I am getting my flowering tent setup and am havibg a couple of issues. I am flowering in a Secret Jardin dr120t a twin tent with a clone/veg tent above an a lower flower tent. Tent dimensions in the bottom flower tent are 4x4x5. I am lighting it with 2 430 watt hps hortilux bulbs powered by one hydrofarm and one sunsystem ballast. I have one 400cfm inline fan to exhaust my tent if temps go above 85. I also have a 400 cfm fan that runs only through my dual cooltube to help with tent temps. My co2 setup consists of a Titan co2 regulator 15lb. Co2 tank and a sentinel Chhc-4 to regulate the flower tents temps/humidity/co2 level. with my new sentinel Chhc-4 controller and I got most of it set up, Only thing that is confusing me is the co2. I calibrate the co2 sensor as per instructions in the chhc-4 manual because when i first set it up the reading said co2 2617 ppm with no co2 on! I knew my room could not be this concentrated so that's why I calibrated it. I set the co2 to 1500 ppm after I calibrated it and before I even plugged the regulator into the Chhc it was climbing from the calibrated 380ppm to above 500... When the regulator was plugged in I had the flow set at 5 on the regulator and the co2 came on for about a minute or so and went off... The co2 reading kept climbing and got to over 2000 ppm. I continued to monitor it lastnight and it seemed to keep going well above the specified 1500ppm setting. I turned my regulator down as lowago a little lower than 1 ... Cant go any lower without stopping the co2 flow...the fan comes on at 85 just like its supposed to, shuts off when it's supposed too, I got the co2 and fans set so only one or the other is on at a time... Every other setting seems to work flawlessly like I want it too, but the main feature I bought the unit for isn't working right... Am I missing something? The dead stop on the co2 ppm is 25 so it shouldn't go above or below 1500 by more than that unless I am venting to lower temp. I am confused at why the unit cannot fill my tent to 1500ppm and stop. Maybe I have something set wrong although it's pretty straight forward so maybe I have a defective unit. Any help from other Chhc-4 users or sentinel controller users or anyone with info that could help is most definitely appreciated.
perhaps your unit is too close to the ballasts? that could trigger wrong readings...is your grow sealed? you wont be efficiently using all that co2 if you arent doing a sealed grow
Hmmm... How far away from the ballasts? The ballasts are a few years old and magnetic not digital.And by unit do you mean my remote sensor inside my tent or the actual controller unit attached to my wall? Also, my tent is sales up pretty well, I have a passive intake with a damper to seal off the rtent when co2 is being injected and a exhaust fan that pulls through a carbon scrubber to vent the tent only if temps go above 85. So unless the temp is 85 or higher the tent is pretty well sealed up.
I just got the cppm-4 same thing but it's just co2 Mine is working great! I've heard electronic ballasts can be an issue, especially quantum I think. Mine is about 3 feet away though and is fine... I think they say you can check interference with am radio to see if it kills the signal Also make sure fuzzy logic is turned on, you will see the green led next to it lit up. Otherwise especially in a small tent you will overshoot the ppm range you want to be in If you can just unhook the cch-4 and bring it to a random room you know would have around normal co2 levels and see if it still reads weird.
And I'm pretty sure deadband is supposed to stay 50, I thought lowering it would make it more accurate too but shut went crazy. Pretty sure the manual says to leave it at Pre set 50 and only change it if your burning gas i think to reduce the amount of times it clicks on so it doesn't burn out the ignitor
Hmmm... Thanks slimjim. I will change the dead band when I get home tonight. Maybe that will correct the overshoot. I check my min max last night and the co2 high was 2996... That's a huge overshoot... Most time when I see it fill it stops the regulator when the Chhc-4 says 1497 but even after the co2 flow is off the readings continue to climb to around 1600-1800 then slowly fall back down until it turns it back on it the tent gets above temp and the exhaust comes on and flushes the co2 out... I will also unhook the unit and take it to another room and see why the reading is as well. Thanks for your input.
I took the unit outside and booted her up, let it sit by itself for 20 minutes and then followed the instructions to calibrate it again to the 380ppm setting. I then let it sit for 20 more minutes and the reading between 374-376 but at one point it did drop to 370ppm. I then shut down the unit and reinstalled it on the wall and plugged my cooling fan and co2 regulator up to it and booted her up again... After booting I reset the co2 deadband to 50, confirmed fuzzy logic was selected and the unit then kicked on the co2 function and started to my tent...It turned off when the reading said 1478 and then kicked back on for a second or two and then shut off when the reading was 1496. However the reading kept climbing still to 1770 over the next minute or two.Fuzzy logic is blinking while filling and after filling until if and when my fan needs to come on to lower the temps. Then only the cooling device light is on.
Still haven't figured out what is going on with my controller. I am upset that such an expensive unit cannot do what it is supposed to do. Other postings about this unit boast of a + or - of 15-25 off of what there settings are for co2 ppm. Should I contact sentinel? Is it possible my unit is defective or something? Or is it simply the small size of my tent and the 1 cfm flow setting on my regulator too fast? Should I go down to half a cfm? I t
Yeah it's tent size and I just think that's how it works. Especially when your exhausting your room. It's called overshooting. I'd love for you to contact sentinel and let me know what they say because mine does that the first fill of the day bus since I have a sealed room it's swing isn't so bad but it does exist. Let me know
It's not the controller, my cab is 140 cubic feet, my regulator is set to .5 cfm, and I have a 100 ppm swing, 1150 to 1250. It takes very little co2 usage or leakage to cause a large swing in such a small area, a bigger area would be more of a buffer.
Well I must say that I am glad to hear that the "overshooting" is most likely due to my small tent size and the fact that I cannot go a slow .5 cfm with my regulator. Does anyone know how fast the Chhc-4 's sensor adjusts to the current conditions? As in, every time the unit flashes through the temp, humidity, and ppm levels is that a valid current reading or is is constantly catching up with itself? I ask this because after my CO2 regulator goes off my reading keeps climbing for a minute or two at least if not longer. This leads me to believe the readings aren't constantly accurate, which in turn would be the cause of the "overshooting". Does that make sense?
in order to calibrate your chhc4 properly, you'll need to bring it out in the open air (outside). connect the probe, plug in the main unit, turn it on, wait for boot up. once it gives you rH/temp/co2 readings, press "CO2 Calibrate," the number 380 appears on screen, press the "up" key to 395 (ambient us co2 is 392 PPM), then press and hold the "enter/reset" button for 2-3 sec until the screen shows "CO2 CAL." at that point walk away from it for 10-20min. the unit should be calibrated, but be advised that the readings are not fully stable until 24hrs after firing it up. DO NOT CALIBRATE IN YOUR GROW AREA, you will never get correct CO@ readings. Measurements happen in REAL TIME with about a .5sec delay. For CO2 settings go here Hope this helps. -Jesse W, Sentinel Tech Support Manager/Returns Manager/Warehouse Manager
For reals? Looks like a sentinel employee joined this site to comment on my thread... Awesome! And thanks btw. Info straight from an employee of the company that made my controller. Mega props to you Jesse and to your company as well. I am very pleased that you took the time to help me out. I won't ever forget that!
Wow that's pretty cool he jumped in on this forum to answer the question. I will follow this thread because I am very curious about CHHC4. Seems like the right controller for the job. Considering I have found more expensive controllers that don't even take PPM readings of CO2. Although I haven't come across any 3rd party reviews of comments on this device. Best of luck to you Cottonisadaddy on your search for fixing your problem. Also, jwsentineltech a question for you. I'm very interested in the CHHC4. But have not been able to find many people that have experience and worked first hand with this device. I was wondering if you have come across any other forums or grow journals of people using your guys controller. If you have any links or reviews for this particular controller and are willing to share them with us it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!