Electrical work (cable splice)

[No3odiesShad0w]

****PSA: Don't try doing this if you don't know what you're doing. You could burn down your house and yourself with it. Electrical work should only be done by professionals******

With that being said, I'm going to be doing some electrical work on my LED lights. I will just be extending the cable between the light and the ballast. During the summertime it gets way too hot in that room so I want to be able to remove the ballast from the tent in other to reduce the heat in there. For the winter I like to keep it in the tent too provide warmth for the plants.

As we all know, most board style LED lights usually have the ballast mounted on the board with a really short cable. Nowadays some of the better more high-end lights have a long cable so you can have the option of keeping the ballast out of the tent. My lights unfortunately don't. I'm going to start with the spider farmer light because I have more cable to work with.

I have some waterproof quick connect 16awg 3-prong junction boxes coming. Easy peasy cable splicing. Especially since they're using 16AWG cable instead of copper wire, I don't have to worry about cable fraying.
I'm going to cut the cable between the board and the ballast.
Board <--Connector to extension cable to connector ----> ballast
It's 3 prongs so Live (+) , Negative (-) , and Ground (/). No tricky wiring, no 3 way junctions, just simple straight run. I could even use those heat shrinky ones but, I just feel a little safer with the whole waterproof casing. It's going to look professional AF.

Pretty simple cable junction. I won't have to upgrade these lights for a few more years. This is going to be year 3 for my Spider Farmer SF2000 and they still consistently grow awesome flower. In truth, they might grow better than the Viparspectra even though the Viparspectra has more even PAR readings on a meter.

I want to extend the cable on the Viparspectra because having 2x ballasts in 1 tent is even worse than the single big one in the 2x3. I have more heat issues in the 2x4 with those 2x ballasts at 130°F or more. The problem with the Viparspectra is the cable length. I have literally 3 inches of cable. There's literally no room for mistakes, otherwise, you'll be soldering cable in the ballast. That's not something I want to do. I want to keep it simple. The other problem with the Viparspectra lights is that second smaller cable. I'm almost certain that it goes either towards the switch or towards the knob and it either controls the dimming or the switch that allows you to daisy chain. That cable is even shorter than the other one. Just more of a hassle. I jumped the gun on these lights a little I shouldn't have gotten two of them. They're good lights but they're just too hot and I can't control them with the controller; They feel very basic.

If these quick connects allow me to strip minimal cable and then I'll redo all my lights. Otherwise I have to spend $550-600 on bar style grow lights with removable ballasts vs. $40 on some connectors and cable. It'll give me even better control of my micro environment in the tent and my lung room. It will increase the life span of the LED lights themselves without having a hot ballast attached to them.

Any thoughts? Comments? Suggestions?
I've been doing electrical work for about 15-20 years. I've done a lot more complicated stuff inside of computer boxes than what we're dealing here with a simple cable splice.

[Bluey]

A modern LED grow light about 93% of the heat originates from the light and about 7% from the driver.

Dont splice the wire if you can wire direct into a new wall plug and wire it direct into the driver. Use a larger gauge wire to allow for greater resistance over the extended distance. You could buy an extension lead for that purpose as that wire is designed for regular movement, household wiring is not.

You will likely need to splice the driver to LED wire unless you can wire it in with a direct connection. Do the same as above but if you splice just use connectors rated at the voltage and amperage that exceeds existing specs. Place a junction box over the connectors and seal with a caulking product if you want spray resistance.

EDIT. Pull test all spliced connections for failure, one wire at a time. Im not familiar with those connections you have posted and I would never buy anything from Amazon to do electrical work, only from a reputable electrical supply shop where qualified and registered electricians shop.

[No3odiesShad0w]

Problem is is that electrical shops by the crap on Amazon to stock their shelves. The place where I have to splice is between the board and the driver so I can't do anything direct to the wall.

[No3odiesShad0w]

Problem is is that electrical shops by the crap on Amazon to stock their shelves. The place where I have to splice is between the board and the driver so I can't do anything direct to the wall.

If I do need to tie to LED cable then I have wire ferrules.

[Gingerbeard]

Gingerbeard don't do 'lectric. Gingerbeard don't do 'lectric for getting 'lectricuted enough times. After however many years since assembling my grow light, I am still convinced it is going to splode at any moment. Even broke the potentiometer knob.
But, hey... good for you!

[No3odiesShad0w]

I was hoping it was a M to F connector to the board, but it's not. It's most likely soldered.

I have to cut between the board and the driver. There's already a huge cable spliced onto the other end of the driver but that's not the part that I need longer.

[No3odiesShad0w]

And he said "LET THERE BE LIGHT!" and there was!

Very successful cable splice. There were some unexpected twist and turns. I expected to have a ground wire so I bought a three-pole connector.... I only needed a two pole 🤷♂️. Oh well I rather have an extra one then have one too few. The other surprise. I expected AWG cable not copper wire. I wish I had wire ferrules but it's okay. Just had to do it slow and steady.

I didn't expect the casing to be so huge but then I did get the quick connector. They're usually larger than screw connectors. But, all that is okay! I just added 5 feet of cable to my driver and LED board. I can now move my driver outside of my tent which will make summer growing much cooler. Then I'm the winter time, I can slip it back into the tent for the extra warmth. It's a win win!!

Super happy with how that went!! This will be the light for the Hot Cakes and Bloody Runtz by Going2fast.

[changeofpace2014]

****PSA: Don't try doing this if you don't know what you're doing. You could burn down your house and yourself with it. Electrical work should only be done by professionals******

With that being said, I'm going to be doing some electrical work on my LED lights. I will just be extending the cable between the light and the ballast. During the summertime it gets way too hot in that room so I want to be able to remove the ballast from the tent in other to reduce the heat in there. For the winter I like to keep it in the tent too provide warmth for the plants.

As we all know, most board style LED lights usually have the ballast mounted on the board with a really short cable. Nowadays some of the better more high-end lights have a long cable so you can have the option of keeping the ballast out of the tent. My lights unfortunately don't. I'm going to start with the spider farmer light because I have more cable to work with.

I have some waterproof quick connect 16awg 3-prong junction boxes coming. Easy peasy cable splicing. Especially since they're using 16AWG cable instead of copper wire, I don't have to worry about cable fraying.
I'm going to cut the cable between the board and the ballast.
Board <--Connector to extension cable to connector ----> ballast
It's 3 prongs so Live (+) , Negative (-) , and Ground (/). No tricky wiring, no 3 way junctions, just simple straight run. I could even use those heat shrinky ones but, I just feel a little safer with the whole waterproof casing. It's going to look professional AF.

Pretty simple cable junction. I won't have to upgrade these lights for a few more years. This is going to be year 3 for my Spider Farmer SF2000 and they still consistently grow awesome flower. In truth, they might grow better than the Viparspectra even though the Viparspectra has more even PAR readings on a meter.

I want to extend the cable on the Viparspectra because having 2x ballasts in 1 tent is even worse than the single big one in the 2x3. I have more heat issues in the 2x4 with those 2x ballasts at 130°F or more. The problem with the Viparspectra is the cable length. I have literally 3 inches of cable. There's literally no room for mistakes, otherwise, you'll be soldering cable in the ballast. That's not something I want to do. I want to keep it simple. The other problem with the Viparspectra lights is that second smaller cable. I'm almost certain that it goes either towards the switch or towards the knob and it either controls the dimming or the switch that allows you to daisy chain. That cable is even shorter than the other one. Just more of a hassle. I jumped the gun on these lights a little I shouldn't have gotten two of them. They're good lights but they're just too hot and I can't control them with the controller; They feel very basic.

If these quick connects allow me to strip minimal cable and then I'll redo all my lights. Otherwise I have to spend $550-600 on bar style grow lights with removable ballasts vs. $40 on some connectors and cable. It'll give me even better control of my micro environment in the tent and my lung room. It will increase the life span of the LED lights themselves without having a hot ballast attached to them.

Any thoughts? Comments? Suggestions?
I've been doing electrical work for about 15-20 years. I've done a lot more complicated stuff inside of computer boxes than what we're dealing here with a simple cable splice.

Nice Choice you even kept it modular..

[No3odiesShad0w]

"Keep it simple" motto

[No3odiesShad0w]

I want to do the same thing with my Viparspectra XS1500pro. The power is a simple 2 pole junction. Same process like the spider farmer lights. BUT

Here's where I want to get technical. The lights have a really crappy knob switch that can only do 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%. What I purpose to do is take that cable and connect it to a RJ11/12 cable (the phone pluggy thingy) then just connect it to my AC Infinity 69pro and that will act as a dimmer switch. The LEDs are obviously able to be dimmed, they're just being limited by the crappy dimmer switch they decided to put on these lights.

The problem. Viparspectra lights.... This one specifically is it resistor dimming (I think this one) or is it PWM?

I'm like 99% sure this is not a PWM light because it would have been compatible with the controller of it was. Since it has a dedicated knob that runs a cable to the knob directly to the driver, probably means it's resistor dimming. They must have gotten some really good deal on these cheap knobs because why? They make a great light into a meh light.

The question
Do you think I should try to couple the dimmer cable with a R11 and give it a try? I have the adapter because my spider farmer is also a resistor dimmer. I have extra RJ11/12 cable or should I just splice and leave it the way it is?

[changeofpace2014]

It sounds like you can not move the driver unless you rework the dimmer. Curious if you pulled out the existing dimmer to (2 screws) and see if you can reuse it with an extension..Just make sure you use the same SIZE of wire that is connected to the existing dimmer.

[Bluey]

The dimmer is likely either a 0 to10v or a 1 to 10v dimmer but test it first.

[No3odiesShad0w]

Looks like it's compatible with resistor, PWM and timing dimmers...... Why they put such a crappy knob 🤔

[No3odiesShad0w]

I would in essence be building a box like this that the SF2000 light has expect no need for switches and channels only one cable straight to the AC Infinity adapter and the controller will dim the light with the app. It'll really turn these good lights into amazing lights with controller capabilities. I ordered the 2 pole junctions as well as proper wire strippers. This summer really will be LIT

[No3odiesShad0w]

So I was messing with the Viparspectra XS1500pro lights last night and despite AC Infinity and Viparspectra saying they're not compatible with the 69pro controller........ Turns out.... They are compatible! (Kinda of). You need 2 controllers. The AC Infinity Type B(resistors dimming) RJ11 cable. This will control the dimming on the lights. Since they're resistor dimming lights, they can't turn off with the dimmer switch. For that, you need the AC Infinity on/off power plug to switch the light fixture on and off. It's a bit dumb but I'm glad it works.

This will make the electrical work so much easier. Just keeping everything parallel. Just adding an extension to both of the cables to get the driver out of the tent...

The local and remote switch is on the lights. I just flick that to remote on the fixtures and I can daisy chain them together with one running to the controller and everything will be perfect!!!!

Super glad it works with the switch. I don't need to do any weird wiring. 👍

[No3odiesShad0w]

It worked!!!!
It's not perfect but that cable was SO SHORT to work with. It didn't want to fit into the waterproof casing. Not only that but it was more of a PITA than the quick connect lever connectors. I'll just wrap it nice and tight with electrical tape. It's not pretty looking but it's absolutely functional and the tent stays a whole 4°F (2°C) cooler inside.

Not only that but I found out I can use the AC Infinity 69pro controller to dim the XS1500pro lights.

[No3odiesShad0w]

All the drivers have been removed from the tents! Much success! Thanks also to the Migro channel on YouTube. Shane knows his stuff. He helped me understand how and why the lights work and how to wire them correctly. I hope this will improve my Summer grows.

[Rootsruler]

Happy you're happy. Not sure I'd go through all that for the incremental decrease in heat but if it works for you then good on you!

[No3odiesShad0w]

Right now it's only a small difference because the lights are turned down. I have seedlings in there. Only the sweet zombie is getting more PPFD. Once I turn up the lights for veg and boom, then summer ramps up, it's going to get hot up here. That's when not having the driver in the tent will make a big difference. Especially since my 2x4 tent might have between 2-3 light fixtures (2x2 size) Each driver pumping out 130F worth of heat plus the lights themselves. It quickly adds up. I don't like it when the fans ramp up because I have a small studio ..I can hear it everywhere. Cheaper than buying new $400 lights just to have the longer driver cable.