DIY 4-6 light controller for under $80

I'm going to be building a variation of this project that should cost much less. Rather than using Nema 6-20 plugs, I'll be using 4 square boxes with industrial raised boxes and a standard 20amp receptacle. So for the cost of one Nema plug, I can get 4 boxes, IR covers, and a good quality recep. Because most of us are using e-ballasts, which sense voltage automatically, you don't have to use a specialty 240v receptacle. Since I use one recep for each 600w ballast, there is no issue of overloading. As for the contactor... i'm using a P&B Prd7ag0-120. picked it up for about $19.

yea i dont understand why he is using nema style plugs? my ballasts have regular 110v plug fittings on the end, so how would i plug it in?

you wouldn't use this setup. it is for switching 240v loads with a 120v trigger

if anyone here can help me with this, i know its an old thread. We need to run (3) 600w lights and a small A/C unit. We have been avoiding tripping fuses by wiring everything from different outlets. We have two 240v outlets above our grow room, one for the oven and another for the dryer. This seems like it could solve our problems?

I am pretty handy with electrical and understand everything posted here, could anyone comment if this would solve our problem. If needed we can continue to run one of the lights or the a/c off something else

i don't see a problem doing all those off one circuit assuming the lights and a.c can be run at 240v. if either of the 240v circuits have a neutral, you could split it into 2 120v lines.

dryer line should have a neutral on it right? if its 4 prong doesnt it have neutral and if its 3 prong it doesnt?

it should if it is fairly modern.

Request a 4 wire version. I just lost my power controller to my friends house and I need to build this. My grow room is on the other side of the laundry rooms wall.I had the Solatel 240U power expander and that worked great. Basically I need to build that or this with a 4 wire 30 amp cord. I've spent the last few hours online researching this and I cannot see why Its so hard to build considering the 240 U does exist

Looks like you could accomplish the same thing with multiple cheap analog wall socket timers. They can handle 15 amps or about 1500 watts each.

coben said:

Request a 4 wire version. I just lost my power controller to my friends house and I need to build this. My grow room is on the other side of the laundry rooms wall.I had the Solatel 240U power expander and that worked great. Basically I need to build that or this with a 4 wire 30 amp cord. I've spent the last few hours online researching this and I cannot see why Its so hard to build considering the 240 U does exist

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That's a really old post. It actually costs over $100 to build that way but it's the first design I ever looked at and was my first inspiration to try and make my own. For fun on the side I put together a couple controllers. I think this is the type of thing u are looking for. Repond in my post if u have any questions I'd be happy to help out. I'm not an electrician but I did a shit ton of research before coming up with this design.

https://www.rollitup.org/do-yourself/492339-diy-digital-4-light-controller.html

How would you design it if you wanted 10 lights?

Dont Fear The Reefer said:

Looks like you could accomplish the same thing with multiple cheap analog wall socket timers. They can handle 15 amps or about 1500 watts each.

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The whole idea behind the multi ballast controller is to get away from using a bunch of timers.... the reason I want to build one is to guarantee my lights come on and go off at the same time. Its almost impossible to get individual timers to start/stop in sync. I am expanding my room to five lights next month, and buying allot of new equipment (vented hoods, new bulbs, some new fans). I am also building another bed, so at that time I will likely re-wire most of my stuff anyways. It sure would be nice to have a five light controller by then! (I WILL build one!)

So with this original design in mind, Is it feasible to build one of these that could handle five 1000w HPS ballasts? I'm wondering if one controller (relay) could handle the power for five ballasts? Im also looking for a digital timer, thats of good quality that I could build right into the front of my enclosure. Anyone know where i could find this?

TIA
ginnzy

Anyone?? come on guys, i need to know if this design will work, and would be safe to power five, 1000w ballasts?

This set up would work for 5 1000 watts. At 220 it is under 23 amps. Make sure you 10 gauge wire or larger. For 10 lights you would just need to add another contactor. Rather than the wire looms I would suggest setting it with boxes and outlets like this.

born2killspam said:

. Also, with 4 outlets, you gotta know some idiot is going to throw 4 1kW units on there, and hid draws alot more current at startup than when warmed up to boot.. (Eh, then again that would probably just cost them a $20 relay..)

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There is no problem using 4 1kw on this...that's only 18.4 amps...even with the start up draw of hid lighting it wouldn't be another 12 amps over their power consumption...this is an amazing set up...I have 6 new lights I bought...and I'm gonna build two of these with three lights on each...love the relay idea to allow this to run on a basic 120v timer...great idea...thks op