Need a de 1000hps rfi free

BigHornBuds

Well-Known Member
I have never looked into the rfi, it’s just not an issue where I’m at. I’m from Canada I live in a igloo, and have a pet polar bear named snuggles , seen -50 this year . I know about cold. , I also run a sealed room,

How much weight you looking to pull out of the 5x5?
 

growingforfun

Well-Known Member
https://www.rollitup.org/t/dealing-with-rfi.903176/
In this link the manufacturer of the ballast has a lot of good info as well.
I missed that lost the first time i read that thread. In the bottom of his post he talks about the same reasons i have for dismissing faraday cages.
Hi, Greg Richter here. I designed the Revolution Deva light, and as an electronic engineer of 30+ years experience I can help you with your EMI/RFI question. Few things:

CMH ballasts do not put out zero EMI. The boost PFC stage can radiate quite a lot, and all arc-light ballasts have this stage. Interestingly enough, LEDs are often the worst offenders for the same reasons. While LEDs are DC devices, they are run on switching AC power supplies which can make a lot of noise. A good example of an LED driver chip can be seen here: https://led-driver.power.com/products/lytswitch-family/lytswitch-4/

LED designs are based around switching power supplies and these generate EMI. Quite a lot of effort is expended in minimizing that EMI, and the Power Integrations link above talks about some of what they do in that particular chip to keep things quiet. So, LED does not equal low EMI. Often it means the opposite, as the absolute noisiest lights we ever tested were all LEDs. COB means that the LED chips are supplied on a board, which makes it easy for low-tech manufacturing, but doesn't change EMI spectra. The DRIVER is what generates the noise, and COB, discrete colors or white light LED are all driven from a switch-mode supply plugged into the AC mains. A lot of info out there is just plain wrong on this topic, and I'll do my best to set the records straight with facts, links, and stuff you can actually look up. :-)

With any arc light be it HPS, Halide, CMH or other, the first stage is always a boost PFC (power factor correction) circuit whose job it is to draw power from the AC line in pulses and keep EMI low and power factor high. This stage is typically very noisy, and better designs use two or even three stage filters to keep the noise down.

The output stage of an HID (arc light) ballast usually runs from 35 kHz to 100 kHz, and this can be a source of EMI as well. Name brands like Gavita, PL, Phantom and Galaxy do a lot of filtering to keep this noise down, and they are all much better now than they were two years ago. These particular ballasts did very well in our testing, which is why I mention them. Two years ago there were quite a few ballasts being sold that didn't even pass the minimum FCC limits for "commercial" as opposed to the tighter specs for "consumer" use, and there are quite a few still being sold that don't pass, as in are illegal to sell or operate. Google ARRL GROW LIGHT to read all about THAT big drama...

The Phantom does not run at 32 MHz, it runs at 100 kHz like the Gavita and other similar designs, just FYI to keep the record straight!

Now:

Our Revolution Deva light has a three stage EMI filter, and an output stage that runs 150 Hz. Not kilohertz, 150 cycles per second, which is fast enough for no flicker, but low enough the output stage puts out very, very little noise. I can post a video if you want showing the spectrum analyzer traces with the light at 1150W output generating about as much EMI as a Macbook laptop. It's very, very close to the limit of the analyzer to record it, and low enough to be considered "very good" for professional audio equipment, much less a grow light! We're really very proud of it. It's also digitally controlled, amazingly priced, and ... OK, I'm biased. Take a look.

Then:

The EMI/RFI thing became a problem a while back and I talked with fellow ham Tom Thompson about his experiences in Colorado and then went on to develop an EMI filter for the lamp side of all the noisy ballasts. We sell the thing for close to cost, just to get the problem fixed. Hydrofarm has them in stock, and they work really well, and are mentioned above also. To fix the power line side, if your PFC stage is noisy, usually requires a redesign. If that's not happening, you can throw ferrite at it to dissipate the high frequency noise, likely to solve most problems. You can see the filter and a suggested fix for power line noise at http://FightEMI.com where I specify a ferrite you can get from Mouser for a couple bucks:

http://media.wix.com/ugd/ae3c18_6a5096a62a744c85bd0ccf24e96452d3.pdf

That paper also shows a well-know ballast spectacularly failing a conducted EMI test. You can pick up this POS at almost a half a mile with an AM radio!

It's why we didn't make a power line filter -- you can just go buy a ferrite core or two and that should help quite a lot. Either you can buy a big ferrite and loop the cord a few times, or a few of them and clip them on. Adding Y capacitors and stuff is dangerous, and can put hazardous voltage on the case of the ballast so we didn't go that way. I can get into that a little if there's an interest, but this is already a freakin' Book of a post ...

Faraday cages, BTW, are really hard to build in practice. The ones we use in the lab has lots of contact surfaces on the doors, screening, welded seams, etc. Better to stop the noise at the source than try and trap it all inside somehow.

I'll stop there. If I can answer anything else, just let me know. Engineers are like musicians, we'll work an eight hour shift for money, then go hang out with our friends and do it all again for fun.

-Greg
Its looking like anything worth buying is starting at 500... am i wrong?
 

growingforfun

Well-Known Member
I have never looked into the rfi, it’s just not an issue where I’m at. I’m from Canada I live in a igloo, and have a pet polar bear named snuggles , seen -50 this year . I know about cold. , I also run a sealed room,

How much weight you looking to pull out of the 5x5?
I want 1.5 as a baseline. Ideally i want 2 an some change.
 

BigHornBuds

Well-Known Member
You get what you pay for, and a Gavita will pay for itself the 1st run.
I’m not saying it can’t be done , just they put out a lot of heat
If you start a thread with a DE1000 in a tent please link me up , I’d like to watch
 

growingforfun

Well-Known Member
You get what you pay for, and a Gavita will pay for itself the 1st run.
I’m not saying it can’t be done , just they put out a lot of heat
If you start a thread with a DE1000 in a tent please link me up , I’d like to watch
Well, its all personal so it never exactly pays for itself per se, it just makes more cookies an candies for the extras :) an the more it costs the harder it is to get my wife onboard. Haha... ya i know im lame.
That's honestly the reason I went with led over hps. I didnt want to spend a ridiculous amount on a small grow
From what ive seen led can make a ton of rfi too. An i cant get into led for under about 1k off the shelf an im too dumb to wire one up :(
 

Aolelon

Well-Known Member
Yea I feel you. And I also read that about led but I figure being such a small grow I have going on and in my basement it wouldn't be as much. Good luck hope you find what you're looking for. If you are interested in LED I would check out ledgardener.com there are tons of guides on how to walk you through basically every thing step by step.
 

growingforfun

Well-Known Member
@BigHornBuds ill run 2 tents, a 750 cfm pushing through a air cooled 1000 xxl in a 4x4 INTO the 5x5 at the bottom, and another 750 pulling out the top. Should be so much airflow it works out, heat rises an airflow going up. Alternating schedual so only 1 light one at a time an the de at night.
 

growingforfun

Well-Known Member
Yea I feel you. And I also read that about led but I figure being such a small grow I have going on and in my basement it wouldn't be as much. Good luck hope you find what you're looking for. If you are interested in LED I would check out ledgardener.com there are tons of guides on how to walk you through basically every thing step by step.
I thought my 200 watt grow was too small to cause problems until the cable guy was outside my house with his equiment an questions.
 

BigHornBuds

Well-Known Member
Sometimes it’s better to ask for forgiveness then permission

But I wouldn’t take relationship advice from me, I’m always in shit . :)

A week ago , she yelled you spent how much on seeds !
She’s all but forgotten about it now
 

growingforfun

Well-Known Member
Sometimes it’s better to ask for forgiveness then permission

But I wouldn’t take relationship advice from me, I’m always in shit . :)

A week ago , she yelled you spent how much on seeds !
She’s all but forgotten about it now
Well i already did it that way. I was knocking out the internet for a month before it was tracked to me amd confirmed it was my ballast. Now i want to not let it happen again so they will forgive me not egg my house
 

Cold$moke

Well-Known Member
Give me about 3-4 weeks ill let ya know what i do with my gavita 750 in a 8x8 :) ok 850max w 7.5x7.5 ft

My room got fucked on half but i should still pull hopefully 2 plus .
Was going for 4 :) (a goal)

Mine isnt too bad in a bigger room., agree with bug horn

Your cooling system will probably have just as much rfi lol (not really sure)

But unless you have a sweet way to mask the heat sigs they can see ya that way too :)

I know, you know .
 

Aolelon

Well-Known Member
They need a warrant to use a FLIR device on your house. They don't need one for an am radio. Of course what's to stop them from doing it anyway
 
Last edited:

growingforfun

Well-Known Member
Your cooling system will probably have just as much rfi lol (not really sure)

But unless you have a sweet way to mask the heat sigs they can see ya that way too :)

I know, you know .
I dont know if fans produce rfi and if they do its got to be minimal. Im not worried about the cops, im worried bout keeping the peace with the people around me.
 
Top