TrolMaster LMA-24 Lantern Schedule Adaptor | 0-10V Night Break Control

What a Lantern Schedule Adapter Does to a Light Cycle

A lantern schedule is a night break, and the point of it is photoperiod rather than light quantity. The cycle runs twelve hours on, five and a half hours off, one hour on, then five and a half hours off again. That short burst in the middle of the dark stretch interrupts the long night a plant needs before it will flower. Growers have done the same thing with mechanical timers for decades, badly. This unit does it from the Hydro-X schedule instead, so the interruption lands at the same minute every day. It converts the controller's digital instruction into the analog signal a dimmable driver understands. Output is 0 to 10 volts at a maximum of 0.05 A, taken from a 12 V input. The unit weighs 60 grams, in a package 156 mm long. It takes two Hydro-X channels, which is the detail that catches people out mid build. An LED power indicator is the only thing on the case to read. There is no dip switch, no app and no calibration step.

Holding Vegetative Growth Without Lighting the Whole Night

Vegetative growth holds as long as the dark period never runs long enough to trigger flowering. One hour of light in the middle of the night therefore does the work of several more hours at either end. Total lit time lands near thirteen hours against the eighteen a straight veg day would use, and that gap is most of the appeal. TrolMaster name the fixtures it drives on the HID side: Gavita, Nanolux, Luxx, Growers Choice, Illuminar and PL. On the LED side it drives Fluence, Next Light and Spectrum King. Working range is 32 to 122 degrees Fahrenheit at 90 percent humidity or below, so an ordinary room is fine. Mount it where the indicator is visible, because a dead channel is easiest to catch there. Two channels is the real cost of this adapter, not the price on the box. A controller already close to its channel limit may need a station added before this one fits.

Key Features

• What it does: Runs a night break cycle from the Hydro-X schedule
• The cycle: Twelve hours on, 5.5 off, one hour on, 5.5 off
• Why: A broken dark period holds plants in veg rather than flower
• Signal: Converts the controller's digital output to an analog 0 to 10 V
• Channels used: Two Hydro-X channels, not one
• HID fixtures named: Gavita, Nanolux, Luxx, Growers Choice, Illuminar, PL
• LED fixtures named: Fluence, Next Light, Spectrum King
• Electrical: 12 V input, 0 to 10 V output, 0.05 A maximum
• Environment: 32 to 122 degrees Fahrenheit, humidity 90 percent or less
• In the box: One adapter, and an RJ12 cable is needed to reach it

Technical Specifications