Jeremy at Build a Soil did a review on that light. They have a huge amount of videos on the tube. Not sure if he did a grow and impressions on it or not, he has hundreds of videos on YouTube. GOOD videos.
Marty
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Are you referring to the FloraFlex 700 watt fixture on Amazon from earlier in this thread? The one thatâs $342 + $27 shipping?
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yes I am. Review on that light at Build a Soil youtube channel.
And my thousand dollar LUXX has the driver built in so canât put it outside the tent. But for me itâs not a problem. Matter of fact I am in veg right now and canât get the tent up to the 85 degrees I want it to be, even with my exhaust fan at the minimum of 1. I would turn it to a min of 0 (off) but the controller is not turning it on that way and the air needs to be refreshed for new CO2 in the tent.
My VPD is staying at about 1.0 for fast growth, but it just isnât getting up to temp. I guess I will have to take it off AI and program the thing manually. AC Infinity sure doesnât have the AI program anywhere near smart yet. If you use the VPD as the standard to keep the tent, it isnât smart enough to let the tent get to temp, it just keeps the fan on or it pumps so much humidity into the tent it cools it down again. So I will have to set it up manually on a temp/humidity senario and manually turn the exhaust fan on and off on a schedule. You have to either do a program or use the AI function, and pick a time/humidity or VPD as the controlling factor. I am sure they will figure it out and download a new program but right now the AI function doesnât work worth a damn.
Marty
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For $400, Iâd go with Spider Farmer or something similar. The light youâre looking at has too many controls, and the driver is built into the frame, which isnât great. It also doesnât say what kind of chips or driver it uses, so Iâd avoid it. A better option is the Enfun 240W setupâit has Samsung chips, a Meanwell driver, and built-in UV chips. At around $140 each, you can get two for the same price, and theyâll work great for flowering!
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Even with two that is only 480 watts, we are talking about a 700w eight bar dimmable light. A lot cheaper per watt.
Marty
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I asked Zach over at Buildasoil about that FloraFlex 700 watt 8 bar light just now. He replied:
âThis is a great light for the money! Jeremy pulled 2 pounds off 1 GMO plant under that light.â
Iâm going to get that light!
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There are so many options of lights to consider. And since I donât have a positive personal experience with any one particular brand or model, I tend to over-think and overload myself with data and specifics, then itâs difficult to make a decision.
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The seller on Amazon is in MS; so I wouldnât get it until next week. Byt I found a garden center close-by that has it for $375!
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I figured since he set it up in one of his tents in a video he did, that he would run some plants under it. Sounds like a winner to me.
Marty
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I had watched that video a while back which iscwhy the lights nane tang a bell. I just watched the first few minutes again and he says itâs a great budget light considering the 700 watts and overall specs and performance.
The total cost on Amazon is $394 and takes 6 days to reach me. I can pick it up locally tomorrow for a total of $404.
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This is why I donât like the AI stuff., easier to keep VPD steady at a lower temp, sounds like the AI is working ad designed. If they AI had different modes for different growing stages it would help but again no trust here, hope they update it so your life gets easier.
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Iâm currently using a Growpros HM480 Pro (480 Watts), works great got 1.68 LBâs off my first room with 4 Norther Light Blueâs. The last grow I took down is almost ready to trim and was 4 NLBâs an one Acapulco Gold, hoping to get 2 LBs this go. I was under the impression anything over 1 LB a light was good? Is that the old school of thought with HPS/MH lights?
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The AI function does have different modes for different times during the grow, it has Seedling, then Veg, then flowering. It just doesnât have the proper programming. Iâll try to explain a little better
When you run the AI program you have to pick how you want the controller to handle the most important function to you. In my case I picked it to maintain the VPD. Of course VPD has a dual dependency, heat and moisture. And when we grow inside we have to move new air into the tent at least every hour to get a proper amount of CO2 back in the tent that the plants have used.
The problem is the controller canât seem to figure out how to do that like you or I would. There are things you can limit in the AI mode and other things it doesnât allow. It handles them, but it doesnât do it properly. Here is my example, I want 85 degrees for Veg. It allows you to set the high temp, it also allows you to set the VPD, as well as the exhaust fan min and max speed, and the humidifier output high setting. ( no off or minimum on the humidifier)
The problem I am encountering is this. When the humidifier comes on to get the humidity to the ideal VPD it cools the tent down. If you donât set the minimum exhaust fan speed at 1 it never runs if the temp is never met, so it runs at the low setting of 1 all the time, (if you do set the exhaust fan at 0 it NEVER RUNS) never replacing the CO2 in the tent, but at 1 it causes the humidifier to run at a higher setting trying to keep the VPD at the point you set. And cooling the tent down yet again. So the end result is you canât ever get to your temperature, and keep the VPD at your desired setting. The controller in the AI mode does not allow any override programming input for the devices you have hooked up.
What would fix it is if you could set the exhaust to run for say 5 minutes once an hour and off the rest of the time the CO2 could be refreshed, the temp could be met and the humidifier wouldnât run at high setting like it is now doing and allow the tent to hit your temp setting while keeping the humidity up and maintaining the set VPD. Hope that makes sense. that additional setting allowing you to manually program the exhaust fan and still use the AI mode would fix that. But it would also have to be able to override that once an hour setting to keep the temperature in check if necessary.
Whew lol
Marty
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Thats a lot to digest. Have you consider using a cheap honeywell humidifier with a paper cartridge? It will give you constant humidity output and the fan will adjust according turning up and down as necessary?
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Wow man. I got it makes sense. That sounds like an annoying glitch. You should also hit up a/c infinity and cut and paste that whole response/explanation in an email and see if they have any work arounds or if there even aware of this yet as the Ai craps all pretty new! I hate Ai so far 
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Agree 10000%
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I got the FloraFlex 700watt light and set it on its brightest setting. Should I leave it at its current height, or remove the hanger things and somehow suspend it at the highest point in the tent?
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Art I know you have a smartphone either a Apple or an Android I am sure 99% do, there is a program you can download from Apple called PPFD, and I donât know but 90% sure they make it for android too. Install it on your phone and it uses the face camera as a light meter itâs free and pretty accurate all you have to do is wrap or lay a piece of 20# white copy paper over your front facing camera as a diffuser. Then adjust your height to your plants using the PPFD or Umol thatâs appropriate for your stage of grow. After the seedling stage that would be 5-600 PPFD, seedlings are around 250 PPFD. And flower is higest around 800-1000 tapering off and lower near the end of flower.
Why guess when you can get it near exact. HTH
Marty
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I have the AC Infinity largest humidifier, the water vapor they put out is cool so it cools the tent down, donât need another humidifier need a better program on my controller lol. And I DO want it to run at 85 degrees.
Marty
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I did already Prey. They know about it, he told me they are working on it. And they do have a work around it is called a self made program, but you canât use that and the AI at the same time, so basically what I told him was why did I spend the extra money on a supposedly smart AI controller when itâs stupid and canât figure it out lol.
It does a lot of stuff, and the controller even sent me a text recommending that I buy a heater to get to my tempature lol. A 860 watt light makes plenty of heat, just need a smart enough controller to use it.
Because I do want 85 degrees and 1.0 VPD, the growth is fantastic at that setting, I just canât get to the 85 the way the AI in the controller is handling it.
Marty
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