Cronus CD-X3L WiFi/App Capable 640w Full-Spectrum ETL Certified, High Yield, LED Indoor Horticulture Grow Light for Veg and Bloom, 600 Watt HPS Equivalent, for Commercial Grows

Been growing for a decade, HPS, MH and LED. Originally bought this light as supplemental for bloom cycle, but it was going to be too much power, so I’m running this unit independent. Even with full scrog, I’m seeing plenty of light reaching under canopy and tons of nodes. Still in early bloom, so we’ll see what yields look like later, but by all accounts, this light appears to be building for a helluva harvest.I’d definitely recommend sucking it up and paying the extra $$$ for the wifi-connection box. If there was one detractor to this light, I’d say that paying separate for the WiFi box stinks. But it’s a must if you are a professional grower. The dusk and dawn features work great, timers by channel is good, etc. It all operates from your phone and the connection is more or less instant. Cool stuff.Summary: this light is way more powerful than typical LED grow lights and it grows healthy bushy plants with lots of nodes, suggesting high yields. The WiFi and app is a must, but you have to pay more to get the WiFi box, but I believe it’s worthy it in the long run.I’ll try to come back and update this review after harvest.

Have you ever been awakened by an air horn 6” from your face?!That's what it must have felt like to my plants every time the timer turned on my grow lights. They have light and dark cycles they've developed over billions of years, and it requires the sun's cycle to activate them properly. So, I started looking for lighting systems that could at least mimic to some degree the cycles of sunrise, midday, and sunset. It took some time, but I found CronusBrands. Even better, I found it on Amazon and saved $250.00, paying my Prime membership for the next two years in one transaction! Oh, and of course: free shipping.I recently purchased two of CronusBrands CD-X3L lights and the CB-R001 WiFi-controller. MSRP on Cronus's website for the CD-X3L is normally $1,049, on sale for $649.00. Great! Searched Amazon and found the identical product, fulfilled by CronusBrands, for $549.00 with the Prime membership price! Times two and I just saved $200. MSRP for the CB-R001on CronusBrands website was $239.00, on sale for $149.00. Amazon Prime: $99.00! The other $50.00 savings. There were only four of the lights available (promotional deal, I guess!), so I scooped up the two I wanted. It's WHY I wanted them that that makes them so much better for my plants.As I said, I wanted a lighting system with a way to mimic sunrise, etc. CronusBrands allows me to do that, using a program available through their WiFi-Controller. My plants are now awakened gently every morning, crescendoing up to an intense, full-spectrum midday run, and winding down with the same sort of gentle de-intensification that allows the plants to shut down one cycle and initiate the next. Thank you, Cronus!I got a great deal on a great system! I can absolutely say I am a completely satisfied customer, especially considering the excellent price I got thru Prime – basically half-off MSRP. However, there are some limitations of which you should be aware. I address these issues not as a criticism, but as an opportunity for Cronus's improvement.CronusBrands was founded in 2017 by a small group of lighting specialists – engineers – who set out to create this system, so they're a young company.As is frequently the case, engineers tend to design for other engineers... sadly, not the average consumer. It may be that CronusBrands had a more sophisticated customer in mind for their SmartControlSytem Android phone app, perhaps more commercial growers with experience using the kind of program incorporated into their products. As a self-proclaimed, less sophisticated consumer (62-year-old, Old Fart!) I can only say that it seems to me the GUI (Graphic User Interface) they use is something out of the 1980-90's, like out of “WarGames,” circa 1983. This is 2018, and today's consumer, whether sophisticated or not, demands a much, MUCH more interactive interface. To put put it succinctly, “I've got it set on WiFi and their Daylight program. It's working according to spec. I won't ever touch (FWI!) again if I can help it.” So, I hope it works for a long time.The second limitation I draw to your attention to is the remote controller, included with every Demeter Series fixture they sell. An important function it has is to switch between the remote itself and the WiFi-controller, if you purchase it also. From the outset, let me say you can in fact functionally recreate a Sunrise/set mode manually using the remote control over a period of say 2 ½ hours. The remote uses IR, so you must physically be near the fixture(s), with a clear line of sight. Using four channels, you can adjust each channel's intensity up and down, which brings up the remote's biggest limitation. When you press the + or –, the intensity seems to go up or down almost arbitrarily. That is, you can't just scroll up/dn in 1% increments. Perhaps the increments the remote allows were selected for good reasons, but where's, again, the flexibility, the inter-activeness? (Just how old are the guys who designed this and didn't beta test it with with GenXers, or even Baby-Boomers?) Anyway, screw around with it enough, and you can get it roughly where you want it manually. Takes 2 ½ hrs, and I don't know bout you, but I don't have the time to sit around and push the buttons every so often, so I'm depending on the WiFi-controller and the program to function. Which, so far, it does! It took help.I began email correspondence with a customer service representative before I bought the lights, and which continued throughout the process of getting the lights set up. I did the best I could and everything seemed to be fine. Then, about two days later, the lights seemed to stop responding to the program. Could've been me... dunno, but it's a good thing my 26 year-old son was here for the holidays. He was able to follow the rep's instructions well enough to disable/enable modes, etc. System has been doing great ever since!Emails escalated to phone calls as I struggled. In the meantime, I did spend the time to adjust the lights slowly with the remote (IR). In looking up the customer service phone number, I noticed the one in the catalog looked like a “fill” number: 888-888-8888 (The catalog was very small, 5 ½x7 ½ , 4-color offset, and I literally had to take out a magnifying glass to read the 5-6 pt. type in places. It's obvious they just reduced a larger version to save $ on printing. B&W 8 ½ x11 detailed installation instructions would be fine. Oh, and the CB-R001 came in a box in a bag and nothing else, no instructions.).So, I looked on the website, figuring it would be updated – same number. That put a question in my mind as to how legitimate a company this was, and is something Cronus should fix instantly, if not sooner. I emailed the rep asking for a working phone number, which he promptly provided, and which I assume was probably his personal cell number, it being in the 603 area code. 603 is Nashua/Merrimack, NH, where one of two distribution points seem to be, the other in CA.Warm and fuzzy was not in this rep's repertoire. He got the job done, thru my son – I couldn't hear him well. But it felt like another case of an engineer expecting to a conversation with another engineer, not the unwashed. Like he was the engineer in the group who drew the short straw and had to man CS. But, like I said, he got the job done. It's kind of how I feel about doctors, tho: I don't care how removed from and above me they feel, as long as they really know their stuff and get me fixed. Don't care if the doc thinks I'm a nuisance – I probably think he is, too!In my opinion, these are improvement opportunities for CronusBrands, which are not really surprising given the company's short existence. They're still getting the kinks out! But they better be fleet-footed and innovative. The market demand for this tech, once large numbers of consumers become aware, will be overwhelming, especially as the programming becomes more user friendly and easily interactive. No doubt there will be many suitors, all vying to be the firstest with the mostest for the cheapest. The velocity at which this tech is evolving will leave the complacent in the dust. In short order.\It is my hope that these limitations will be quickly addressed, for the sake of an enterprise that has come so damn close to creating an almost perfect system. Almost. Hire some young blood programmers and a marketing firm. Soon!Alright, nuf bitchin': these lights are awesome. My plants love 'em! I got a great deal.I wish Cronus improvement and wildly successful market penetration, great cash-flow, and American-sized profits in the near future. And once a bunch of touchy-feely, less-tech-sophisticated consumers such as myself wholly intuit the true potential of this tech to provide a virtually seamless – which this is not – lighting experience, I believe growers will abandon their old tech and use it as supplemental, and there will be literally an almost unquenchable demand for new, easy-to-program tech.(Oh, yeah, where's a two week veg to bloom transition from 18 to 12-13 hours? Better than overnight!) This is a great interim step showing the true potential of the tech and the size of the market. Best of luck, guys!(Oh, and see if you can ditch the Chinese icons on the Android app, English version. It pops up from time to time. Disconcerting.)

This is my 3rd light I plan to purchase another one

great ProductI had a few questions during setup so I emaile support I received a call and email within minuets with my answers