Round 3 - Capn Style - Automated

Checklist for Wednesday, Harvest Day!

  • Remove BubbleGum in pieces and inspect every branch for sacs or nanners
  • go back in to emptied bloom and modify res tote for RO filling, modify ventilation system
  • clean entire room, walls, light, floor, res inside and out
  • mix an 8 gallon 600 ppm transition feed
  • cut a larger opening in panda film/door and reposition velcro strips
  • bring in next candidate from veg, though her poor considion will likely cause me nightmare, I still gotta do it.
  • Wash all harvested BG buds and hang to drip dry for an hour
  • trim it all and hang it all to begin drying
I don't expect more than 8 ounces once everything is dried. The unflushed sample I took the other day is still amazingly sweet with a spicy undertone. In the grinder, it smells like pineapple juice with many citrus notes and other sweetness I can't describe. After wash and at least a short cure, I expect this to be very good smoke. The high is one of the better ones I've smoked in my life. It's a very intense head high. I can feel the Indica and Sativa trying to be more influential over each other and the result is a major head rush that only flows as low as my shoulders and seems to loosen my neck pretty much stay in that region of my body. I am one that rarely enjoys the strong Indica highs, couch lock and fleeting paranoia. When that's all I can find around the way, I usually smoke it very slow so not to overdo it. However, the BG hits me just as hard and the way I prefer. The only negative side effect I've found is severe cotton mouth. Hopefully this also abates after some cure time.

Gonna be a busy week for Skybound!
 
Ya'll lost me after mechanical timers......... Hope you don't mind I take a peek every now and then. I kind of look at pictures myself. They never taught us to read back in Arkansas... But I take it ya'll mean a controler unit? Plants look sure look happy in that picture.
Keepem Green
Hahaha..me, too. It's like a different language that is completely foreign. But I like the pictures also. And I admire your IT savvy-ness.(I don't think that is a real word)
Respect!
 
It's ok Anna (& Woody). The direction the IoT (internet of things) is heading, a lot of this will become plug and play, point and click. Latitude17 has found a barrage of sensors and devices that are truly plug and play. No circuit knowledge needed. Right now my project involves programming knowledge, but even today is much less than 2-3 years ago, so in no time at all, growers will be able to build a fully autonomous programmed controller to manage every part of the grow that uses electricity, leaving us to focus on handling the plants only, which is what I seek. Too many times I forgot this or that, and my budding ladies suffer and produce less.

Might as well make an update out of this. Harvested the BubbleGum on Tuesday and my heart fell when I realized there wasn't nowhere near as much bud as I hoped for. Though after 3 days hanging on the branch, I snipped them all off and put them in a box and weighed it (after taring of course) and the preliminary weight was 472g So hopefully my first impression was incorrect. I hope most of the RH is out of the buds. Wednesday I did everything else on my checklist and put the split Bubblelicious into bloom with transition nutes. So my quest for perpetual harvests is underway. I have 2 decent sized clones in veg, one of which I will choose to go the distance, maybe the other I'll plant on a highway or something. :goof::idea:
 
The harvested BubbleGum and the Split Bubblelicious that took her place. The boxes are only about 1 1/2"-2" deep with buds. The Bubblelicious looks sorry as shit, and that's definitely my bad, but from here onward it's nothing but TLC! I even gave her an overdose shot of Recharge (a pint of it) and kicked the light up to 75% after 3 days of 50%. RI reduced nute concentrations by adding a gallon of RO, even though there is no visible sign of deficiency. In veg, it seems the other 2 clones aren't going to root. I have 2 others from the other set of genes that now makes up 100% of my grow. With these, I will pot them both up this weekend and begin reorganizing veg and definitely cleaning it up a lot. I think I will add a dyke across my DIY flood table and make it into 2 zones so I can have 2 stages of growth going and a very small cloning area. I predict events to shift every 5 weeks or so, so I'll want to have one in veg all topped, pruned and defoliated waiting to go into bloom. I figure when I start flush in bloom, I can take 2 cuttings to clone. Once rooted, the flushed plant will be thoroughly washed out which I think would make for a great "out and in" situation, save for the quick cleaning of walls, res, fixture and general maintenance. Work is beginning to pick up pace now so Skybound expects to be in better position to advance everything he's been working on for years. I'm sure everyone knows that if I continue that last though for one more sentence, I would easily carry it for 10-15 more large paragraphs, so I'll spare you all the endless possibilities and extensive tangents. The pics; Notice I'm using yoyos upside down. I originally hooked them onto the res, but didn't want to climb all the way around back to balance the tension, so I just hung a couple to gently pull a branch out and open up the center.

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Here's what my Bubblelicious looks like at 45 in 12/12;
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One of the tops is about 9" from the cool tube and appears to be loving it.

The next round are also cuts from the other Bubb that I put into bloom on Wednesday. The sickly looking ones are taking forever to root/die, but I'll keep feeding them anyways until.. They are from a different set of Bubb genes so there's the potential to maybe discover the slow growing, but coveted Indica pheno from Bubblelicious. My others I know are the Sativa phenos as the one in the pic smell VERY skunky. No sweetness in the air at all.

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I will probably retire this strain in a month or two and crack open my Pineapple Chunk beans, and hopefully by then also have ordered others.

Since the Arduino has been running smoothly for about a month now, I am hesitant to bring it down just yet to make changes and update the code. Still waiting for Latitude to get his Arduino so he can better assist with code updating, but the changes already made make the code much more streamlined.
 
Things are starting to come together pretty decently ion my grow so there's not much to report really. Plants go to bloom, they're in there for a while, then when one comes out, another goes right back in. The plant I split in veg a week before bloom was also neglected feed and water for 2 days by mistake because I forgot to reopen a valve. She wilted right over, every branch! But after correcting the mistake, she went right back to work 12 hours later, she was standing back up and growing like I didn't take her to the brink of death. That said, I definitely expect her to hermie which sucks.

Bubblelicious (58 days in 12/12) Her highest top is about 5" away from the cool tube and reaching to get even closer.
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This is the one I almost killed twice. Bubblelicious (13 days since first pistils and 11 days since she was wilted)
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Latitude17 talked me into getting a Raspberry Pi and I am intending to migrate my electronics over to it in the future. Arduino for me will soon go the way of the dodo bird. None the less, the quest for total automation continues. My next installment to this project will be to get a 3d printer and print servo gate valves that me and Latitude collaborated on. It's a rework of someone else's design from Thingiverse, but it's open sourced so the design is free to be remixed. After about 2 solid years of R&D and getting nowhere, I finally found an approach I am confident with. I just have to get the printer and start printing. I'll need a total of 14 valves to handle both bloom rooms, and maybe another 4 or 5 for veg. Once I have valves in circuit, I will then be only limited by the lack of PH and EC probes from being able to completely change out a reservoir remotely. I am so close now that I can see the finish line and have a clear path towards it.
 
I got a new USB microscope in the mail, but haven't been to the grow yet so I had a look around inside my grinder to see trichome imagery. For the price ($20range), I'm fairly impressed. It's definitely much better than the cheesy 60x-100x jobby with discharged batteries I have been using for many moons. Plus having the ability to take snapshots and probably some video feeds too makes it that much better. Being USB powered, I presume it will make a great addition to the Raspberry Pi once I get that rolling. This past few weeks I've been near solely focused on the 3D printer that should be here in just a few days. For those new to the subject (myself included), the Tevo Tarantula 3D printer is the highest rated "DIY" printer in the $200 price range. Though I opted for a dual extruder and auto leveling, the price was increased to $305 which is still very reasonable. The kit comes completely disassembled and from what I understand, poor quality assembly instructions. However, there are many people that have perfected the assembly and also added improvements to make the printer much more accurate. That said, I have been collecting print files to print new hardware as soon as I get it all together and calibrated. All of the acrylic brackets should be reprinted and installed, part cooling fans (came in mail last week) get added and blower ducts printed. Once the printer is ready to roll, it should be ready to print reliably for a very long time which is good because I've also been preparing to print servo valves. I hope they can be made to work in my application (sub 3 PSI) plumbing circuits. If so, time to get plotting the circuits and code.

Private discussions with Latitude17 have really opened my mind in the past month to many new things. I'm learning all sorts of new possibilities and potential avenues this automation quest can go, and I'm signed up for all of it. In room cameras, all sorts of sensors, and power controls. Wireless connectivity between devices so little to no more use for GPIO on the brain board, and every receiver module costs just $10, the each of which are WAY more powerful than Arduinos in terms of thinking power, plus those little $10 wifi boards each have 40 GPIO pins. Previously I was very concerned how I was going to add automation into my veg closet, but being in a different room than the Arduino in Bloom, I was really not looking forward to running all the needed wires. However, being able to connect via wifi or bluetooth nixes all of those concerns. I still have a lot on my plate, but am now working my through it.

Here's the pic BTW.
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My quest for grow automation continues. About 2 weeks ago, I received my 3D printer in the mail. It's a DIY kit so it was right up my alley, and with ability to extrude 2 colors or 2 different filaments for $300, I gotta say, not bad! The acrylic assembly parts are known to break if overly stressed, it is almost expected though as this is an entry level printer, but because it is almost always assembled by someone who has no experience with printing, it's almost guaranteed that the user will break something. That being said, I did break one, but not till after I printed its replacement. I actually intend to print and exchange all of the major acrylic parts. The reason I mention all of this is because I absolutely need this thing to produce my water valves. What's better is that I will be able to alter the design if it doesn't work. I designed the values to have 1/2" PVC pipe outlets so PVC fittings can be added. Valves aside though, this printer will be sooooooooo handy for a guy like me that's it's not even funny. I bet I can make a few bucks printing for locals too. Despite the 8 1/2" (200mm) build area, once I replace all the weak parts, this will be one solid badass printer and one way or another, it WILL get me through this most difficult phase of my automation quest.

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That and the contents of your grinder. :high-five:

Well yeah, that's a given. But I also had to make it weed related or the mods might pull it down. I promise, everything I do is weed related, especially this.
 
Sorry, I don't get out much anymore, but Congrats on the harvest... You did well it looks like. Your doing great with temps it looks like. I always love the cool tube. he design has got to be one of the best around for keeping that heat workable. I used one for year,, along with my trusty 40-pound magnetic ballast. Which is powering one light as I type. 25 years old and still firing on all cylinders..
Once more Congrats on the cut and hope she smokes well for ya.
Keepem Green
 
Thanks Woody! First cut netted 14.5 zips, 2nd cut netted 10.5 zips. I don't expect to get back up over 16 till after the seasons change.
 
Just touching base to keep my journal opened. My 3d printer, being a cheapie, is taking me a considerable amount of time to upgrade as the acrylic parts are known to break easily. that said, to dial it all in required some overseas orders that took just over 3 weeks. Now I've been waiting on filament to continue. Once I get it where I want it, I will start printing ABS valves. By then I should have enough experience to quickly learn a new material and should have those valves in short order. Also, with the help of Latitude17, we designed a 6" round duct that will block all light. As soon as my filament arrives, I need to print 2 first before getting back to finishing my upgrades. I didn't yet publish the valves on Thingiverse because of the complex nature of the 3 part design, and it needing to be water tight. So once those bugs are worked out, I will publish it too.

Side note, my project code very recently received a lot of needed scrutiny from Latitude17 and together (me testing each new change) we got it running extremely solid now. I won't entrust my lights and pumps to it yet, but I'm confident I won't experience anymore crashes. He also made it so that my project clock is frequently updated from the cloud which will always keep the time accurate, and if ever a network loss occurs, the project clock will have most recently been reprogrammed and current. Sleepless has joined the team as well and he is testing new gear that Latitude or myself don't yet own. By combining forces, we can streamline the general build process and Latitude can get a much better feel for how the code should be written so by the time he or I or Sleepless gets the new gear, we can then hit the ground running.

Other than that, my grow continues. I take a harvest just over once a month. I struggled with heat, but adjusted my vents, and the weather is cooling off quickly hear in the northeast so some stability is finally returning.

Round 6" Black Out HVAC Duct by Skybound420 - Thingiverse

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Hi skybound! Where can I download your Arduino project?

Do you also know the projects "yieldbuddy" and "Raspberry Pi Vivarium Controller"? What do you think about them?
 
Here is my Github and my code as of current, though my project will soon be chopped up and pieced out into several ESP8266 boards and control via a wifi network. Latitude17 has been working with me on my code and we got it to it's current progress which for the most part is stable, but being Arduino based, RAM is very limited and my Ethermega has locked up a few times and at the beginning of 2017, I lost 2 bloom cycles b/c the lights were stuck on or off for multiple days. By switching to the ESPs, I can isolate the functions, even though a single ESP has many times more RAM than an Arduino.

I have looked into a few different Rpi based projects, but elected to not go that route because I would need to learn another 2 programming languages and I feel that would just be too time consuming. I've been into 3D printing religiously now for 6 months and am getting so much closer now to making my valves it's not funny. I've made a few other designs and remixes as well and if bored, look me up on Thingiverse for those designs. Any rate, here's my code.

Skydroponics
 
Hey, while investigating the subject more I finally decided to go also the route with 8266esp Nodemcus. Because I need to use water flood sensors and a valve system for different ebb and flow tables. I will use the NodeMcus for my sensors and integrate the NodeMcus in a homeautomation system which is cloud free. I will use FHEM. With FHEM you can integrate all kind of different devices of homeautomation brands. Also you can do custom stuff or workarounds somehow. I try to go the route to use an already existing system, so I will have less debugging to do. Also it seems that some of the homeautomation systems are very powerful. Tomorrow my raspberry pi 3 and my nodemcus get delivered and then I am going to install the FHEM on the raspberry and probably integrate the NodeMcus for my sensors with ESPEasy. Then probably I will use Basic Sonoff wlan switches for integrating and controlling the watervalves with FHEM. Lets see how it will work. ;-)
 
I've been using Blynk as the server and likely will continue to as it's free, the functionality is great and it works with most boards including the ones we're using. You mentioned "watervalves" is the above post, can you link me to the ones you're using? I've been searching for years for something cheap and plastic, but sadly have found nothing. That's what inspired me to get a 3D printer and design and print my own.
 
I've been using Blynk as the server and likely will continue to as it's free, the functionality is great and it works with most boards including the ones we're using. You mentioned "watervalves" is the above post, can you link me to the ones you're using? I've been searching for years for something cheap and plastic, but sadly have found nothing. That's what inspired me to get a 3D printer and design and print my own.

Oh Blynk that looks interesting too. I am still in the process of figuring out what software to use. It seems that I just decided to try OpenHab2 instead of FHEM, as it seems OpenHab2 is more userfriendly and I like Java.

But now you mention Blynk and it seems that this is maybe even more interesting?

I was planning to use valves of this kind:
uxcell AC 110V Brass Electric Solenoid Valve NPT 1" Pipeline Female Thread NC Direct Action - - Amazon.com
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It is solenoid valves which work with magnet

there are also motorized
BACOENG 1" DC12V Brass 2 Port Motorized Ball Valve, Electric Ball Valve CR02 NPT - - Amazon.com

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if you go smaller then they get cheaper. Also there is the possibility for different voltages. But I guess I will go with mains and then use a sonoff switch. Oh hey... I just realized that probably blynk will not work if I want to use sonoff switches also... :-D

Also I will go with the magnetic solenoids. As it seems that the magnet solenoids will go into their basic state (normally closed, or normally open) when there is electricity blackout. To have that attribute seems reasonable ...

Why are you looking for plastic valves?
 
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