Arduino based room controller

[OG13]

I don't know if the PST is isolated optically or not, that is a question for them, see my PM. Let them know their switch is causing issues w/ the computer driving it. I still think the kick is traveling through the 120 v house circuit and affecting the arduino, ie it won't matter how many "loops" of isolation you install. You should try running the arduino off battery to see if that fixes it. All you need is a 9 v, or use a filtered power supply like a desktop computer supply 12 vdc would work.

 

[Maer]

the arduino is running off my computer which is plugged into a smart ups, short of an EMP that is not going to vary.

 

[OG13]

The Seed/Sex Box update

Here are some pics of the box. I made it out of 1/2" MDF, glued and nailed together. The box measures about 2'x2'x1' deep. It has a door on each end and a wall in the middle. Each "room" has an inlet in the door bottom and a muffin fan on the exhaust up high on the back wall. The inlet and exhaust are covered with hepa filter material to keep pollen in each side. If needed, light traps will be installed over the filters. This will be in a dark basement separate from the main grow area. Inside of box.....you can see the sensor inside

outside of box......filters on one side so far

Each side has 2 23 watt CFL's lighting an area about 1 foot square. I only installed one temp/hum sensor which controls both sides. I figured that the two sides would run pretty close since they have identical gear. If it is a problem, I can always add another 10 dollar sensor. When it gets running, the vent fans run about half the time and cycle on/off every 3 to 4 minutes, mostly based on temperature. I doubt humidity will ever be an issue except during the summer, but it will keep the fans running if needed.

control box......on top of the cabinent

Bench testing went without a hitch, but once the box was built and running (no plants yet) problems started. The lights would turn on fine. The box would heat up due to the lights. The fan would cycle on and off as need to maintain the temp setpoint of 76 degrees. Occasionally, the fan would turn off and "reboot" the arduino. This was only happening due to the fans turning off. I tried to isolate the fans power from the arduino, but if they were on the same circuit, the problem continued. I made a snubber from a resistor and capacitor in series and placed it across the relay contact. Problem solved. You can't see it in the pics, it is below the relay board, connected to the large red and black wires. All the 120 vac stuff is under the board.

You can see that I used a arduino clone from Modern Device, cost 13 bucks and my standalone RTC which cost 4 bucks. The sensor was 10 bucks, relay drivers and relays were 3 bucks, CFLs were new. Everything else I had laying around.....

 

[Maer]

Air will flow through that fan and let pollen in or out. Also I dont think computer fans have the power to pull air through a HEPA. Most HEPA's come with min ratings needed to filter air effectively.

You are a braver man than I with the 120V stuff... but I may have to take the plunge.

 

[OG13]

There is a filter on both inlet(door) and exhaust(fan) and gasket on the door. Each side is isolated. I'm not worried about efficiency, just need enough air flow to keep the temp within the band. It works fine with no plants inside and I have other fans if needed. If you can wire up a light switch and install an outlet, this is really no different. The relay becomes the light switch, the fan is the outlet.

 

[Maer]

There is a filter on both inlet(door) and exhaust(fan) and gasket on the door. Each side is isolated. I'm not worried about efficiency, just need enough air flow to keep the temp within the band. It works fine with no plants inside and I have other fans if needed. If you can wire up a light switch and install an outlet, this is really no different. The relay becomes the light switch, the fan is the outlet.

I was talking about in post 243 the second pic, the fan looks like it is uncovered.

 

[OG13]

First pic shows the inside, second pic shows the outside. The other end of the box (2nd compartment) is not filtered yet. Just did one end to monitor temps for proper operation.

 

[OG13]

Got a CO2 monitor/logger today to play with it. Will convert it to control and document here. I was going to buy the sensor only, but this is standalone and is going to a buddy's grow. It communicates using I2C protocol. Going to play with it for a day or two before I void the warranty.....

 

[Jack Dos]

Use "Scythe Ultra Kaze DFS123812L-3000 Case fan" fans. with a 15v DC adaptor. at 3000 rpms@12vDC its only at .5 amps cycling over 160+cfm. They can be run at 15v ~5000rpms+ 200+cfm and their quiet believe it or not. adapter can be purchased here its a great place to order, especially in bulk. no power adapters have gone bad, but you do have to replace fans to a ratio of 4/5, every 6-7 mos.

It cools down about 10-16 degrees when used for exaust. in a 30sqft room. using 1 fan exhausted.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Use "Scythe Ultra Kaze DFS123812L-3000 Case fan" fans. with a 15v DC adaptor. at 3000 rpms@12vDC its only at .5 amps cycling over 160+cfm. They can be run at 15v ~5000rpms+ 200+cfm and their quiet believe it or not. adapter can be purchased here its a great place to order, especially in bulk. no power adapters have gone bad, but you do have to replace fans to a ratio of 4/5, every 6-7 mos.

I'm curious. Do you mean that you end up replacing four out of five of your fans (of that particular model) every six or seven months? I just have junk no-name no-rating fans, but I think the newest one was bought in 2001 or 2002. Of course they aren't generally as quiet as they were when brand new - and the desk fan that I appropriated from my ex-wife back around 1996 when I saw it's "business end" would just fit into an 8" duct doesn't seem to move the same amount of air that it used to. But still... every six or seven months?

Also, have you by chance done any testing - or "seat of the pants comparison" - to see how much that model's output drops if it is used in a restricted airflow situation such as with a carbon filter? I'd like to purchase one new fan in the late Spring (or two if they're small and cheap) and would like to get one that has the grunt to move adequate air with a filter without blowing too loudly and too much air when I run it unrestricted. (I suppose I should look into cobbling together something that senses load and runs the fan harder, but I can get lazy, lol.)

altFour - TOS <-click) - For yours and My protection!

It's off-topic, but I just read your User Notes linked above.

Ownership:​

All materials, including all images, text and graphics, keywords, meta-tags and the general 'look and feel', ('the Content'), contained on the Site are that of altFour and are personal property and are intended for educational, research or informational purposes only. They are protected by copyright under national laws and international treaties. The marks, corporate logos and emblems displayed on the Site are subject to the trademark and other rights of its content providers.​

​

I thought I should point out that this site follows the trend of many sites in that it expressly states that when you post images/photos here, you give copyright to 420 Magazine. I'm not sure about other things which you might post (such as text).​

​

I'm no lawyer, but it looks like your "TOS" is somewhat fanciful and might not grant you the protection that you thought it would since parts of it appear to be in conflict with the site you have posted it on and therefore the document as a whole might not stand up to some hypothetical future legal challenge - if, indeed, that was your intention, which admittedly, might not be the case, IDK.

 

[Jack Dos]

Torturedsoul

,

Thanks do much for the tos update. Retrospectively my tos are in correlation of this sites and is to coincide with but not limit to restrict myself directly to their tos but to in fact work along side as well as have my own. But legally you could be right. I'm no lawyer either but I like to cover my ass when it's cold. =]

As to the fan. Yes tested many options a well as trial runs power and amperage and suction. I have made these fans work with standard duct an PVC along side working with my DIY carbon filter. And yes these fans were chosen due to the replacement. They are easily obtainable and can be returned due to bearing failure i usually have backups but I takes about 1-3 days when it starts squeezing before you have to replace it.

 

[cubelite]

OG,

Props for making this thread and making a tutorial over it. I see its been a work in progress. I've thought about doing this and see that there are very few things that the arduino would not be able to handle easily in such a setup. The key is having the ability to make a scalable solution to suit many growers, although I see this mostly being done by tinker type of DIY growers over commercial grow applications.

My breaking point for starting this project has always come down to the ease of use on a daily basis. Once youve flashed your arduino and its running, a UI has to be in place to run this effectively. I've always thought that while an 4 line LCD does the job of communicating some data, it is far from the optimal solution. A webgate would be cost effective from a hardware standpoint and flexible as its only software dependent.

I found this video the other day while wasting my life on youtube: Automated Hydro - YouTube That type of UI would be perfect, but seeing as how their website is down, I take this as not a good sign for the demand of such a product by the marketplace. Nonetheless, if an opensource project can be made to do just this, it would be amazing.

Personally, I have access to some industrial automation equipment that runs the same thing as an arduino, but its inputs are limited to DI, DO, AI, AO, and RTD and runs about 50 times the price of each arduino i/o point. Its overkill, but its industrial nature is peace of mind.

Let me know your thoughts.

 

[OG13]

That is a nice option, more fancy than most would need in my opinion. If you need all those features definitely check it out. I'm doing this to show people that some of this technology is not that difficult, you just need to be exposed to it and play around for a while. Maer is getting much more involved than I am. If your system is so involved that you need real time updates and the ability to change settings on the fly, maybe you need to rethink how you grow. I set the system parameters (temp, humidity) maybe once a season to account for outdoor conditions. It's no big deal to hook up the laptop 4 times a year to "reprogram". I would never personally automate a feed system, one stuck valve and your plants are fried, all of them. Maybe you would get an alert that the TDS was climbing or pH was not controlling, but what can you do remotely? It's like a fire alarm.....what can you REALLY do from another location?

I think the arduino is reliable enough, it all comes down to how robust the rest of the system is. Inputs are no problem, outputs take some more work. They need to be tailored for the load being driven. We have both had problems driving motors (inductive loads) due to the inductive kick on turn off. I'm not sure an "industrial microcontroller" would fare any better in the same setup. Better isolation and circuit snubbers have fixed the problem. PLCs are pretty inexpensive now, but I like the $30 arduino. I'm more hands on with my plants, I'm using this cheap tech to run fans and lights and CO2 and save a little bit on a commercial controller. I like to tinker.....some people don't.

 

[cubelite]

That is a nice option, more fancy than most would need in my opinion. If you need all those features definitely check it out. I'm doing this to show people that some of this technology is not that difficult, you just need to be exposed to it and play around for a while. Maer is getting much more involved than I am. If your system is so involved that you need real time updates and the ability to change settings on the fly, maybe you need to rethink how you grow. I set the system parameters (temp, humidity) maybe once a season to account for outdoor conditions. It's no big deal to hook up the laptop 4 times a year to "reprogram". I would never personally automate a feed system, one stuck valve and your plants are fried, all of them. Maybe you would get an alert that the TDS was climbing or pH was not controlling, but what can you do remotely? It's like a fire alarm.....what can you REALLY do from another location?

I think the arduino is reliable enough, it all comes down to how robust the rest of the system is. Inputs are no problem, outputs take some more work. They need to be tailored for the load being driven. We have both had problems driving motors (inductive loads) due to the inductive kick on turn off. I'm not sure an "industrial microcontroller" would fare any better in the same setup. Better isolation and circuit snubbers have fixed the problem. PLCs are pretty inexpensive now, but I like the $30 arduino. I'm more hands on with my plants, I'm using this cheap tech to run fans and lights and CO2 and save a little bit on a commercial controller. I like to tinker.....some people don't.

I agree that its a nice option, and nice to have, but the time to develop that if you arent planning on selling it and selling it to a lot of people is going to be hard to justify, especially for someone that not fluent on the software end of things.

I dont mind reprogramming 4 times a year, but theres got to be a relatively easy way to make an html page that would be able to modify the variables allowing you to not have to hook up.

I dont want to suggest by any means that using something like this would allow you to plant your grow and come back in 3 months to harvest. This would simply allow you closer monitoring of the system, especially if the system is not in immediate home.

The cost of using a real PLC (industrial control and automation) and all of its components would not be an option for the average grower. I have a 5.7" PLC / HMI combo with no on board IO for ~$2000. The IO is added remotely by adding a remote base (~$250) and IO cards (~$200-$400). Digital inputs are affordable at $20 per digital in or out while analogs / RTD inputs tend to be a bit high in the $50-100 range per point. Add the $1200 software package to program it all, and its a pretty hefty investment.

I'm doing the Arduino because its an excuse to (re) learn circuits and electronics. Cant replace the joy of building something from scratch. But I think I will run my first grow from the PLC just due to time requirements because the Arduino will take longer to build than the PLC system.

 

[cubelite]

BTW, here is a good article to display the arduino info on an html page with a gauge:

Nerdy By Nature » Blog Archive » Arduino Web-based Live Gauges

Arduino Web-based Live Guage - YouTube

 

[PrairiePoet]

I agree that its a nice option, and nice to have, but the time to develop that if you arent planning on selling it and selling it to a lot of people is going to be hard to justify, especially for someone that not fluent on the software end of things.

Just because a person isn't planning on selling something directly, does it means there is no justification.

DIY doesn't mean open the box, plug it in and everything you ever desired has arrived.

I think you will also find a much larger online community working and sharing their work with Arduino than PLC system.

Good luck on your system, I hope it works well for you.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Once you get your Arduino based system hooked up, you can communicate to it via standard telnet, right?

 

[PrairiePoet]

Once you get your Arduino based system hooked up, you can communicate to it via standard telnet, right?

You can communicate to it through a serial connection. Telnet per see isn't there unless you write telnet side for the Arduino. There is a bootloader called FirmATA that allows a command driven interface to the Arduino.

If you are wanting something that is a bit more easy to work with there is the raspberrypi. It will be close to the same price point and can run several variations of linux, though less GPIO ports. The Arduino group also released specs late last year on a 32 bit board that will be coming out later.

HTH

 

[OG13]

Hey Prarie, how do you find the time to stay up on all this stuff? I can't even get the next lesson posted.....

plus reps

 

[OG13]

CO2 Controller....a device similar to the arduino

I recently picked up an AQ100 CO2 monitor from CO2 Meter | Carbon Dioxide Meters, Sensors, Monitors, Data Loggers - Welcome. It has an accurate sensor (K30) and offers data logging in the package. I opted for the temperature/humidity sensor installed as well. Turns out that this is a SHT11 sensor (30 bucks by itself for the arduino) and is extremely accurate with quick response. It is possible to just buy the K30 and SHT11 sensors to use with the arduino, but it would have cost as much just for the parts. This is also going to a buddies grow room, so I wanted it to be standalone. I have read in other threads of the possiblity of using this monitor to actually be an active controller, however no one has shown how to do it, I will just for you. You can actually control 2 outputs, so I will do humidity and CO2.

When I got the AQ100 monitor, I first played around with it for a few days. I checked the "normal" levels of CO2 around my house. I was surprised to find about 800 ppm indoors in the winter, guess I got the drafts sealed up too good. Outside read 420 (classic), due the the city environment. At my buddies in the country, winter environment, it read 385. In the grow room it read 1900 at lights on. He's been running a small CD-3 on propane all the time to get the level high (all based on math calculations). I played around with the data logging feature a little bit as well. Just connect to a computer and download the files. It has its own software to display the data collected. Works nice, pretty simple too.

Now, on to the warranty voiding part. I opened the case up and found the board inside is the same as the development board the company offers, the AQ500. It is not fully populated, but does have all the connections to add your own components. If you choose to play around with it, you can do a bunch more than I'm going to show here.

The spots on the lower right side are for 2 subminiature relays,

OMRON G5v-1 I purchased from Newark for a few dollars. If you study the wiring diagram and the nomenclature on the board it becomes obvious that the relays are mounted on the back of the board (they need to go there to fit back into the plastic case too). I installed the relays and began playing around with the programming. All the programming is accomplished thru the DAS software you download from the company. It is the same software used to access the data logs. You can enter the "advanced configuration" from the "configure sensor" option if you have the password–"peacefuldove". I set the display to "green all the time" and configured Relay 1 to check the humidity sensor, relay ON if humidity is above 5500 (55%), Relay 2 to check CO2 ppm, relay ON if CO2 ppms are below 1200. The actual settings are, for humidity: U/V (upper value) of 32676, L/V(lower value) of 5500, Mode inclusive, Output Relay 1, Sensor SHT11. For CO2: U/V 1200, L/V 0, Mode inclusive, Output Relay 2, Sensor K30. Yes, it took a while to figure out the range for humidity, range of 0 to 32676.....

When I was sure the relays were working as expected, I began to wire them up. I wanted to kill the CO2 if the humidity was too high and the vent fan was running, so I took 5 Vdc from the card to Relay 1 common and from Relay 1 NC to Relay 2 common. I had 3 leads going to the switched outlet box. Ground from the board, NO from Relay 2, NO from Relay 1.

I am using the subminiature relays on the board to switch 2 Solid State Relays (SSRs) mounted under the 120 Vac outlets. These SSRs are looking for an input of 20 mA at 1.2 Vdc, that equates to a 220 resistor on the 5 Vdc signal. These SSRs are driven by a LED inside. I took 120 Vac hot to the SSR and from the SSR to the appropriate screw on the outlet. The Neutrals were all connected together and to ground. I had one switched outlet per SSR and 2 outlets hot at all times. Each SSR got a snubber installed across the "switch" consisting of a 1microfarad metal film capacitor in series with a ½ watt 100 ohm resistor (Radio Shack p/n's 272-1055 and 271-1108)

The whole enchilada ready to mount to the wall.

It's been installed for a few weeks now, works great. One outlet gets the wire to the CO2 generator plugged into it, one outlet gets the vent fan for humidity plugged into it. The fan runs about once an hour even though the dehumidifier collects about 4 gallons a day, running nonstop. In the summer some humidity is controlled via the AC, in the winter, the sealed room doesn't get the benefit of the dry air.