Negril's Climate Controller

Negril's - Climate Controller

The purpose and function of this controller is as follows. This controller will switch on your fans (outlet for 2) at a preset temprature using an external thermostat with a Hysterisis depending on the thermostat you use (the one I am using in this will give you about 7 degrees hysterisis. It will provide 120v outlet for your CO2 regulator switch to turn on/off your CO2. Your CO2 will not turn on when your fans come on, nor will the CO2 discharge when your lights turn off. NOTE: you will need a Telair 8001 CO2 sensor to trigger your CO2, no sensor, no CO2 control...

This is a full function controller with the exception of Humidity (which one day I will figure out a cheap way to control that too and add it to this thread,I do have schematics for that, but have not done anything with it yet...something to look forward too)

Disclaimer: The information here is not meant to be used for illegal activities including the growing of plants that the government has deemed 'have no medicinal value'. 'Bull Shit'. Anyways, what you do with this information is up to you, and you or anyone else may not claim that this information is for conspiracy to grow any illicit plants or breaking of any laws. This informaion is meant to grow TOMATOES only!!! If you decide to use this information for other purposes your on your own. If you burn down your house, get electricuted, or somehow hurt yourself using this controller... not my problem,not my fault.

:thumbsup: Please read all instructions first before doing anything :thumbsup:

Now on with the instructions. I will supply photos of step by step construction later, but wanted to get this out to everyone. If you can't solder, ask for help from someone you know, better yet learn (if you give a man a fish you feed him for a day, if you teach a man to fish you feed him for a life time!). You will need to solder.

Following can be purchased at Radio Shack, One stop shopping, except for the thermostat and light sensor switch, which I suggest going to Lowes to buy.

Radio Shack Purchases
QTY Price Description Catalog #
1 $ 6.99 Project Enclosure 8x6x3 270-1809
1 $ 1.99 Screw Cap Panel Mount Fuse Holder 270-364
1 $ 5.29 125VDC/5A DPDT Mini Relay 275-249
2 $ 4.49 12VDC/1A SPDT Micro Relay 275-241
2 $ 2.69 Toggle Switch with On/Off Label Plate 275-602
1 $ 1.79 Grid-Style PC Board with 356 Holes 276-149
1 $ 2.29 4-Position Dual-Row Barrier Strips 274-658
1 $ 5.99 30-Ft. 18-Gauge Clear 2-Conductor Speaker Wire 278-1602
1 $ 2.49 4.0A 250V 5x20mm Slow-Blow Glass Fuse (4-Pack) 270-1066

Lowes Purchases
QTY Price Description Item #
1 $15.77 Hunter Mechanical Heat & Cool Thermostat 155770
1 $ 9.98 Regent Lighting Button Type Light Sensor 10755 (I saw this for less)
2 $ 0.89 120v Standard Outlets

Total= $61.54

Misc Items (shit you can find around the house, or salvage, except for the last item)
- 12v wall wart transformer DC output, I will not put this in as a purchase, find one laying around the house from an old cordless phone or something (buying one is a last resort,same thing with the speaker wire, and thermostat... you can find these junked somewhere, as for the speaker wire, we only need about 10' max...so you can use that piece you have laying around the house if you want, you can use any 18 gauge wire but since we need to connect 2 wires to a thermostat and the CO2 sensor, it makes it neater to have speaker wire... but to save money... you can even use )
- 8 thin bolts w/ nuts 1" long small enough for the outlets holes and for the barrier strips
- Orange Extension Cord 10' max with the plug end (one that goes in the wall)
you can also use 4 of the above with 4 drywall screws for barrier strips.
- Dremel tool with tile cutter bit for cutting out outlet holes and other holes too (can substitute drill for dremel)
- Common Sense!!! This project is not for the beginner. You need to have some understanding of what you are doing not to kill yourself, or burn down your house.


Back tomorrow Night to start putting this thing together! and a schematic.

This sounds very interesting.... :)

Seeing that I'm an impromptu vacation for a few days, I have time to go over some of the construction and background without the wife, kids, job, nothing but the ocean, and a couple of joints to pass the time... so on we go.

Some background operations of how this works.

First the 12v that I call for in the transformer are to operate the two relays, thermostat (any 24vac/milivolt thermostat will work for this design so if you have one around... BONUS on 15 buck savings). I didn't want to run multiple voltages for relays/thermostat, and didn't want to push 120v through the telaire 8001 (but could have... since it's a low current draw on the relay). So we have this need for 12VDC here.

We don't want CO2 to be discharged at lights-out... without designing a ground up circuit that would cost more in parts than an off the shelf one with some work... I chose to use the one from Lowes... this will turn the red wire hot when lights out... which is what the 120v relay is for... we want the current to shut off at lights out, but the light sensor does the opposite... so with the relay we use the sensor to pull it down, and force the circuit to be broken!

The fans... those important fans to turn on when we gets HOT in the room... As I noted any 24vac/millivolt thermostat that has a heating/cooling switch will work. We want to set it to cool, and use it to close our circuit on a 12v relay to turn on the 120v to the fans (now dont draw more than about 250w on the fans... remember that's about 2 amps at 120v... more than enough for 2 400+cfm squirel cage fans.)

The flip side of the relay for the fans is that when the thermostat closes the 12v coil, that will turn on the fan side (120v circuit closed) it also will open the other side of the DPDT relay used to force an open circuit on the other 12v relay to prevent the 120v circuit.

your thinking we have alot going on here... well we do. We don't want CO2 at lights out, and don't want it to be dumping when we're running the fans (this is pointless in both situations)... and to keep this an off the shelf parts controller we need to do some additional circuit designing.

For those of you who want to also dump the room air when the humidity gets too high... no problem...if you have a humidistat that has a relay in it when the humidity gets to a certain point you can put that in parallel with the thermostat... when either one hits it's high point... fans on/co2 off, and we dump the air in the room... better choice is to run an airconditioner on low. This will keep the humidity down, and temps down too so you won't be cycling the co2 and using it up. But for the price of 2-3 tanks of co2 over a decent sized tomato havest... well worth it compared to the amount of fruit you'll get ;).

Now that I've covered what we are doing I will continue on with construction and schematics... but first... a toke, and some rest. I came here to get the fuck away from life for a bit...

Tomorrow we cut plastic! get our switches in, fuse holder and talk about maybe adding a few lights to know what's going on if your controller will be outside your flowering room.... um, your tomato growing room I mean!

Night all...

Thanks for your time and efforts hydro I really appreciate it these type of controllers can be very expensive at the tomatoe grow shops............................Much respect for taking the time to finally get this going............:stoned: :thumbsup:

Got up early this morning after sleeping like shit... part of why I just drove 350 mile on my bike to get away from it all... but anyways. Lets cut some hole with pics to follow.

First you will need to cut out the hole for the fuse holder. Looking at your project box (we will always look at it this way, tall up and down, open end facing you), the fuse holder should go on the bottom, 1/2 way deep and 2" from the left side. Take off the plastic bolt, measure diameter, and drill a hole same size. I used a dremil for all my holes. Used a sharpie to mark it, and cut with a tile cutter... mind you, you will get tons of small pieces of plastic so have a vaccum around.

Once youve drilled the hole to the proper size, fit in the fuse holder so you have access to both terminals, and put the little plastic bolt on. A dab of glue, silicone, whatever would be good at this point to keep it from slipping.

Note: this is what I did, if you want and have the equipment you can do the same... Take one of the 120v outlets, since you only need one socket for the co2 solenoid and want to get rid of the other one follow these steps othewise follow the steps for locating and mounting both sockets... take a cut off tool with your compressor (if you have this stuff... if not no matter)... you can cut the top of the bottom socket off so that it is flush with the center hole. You are basically shaving off the plastic part that sticks up about 1/8 inch that is the socket down to the level of the center hole that is used to normally mount the cover to it. You will also need to take a pair of pliers, and remove power to the bottom socket.
This is how that's done... look at the side of the socket, you will see two screws, one set white, one set brass... white is always common, brass since it's darker is meant for the black wire on 120v which is hot. Now look between the screws, you should see a raised "bridge" piece of metal with a hole betwen the two screws... this metal "bridges" the electricity between both sockets, so that when in a normal socket installation, you only connect one wire to each side and both sockets work... REMOVE THIS BRIDGE! Now when you connect your 120v to this socket you will be connecting it to the top set of screws only!

MOUNTING YOUR SOCKETS.... you will be mounting your fan sockets on the left side and CO2 on the right... just so we keep things straight here... if you decided on the opposite, feel free... this is your project, just my directions.

Place a socket on the outside in the center depth wise, with it about 3/4" down from the top ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE BOX. Remember you will be popping these through from the inside, so make sure that you don't fuck up. HOLD IT WITH ON HAND WHILE TRACING WITH A PEN,EXACTO KNIFE, ETC... SOMETHING SMALL AS MUCH AROUND AS YOU CAN... the socket will want to slip, so you will have to hold it tight. you will not be able to get around the straight parts of the socket since the metal bracket is in your way, but you will need to get as far around as possible so you can cut the straight part as best you can later.

Do this on the left side for both sockets, and on the right too. If you removed the bottom socket, then just trace the upper one.

TRACE, then cut out with a dremel using a tile cutting bit. This is the only way I can describe as reliable... be careful since you have to spin it up a bit, and it will want to wonder... go slow and careful, and watch out for all the plastic that flies off. You can also use a drill, and hold the box between your feet, or have a friend hold it, while you grind out the outlet holes.

Time for a break and a walk on the beach... back later with switch placement. Do not go ahead and mount the sockets.. if you do, you will need to take them out later to attach the wire to the one that you can't reach with a screw driver anyways... dohh!

great thread =) i have been waiting for you to post this heh

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by turtle420

This sounds very interesting.... :)

---

yeah i agree :)

Well, at this point we have holes for mounting the sockets, fuse holder, and need additional holes for other things... lets get to it.

Main power, now remember... I don't suggest running 120v through the relays, I'm calling for 12v to run the smaller stuff, and use 120v where needed, so for the main power we need to drill 2 holes on the left of the fuse holder.

Take your 3 prong extension cord and cut it down to what you feel is a desireable length. Since your controller needs to see the light inside your flower area, make note of where your outlets are. (The optional thing to do would be to mount the light sensor in the grow cab, but you will have to figure that modification out on your own.

Drill a hole the same size as your 120v line in the bottom, and then a smaller hole for the 12v adapter. Your going to tie a knot in the line after feeding it through the hole to keep it from slipping back through, so make sure you have enough space near the fuse holder for the knot. Tie your knots and leave about 12" remaining and strip off the outer protective sleve of your 120v line. Also leave about 12" of you adapter line after tying a knot in that...

Now we have power inside... do not plug anything in anywhere..lets be smart.

Now, you will need to place 2 switches on the sides, one serves as the main power switch, which I suggest placing in the lower right side section of the unit, and another in the upper left side. The one in the upper left will serve to cut the co2 off if you go in the cab for extended periods of time, or need to just shut down the CO2 for any other reason. (I personally mounted mine in the front.... placement of the CO2 shut off is not critical, just stay away from the top, we are reserving that space for the terminals to our thermostat and co2 sensor.

So... (pictures to come later when I get back home....) we should have the following done.
1. Holes cut for sockets (I would dry fit them, and drill the holes for keeping them in place too. Do not drill the center hole just the top and bottom on each side.
2. Power running inside the controller for 120v and 12v. plastic outer cover stripped off the 120v lines (just the outside cover... don't expose the wires, if you already did that... your over your head on this project.)

3. Our fuse holder in place.

4. Our main power switch, and co2 cutoff.

Lets continue and put in the terminal block on the top of the unit.

take the 4 position terminal block, and place it on the top middle of the unit. secure it with 2 or 4 screws or small bolts/nuts (you must drill a pilot hole if using screws. I used drywall screws, then cut them down with a dremel cutoff wheel so they weren't sticking out. YOU DON"T WANT HUGE BOLTS STIKING OUT... FLUSH or 1/2 inch is ok... 1 inch... nahhh... messy.

drill 2 smaller hole behind each pair of screws. You these will be used to pass the wire through the plastic to the terminal blocks down to our project board.

Finally on the cover of the unit we need to place the light sensor switch.

Find a spot near the bottom, working from the outside and inside to make sure your not in the way of the fuse holder you need to drill a hole for the light sensor and mount it. It comes with a rubber gromet, so just pop it through your hole, and use the grommet on the inside and the small plastic bolt to secure it. You should have 3 wires on your sensor... black, white and red, just double checking here.

So at this point we can start putting things together... and that waits till tomorrow... I'm going to light one up, and go back to sleep...which I went to bed at 6:30.... tired

REMEMBER, DONT GET AHEAD OF YOURSEVES... SCHEMATICS UP NEXT and the brave ones will plow ahead!!

night all.

Attached is the schematics to this design. Note: under no circumstances will you use this design for growing illegal plants. This design is intended to grow Tomatoes only!!! If you use it for other purposes you do so at your own peril or expense or whatever... I will not be held liable for any disaster that you may have including electrocution, fire, death, or otherwise from you using this design.

Now that we have that clear.... Here it is! Tomorrow we go further.

More, more!!!

Hey Hydro any actual pictures your schematic is somewhat not very understandable......I am not going to try and build this for the fact that the schematic does not give specific pin numbers on relays and if in the USA black is hot white is neutral and green is ground I would not use speaker wire to wire this. cmon now thanks for your efforts but this tutorial is not geared towards the amature diy, any actual of the one you built. I know my spelling sucks oh well. Where you put TEMP is that the thermostat i am guessing it is. This seems to be slapped together do not try to build this or you may fry yourself..............good luck..............:o

• This is not for the beginner
• The 4 amp fuse is there to protect from shorts, and over current draws, since the relays can handle the 4 amps with no problem, I chose a safer value for the fuse, while still giving enough for 2 fans, and solenoid.
• Relays are symetrical looking down or from the bottom, so pin-out doesn't matter, based on the types chosen. (All relays follow this pattern)

I just got back in town, and switched to 12/12 yesterday, so I had a lot to do with being gone for a few days. I will have pics up today with more detail. Speaker wire is actually safer than using single strand wire due to the nature of electricity. Anyone who has any knowledge of it can tell you that the greater surface area there is, the more current you can put across the wire. Current does not flow through a solid wire in as much as on the surface of a wire.
I am not the best in drawing schematics, but do know how to draw them. And this was taken directly from the unit I HAVE BUILT, HAVE WORKING, and HAVE GROWING tomatoes.

I'm not an EE, but you don't have to be one to figure out how to build a simple design like this. And yes, temp is for the thermostat. As is CO2 for the telair 8001 (or similar)

More to come...

hydro - AWSOME job on this.. I am not an EE either but I do have an engineering background. I understand your schematic and it looks good. Im going to use some of your ideas here.

Hell yea!! I just got a brand new in box "TELAIRE VENTOSTAT 8001W CO2 MONITOR CONTROLLER" off the e/bay for $32.50.. How sick is that?? Im doin the victory dance!!

Can you feel it??? oooh yea... still dancin.. hahahahah

Its the one without the PPM readout.. does anybody have the PC software for it?? Its factory cal'ed to maintain 1000ppm.. a couple minutes of tweaking with the software and I can put that puppy up to 1500.. damn im good. :)

Youre schematic is good enough for govt work ;). This thread rocks I will DEFINITELY be building this...definitely cheaper than buying a commercial controller. Keep up the good work!

oh and for all who are wondering the telaire ventostat is meant for automated building ventilation controls, for instance, it is used in parking garages to control ventillation fans when CO2 levels get too high (initially set at 1000ppm but they can be adjusted). In their original use they would be basically wired to control a vent fan to keep ppms from building up over 1000 but not run the fans much below 1000 to save power since its within OSHA guidlines.

Anyways, we growers take the sensors and wire the output to a solenoid on a co2 tank.. so when the sensor detects CO2 levels are below 1000ppms (we reprogram it to 1500ppms but stick with me here) it sends a signal to turn OFF the fan (it thinks its hooked up to) but it actually opens the co2 valve flooding the room. When it senses the room CO2 level is back to its programmed maximum it sends the signal to turn on the fan it thinks its hooked up to (which shuts off the CO2).

It is made by GE and its quality control is somewhat regulated by OSHA saftey standards.. therefor I would give it a decent chance of staying accurate.

Keep an eye out for these because just like I found one sometimes they are just reguarded as another useless sensor.. but with a quick trip to radio shack its going to play a vital role in my atmospheric control system that would have cost over $500 if i bought an all-in-one c.a.p. system.