Affordable Greenhouse Automation

Some people I know are getting into some pretty nifty stuff with these sensor packages they have been getting. From controlling the xbox with a PC to making a remote spy-blimp, this stuff is deceptively simple. Oh and this equipment is as cheap as children's toys.

Anyway, who wants a garden automation package for cheap? I can't give a price yet since I'm only gathering requirements, but it will be highly affordable. Imagine if your garden could email you if something went wrong with your resevoir, or your humidity, or an intruder, or something just fell over or stopped working quite right! It might be even possible to make it able to call you on your phone in an emergency.

Oh and wouldn't a web interface be nice? Go ahead and vacation, with a webcam attachment you can see that all is well from a secure web-portal. Change the C02 levels or the lighting schedule from your laptop in Hawaii while the Hawaiian Fire at home grows strong. Almost anything can be connected to these boards.

Something I have always wanted to try is a gradual change to 12/12 from say 13/11 to try to mimic the season change better. Well, why not be able to determine lighting on a minute-by-minute basis with a spreadsheet controlled timer?

Complete logging of all environmental factors would be good for those into the numbers and optimization.

I'm looking for what features you guys want. Basics will of course include control of:
Temperature (fan controller)
Lights (no crappy 15 minute intervals on a timer, you choose whatever interval you want)
C02 (levels and controller)
Res. Temp/Level
Humidity
Pumps

I believe in starting with end-user feedback and since I am building something specific to the medical community, I want your guy's feedback. What do you want to see?

Sensors which would detect the height of the plants and the height of the lights, and move the lights up or down to maintain the optimal distance from foliage.

that would be sick,,,,

if you can make it plug and play via serial or usb, and the devices are simple to set up; and have the software for it, you will have an instant hit.
lotsa work tho...

Otacon said:

Sensors which would detect the height of the plants and the height of the lights, and move the lights up or down to maintain the optimal distance from foliage.

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that can be done pretty simple with just a basic PLC, some logic, photoeyes, and various hardware... the real trick to it is having a suspension system that can be raised and lowered via a motor... lotta engineering going on in a small space....

IAm5toned said:

if you can make it plug and play via serial or usb, and the devices are simple to set up; and have the software for it, you will have an instant hit.
lotsa work tho...

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My thoughts exactly. My buddies like complicated projects. USB would be optimal since the a serial adapter would be one more thing to include, unless people wanted to use really old laptops.

As for automatic light adjustment, just about anything can be controlled, and photosensitive eyes to detect the height are cheap. Just need the proper motor, it's not lifting much weight and doesn't have to be fast so I'm sure it could be something very compact. All in all, it doesn't sound terrible hard, but is it worth it?

deflator said:

My thoughts exactly. My buddies like complicated projects. USB would be optimal since the a serial adapter would be one more thing to include, unless people wanted to use really old laptops.

As for automatic light adjustment, just about anything can be controlled, and photosensitive eyes to detect the height are cheap. Just need the proper motor, it's not lifting much weight and doesn't have to be fast so I'm sure it could be something very compact. All in all, it doesn't sound terrible hard, but is it worth it?

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Yeah, that shit is key.

Imagine you take a ten day vacation during the second or third week of 12/12 when the plants are growing 2-4 inches a day.

You could always just raise your light 3 feet higher than it should be and let them grow into it, but that's gonna cause some excess stretching.

Of course, you could just plan out your grows to not be in that position as well.

Bob Smith said:

Yeah, that shit is key.

Imagine you take a ten day vacation during the second or third week of 12/12 when the plants are growing 2-4 inches a day.

You could always just raise your light 3 feet higher than it should be and let them grow into it, but that's gonna cause some excess stretching.

Of course, you could just plan out your grows to not be in that position as well.

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Point taken. I use a static overhead HPS with CFL fixtures as side lighting so I'd forgotten how growing under LED's/CFL's is and how close you want to keep some lights.

deflator said:

Point taken. I use a static overhead HPS with CFL fixtures as side lighting so I'd forgotten how growing under LED's/CFL's is and how close you want to keep some lights.

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Whoa, slow down homeboy..........I use HPS for flowering and vegging - only use CFLs for rooting clones.

Not that there's anything wrong with flowering with fluoros

That being said, try to keep my 1Ks about 18" away, so they'd have to adjust accordingly to the early flowering stretch.

if your going for compact.... raising and lowering the lights will be a bitch, from an engineering standpoint. reversing the motor, and having some type of a ratchet system would be ideal, but thats alot off additional devices/points of failure. so i put some thought into it, and i had a revelation-
if you cant bring muhammed to the mountain, than you must bring the mountain to muhammed!
check it out-
using a simple hydraulic cylinder and platform, raise the plants to the lights....
that way to adjust height its a simple solenoid valve that releases, lowering the platform. to raise it would be a matter of either manually pumping the cylinder or u could get fancy (and expensive) and make it electric, and thus remote controllable

edit/ps-
and now that i think about it, it would be kinda pimp to have your op @ eye level, especially in the beginning or when your looking for sex....

I've thought about this a lot as well. Im trying to hone in my perpetual garden / constant construction / destruction otherwise I want to set up an automated watering device(s). I have a breadboard and some microchips from an old college project for a beer launching fridge (not as cool ((or accurate)) as you have probably seen, but very functional). Set it up as a conductivity tester to know when to REALLY water my plants. However Im trying to do an automated soil SOG so still have plenty else to hone in as well.

DEFLATOR I have always wanted to do the gradual time change to mimic real life and see if there is any difference.

Subscribed... I would be very interested in an affordable unit of this nature. Im assuming 2 months is a little quick for you to get it done? I want to do a sprint Ironman and need to still take care of the sluts.

Check out Growtronix or Purgro they are the two big ones. However neither one is inexpensive.

As for moving the lights it would definitely be a great tool to have in the garden but I doubt anyone will ever offer one. A single failure could easily cause a fire and/or death. What might work is to have it raise the lights automatically based on plant height but requires manually toggling a ratchet lock to lower the light. Even take the automation aspect out of it and just have a switch on the wall to be able raise and lower the light at the push of a button would be nice! Push the button to raise up the lights when you go in to work and then lower it down to the perfect spot when leaving. Problem is that's what I do now with my $5 light yoyo's, I'm sure a commercially available light height controller would cost a small fortune.

progrow2 said:

Check out Growtronix or Purgro they are the two big ones. However neither one is inexpensive.

As for moving the lights it would definitely be a great tool to have in the garden but I doubt anyone will ever offer one. A single failure could easily cause a fire and/or death. What might work is to have it raise the lights automatically based on plant height but requires manually toggling a ratchet lock to lower the light. Even take the automation aspect out of it and just have a switch on the wall to be able raise and lower the light at the push of a button would be nice! Push the button to raise up the lights when you go in to work and then lower it down to the perfect spot when leaving. Problem is that's what I do now with my $5 light yoyo's, I'm sure a commercially available light height controller would cost a small fortune.

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Moving the lights would be fairly simple really. Using a bicycle pulley hoist and a 12v car power antenna motor controlled by a photo beam. When the beam is broken the motor engages and the lights go up. When the beam in unbroken the motor disengages and the light stops. The whole setup would be less than $50 if you got the motor from a wrecking yard. This would only raise the lights, not lower them. But plants don't tend to get shorter either.
I use 1 of these pulley hoists for my lights now (not motorized) and it takes very little pull to move the lights. It has a built in lock so even if I let go of the rope it won't let the lights go back down. I picked it up on Ebay for about $10 with shipping. Yoyos are ok but I didn't like that I had to adjust each 1 individuality. With the hoist system, 1 rope gives even pull on both sides, moves easily and smoothly. Clearance from the ceiling is less than 3".
So far I have automated the temperature, humidity, CO2, lights, and watering (I run a hydro room). I still need to raise the lights manually, and have not automated the reservoir refills yet.