Automating a Grow Room / Rooms

Anyone doing auto-irrigation based on weight (arduino, raspi, etc.) using a digital scale or similar? I'd like to chat about this, and research a bit. Anybody? Useful links would be appreciate as well.

Thanks.

Any active "automation" or similar threads? They're all dead lately it seems.

2com said:

Anyone doing auto-irrigation based on weight (arduino, raspi, etc.) using a digital scale or similar? I'd like to chat about this, and research a bit. Anybody? Useful links would be appreciate as well.

Thanks.

Click to expand...

Growtek USA is

The owner is a member here @Sk-one.

Here's my automated irrigation. Works great. Just keep nutrient solution in a reservoir.

2com said:

Anyone doing auto-irrigation based on weight (arduino, raspi, etc.) using a digital scale or similar? I'd like to chat about this, and research a bit. Anybody? Useful links would be appreciate as well.

Thanks.

Click to expand...

Feel free to DM me, I love to talk automation

"Anyone doing auto-irrigation based on weight (arduino, raspi, etc.) using a digital scale or similar? I'd like to chat about this, and research a bit. Anybody?"
A scale-based system will not come out cheap and reliable.
For coconut, it is enough to do bottom flooding once a day on a timer.
For any soil, moisture control is possible with a simple capacitive sensor. It must be placed in a waterproof shell.

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It is enough to attach it to the outside of the pot and it will turn on at some level of soil humidity. The humidity level is easy to adjust with a spacer between the sensor and the pot.
For water supply, there are many low-power, cheap pumps.

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To control the pump, the signal from the sensor is weak and must be amplified with one mosfet transistor.
As a result, even personal watering of each pot is simple and cheap.
No "brains" and software.

@Has Scale based systems are very accurate. Our system can weigh runoff after an irrigation event down to 1 gram resolution. Also, the majority of home growers will see much better results top watering with runoff than using an autopot type system that floods from the bottom. If you're curious as to why, you can watch this video:

Sk-one said:

@Has Scale based systems are very accurate. Our system can weigh runoff after an irrigation event down to 1 gram resolution. Also, the majority of home growers will see much better results top watering with runoff than using an autopot type system that floods from the bottom. If you're curious as to why, you can watch this video:

Click to expand...

If watering is not on a timer, then you need to somehow measure the moisture content of the soil.
And how will "weighing runoff after an irrigation event down to 1 gram resolution" help in this?

@Has If you have runoff, that means the media is 100% saturated and can hold no more water/nutrient solution. When growing in coco you always want to maintain at least 90% saturation, and you also want to maintain 15-30% runoff after every irrigation event depending on the size of container and a few other parameters. If you know that you watered with 1000 ml, then you need to see at least 150-300 ml of runoff. A moisture content sensor would be useless to try and automate this process, but a scale works perfectly. A moisture content sensor might work better in a soil grow, but a scale would still give you better information to work with.

I use a raspberry pi for grafana, it's also my lamp stack. My area controllers send environmental data and/or status to a base station that builds json and sends that to the raspberry pi.



I'm in the process of migrating my equipment to an rf24 network, so I'm building an equipment status dashboard that looks like an industrial process monitor in addition to my current dashboard.

I'm working on adding some new capabilities to them, like measuring feed temperature which I can use to cycle fresh solution to a pot before feeding to adjust the temperature of the root zone indirectly.

I'm on my 3rd iteration of this prototype, I keep vacillating between capability, complexity and cost. I'm using esp32 as the area controllers, rf24 wireless outlets etc, and a teensy 4.1 as the base station/configurator. I like the OTA capability of the esp32, it makes it so easy to roll out firmware updates. I like the teensy because it's fast and has a built in sd card reader so I can store all the individual configurations there.

Sk-one said:

@Has If you have runoff, that means the media is 100% saturated and can hold no more water/nutrient solution. When growing in coco you always want to maintain at least 90% saturation, and you also want to maintain 15-30% runoff after every irrigation event depending on the size of container and a few other parameters. If you know that you watered with 1000 ml, then you need to see at least 150-300 ml of runoff. A moisture content sensor would be useless to try and automate this process, but a scale works perfectly. A moisture content sensor might work better in a soil grow, but a scale would still give you better information to work with.

Click to expand...

The question of bottom and top irrigation is certainly debatable, but probably not in this section.
I imagined the "Scale based systems" as a pot with a plant standing on the scale and the scale signaling drying out (((
Now I looked at your system at www.GrowTekUSA.com and everything became clear.
Of course, from the point of view of design, everything is very nice and neat, but let me make a few comments.
You measure the flow with unwarranted accuracy, although in reality the input data for the amount of water during irrigation are the results of the flow from the last irrigation, and then you apply the algorithm to make a rough adjustment. That is, you "very accurately" define "yesterday's weather".
Isn't it better to put the simplest moisture sensor on the drain path in order to record the moment the drain starts and then give a certain operating time for the pump supplying the solution in order to ensure your 15-30% of the percentages of the amount of water already spilled by this moment. You have a sufficiently high-quality and accurate dosage of the pump + controller water supply, so the excess spillage will turn out with any required percentage much more accurate than what you get now.
Of course, scales and pumps for pumping out the drain are no longer required, because the drain can already be made passive.
And one more little thing - your frame for hanging pots is comfortable for 1-2 plants.
But when scaling (4-8 pieces), it is probably better to use some kind of separate stands or pots with legs. This will allow you to arbitrarily move or rotate the bushes relative to each other as they grow (sometimes unevenly).
At the same time, you can save space and lighting.
Sorry for google translator.

Sk-one said:

@Has Scale based systems are very accurate. Our system can weigh runoff after an irrigation event down to 1 gram resolution. Also, the majority of home growers will see much better results top watering with runoff than using an autopot type system that floods from the bottom. If you're curious as to why, you can watch this video:

Click to expand...

How does this compares with a re-circulating system? Where the plants are dosed with nutrients which is drained and pumped back to the reservoir. The reservoir has an ORP sensor to monitor the chlorine available to keep the reservoir tank sterile. This is for a high pressure aeroponics system.

Much respect to OP for pulling it through, making his own automated dosing system with no coding experience. The willing to make automated systems from scratch is easier said than done, will be rewarding and a skill that will be utilized throughout life.

linuxman said:

How does this compares with a re-circulating system? Where the plants are dosed with nutrients which is drained and pumped back to the reservoir. The reservoir has an ORP sensor to monitor the chlorine available to keep the reservoir tank sterile. This is for a high pressure aeroponics system.

Click to expand...

I am no expert grower...I know more about automation and electronics than growing I think most people that have recirculating systems change out their reservoirs periodically because of the reason stated in that video I referenced.....but I could be wrong.

linuxman said:

How does this compares with a re-circulating system? Where the plants are dosed with nutrients which is drained and pumped back to the reservoir. The reservoir has an ORP sensor to monitor the chlorine available to keep the reservoir tank sterile. This is for a high pressure aeroponics system.

Click to expand...

Of course, it does not apply in any way, for two reasons.
1. Drainage is needed to flush out the remnants of previous irrigation from the soil. Or at least dilute them strongly with new solution.
If you have no soil in aeroponics, then there is nothing to wash off there. Perhaps at the roots some kind of minuscule.
2. Since you have a re-circulating system, it makes no difference how much solution flows back into the tank - 15% or 99%. There is no need to measure and dose it.

Has said:

Of course, it does not apply in any way, for two reasons.
1. Drainage is needed to flush out the remnants of previous irrigation from the soil. Or at least dilute them strongly with new solution.
If you have no soil in aeroponics, then there is nothing to wash off there. Perhaps at the roots some kind of minuscule.
2. Since you have a re-circulating system, it makes no difference how much solution flows back into the tank - 15% or 99%. There is no need to measure and dose it.

Click to expand...

Thanks this makes sense as I originally assumed.

The high pressure aeroponics (aka true aeroponics) has no medium, the medium is 100% Air. A solenoid timer mists the roots useing a special misting nozzle which sprays nutrients around 50 microns at 80-100PSI. Which scientists says it is the best droplet size for roots to intake nutrients. I use special plastic nozzles from a company called “Agrihouse” who are sponsored by NASA for their original concept and study on Aeroponics systems. Two nozzles costs about $11 and it is designed to be clogged free from salt/nutrient build up or what not.
I got excellent results and it’s very friendly system for complete custom automation builds.

So “re-circulating” systems are like a total different category and does not relate properly when talking about run-off and non run-off systems.

Recirculate vs DTW

This is an interesting discussion. I've been questioning why I'm not resusing my runoff more often. I water it down and use it for houseplants already. Why am I not reusing it with Cannabis? What is the difference between recirc systems and DTW?

If plants consume NK mostly, would it reason that plants consume NK in any medium or environment? Recirc systems dont dump the solution after one cycle and plants thrive will consuming the same solution.

Theory question: Can DTW also operate in same manner as recirculate (i.e. refresh solution when EC drops)?

Of course, the environment and medium will effect how the plant accesses nutrients, but it doesnt change what the plant needs. If it works in re-circulation systems, it should also work in DTW.

Anyone doing this in DTW?

I have seen an amazing video about someone doing it pretty much from scratch. He starts off easy then goes after 2 minutes off the deep end, its glorious.