Frequently Asked Questions

If your question does not come up here, feel free to contact us directly!

Grow Lights

Distance to the plants

Many customers are unsure how high the LED lamp should hang above the plants. In general, we recommend never to go below a minimum distance of 15 cm.

The ideal height is influenced by the mounting environment and the lamp. Most of our systems are designed to achieve ideal illumination at a distance of 30 - 40 cm. On the In this article we address the topic of distance in more detail.

Which light spectrum / colour temperature do I need?

Neutral light (balanced red and blue component - 3500 K) is the all-rounder for the growing and flowering phase. You can't go wrong here. Discerning gardeners supplement the neutral white light with monochrome light sources depending on the plant cycle to achieve special impacts on plant physiology.

Cold light (higher blue component, from 4000 K and above) is good for the vegetative phase to obtain a compact growth habit in indoor plant cultivation. Too warm light signals to the plants that they are in the shade and triggers rapid height growth (stretching).

Warm light (increased red component, from 3000 K and below) is better for the fruit formation and flowering phase of a plant. Here, a lot of light is needed within a very short time - red light contains more photons.

In principle, plants grow under a wide variety of light conditions. In addition to photosynthesis, the light spectrum or colour temperature also influences the growth habit and other properties (photomorphogenesis) of the plants. This is why white full-spectrum plant lighting is often referred to as "Boosters" for certain wavelengths, which can then be useful in certain phases of the cultivation cycle. Go to right spectrum of light we have published a separate article.

CresControl

How does CresControl help with gardening?

Most plants fall victim to either overzealous gardeners or the wrong environmental conditions. A controller solves both problems. It always maintains the ideal values for humidity, temperature and nutrients. CresControl also helps you optimise the light recipe to find the ideal spectrum for each growing phase.

Can I simulate a sunrise?

If that were all 😉 CresControl has six outputs for individual time control and dimming of different LED channels. Lighting recipes and schedules are integrated into the user interface.

In order for CresControl to control your lamp, the LED driver must have a dimming input. This applies to almost all drivers that you can buy from us. For Mean Well, these types are marked with the suffix -B or -AB.

What are sensAct extensions?

sensActs are peripheral devices that extend the range of functions of the CresControl. For example, the sensAct Climate can be used to measure temperature and humidity in order to control fans or other devices.

Which fans are compatible?

Modern EC ventilators can usually be controlled. They have a control input for this purpose. If your fan only has a step switch or an internally installed control, you can unfortunately only switch it on and off like all other AC fans.

CresControl also has a 4-pin fan connector compatible with standard PC fans - ideal for small boxes as exhaust air or actively cooled LEDs.

Can I control third-party LEDs with CresControl?

Many third-party LEDs can be controlled with CresControl.

Prerequisite is a dimming input that can be controlled with PWM or 0-10 V. This is always the case with Mean Well drivers of type -B and -AB. If you are unsure whether your LED can be controlled with CresControl, please contact us.

How can I use my own code?

With little programming knowledge, anyone can run their own programmes. We provide an API for easy integration into your system. If you need help implementing your application yourself, you can ask the Crescience development team to do the programming for you. Please use Contact with us.

DIY LED

What thermal management do I need for my setup?

First of all, good air circulation must be ensured in the plant room so that the waste heat from the LEDs can be easily dissipated.

In principle, the better the cooling, the more efficiently the LEDs work and the longer their service life.

In theory, the heatsink should be as large as possible and a fan with a high air flow rate should constantly remove heat from the heatsink. In practice, however, the effort and costs involved must be weighed up. Often space conditions and noise avoidance also play a role.

For our Custom LED Product line consider this: we recommend to always use a heat sink. Only with a very low driver current ~1 A can it be dispensed with. The FLUXengine without heatsink was in our tests at room temperature with 1 A (equivalent to 20 W power consumption) and reached a still acceptable temperature of 50° C at the hottest point. The entire study on thermal management can be be posted here.

Our professional LED solutions are equipped with a passive cooling system that ensures specification-compliant operation within normal ambient temperatures (up to 30° C). Intelligent sensor technology ensures that the luminaire is protected if the permissible temperatures are exceeded. In extreme cases, the light output will be throttled.

All about LED power supplies / drivers

The power supply of LEDs is an important building block for the construction of plant lamps. There is a separate article about this on our Knowledge platform - here you will find everything you need to know about LED Drivers.

Which driver for my LEDs

In principle, one driver should be used per LED module type. Most of the time the spectra are very

Account & App

How to open an account?

To open a Crescience account, all you need is an email address. Sign up via the app or the community and get instant access.
You can use your Crescience Store account. Please note that personal data is also stored there (billing address).

Can I use the app without an account?

Yes! All contents are usable.

However, to control your devices, you must currently be logged in.

What happens to my data?

First of all: We do not want any personal data from you. It is important to us that your plants are doing well. Therefore we try to collect as much plant and environmental data as possible to give you a good picture of the situation.

Our devices offer functions for the acquisition of plant data and technical data. To give you the best control of your ecosystems from anywhere and at any time, this data is stored on our servers. Important: no personal data is transferred, only system and diagnostic data.

If you still have doubts, we also offer you the possibility to run your own server - for example using single board computer like the Raspberry Pi.

During your interactions in the shop and website, some personal data is indispensable, for example a shipping and billing address. Those who attach great importance to remaining anonymous certainly know what they can enter in the corresponding fields (e.g. Packstation).

In general, our privacy policy is based on the principle of "data economy", so that in all interactions with Crescience - in the App or in the shop - only the absolutely necessary personal data is collected. For full details on how we handle data, please refer to the Privacy Policy.