Geek meets Grow

[gearthbeta]

High all!

I'm pretty new on these forums and am currently working on my first grow and could use some input. I'm a geek at heart and am always looking for a way to add technology into the equation. Having some parts on-hand, I am beginning a bit of a journey/experiment to see how viable or realistic it is to go geek on my grow.

Thanks in advance all!
============================================

So my inner geek has kinda kicked in and I'm bringing part of my day job into into all of this for fun... I'm going to build a semi intelligent timer that will control lights and fans based not only on time but also on temperature and humidity. It's supposed to be a gloomy rainy weekend so I'm in hopes to have it at least mostly ready by Monday which is when my new (and proper) inline fan and dehumidifier arrive.

Through work I've been lucky enough to receive some free samples from vendors every now and again. When I get them I play with them and then determine if they are worth purchasing but after that the samples usually end up sitting in a box on my shelf. Today it occurred to me that a couple of them could be handy or fun, or both!

This is seriously an experiment and may never actually make it into my grow but... well ... yeah it'll still be a neat experiment!

The 2 items that I'll be using are:

Remote Monitoring System v1
and
Shuttle DS437

The RMS board has a decent amount of DC inputs to monitor voltages and has an ethernet jack to connect to a network but the real beauty for this experiment is that it has 3 independent relays that are capable of typical 110v household voltage (2x 5amp and 1x 10amp). Since I'm using a LED light that has a wall draw of 170W one of the 5 amp relays is more than sufficient (170w/110v=1.55 amps). There is a temperature sensor on it but no humidity sensor, I'm looking for one now that provides DC analog output and then it can be read by connecting it to one of the DC inputs.

The little Shuttle computer is running Ubuntu Server 14.04.3 with a simple LAMP server to read the inputs from the RMS board as well as to act as a webserver so that I can view things like the position of each relay (on/off), temperature and, when I find one, humidity.

I'm using php and perl to code the backend bits like relay control timers, action(s) based on temperature (turn booster fan on/off) and hopefully soon to toss humidity readings into it.

The dehumidifier that I ordered is based on peltier technology and has a humidistat also, the chip in it is DC voltage so, if I can't find a separate humidity sensor, I can always tie into the peltier power and be indicated of a more broad sense of the humidity and control fans based on if it's currently operating or not (turn on/off the booster fan to help expel humid air).

So far I have some test web pages and controls built that control and read the position of each relay and display their status as well as a crude relay on/off based on temperature. They're far from pretty but they work lol.

While typing up this post it dawned on me... wouldn't it be cool to have 2 humidity sensors and another temperature sensor (1 of each for inside the cabinet and one for each for outside the cabinet), that way I could graph and record them all and then maybe, in the future, start making something predictive.... hmm some food for thought but let's stick to the basics for now, I really need to get some grows out of the way before I could ever predict anything lol!

If anyone can provide any possible leads to a DC analog output humidity sensor, preferably sourced from Canada as that's where I'm from, I'd so very much appreciate it!

Anyhow, what do you guys think of this idea? Waste of time or does it sound like something fun regardless if it works out or not, like I do.

Thanks for checking this out!

 

[glimmergrass]

Mad reps, gearthbeta (love your avatar, by the way) -- I am NO help to you, but just wanted to say I think this is brilliant.

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

Lol that is pretty cool + reps

I'm not much help myself with this sort of stuff but more a plant person... just keep writing as this is good

 

[gearthbeta]

Thanks for the interest Glimmer and Fuzzy!

Working away at getting a less kludgy webpage and backend to control it right now and it's coming along. Will soon be hooking up 110 volts to the relays and testing it all with a lamp so I guess I better find the burn ointment first lol.

 

[gearthbeta]

Well I made some pretty good progress today. Relay controls and basic reporting are done and working nicely and I didn't get electrocuted!

Here's a screenshot of the portion of the webpage for controlling the relays, the light bulb turns on and off and the fans spin or stay still all depending on whether or not the associated relay is on or off.

It's not super pretty but I can tackle that later. I'm not especially fussy about having the temperature only in text, I'd like to present it graphically so I'll look into that and maybe tackle it tomorrow.

A few months ago my cell phone contract came up for renewal and I've got a new phone so I've got my old Samsung Galaxy sitting here doing nothing, I'm going to see about using it as a webcam inside my grow cabinet and have the video stream on the webpage, I'm sure that there must be a good android app for that somewhere.

Thanks for checking out this time killer!

 

[PurpleGunRack]

Awesome work there

Adding a graph for the thermometer would be cool and act like the memery function present in some thermo-/hygrometers, but a lot better

If you build these as single elements all able to connect to a mother unit and developed an app for it you'd be making a serious product not only suited for agriculture but other areas aswell, and if protected and marketed properly you could make a big business out of it.

 

[gearthbeta]

Hi PGR, thanks for stopping by!

I've made a bit more progress on this project, I am now able to set timers for simple things like turning lights and fans on and off based on a schedule such as 18/6, 12/12 or whatever. I'm also able to have it "react" based on events (like turn the extra booster fan on if temp gets too high or turn it off if temp gets too low).

Graphing is coming and shouldn't be too much trouble at all, just some snmp and rrd-tool.

I'm still looking for a hygrometer that I can hook up to this, kind of amazed at how much of a challenge this has been to find but I also haven't dedicated much time into searching yet and I've also narrowed myself to look for a Canadian source. Once I've got a hygrometer I'll be able to use it much like I am with temps and can even get a bit more intelligent by mixing those readings with temp such as holding off on extra air flow if humidity is high but temp is low by waiting until temp comes up a bit.

I also plan to have it be able to text my phone if something goes wrong. If I had more relays I could have it mix nutes and water for me.... So many possibilities lol.

My current grow still has a ways to go but, if all works out, I want to put this system in place for the next one!

 

[gearthbeta]

Well, there hasn't really been any significant progress since yesterday as my own fault... I just didn't really feel "the pressure" to make another leap since there is still plenty of time before this goes into production and the obvious problem at hand... a freaking android app! C'Mon, everything needs an app anymore so I began the creation of an API on the little Shuttle computer so that it can serve up info to the very beginning of the app that I'll put on my phone.

I have zero experience in creating Android apps but, I do have experience coding in java so it'll come together and, being so early in the main project, it's actually a good time to start this, app-wise as I can incorporate the API as I go along.

Still having a great time with this and it's still moving along. Thanks for checking it out!