Sonoff Advice

Humple

Well-Known Member
Those of you using Sonoffs for temp/humidity control: what setup would you recommend for two tents, each with their own extraction system, and what setup would you recommend for two tents running a single extraction system?

Thanks!
 

Humple

Well-Known Member
Sorry, I meant which modules would be recommended and what would be the best way to configure them.
 
It depends on what you have to work with really..
Is this a lung room? Are you venting out? Dehumidifier location..
Simple way if you have AC and dehu in the room, is plug each extraction fan on a separate sonoff TH10 or TH16 with the sensor in the tent and have the sonoffs on automatic mode where they switch on the fan above a certain temperature. Mind you, the sonoff can be set to automatic for either temperature or humidity but not both, so you cannot set it to switch on for something like: (temp>28 AND humidity>60) or even better (temp>28 OR humidity>60). For that you can create a "scene" with those conditions but you can only trigger other devices and not the TH10s (or TH16s) or flash any sonoff with a different firmware giving you greater flexibility.
I currently run a single extraction system for 2 tents. I have a single powerful fan and carbon filter encased in a wood box that is connected to 2 tents. The fan vents the box that sucks from both tents, into the room. I don't vent out of the room. This is a lung room with AC where the dehumidifier (constantly runs at 45%) is located next to the intake to the flower tent. I have a temperature controller on that intake with the sensor inside the flower tent. I pump cold, dry air to keep the tent at 27C/45%. By the time the dry air reaches the VEG tent, the humidity rises a bit to 50%. Perfect. A controller can go on that intake as well. Again, the sonoffs can be triggered by either temp or humidity, not both. I trigger on temperature and rely on the powerful dehumidifier and distance from intakes, to keep it down.
I have another sonoff TH16 monitoring the temp outdoors (out of the blocked window) and once every 24 hours, replenishes the air in the lung room with fresh air from outside. My room is not completely sealed and I am not running CO2.
Last sonoff is acting as temperature safeguard. My flower lights are run through a TH16 with the sensor in the flower tent and its set to switch off above 31C and switch back on below 29C. If for any reason I suffer a thermal event in the tent, the lights switch off and I get a notification almost immediately from the Itead app. -VERY HANDY. saved me from messing with thermal switches on the LED builds.
Another irritating thing with sonoffs, but certainly not affecting its operation, is its losing connectivity with the router for a few seconds while it reconnects, like, a lot! Half the time to go in the app to check out the temps in the tents, one or more of the sonoffs with be unavailable, reconnecting.
To sum it up, you are the only one who knows your room and what affects what and what can be controlled. And the sonoffs you can only do so much with the stock firmware.
Hope that helps
 

Humple

Well-Known Member
It depends on what you have to work with really..
Is this a lung room? Are you venting out? Dehumidifier location..
Simple way if you have AC and dehu in the room, is plug each extraction fan on a separate sonoff TH10 or TH16 with the sensor in the tent and have the sonoffs on automatic mode where they switch on the fan above a certain temperature. Mind you, the sonoff can be set to automatic for either temperature or humidity but not both, so you cannot set it to switch on for something like: (temp>28 AND humidity>60) or even better (temp>28 OR humidity>60). For that you can create a "scene" with those conditions but you can only trigger other devices and not the TH10s (or TH16s) or flash any sonoff with a different firmware giving you greater flexibility.
I currently run a single extraction system for 2 tents. I have a single powerful fan and carbon filter encased in a wood box that is connected to 2 tents. The fan vents the box that sucks from both tents, into the room. I don't vent out of the room. This is a lung room with AC where the dehumidifier (constantly runs at 45%) is located next to the intake to the flower tent. I have a temperature controller on that intake with the sensor inside the flower tent. I pump cold, dry air to keep the tent at 27C/45%. By the time the dry air reaches the VEG tent, the humidity rises a bit to 50%. Perfect. A controller can go on that intake as well. Again, the sonoffs can be triggered by either temp or humidity, not both. I trigger on temperature and rely on the powerful dehumidifier and distance from intakes, to keep it down.
I have another sonoff TH16 monitoring the temp outdoors (out of the blocked window) and once every 24 hours, replenishes the air in the lung room with fresh air from outside. My room is not completely sealed and I am not running CO2.
Last sonoff is acting as temperature safeguard. My flower lights are run through a TH16 with the sensor in the flower tent and its set to switch off above 31C and switch back on below 29C. If for any reason I suffer a thermal event in the tent, the lights switch off and I get a notification almost immediately from the Itead app. -VERY HANDY. saved me from messing with thermal switches on the LED builds.
Another irritating thing with sonoffs, but certainly not affecting its operation, is its losing connectivity with the router for a few seconds while it reconnects, like, a lot! Half the time to go in the app to check out the temps in the tents, one or more of the sonoffs with be unavailable, reconnecting.
To sum it up, you are the only one who knows your room and what affects what and what can be controlled. And the sonoffs you can only do so much with the stock firmware.
Hope that helps
That's really helpful. Thanks! So does each Sonoff run a single component, or do you have multiple fans/lights/pumps running on one Sonoff? Are there multiple channels that can be independently controlled?
 
That's really helpful. Thanks! So does each Sonoff run a single component, or do you have multiple fans/lights/pumps running on one Sonoff? Are there multiple channels that can be independently controlled?
You will find out that using one device per sonoff gives you that granularity that allows for fine tweaking. Running both lights and pumps on a single sonoff (other than than the 4 channel version) is impossible, they would switch on and off together. I can see a case where you'de maybe run an intake fan and exhaust fan simultaneously off one sonoff or run multiple lights with the same schedule of one sonoff. That is perfectly safe. I would keep the load at 75% percent what the sonoff is rated for (although I seen John Ward on YouTube take a sonoff to the max for long duration - they are very well build).
There is a 4 channel sonoff (4 relays with separate control) that will works greats too. I wanted to use it to control the LED channels but you have to remember these are on\off, not dimmers. I wanted to have more control over the lights. If controlling the lights using a sonoff was your idea too.. Let me share this with you: 1. I saw some people complaining that the timer function on the sonoffs is not entirely reliable. Some cycles don't switch on or something. Most of my sonoffs are set to Always ON and restore state after power failure. Only one sonoff uses a timer to swap the air from the outside in the morning. I'm honestly not awake to be able to tell you if the timer function works good for me 100% of the time.
2. Here is another idea. @Greengenes707 introduced us to the Amelech wireless pwm controller. A single controller can control (not independently) multiple lights. Looking at their products, they offer a wireless temp/humidity sensor thing and wireless sockets just like the sonoffs. Placed in each tent, that would let me control the tents and the pwm controller for the lights, all in one app.
Pro/cons: Amelech seems to have more features and more flexibility in the app but is much less known than sonoffs and very little info/help online. Not much is known on the build quality. Lastly, the Amelech is based on the zigbee communication protocol. You may find you can use sensors and devices from other maker together with the Amelech hub. The sonoffs on the other hand use use the esp8266 wireless chip and can be reprogrammed by flashing it with a custom firmware letting you do what ever you want with it.
This is where I'm at now.. I take my time deciding if to drop the sonoffs and go the Zigbee route for my room automation.
Tell me if I'm straying off topic..
 

klx

Well-Known Member
I agree with old mate. If you have separate vent and inlet fans for each tent then just get one th 16 for each. If you are using a bigger fan and venting both tents then you would only need 1. They are only like $12 or something, cheap enough to carry spares.
 

sethimus

Well-Known Member
i would never run my fans on sonoffs, fans should run 24/7. that's what a fan controller is for (with EC fans of course). they only need to change their rpm's to controll the climate
 
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