Love the Chinese current/volt meter. Used those on my light controllers I made also have small square ones that the shaft is round takes a round hole but the face is square… 
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I have an apogee just for that.
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Is there any DIY light control box builds to control multiple zones and several lights in each zone?
Not that I’m aware of of. Depending on what you want to do the stuff may be out there though.
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Is there a potentiameter other than the rapid one? What are the requirements for one. That would be nice to have one attached to a digital display. I use a kilowatt right now. That and a light meter.
There are literally thousands of potentiometers available. Requirements vary depending on what you need it to do. To dim one driver, you need 100k ohm.
Can
You recommend one? Is it worth getting a different one?
Ocean, YouTube videos on building those there simple to build. I used 2 40 amp double pole magnetic contactors for my 8 lights controller and 1 for my 4 light controller for veg room…
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Fans to cool contactors in and out and are filtered fans can take cover off and wash them and snap back in. 8 light controller 2 10/2,I think i used for that one 120 volt trip timer. All my lights in flower room are 240 voll hps and veg are all led 120 volt with the same 120 volt trip timer. Works out great. Have three new commercial built one for back up but like mine better but never hurts to be ready in case of a failure… Anyway easy to build Ocean…
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Where is circuit to diffentiate one zone vs the others and what is used to do so?
If he is just looking for on off control the contactors would work fine. But I was thinking Ocean was looking for dimming and timing control for multiple rooms from a single unit. I think some of the saltwater aquarium crowd do this, but I’ve never messed with it.
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Could also put scrs on input voltage on both contractors to lower voltage to dim lights to where ever he wanted it to be.
I don’t think that would work with leds.
Disagree respectively!
Google “scr” for dimming Leds… What they using for Cobb lighting and dimming many Leds 
I don’t think I need to google lol. Limited amount of drivers that style of dimming is acceptable and not most of them used in horticulture industry.
I will admit my electronic knowledge is a little rusty. But dimming led drivers isn’t difficult. Most can be dimmed with simple potentiometer, but would still require full input voltage to work properly. I’m just not aware of anyone doing a diy tutorial on unit that controls multiple zones like Ocean is asking for.
Watched one on YouTube last night… Interesting. I have all leds (5) and one halide in my one room but I have no need to dim them…
Have a lush lighting led in the box I tried to locate one of those scrs thinking I might still have one to Jack with dimming just for the hell of it but couldn’t locate one… Been messing with electronics for 45 yrs seems to be an easy task.Good luck!
You need to read this thread backwards, I couldn’t get into it forwards. It looks like you guys have made some incredible grow lights. I’m going to take notes and hopefully replace everything I bought with DIY once I understand what you guys have done. I’m sure I can find a buyer for my nice new panels to fund my build of something much nicer. But since I have them I have some time to figure it all out.
I saw you recommending these diodes from Digikey in another thread
bridgelux eb strips
It looks like they come in color temps ranging form 3000 - 6000
my potato questions as I know nothing
it says 1 unit is $8.40 what is a unit? I assume a strip, how many diodes in a strip?
I assume the driver determines the wattage, but how do you know how many strips of diodes to pair with a certain driver?
do you have a source or suggested diode for the deep reds?
If you have a good beginner video on this I will spare you the zillion questions i will have. I’m going to randomly surf now, but if you have a good one please recommend.
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If you want to add 660nm the easiest way is to buy strips or boards with the 660 already on them. The bridgelux eb doesn’t have them, but most of the others mention do.
All of the information you need to determine how many strips on which driver is listed on the product data sheets. I can help you with this, they are a little tedious if you don’t have an electrical background. Once you have an idea of what you want to build with would be easier to get into specific detail. But for series configuration you want a constant current driver that has total output voltage range within the sum of forward voltage of all the strips being used. If parallel you want driver output voltage to match the strip voltage, but the current will divide among all the strips.
Check out growmau5 and greengeenes garden videos on YouTube. Lots of good stuff there.
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Awesome, thanks so much. I’ll get a basic working knowledge and an idea of what I want to do before I bug you for the specifics. I’ll check out the video channels you recommend.
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What is the correct wattage per square foot for vegetation and flowering phase? I am currently running 33 watts per square footAt early flowering in the max I can get is 50W per square foot will that be enough to create good bud?
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