I will be picking your brain soon enough!

 

[Techhead]

Wish I could get off the grid, but I don't have enough money to do it. My little sister does though. She and her husband just bought a place out there, won't say where, but they picked up an old farm and some acres to go with it. Now they want me to come out and hook them up with a grow of there own, building wind generators, and a large garden. We came from a large farm, so it's in our blood to grow things. By the way, one of my cousins was the one responcible for making the power companies have to buy any extra electricity you generate. Before he took them to court back in the 60's, if you made your own electricity they would cut you off the grid. He was also involved in the first solar mirror setups in the desert southwest, and started a magazine for people like you. I don't remember the name though.

 

[Squeeg]

Living off grid wasn't an easy choice to make. But I tell ya what, out of every decision I made throughout my lifetime, getting away from being a consumer and flipping it to being a producer is the best thing I have done. No need to rant about govt and bank corruption. Just got sick of working all over North America for 20 years and have little to show for it. I don't need the bling or fancy cars or none of that shit. I didn't need the expensive wood shop, but I'm like a kid in a candy store when it comes to tools. I certainly didn't need to buy a cnc machine, but it's useful and has nearly paid itself off since last Xmas. That's why I'm hoping tesla's home battery pack will allow me to run my whole hobby farm without need for diesel... Or to rely on it much less.
There are 100 small things you can do on a small farm to make enough money to survive. Not get rich, but survive. And I owe $0.00 to anyone. If I need cash, I'll just go make a big custom carved front door for some rich guy on the cnc. Otherwise, it's selling fruits and vegetables at the farmers market. I need less than $300 a month to pay my bills and buy milk and such. I sell that much a month in fresh eggs.
It's enjoyable for me. Beats the traffic, the noise and pollution, the daily gridlock. My shop is 100 feet away from my door.
I know people in my area who are living off grid with an initial $30k investment and have no problems making it work. It's a lifestyle.
Just because I live off grid, it doesn't mean I'm a hippie or a caveman. I like my toys and gadgets as much as the next guy.
Btw my big greenhouse is a 56' dia 36' high, 2 level geodesic dome I am hand making myself. I've been making my own paving stones all winter long. Sounds insignificant, but when I need about 25,000 of them in total.... Make 1 batch a day, every day for the entire winter... Saves me 1000's for about 30 minutes each morning.
I can go on and on but this isn't the place for that.

 

[Techhead]

I don't think money is a problem for my sister, her husband worked for a secret government orginisation, I'm not at liberty to say, and is retired at a young age with a great pension, and my sister works on a computer. He sponcers a school in Jemaka, and they spend a lot of time running around the world. They were down in Panama for 6 month, and my sister just had to do some work on the puter and send it in. Life must really suck for them Ha ha. So while you're working you're butt off to stay off the grid, they are buying there way off. Some people have all the luck, and if I were smart I'd be rich too.

 

[Squeeg]

I am 3rd generation mason in my family. For me, this is not working my ass off. It's a labor of love. I love building, making something on my own. I don't need to hire the cement guys, the block and brick guys, the plumber, the carpenter, the backhoe operator. Everything that I can make out of wood, concrete or stone I do solo. Built a kiln to dry my lumber. Made my own hardwood flooring. Built my own spiral staircase. Cabinets were point and click on the cnc machine. I bought a 3d printer and played for a year before deciding on dome greenhouse. The more I do myself, the less it costs me to run.
Having an unorganized township with no building code is awesome. No blueprints, no building limits or permits and property taxes don't raise with the growth of the farm. I still build to code or better, otherwise what's the point in building it if it's gonna fall apart. Maybe in 3 or 4 years I will be done with the major projects/building and have more time for other things.
I'm retired at 44, yes, but the work doesn't stop. Now it's just work for myself. It's doable for pretty much anyone with the will to do it.
I had to do this and have zero regrets. I can make lots of money making custom granite countertops, but why? I'd rather pick some veggies and get by comfortably than be rich.
Consume. Produce

Now put down everything in your life in those 2 columns. When I left the city, I had nothing in the produce column. No wonder everyone's poor in a consumer world. I had to bust my ass off to survive in the consumer world with $3000 a month payments to various crooks. Now I pay 10% of that, and the majority goes to cell phone and satellite internet. I won't give up my internet. Ever.
I don't "need" the big greenhouse. I wanted to build it. It was a challenge getting all those angles and hubs designed properly. Was fun cutting it all up over the winter. And it's gonna be fun putting it together.
Hopefully next winter I can convince the brother in law to come out and cut up my post and beam pole barn I would like to build. My shop got awfully small really fast and I could use the room. It literally costs me fuel for the sawmill, and the electricity to run the shop. Little bit of concrete and the electrical panels/wiring. Cedar shakes home made too so I don't even have to pay for roofing. Costs me my time and a bit of effort. Not a big cost financially. And I enjoy doing it.

 

[Techhead]

can't call it work if you like doing it.

 

[Techhead]

Have you had a chance to test out the lights with the new power cable?

 

[Graytail]

I'm wondering ... since I still have 5 functional modules and a nifty controller ... why not turn everything down to say 80%?

Would that make a substantial difference to the power supply?

 

[Techhead]

Change out the power cord like we have been saying, why would you want to get less than you paid for. That's like buying a sport car, and only driving it at 30 all the time. No fun in that.

 

[Squeeg]

Only need to change grow/intense. That's the main power draw. I did that. 90% power on main cobs was an improvement. 80% was much better.
Cord will be turned on in an hour or so.
You have 3 or 4 lights daisychained graytail?

 

[Squeeg]

1.5 hours in night run. Cord is room temperature. All lights 100%. Interior case heat 81 degrees. Room temp 83 at ceiling, 77 on floor.

 

[Squeeg]

After a 12 shift, all is well and within tolerance. Heat is roughly the same, actually a bit cooler but not much.
Cord was still room temp just before lights went out. So far so good.

 

[Techhead]

Glad to hear, and about time. Happy to help.

 

[Techhead]

This is for anybody else suffering this same type of problem. Plug in your light and test the voltage at the end of the power cord with the light off, then test it again with the light on. A power cord should be INVISIBLE to the current, there should be NO VOLTAGE DROP. If there is, upgrade the power cord before you burn down your house.

 

[Hiker]

After a 12 shift, all is well and within tolerance. Heat is roughly the same, actually a bit cooler but not much.
Cord was still room temp just before lights went out. So far so good.

good news

 

[Techhead]

You know something, I did offer my repair service to one of the sponsor companies here, I won't say which one, but there was another thread of somebody with a LED light they were having a problem with, and that even went into price nagotiation. But I don't think they liked my price, and never came back with a counter offer. Just saying.

 

[jummejum]

You know something, I did offer my repair service to one of the sponsor companies here, I won't say which one, but there was another thread of somebody with a LED light they were having a problem with, and that even went into price nagotiation. But I don't think they liked my price, and never came back with a counter offer. Just saying.

Ino this aint part of this thread, but Techhead - imma bout to build my own panel using 10w cob leds, will you help me out?

 

[Hiker]

Ino this aint part of this thread, but Techhead - imma bout to build my own panel using 10w cob leds, will you help me out?

Do you have a part # for your LEDs?
If you don't want the fancy controls of this type, a light is pretty simple. If you picked out your LEDs, just get some suitable drivers (personally, I wouldn't reinvent the wheel here and make my own, I'd just buy one that has went through many iterations already), and some good heat management, ie heatsinks and fans, an enclosure and some wiring.

There are a couple threads here of people DIYing lights. Have you looked at those already too?
10W cob huh? Can you buy that as a part off the shelf?