It would be nice to have the remote though. Who ever heard of producing a product that is designed to have a remote control and not releasing that with it.
To make that remote control, you would have to know the frequency, the modulation (AM, FM, spread spectrum, etc.) and the data encoding, Then you need a list of the commands in ASCII and their parameters (EG. āBLUE LIGHTS PERCENTAGE <30>ā. Thatās a heck of a lot of reverse engineering. The company that made the light might tell you but it is VERY unlikely. If anything, they might tell you which RF chip and which output control chip (if any) they are using and you might be able to figure it all out by reading the data sheets. But they may have custom designed those parts so you are SOL.
The device I found most useful in doing automated control, was a USB-controlled power switch. You could use a computer program to turn stuff on and off, so you could write a program and have it manage everything. You could also write a program that would receive online messages and turn stuff on and off. You could plug several of them into one computer and address them separately. I think the same company made a USB-controlled 120 VAC dimmer.
That is just a high-powered 120 VAC dimmer. You can buy 15 amp 1800 watt ones at any home improvement store. Presumably in places that use 240 VAC you can buy 240 VAC models. They donāt help in this case. They can supply your light with less power but it wonāt dim them until you turn it down enough and then the driver will cut out and not work at all. Dimming has to be built into your driverās feedback section.
I agree with @1BigFella on dimming the input voltage. You may see a very small window of dimming, but itās not likely. Since most of the drivers are suitable for low and high voltage, the minimum requirement for operating voltage is pretty high, usually 90+ volts.
I was afraid the cooling fans would just slow down and the lights wouldnāt dim.
Fans probably have a separate power supply as well, that may or may not work the same way as driver. It would depend on the protections built in.
No big deal though, no harm in throwing out ideas.
geez,now iām going to have to get smart controls!!! lol
@1BigFella all of the reasons you stated are why thereās no chance Iāll be doing a remote. Lots of test equipment needed just to figure out their design. I only mentioned it because weāre all talking about RF. I have already tried turning the input voltage down and that doesnāt do anything. As @TDubWilly said the fans just slow down a little, but the lights are on or off. No dimming. I didnāt check the input voltage, but I think @dbrn32 is right about the 90V range to when the lights turn on. I will just have to wait until next summer for a remote. Hopefully the manufacturer is working on it and they didnāt just tell me that to get me to stop asking for info. @M4ur
Video for @OldSkunk. I couldnāt get a ātrue variableā. However using the switch i posted above, i was able to find about 4 different dimmed settings in both a small viper spectra and a larger mars light. Hereās the viparspectra
Even though I can get a ātrue variableā on ventilation with this thing and I canāt with the light, the advertisement says it only has 3 settings if you look under ādetailsā on the Amazon page
I let it run for about an hour on a steady lower voltage and it seemed to do ok
Touchy aināt it! I want to dim the colors to simulate what the sun does as it goes down. Itās probably stupid, but I want to see if it makes any difference.
I donāt think itās stupid. If we never asked ourselves āwhat if?ā, what would we ever accomplish?
So you just lower her power right? Also I donāt know if this panels can go further and throw more power. Also you can burn them very easily because are cheap quality.
Burn what? The light? Maybe, thatās why Iām going to let this run overnight with no plants under it and see what happens!!!
Yes, burn your light, your choice
So you did overpower her capacity? It will be nice if you can do that, only 15% will be enough for meā¦ But I will not do that
Sheās a cheapie thatās coming out of the tent anyways several lights being replaced with a light mover
I know them are will stop throwing enough lights after a period of time, so then will be OK to do thatā¦ I speack for my case.
You donāt respond to my question, did you overpower that?
Iām sorry I must have missed it. Over power the light?
Yesā¦ If you give her more power (=more light) ?
Nope. The resistor switch wonāt allow more power to pass than what the wall will allow.
The switch will only allow less power to pass, not more