Best RaspberyPi Grow Room Software

[dynamo1]

Sweet. Yes, it looks nice, albeit somewhat expensive when it's all said and done. On the positive side, of course, there are far more options available for arduino devices - which makes sense, as such things are used in the industrial world.

The Raspberry Pi is what it is, an extremely cheap computer for the "homebrew" crowd that is capable of running a linux OS. But that's part of the appeal - I like linux, although I'm a user, not a programmer. And I'm thinking that my next computer will probably be one (if I'm lucky, lol). I like the fact that I could - in theory, at least, and with some patience - use one for other "computer" tasks, such as basic web browsing.

Both are interesting, but for slightly different reasons. I'm only a spectator in this sport at present, and like seeing what people have done, are doing, and will do with both devices.

Open source rules!

I like that there are not enough people running linux to make it not worth hackers efforts .

 

[TorturedSoul]

I like that there are not enough people running linux to make it not worth hackers efforts .

Someone felt differently, so he added 420,000 devices running linux to his botnet, and used it to map the remaining IPv4 internet, LMFAO.

Although, to be fair, it looks like this was more an example of taking advantage of people's stupidity than actual hacking:
Researcher sets up illegal 420,000 node botnet for IPv4 internet map

I still laughed, though. Especially since it was... 420,000 devices .

 

[dynamo1]

I stand corrected.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Nah, you are correct for the most part, I think. Although the inherently increased security of a *nix OS plays a big part, too, in addition to their lesser market share. I think the vast majority of the *very few* instances of people experiencing security issues in the wild with linux can be chalked up to user... doing something he/she shouldn't, or failing to do something he/she should. Sticking with a version of their distro that is long out of its support window, for example, or the usual "don't do this!!!" opening email attachments and/or visiting the wrong websites (and/or allowing them to run the wrong scripts on their computers), that kind of thing. And, even then, linux / et al tends to protect people from their mistakes, by requiring user to have super user level permissions to really screw things up, lol. Not to mention, if that hypothetical evil email attachment happens to be an .exe file, the user would have to install Wine to even do anything useful(???) with it in the first place. Et cetera.

I'm thankful for all of that, of course. But the main reason that I run linux exclusively is... well, have you ever tried Microsoft Windows?

 

[Pbear77]

Hell yeah man this should win the best raspberrypi mod contest in my opinion! Definitely tagging along for this.

 

[TorturedSoul]

I typed

raspberry pi grow room

into a web-search engine earlier this evening out of curiosity, and was surprised at the number of results. I suppose that I shouldn't have been, considering there is a lot of bleed-over between cannabis growers and technophiles. I didn't bother to examine any of the links, because I was in a hurry and didn't actually have a Raspberry Pi. But then someone saw my posts in this very thread and told me that they were gifting me one! Also a BeagleBone (whatever that is, lol), which the person described as "all the difficulty of Raspberry but none of the easy stuff" - which seems pretty daunting, but also intriguing.

So this thread has suddenly become far more significant to me.

 

[DrewT]

Hello all, glad to stumble in late . Has anyone mentioned MIT's OpenAg platform? They have several versions of open source grow systems, called Personal Food Computers. There's no reason they couldn't be used as Personal Medicine Computers. One system is relatively cheap to get up and running.

I roll my own. I've already posted about what I've done and might do next. Is anyone else actively working on projects at the moment? Care to share build journals or code? I'm 100% open source and would enjoy collaborating!

 

[tylerarie]

I didn't know there was any pre-written stuff for the RPi. I am going to check out that 'Home Assistant' you mentioned. Any links to that?

I wrote my own code or patched together what I could find from others to put this little monitor together. I'm still working on it.

Across the top is the moisture levels of each pot. To the right is a cam into both my rooms (veg and flower) clicking either cam shot takes you to that room.

I want to make drop downs so I can chart from a few hours to about 70 to 80 days.

any chance you'd share this? It looks incredible. I am wanting to set up something similar to this in my grow room!! Thanks in advance.

 

[dynamo1]

Tell me more please.

 

[Latitude17]

This would be much safer than using homemade relays/outlets. Thoughts?

Safer how? A good relay board, wired correctly in a project box, is just as safe as most of the hardware store strips out there and it's made for this kind of thing

Air Temp/Humidity: DHT11
Water Temp: DS18B20
Light Sensor: BH1750
PH: Pending
TDS/EC: Pending
Air Quality: css811 (have not bought)

My personal preference is the DHT22. What do you hope to gain from the light sensor? For your air quality, are you looking for something specific - or just "how clean is my air"? I'm not sure you can get a good/accurate CO2 reading from the < $35 sensor range, but I'd LOVE to be wrong about that.

Has anyone mentioned MIT's OpenAg platform?

Yes, and have you examined the setup? Personally I think it's an overly complicated mess for what it's doing.

 

[DrewT]

My personal preference is the DHT22

Not a bad sensor, but I was persuaded to move to the HTU21D for several reasons. I recommend this research if you're interested.

wired correctly in a project box

This seems to be a dividing line in the DIY spectrum. Some folks are not comfortable working with mains voltage and I can appreciate that. Yes, it's very possible to build your own relay box but will it be designed to minimize chances of electrical shock or overload? Varistor surge protection, thermal overload fuses, GFI circuitry - some of these come standard on power strips and are challenging to implement correctly on your own. Hacking existing hardware can provide increased safety if it's already designed with these features in mind.

Personally I think it's an overly complicated mess for what it's doing.

I wont argue with that statement . Yes it's overly complicated for what it does but it's a hackable open source solution with an active development community.

 

[Latitude17]

I recommend this research if you're interested.

The test is potentially unfair though given that they were brand new and are being compared against two-year old DHT22s and SHT71.

I would agree with them as far as the reliability goes, they've just always been cheap to replace and I'm pretty lazy when I have something already working well that just requires an unplug/plug to replace the hardware. I have a drawer with probably a dozen spares left right now.

That being said, I do have the AM2315 hanging at canopy height for temp/rh readings there. But general area monitoring is still done with the DHT22's until I manage to kill them all.

 

[ducknaldo]

Mycodo running on Raspberry.
When these babies are done, I´ll have a go at hpa automated grow.