Invisible Sun Smart controller Review

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Invisible Sun Smart controller Review

Post by Vador »

Invisible Sun Smart Controller

In this review I will walk you through the Invisible Sun Smart Controller, I’d like to make it clear that I paid for this myself and I have no affiliation with invisible sun.

So first of all lets have a look at what’s in the box.
Image


Included in the box is:
  • Smart Controller
  • Instructions
  • 2x 3m daisy chain cable
  • 2x 4m temperature probe
  • 1.8m usb power cable
  • 2x power brick adapters
  • Wall mounting bracket
I’d like to start by saying what a nice touch the wall bracket is, normally on other products you have to mess around trying to line the screws up with the mounting holes on the back of the product. With the addition of the bracket, mounting to a wall got even easier. I didn’t even use the supplied rawl plugs and just drove the screws through the bracket and straight into the wall, jobs a good en.

The display is easy to read and is all pretty much self explanatory.
What wasn’t obvious to me to start with was that this is actually a touchscreen, you can click the little gear icon in the bottom right corner and it’ll pop up a separate settings menu which also responds to touch.
From the Home Screen all you do is hold down the set button and the cursor will appear and let you start editing all the options, then just use the arrow keys to navigate your way around, when your done just press set again and your done, dead simple to use.
Image

One thing I really like is the ability to set the light brightness by % or by watts, so for example you could just tell it set the lights to 50% and they will be dimmed to 50%, or perhaps you have 3 lights and you want to max them out at 100w each giving you a 300w total then instead of adjusting the percentage you adjust the watts to 100w, I really like that as it saves me having to work out what 55% of 480w is and things like that.

When you first fire it up you’ll want to navigate to the menu and then touch the “setting” icon, from here you can set the maximum power your biggest light will draw, for example I’m running 2x 240w x bars and 2x 150w v bars off the smart controller so my biggest wattage is 240w so I entered that into the field. You can also set the minimum and maximum values for the light brightness here, it’s been suggested to me to leave the minimum value alone or the light won’t turn off. Depending on what lights your using you might want to set a maximum value in here so you don’t accidentally turn the light up too high and fry your plants.
Image

That brings me on to one of my favourite features on the smart controller, sunset/sunrise.
What a great feature, you basically input a number between 1-60 and that’s how long your sunrise and sunset will last, When the light switches on it will start at 0% and work its way up to the value you set for maximum brightness in the menu, taking as long as the time you entered into the field. Before lights go off the reverse happens and it dims itself back down to 0% for the allotted time. Very simple to use and a very handy feature.
My plants are in the last weeks of flowering and every day I’m adding an extra couple of minutes to sunset/ sunrise and taking away a couple of minutes of lights on time every couple of days to try and imitate the end of summer, While the jury is out on whether this is having any effect on my plants what so ever it is saving a little bit of electric along the way and in my eyes encouraging the plants to finish. Who knows though.
Image

Also in the menu you have:
  • Wireless devices- This lets you connect a device to the relays located at the bottom of the unit(not sure exactly what you can connect) which is controlled by the smart controller.
  • Help- a quick help menu
  • Device id- this is where you’ll find the qr code for connecting via the smart mesh app
  • Output type- this should be left on 0-10v
  • Sunrise/sunset- let’s you program up to an hour of sunset or sunrise.
  • Screen off- switches screen off automatically after a short period of inactivity, can be useful if the smart controller is in with your plants
Image

Pro’s:
  • Customer support is second to none.
  • Easy to mount.
  • Long cables on temperature probes.
  • Can be powered by USB.
  • Sunrise and sunset function.
  • Automatic shutoff functions, temp/humidity too high.
  • Set max brightness in % or watts
  • Control up to 200 lights.
  • Maintains two different areas with up to 100 lights in each area.
  • Display can be set to switch off automatically when not in use.
  • Can be controlled via an app over Bluetooth.
  • Acts like a digital timer giving you full control of light cycles down to the minute.
  • On board RTC keeps time and settings intact after power outage.
  • Works flawlessly.
Cons:
  • Cables from controller to light could do with being a little longer, that being said they are fine for my setup but for some people they will be too short and a replacement cable can be tricky to find. (The controller cable has a different pin out than a straight through rj14 to rj14 cable so an extension cable used to extend the cable that comes with it would be the best option.)
  • Still draws power when lights are off due to ballast still being live, my two x bars draw 6w while off now, not a major deal breaker but something you should know, 100 lights all drawing 3w each while off is going to cost a substantial amount in a year, could use timers as well to mitigate this though.
  • Chinese app (Chinese apps usually spy and collect data for Chinese government so they can profile and track you).
  • Instructions could have been better.
All in all a nice little unit that performs really well and helps with automation, there aren’t many people selling this unit but those that do are all around the same price point and come in white, if you buy from IS you’ll get it in black with the Invisible Sun logo on the unit, plus your supporting a uk based company that does a lot for this forum so there’s no excuse to buy one anywhere else.
You could just save yourself some money and use a timer to switch your lights on and off while manually dimming them down to the brightness you need, Where is the fun in that though, this acts as a timer but with some nice extra features thrown in. If you’ve spent all that money on the lights already then this is worth the extra in my eyes.
I hope that’s answered some questions for somebody, If there’s anything you want to know please feel free to ask.
These users thanked the author Vador for the post (total 12):
Keeno (Wed Jun 01, 2022 12:23 am) • GMO (Wed Jun 01, 2022 8:59 pm) • Sage (Thu Jun 02, 2022 5:33 am) • Herbalist (Thu Jun 02, 2022 8:48 am) • seymore_budz (Thu Jun 02, 2022 12:56 pm) • Greenfingers (Thu Jun 02, 2022 1:48 pm) • Everydaze420 (Thu Jun 02, 2022 2:20 pm) • biosynthetic (Thu Jun 02, 2022 3:16 pm) • Nom (Wed Jun 15, 2022 9:24 pm) • camkush (Wed Aug 03, 2022 6:31 pm) • Invisible Sun (Thu Aug 11, 2022 9:36 am) • GreenFingerz_ (Thu May 18, 2023 12:25 am)
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Re: Invisible Sun Smart controller Review

Post by Keeno »

Veru detailed write up. Thank you Vador. I've now got a better understanding of the controller, and I'm sure this will help many people in the future.
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Vador (Thu Jun 02, 2022 12:46 pm) • Invisible Sun (Sat Feb 25, 2023 9:09 am)

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Re: Invisible Sun Smart controller Review

Post by Nom »

Now this is something I've been waiting to see in action before taking the plunge
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Vador (Thu Jun 02, 2022 12:46 pm) • Invisible Sun (Sat Feb 25, 2023 9:09 am)

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Re: Invisible Sun Smart controller Review

Post by Vador »

Keeno wrote:
Thu Jun 02, 2022 1:10 am
Veru detailed write up. Thank you Vador. I've now got a better understanding of the controller, and I'm sure this will help many people in the future.
Nom wrote:
Thu Jun 02, 2022 5:55 am
Now this is something I've been waiting to see in action before taking the plunge
Thanks guys, I don’t know about you but I like to know all about a product before I buy normally, trouble with a lot of growing gear is surprisingly there doesn’t seem to be lots of information considering how many people are using it.
I’ve got an inkbird review coming for that same reason
These users thanked the author Vador for the post (total 4):
seymore_budz (Thu Jun 02, 2022 12:56 pm) • Nom (Thu Jun 02, 2022 2:17 pm) • wutang (Wed Jul 20, 2022 7:02 am) • Invisible Sun (Sat Feb 25, 2023 9:09 am)

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Re: Invisible Sun Smart controller Review

Post by wutang »

Vador wrote:
Thu Jun 02, 2022 12:48 pm
Keeno wrote:
Thu Jun 02, 2022 1:10 am
Veru detailed write up. Thank you Vador. I've now got a better understanding of the controller, and I'm sure this will help many people in the future.
Nom wrote:
Thu Jun 02, 2022 5:55 am
Now this is something I've been waiting to see in action before taking the plunge
Thanks guys, I don’t know about you but I like to know all about a product before I buy normally, trouble with a lot of growing gear is surprisingly there doesn’t seem to be lots of information considering how many people are using it.
I’ve got an inkbird review coming for that same reason
I agree. Especially if its via Amazon flooded by fake reviews. At least here you'll know someone has actually tried and tested the product.

Thanks for the review. The sunrise/sunset feature is cool. Do you know whether you can connect supplementary lighting such as their UV and far red bars together with the is530?

Thanks
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Vador (Wed Jul 20, 2022 12:54 pm) • Invisible Sun (Sat Feb 25, 2023 9:09 am)

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Re: Invisible Sun Smart controller Review

Post by Vador »

Hi @wutang, unfortunately you cant connect the supplemental lights to it, i think it has to have a dimmer fitted to work with the smart controller as it uses pwm to vary the brightness of the lights.

I agree with what you say, its so frustrating reading reviews sometimes, too many fake ones out there.
Personally i tend not to write many reviews, the only exceptions are when a product is really good or when a product is truly terrible, my experience with all the IS stuff so far has been really good. Had some problems with one of my v bar which is documented in the review but Rich at IS had it sorted for me in no time.

The sunset/sunrise feature is pretty cool, ive been adding a few minutes each day in late flower so the days are getting shorter.
Not sure if it makes much difference but in my head it helps to replicate nature and should encourage the plants to finish, who knows though.

All in all great bit of kit and i still have no regrets in buying it
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wutang (Wed Jul 20, 2022 10:20 pm) • Invisible Sun (Sat Feb 25, 2023 9:09 am)

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Re: Invisible Sun Smart controller Review

Post by wutang »

Vador wrote:
Wed Jul 20, 2022 12:54 pm
Hi @wutang, unfortunately you cant connect the supplemental lights to it, i think it has to have a dimmer fitted to work with the smart controller as it uses pwm to vary the brightness of the lights.

I agree with what you say, its so frustrating reading reviews sometimes, too many fake ones out there.
Personally i tend not to write many reviews, the only exceptions are when a product is really good or when a product is truly terrible, my experience with all the IS stuff so far has been really good. Had some problems with one of my v bar which is documented in the review but Rich at IS had it sorted for me in no time.

The sunset/sunrise feature is pretty cool, ive been adding a few minutes each day in late flower so the days are getting shorter.
Not sure if it makes much difference but in my head it helps to replicate nature and should encourage the plants to finish, who knows though.

All in all great bit of kit and i still have no regrets in buying it
Happy growing brother.

First time im using my invis 530 so lets see what its made of in a 1.2x1.2x.2.0m tent. Need to look into power and height when my babies go in. Completely different game with LED I hear vs HPS etc.
These users thanked the author wutang for the post (total 2):
Vador (Thu Jul 21, 2022 5:41 pm) • Invisible Sun (Sat Feb 25, 2023 9:09 am)

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Re: Invisible Sun Smart controller Review

Post by Vador »

wutang wrote:
Wed Jul 20, 2022 10:22 pm
Vador wrote:
Wed Jul 20, 2022 12:54 pm
Hi @wutang, unfortunately you cant connect the supplemental lights to it, i think it has to have a dimmer fitted to work with the smart controller as it uses pwm to vary the brightness of the lights.

I agree with what you say, its so frustrating reading reviews sometimes, too many fake ones out there.
Personally i tend not to write many reviews, the only exceptions are when a product is really good or when a product is truly terrible, my experience with all the IS stuff so far has been really good. Had some problems with one of my v bar which is documented in the review but Rich at IS had it sorted for me in no time.

The sunset/sunrise feature is pretty cool, ive been adding a few minutes each day in late flower so the days are getting shorter.
Not sure if it makes much difference but in my head it helps to replicate nature and should encourage the plants to finish, who knows though.

All in all great bit of kit and i still have no regrets in buying it
Happy growing brother.

First time im using my invis 530 so lets see what its made of in a 1.2x1.2x.2.0m tent. Need to look into power and height when my babies go in. Completely different game with LED I hear vs HPS etc.
Nice, good luck with that im sure youll get on just fine with it.
Its not all that different tbh, if you can do well under hps then led shouldnt be a problem.
My x bars are dimmed to 50% and i have them 6 inch from the canopy, the plants are loving it
These users thanked the author Vador for the post (total 2):
wutang (Thu Jul 21, 2022 5:50 pm) • Invisible Sun (Sat Feb 25, 2023 9:09 am)

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Re: Invisible Sun Smart controller Review

Post by wutang »

Vador wrote:
Thu Jul 21, 2022 5:41 pm
wutang wrote:
Wed Jul 20, 2022 10:22 pm
Vador wrote:
Wed Jul 20, 2022 12:54 pm
Hi @wutang, unfortunately you cant connect the supplemental lights to it, i think it has to have a dimmer fitted to work with the smart controller as it uses pwm to vary the brightness of the lights.

I agree with what you say, its so frustrating reading reviews sometimes, too many fake ones out there.
Personally i tend not to write many reviews, the only exceptions are when a product is really good or when a product is truly terrible, my experience with all the IS stuff so far has been really good. Had some problems with one of my v bar which is documented in the review but Rich at IS had it sorted for me in no time.

The sunset/sunrise feature is pretty cool, ive been adding a few minutes each day in late flower so the days are getting shorter.
Not sure if it makes much difference but in my head it helps to replicate nature and should encourage the plants to finish, who knows though.

All in all great bit of kit and i still have no regrets in buying it
Happy growing brother.

First time im using my invis 530 so lets see what its made of in a 1.2x1.2x.2.0m tent. Need to look into power and height when my babies go in. Completely different game with LED I hear vs HPS etc.
Nice, good luck with that im sure youll get on just fine with it.
Its not all that different tbh, if you can do well under hps then led shouldnt be a problem.
My x bars are dimmed to 50% and i have them 6 inch from the canopy, the plants are loving it
Is there a section/guide here about LED light height/dimming etc that I can look at?

Thanks dude
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Invisible Sun (Sat Feb 25, 2023 9:09 am)

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Re: Invisible Sun Smart controller Review

Post by Vador »

wutang wrote:
Thu Jul 21, 2022 5:51 pm
Vador wrote:
Thu Jul 21, 2022 5:41 pm
wutang wrote:
Wed Jul 20, 2022 10:22 pm


Happy growing brother.

First time im using my invis 530 so lets see what its made of in a 1.2x1.2x.2.0m tent. Need to look into power and height when my babies go in. Completely different game with LED I hear vs HPS etc.
Nice, good luck with that im sure youll get on just fine with it.
Its not all that different tbh, if you can do well under hps then led shouldnt be a problem.
My x bars are dimmed to 50% and i have them 6 inch from the canopy, the plants are loving it
Is there a section/guide here about LED light height/dimming etc that I can look at?

Thanks dude
Im not sure tbh, this might help, someone shared it somewhere on the forum and i stole it
Image

Its proven quite useful, you can get an app on your phone for measuring light intensity and use that to fugure out how bright your light needs to be at a whatever height you set it.
Some of my colas are touching the x bars now and its not causing any damage to them, getting 750 par at canopy level, if the power was set higher no doubt they would have been fried by now
These users thanked the author Vador for the post (total 3):
seymore_budz (Fri Jul 29, 2022 12:16 am) • wutang (Fri Jul 29, 2022 6:26 am) • Invisible Sun (Sat Feb 25, 2023 9:09 am)

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