This is by no means an exhaustive expose' of the subject, nor am I even the slightest bit knowledgeable therein. That aside, I do have an extreme interest in this subject because of my dwelling situation coupled with my state's current political position on Cannabis. To be more frank, I grew out a plant last year, journaled it here and did my very best to keep it secret from everyone that I do not live with. However, as this is a pretty high maintenance hobby/profession, especially to a new grower, I found myself needing to spend hours a day in my room building, constructing or just trying to dial my grow into a favorable and optimal range, all while my room mates would frequently entertain guests when the bars let out. Needless to say my absence caused many of those guests to inquire as to my whereabouts. If I were not in my room, I could be out mingling and running my own interference schemes to keep curious eyes preoccupied in other ways.
It was this feeling of unease that caused me to search for other ways of being able to manage my grow remotely, and though I have found quite a few different solutions, I still lack the knowledge and budget to get it all under my roof and for my benefit.
This blog entry is really just a platform I will use to expand my knowledge and share it with subscribers simultaneously. My plan is to one day own and control a plethora of completely automated grows that I would not need to be physically at save for maybe once every 7-10 days. That is a pretty tall order I know, especially for someone that is busting his back trying to get a multi plant grow off the ground and into a successful harvest, so I will obviously need to start somewhere, with just a single grow and implement my findings as I can afford to and hopefully I will be able to trickle funds into this idea which I anticipate will keep me out of my own personal grow save for topping and transplanting.
I happen to know that as of the date of this writing, we the human race have the technology on the market to manage light cycles with no timers (as we know them), control air movement times and fan speed, fill, mix and empty 1 or more reservoirs at will, control air quality, humidity and temps, operate and access video feeds with night vision and pretty much every other parameter I cannot recall at this time. All of which I plan to one day (sooner the better) observe and control from my smartphone.
The following YouTube video I found just last night while trying to research this topic again depicts a man in California that already has done what I want to do with his outdoor aquaponic grow that produces a vast array of edible veggies. I plan to build a system based off of these same concepts, but I will pick and choose to better suit the plants that I will be focusing on. This man also manages other grows remotely via his computer and as this video is well over a year old, I'd bet he now controls his grows via his smartphone.
For those that are really intimidated with circuitry, computers and all of this newer technology, there are definitely other less hands on options that will achieve the same end result such as Insteon for Android users and WeMo for iPhone users.
However, at first glance, it appears to me that Insteon and Wemo will both be a little to restrictive in terms of the goals that I am setting for myself, I will put upon myself to learn about a little device called Arduino which to my very limited knowledge is a small computer board that can easily be connected to thousands of other devices such as relays for controlling outlet fixtures, solenoid valves, meter valves, probes for monitoring nutrient mixtures, cameras and liquid flow controllers.
The Arduino can be accessed and controlled via Bluetooth, Ethernet and also there are smartphone apps for it. The Arduino is a similar in nature to the Linux operating systems in that most of the commands need to be typed in command line fashion, there is however a few different Arduino forums that I can utilize to learn that programming language and use it to make the Arduino do what I want it to do.
What I would like to accomplish is to be able to press a button on my smartphone which energizes a valve that empties my nutrient reservoir, another that fills it back up to a desired level with Reverse Osmosis water that will be kept on hand in another storage tank, activate an air stone to bubble for a while, another to check Dissolved O2 levels, EC/PPM, water temp and pH, another to begin meting nutrients in to the desired levels, monitor it some more and make the very fine adjustments as needed in accordance with my feed plan for that given plant(s). All of this while also managing light schedules, air movement schedules, room temp, CO2 levels, RH and odor control, everything that we all do during an average grow cycle. Basically, every single device or apparatus that we growers implement that somehow utilizes an electric current to function can be tied into the Arduino board and controlled via smartphone.
Aside from all the legalities associated with growing Cannabis, I would like to one day go on a vacation perhaps to a foreign country, and entrusting a friend to watch over a grow is one thing, entrusting multiple friends to be able to pick up exactly where I left off with multiple grows at multiple locations is a whole new plateau of trust one would need to get to bed at night. However, if my vaycay destination has internet access, I can still manage my grow completely and only need to entrust others to do the actual physical stuff such as pruning, topping and transplanting. But then again, if my budget were to open up, robotic arms could also be attached and controlled making the entire grow 100% hands free and every day would then become a sick day!
So feel free to subscribe if you wish and post anything at all related to this subject that you feel would be beneficial to myself or others that may just be passing by or doing his/her own research. I will continually update this blog as I feel need, or if I find something or accomplish something that better serves this goal of mine.
It was this feeling of unease that caused me to search for other ways of being able to manage my grow remotely, and though I have found quite a few different solutions, I still lack the knowledge and budget to get it all under my roof and for my benefit.
This blog entry is really just a platform I will use to expand my knowledge and share it with subscribers simultaneously. My plan is to one day own and control a plethora of completely automated grows that I would not need to be physically at save for maybe once every 7-10 days. That is a pretty tall order I know, especially for someone that is busting his back trying to get a multi plant grow off the ground and into a successful harvest, so I will obviously need to start somewhere, with just a single grow and implement my findings as I can afford to and hopefully I will be able to trickle funds into this idea which I anticipate will keep me out of my own personal grow save for topping and transplanting.
I happen to know that as of the date of this writing, we the human race have the technology on the market to manage light cycles with no timers (as we know them), control air movement times and fan speed, fill, mix and empty 1 or more reservoirs at will, control air quality, humidity and temps, operate and access video feeds with night vision and pretty much every other parameter I cannot recall at this time. All of which I plan to one day (sooner the better) observe and control from my smartphone.
The following YouTube video I found just last night while trying to research this topic again depicts a man in California that already has done what I want to do with his outdoor aquaponic grow that produces a vast array of edible veggies. I plan to build a system based off of these same concepts, but I will pick and choose to better suit the plants that I will be focusing on. This man also manages other grows remotely via his computer and as this video is well over a year old, I'd bet he now controls his grows via his smartphone.
For those that are really intimidated with circuitry, computers and all of this newer technology, there are definitely other less hands on options that will achieve the same end result such as Insteon for Android users and WeMo for iPhone users.
However, at first glance, it appears to me that Insteon and Wemo will both be a little to restrictive in terms of the goals that I am setting for myself, I will put upon myself to learn about a little device called Arduino which to my very limited knowledge is a small computer board that can easily be connected to thousands of other devices such as relays for controlling outlet fixtures, solenoid valves, meter valves, probes for monitoring nutrient mixtures, cameras and liquid flow controllers.
The Arduino can be accessed and controlled via Bluetooth, Ethernet and also there are smartphone apps for it. The Arduino is a similar in nature to the Linux operating systems in that most of the commands need to be typed in command line fashion, there is however a few different Arduino forums that I can utilize to learn that programming language and use it to make the Arduino do what I want it to do.
What I would like to accomplish is to be able to press a button on my smartphone which energizes a valve that empties my nutrient reservoir, another that fills it back up to a desired level with Reverse Osmosis water that will be kept on hand in another storage tank, activate an air stone to bubble for a while, another to check Dissolved O2 levels, EC/PPM, water temp and pH, another to begin meting nutrients in to the desired levels, monitor it some more and make the very fine adjustments as needed in accordance with my feed plan for that given plant(s). All of this while also managing light schedules, air movement schedules, room temp, CO2 levels, RH and odor control, everything that we all do during an average grow cycle. Basically, every single device or apparatus that we growers implement that somehow utilizes an electric current to function can be tied into the Arduino board and controlled via smartphone.
Aside from all the legalities associated with growing Cannabis, I would like to one day go on a vacation perhaps to a foreign country, and entrusting a friend to watch over a grow is one thing, entrusting multiple friends to be able to pick up exactly where I left off with multiple grows at multiple locations is a whole new plateau of trust one would need to get to bed at night. However, if my vaycay destination has internet access, I can still manage my grow completely and only need to entrust others to do the actual physical stuff such as pruning, topping and transplanting. But then again, if my budget were to open up, robotic arms could also be attached and controlled making the entire grow 100% hands free and every day would then become a sick day!
So feel free to subscribe if you wish and post anything at all related to this subject that you feel would be beneficial to myself or others that may just be passing by or doing his/her own research. I will continually update this blog as I feel need, or if I find something or accomplish something that better serves this goal of mine.
