Round 3 - Capn Style - Automated

[Skybound]

I got some pics of bloom A and veg. Only had a brief visit, but I corrected the bloom res by lowering ppm from 730 to just under 600 and nudged the ph upwards from 5.7 with some silica. Also swapped the veg res. The new mix is at roughly 350ppm and ph to about 5.6. The heat and humidity is becoming an issue, so I will need to work on possible remedies. The Arduino seems to be able to maintain for up to about 3 days before it shits the bed and freezes the relays to their state at the time of failure, and does not transmit any sensor readings. In most instances, simply resetting the power gets everything working, but not always. Being as though I have all the major devices on mechanical timers, this is only an inconvenience to the situation and of course an ass load of frustration for me. I am convinced I damaged my board, but I may also have code errors.

After the veg photos were taken, I removed the lower spindly twigs from the larger 2 plants, and took a major top from the one that still has a central main trunk. I am very pleased with the way the other 2 are growing as when I topped each, their side branches were already reaching outward, so when the auxins were then diverted more into the top set, the natural course left me with a very spacious skeletal frame for buds to hopefully one day inundate!

 

[Skybound]

We've got little buds starting to form everywhere. Thankfully the weather is shitty and the temps are cool, with a small AC unit running constant, bloom temps have fallen a bit. Today, I bought some ducting parts, and yesterday I drilled some holes in the ceiling to get a 440 CFM duct fan into the attic. I'm going to kill 2 birds with one stone and vent off the top of Veg as well and tie it into the 6" system through a 4" duct hose, so the 440 will be drawing from 3 rooms and pushing into a carbon filter. The home has ridge vents on the roof so the heat can bleed off there. I hope this pulls them high ass temps and RH down. I had to turn my light back down to 75%, b/c 100% was just too much heat (nearing 100° F during lights on).

Also, on another note, a code error was discovered by someone on the Arduino forum, so hopefully the fix remedies the frequent crashes I've been having. I'd like to at least bring my fans and pumps back into the IoT (Internet of Things). Also have what I need to finish the dosing pumps, just need to IoT to be stable enough to win my confidence.

Some pics;

 

[Weaselcracker]

Belated thanks for the words re the shithead could-have-been boss. Still trying to get paid from that guy, and rarely have I met such a slimeball- not brave enough to come clean, just passive aggression and spouting non-stop lies. We've really been straight and honourable with him the whole way too. May have to take him to small claims court or something just to squeeze our measly bit of pay from his filthy rich ass.
Anyway- on topic - nice to see a glimmer of hope for the Arduino. Sounds frustrating, that ghost in the machine shit.

 

[Skybound]

Open a suit if the money owed is large enough that it's worth chasing, otherwise chalk it up to lessons learned. Thankfully my situation was a lot easier to address, and I did come out the other end all squared up. My new gig is seasonal, and the rain is keeping me from working full time, but the new gig has already paid me more for both weeks than my previous job, and we only worked roughly 2 days each week. I think for your situation, "floating the truth" around near his circles, might embarrass him enough that he insists on squaring up. Then again, if he's trigger happy, might be best to leave that one alone? It is kinda hard for us (your 420 friends) to really know what you went through, or how legit (mafia wise) that guy really is. Like is he legit in that organization (the mob), or is he a tag-a-long wannabe? Some folks in my area let their Italian last names go to their own head, and if they are fortunate enough to actually meet a Don, all their future stories will be from the perspective of a made man. Clowns are so funny.

Arduino truly is frustrating. I try to appear optimistic on here, but that's likely just me trying to mentally justify all the $$$ I sank into it over the years. What's most frustrating is that when I bring the controller home and plug it in, it behaves, but when I connect it to everything at the grow, it shits the bed. What I really hope is that these are all just growing pains, and of course I do hope they are at their end and I survive the gauntlet. All this shit could probably have been fixed by now, but I am after all a pothead, and not a seasoned one by any means. I've been smoking regularly for about 6 months and I am still a 1 hit wonder. Those damned Indicas get me every time! It's kinda hard to teach yourself a programming language and safely play with electricity while inebriated! I now see why this has taken me so long.

 

[Weaselcracker]

Ha ha. Try a pure sativa. At least for me- I can be trippin nicely, going full speed ahead, have dozens of things running in my head at once and not lose track of any of them. My favourite so far is Golden Tiger which I've probably mentioned a million times already- but sativas in general seem to work way better for me.
Also I'm working my way around investigating this high CBD stuff now. Seems to bring a lot of the alleged indica 'relaxation' (which I am usually much too confused and paranoid to appreciate) - without adverse effects, or even much of a high for that matter. It's only been a few days I've been vaping this stuff, but it's a great combo with the sativa- cuts the 'busy' feeling I sometimes get.
Your arduino situation is similar to problems I'm having with my boat motor. It's intermittent and refuses to show itself when I want it to. Any sign of a mechanic in the area and it won't do its thing. No idea why the issue supposedly isn't showing up in the computer when plugged in, but on the other hand I'm not sure the mechanic is fully functioning either. Frustrating.

When we first started searching out info on slimeball, it appeared that he was high up in a powerful family. Combined with his bragging and hint-dropping - we thought he was a big player at first. Then decided if he was- he wouldn't be dropping that many hints. So I'm not so sure. And I'm not sure I care. The money, big business and powerful family are there- but I just can't see in this guy's personality that he has what it takes. Seems more like a wannabe- who inherited it, and I just can't see him succeeding when he operates this way. We can sink any chance of a good rep he has in town. That, and the work he's already gone to to avoid paying a few thousand bucks, has got to cost him way more than he is saving. Serious bad business.
The guy is so gutless that he doesn't fee like a serious threat. Maybe those are the worst kind, but I don't think the guy is going to make it a vendetta against us when all we are doing is asking for our wages- which are very small compared to the cash he is throwing around every day on that operation. We don't have to actually go to court - wouldn't be my thing anyway. But we can easily file a claim for our wages with the government labour board. They will get an answer from him, and can get our money without much trouble to us, but no doubt a nagging pain in the ass for him.

 

[Weaselcracker]

One thing I've noticed about toxic types in the process of dealing with an ex is that interaction is kind of a process of them foisting their crap reality on you. They actually crave the attention and this process, no matter how much they hate you, and will try to keep you engaged as long as possible. Hence not just paying us off and being done with it. Also, case in point- they get attention- I'm polluting your grow journal with the subject but hopefully there is entertainment value. So I plan to appreciate that, keep an arms length, but also pursue my paycheque. The government labour board gives him two weeks to come clean or it's on to the next level of harassment from them.

Because I know that it will aggravate him and he will suffer for it- and I won't, much. I have other jobs now and the money isn't critical-plus I refuse to let it be.
And also- I may even get paid at the end of the day. So - hold them to account, keep an arms length and laugh at them, then move on. So far so good. It helps (hopefully) to be totally in the right and to have a bunch of his statements/promises/lies on record.

 

[Skybound]

I'm pretty good when I really pace my smoking habits and only take what I need to get where I wanna be. Perhaps I will keep my eye out for some primarily Sativa strains. Do they grow unmanageably tall indoors?

I updated the code and sent the Arduino back in to the grow. RH is about the lowest I've seen since I started some weeks back. I build an enclosure around the large duct fan and will hang it from some bungees in the attic to hopefully deaden most of the noise. Hopefully I can free up some time in the next couple days to get that done. I am also thinking to add in a history graph to depict the temps and RH in 1 hour increments. This would give me a better idea of the stability in the rooms. I'm curious to know how much the RH in the room increases during feeding and lights out to see if other approaches might aid in mitigating anything that moves away from ideal. Seeing as how I will be using one fan to exchange the air from 3 generally equally sized spaces, perhaps some vent dampers will be need to block off 2 zones to momentarily increase air draw from one zone. Then once the levels return to normal, all 3 dampers could open and vent each room again.

 

[Weaselcracker]

Almost all sativas are manageable if you flower young, or else do a bunch of training. Scrog is easiest but I can achieve the same effect with lots of pipe cleaners and supercropping. I grew a Golden Tiger which I vegged for about 3 weeks I think- and it flowered into one big cola about 30" long and 3" thick. Panama is another that wasn't so 'willowy'. I also managed a Thai Stick landrace with just pipe cleaners. Mama Thai is quite trainable and flowers in about 12 weeks. Highly recommended.

I'm contemplating replacing most of my galvanized ducting with flexible stuff. My fan is very quiet- but put it in a ready made echo device much like a speaker, and at a different story. I'm also going o order duct mufflers when I get $. Not very expensive. I did make a combo light/sound baffle box on the outside wall but it's got its limitations.

 

[Skybound]

Unless you are very confident in your fan's abilities, I suggest using that flex shit as little as possible. Don't get me wrong, I use it too, but only because it's cheaper than duct pipes and fittings. The flex pipe has a lot of irregular shapes, especially at turns that creates a lot of turbulence and drag, making your fan work a little harder, due to the added air resistance. If you already have rigid pipe in place, you should stick with it, unless your fan is pulling too much for your preferences. I also just learned that regular flex vent has many light leaks which may or may not be a problem. I am replacing all of that stuff with insulated as pictured in the cardboard box above. That stuff still isn't as good as solid pipe, but again, my budget dictated that purchase. As the weeks progress and funds grow, I will be looking into a complete solid pipe system for max efficiency for blooms A & B.

 

[Weaselcracker]

Yeah I used the flex stuff for years- and I agree about the problems. I'm hoping replacing just a section will help dull the sound transmission for the metal. Also very much hoping the duct mufflers work. Not because I have huge noise levels- but it's a small issue I've been dreaming of fixing for years. Any knowledge of those mufflers? Apparently they reduce sound by 'up to 70%'.
Otherwise it's the status quo- or reworking the baffle box which is heavy and clunky- made out of dense materials.

 

[Latitude17]

Have you considered PVC? It's about midpoint between the flex and all-metal ducting.

 

[Weaselcracker]

Hmmm.. in my case, no I haven't. That would mean hitting up the junkyards looking for it as we don't really have stores here . Actually it would be hard to find here- at least I haven't noticed much around. Anyway- I suspect the duct mufflers is the real answer. Just seems wrong to have that sonic amplification going on, after I hear how silent my new fan is in its own. I've also got my old flex duct- full of holes but I wrapped it with panda and that fixed it.

 

[Skybound]

I looked into those silencers some years back and for whatever reason, I opted not to go that route. All that's needed is a controlled area for sound waves to expand and loose energy while keeping the air flowing. I like your clunky speaker idea so long as space were available for it. A simple box with baffles would do, and just mount a PC fan on output to keep air moving through. If any noise made it past the baffles, the feign noise from the PC fan would cancel it out. No exotic materials needed for the baffles, cardboard would more than suffice. Now that I think of it, all my previous grows I used very small duct fans that didn't make much noise. They didn't move air all that great either, but when growing in a northern attic of an uninsulated home in winter, removing heat was not a priority. That 440 CFM kinda scares me and the noise is why I never considered using it till now. Shit, I might need a silencer too.

 

[Skybound]

Sorry Weaselcracker, had to shoot some vids today, but if you really can't watch, here's the rundown. I finally finished routing my ducting to a more powerful duct fan in the attic. two 6" ducts from each bloom room merges into a wye fitting just below the ceiling, above the ceiling in the attic, the 6" line to the fan first Tee's off to a 4" duct that sucks off the veg closet, and then to a generic 440 CFM duct fan and finally a 12" carbon filter. I know this is a small filter, but it's working so far, and will need to continue till I can afford a larger filter.

The rest of the video is a quick show in the veg closet, then off to bloom for a quick peak at my Bubblegum that is nearing 3 weeks in bloom. After that, I discuss the current state of the Arduino, and especially the dosing pumps. The main purpose I shot some video was because I recently learned that Overgrow is back online, so I made an account there and found someone else that is building an automated grow. His project is much further along and more thought out than mine, but his lacked the dosing pumps so I was hoping to fill in some of his blanks. It's awesome that I found someone like minded in automation, especially one more advanced than myself. I hope he can assist me in identifying any weaknesses in my code and possible corrections.

Also, for reasons unknown to me, the screen sharing video recording app I'm using simply stopped recording, so I had to make 2 different videos, but all in all, I think it's very descriptive and outlines my project more thoroughly than if I had to try and type it all.

 

[Weaselcracker]

I'll watch that when I get a chance. I agree that videos do a far better job of showing the space. I had to focus to even understand your description of the ducting.

 

[Skybound]

Yesterday was day 21 in bloom so the stretch is about done I guess. Anybody have a good idea when it's safe to defoliate and remove some popcorn branches?

Also have something of a deficiency (maybe toxicity), and I hope to get some feedback on that as well. Here's pics;

 

[Latitude17]

Yesterday was day 21 in bloom so the stretch is about done I guess. Anybody have a good idea when it's safe to defoliate and remove some popcorn branches?

Also have something of a deficiency (maybe toxicity), and I hope to get some feedback on that as well. Here's pics;

Looks like Calcium deficiency to me. Calcium and Magnesium are the only two that I'm aware of that do the spots. The 3rd one on the right however, looks like it's Magnesium because of the yellowing.

 

[Skybound]

Thanks Latitude! P def is also a suspect based on general searching, but I'll have to wait-n-see. I just amped up the CAL/MAG and P 2 days ago, so I'll observe and see if the symptoms progress. Already at 3.5 ml/gal of cal/mag. What also might be helpful to note, is that the green area is really dark.

 

[Latitude17]

Thanks Latitude! P def is also a suspect based on general searching, but I'll have to wait-n-see. I just amped up the CAL/MAG and P 2 days ago, so I'll observe and see if the symptoms progress. Already at 3.5 ml/gal of cal/mag. What also might be helpful to note, is that the green area is really dark.

You should see something within 4-5 days after change, or rather - not more of the problem.

 

[Skybound]

You should see something within 4-5 days after change, or rather - not more of the problem.

My fingers are crossed!