Automating a Grow Room / Rooms

[berten-ernie420]

What is the system referenced for around 2,400$?

If not going the DIY route, what systems exist on the market for automating?

I only know one I have found: the Intellidose from Autogrow.

IntelliDose Kit

Automatically manage your nutrient and pH levels, set remote alarms and data log your progress with one simple controller. The IntelliDose sets the industry standard for a small commercial auto-dosing. Dose up to a 9 part blend (nutrients, additives, pH adjuster) while maintaining your preset EC...

shop.autogrow.com

Are there any more on the market?

How about any for large scale industrial use?

Yea, there's a few...
Intellidose
Agrowtek makes a few different models
Hanna makes a couple fertigation machines
Dosatron
But if you have a large scale/industrial outfit, why wouldn't you go with a intellidose?

 

[Overgrowtho]

Yea, there's a few...
Intellidose
Agrowtek makes a few different models
Hanna makes a couple fertigation machines
Dosatron
But if you have a large scale/industrial outfit, why wouldn't you go with a intellidose?

Thanks for sharing that, very interesting.
I am looking at the options for both large and small scale.
What would you say are some of the pros and cons of those different solutions? Example, in terms of cost and whether they all can work via the cloud?

It looks like, from all those you've mentioned; only the Intellidose works on the cloud. Is that right?
Is intelldose really suitable for large scale industrial (to me it looked like the equipment was medium to small)?
I wonder how they agitate the mixture [aha I see they have a sample pot with pump] and deal with the probe calibration...

 

[berten-ernie420]

Thanks for sharing that, very interesting.
I am looking at the options for both large and small scale.
What would you say are some of the pros and cons of those different solutions? Example, in terms of cost and whether they all can work via the cloud?

It looks like, from all those you've mentioned; only the Intellidose works on the cloud. Is that right?
Is intelldose really suitable for large scale industrial (to me it looked like the equipment was medium to small)?
I wonder how they agitate the mixture [aha I see they have a sample pot with pump] and deal with the probe calibration...

Pros: they all dose your shit for you
Cons: your electric bill is going to go up 3.75 a year.

Lol. Seriously, I don't have the slightest as I've never used any of them personally. There's not much out there as far as 100% automated grow controllers. Meaning one unit to control all aspects of indoor horticulture.

 

[Overgrowtho]

A lot of Techie people these days can use smart IOT devices to create their own. It's a lot of complex work to make one. So its good to know what retail solutions are on the market. It seems Intellidose is the main one. The others are good and interesting, but are not online. I do wish there was more solutions on the market tho. Intellidose for one thing costs about 3,000$.... Expensive for a small grow but might be well worth it if using for a decent size operation...

 

[HydroLynx]

I'm tryng to work out if having ONE giant controller that does everything is better or have seperate modules that do say "air management" and have another module that does say the hydroponics. It seems that former creates a huge box with an angry mess of wiring between relays, buses, uc, sensors etc. There are so many devices needed for plant cultivation if you want automatic control, like an "air controller" would need a relay channel for extrc fan, another for deheuy, another for heater, and another for humidifier, and Id just plug circ fans in normally in a wall outlet. Tho some are mutually exclusive like only need humidity high at beg of veg to early bloom and dehuey and fan off during heavy flowering. Decisions decisions.

 

[berten-ernie420]

I'm tryng to work out if having ONE giant controller that does everything is better or have seperate modules that do say "air management" and have another module that does say the hydroponics.

I spent many a night pondering that exact thought as well. Ultimately, I decided ONE "giant" controller, (no bigger than a shoebox and no heavier than a bag of groceries), would be best for my budget and ultimately my grow setup design. I very well could've individualized each component and section of code (and still very well can), it just adds more $ to the cost as they're will be more duino's or π's. However, incase of any individual component failures, I would be left with a unit that still executes the remainder of the code. So in my mind, it's the exact same as having separate components or controllers. Except that if my "brain" dies, I would be dead in the water. It is designed and built in a way that in the event of a catastrophic failure of the processor board( arduino mega), a simple replacement and reupload of code and your back in action.

 

[berten-ernie420]

Atlas Scientific did an instructable on how to make their iot monitoring station: https://www.instructables.com/BUILD-YOUR-OWN-MONITORING-STATION-USING-THE-ATLAS-/
You'd end up with something like this: https://atlas-scientific.com/kits/iot-ph-meter/
Except with your choice of sensors/ezo circuits (only for atlas scientific sensors and probes). A touch screen isn't required, either.

I realize this isn't really automation, it's just monitoring. So it doesn't fit the thread, but I thought I'd share it anyways. I can remove it if you wanna keep it to automation, no prob at all, lemme know.

Dude I'll be completely honest, I just fully understood what you were trying to tell me. Hahahahaha. I didn't quite read it through,and just skimmed the page you referenced.lbtill just now sitting here stoned. I reread the link and your comment, this monitoring station, plus a few relay boards = my unit (but with arduino) and like 20 year old display tech. Hahahaha. I'm fucking switching to pi. Hahahahahaha.

 

[Overgrowtho]

So perhaps Intellidose is the only retail-sold full IOT solution (including dosing) on the market? Unless anyone knows of others?

 

[HydroLynx]

I spent many a night pondering that exact thought as well. Ultimately, I decided ONE "giant" controller, (no bigger than a shoebox and no heavier than a bag of groceries), would be best for my budget and ultimately my grow setup design. I very well could've individualized each component and section of code (and still very well can), it just adds more $ to the cost as they're will be more duino's or π's. However, incase of any individual component failures, I would be left with a unit that still executes the remainder of the code. So in my mind, it's the exact same as having separate components or controllers. Except that if my "brain" dies, I would be dead in the water. It is designed and built in a way that in the event of a catastrophic failure of the processor board( arduino mega), a simple replacement and reupload of code and your back in action.

Yeah I had libraries of every device and called an object everytime I needed a new fan or light or whatever. But my arduino was running out of memory, just talking to spi & i2c sensors, print functions, let alone all that control code for each device class, it all took up like 90% memory. Why I was thinking about using a pi, or learn android to write a simple grow app that handles all the heavy intelligent code like VPD management and then pings an arduino via wifi just to read a sensor or flip a relay switch. Would love to see data from all the sensors mapped into graphs and to record history logs etc. Graphics takes up a lot of arduino resources too, even just a small lcd char display. Hence getting say a arduino nano to run one part of cultivation like air control and everything that entails.

I was also looking at wifi switches (sonoff) they inexpensive but they only work through the amazon cloud. Sorry Jeff Bezos, you aren't allowed to see my op.

 

[Overgrowtho]

I have been using Tuya switches and plugs and cloud for my grow op and its been working well.

Anyways. Did you consider using an ESP32? My friend recommended to make a system with that. Like a mini Pi. I think you can hook up an SD card in any system? no?

Intellidose seems best for most people if they can shell out the $, and perhaps there are more retail solutions but I havent found em yet.

 

[2com]

Dude I'll be completely honest, I just fully understood what you were trying to tell me. Hahahahaha. I didn't quite read it through,and just skimmed the page you referenced.lbtill just now sitting here stoned. I reread the link and your comment, this monitoring station, plus a few relay boards = my unit (but with arduino) and like 20 year old display tech. Hahahaha. I'm fucking switching to pi. Hahahahahaha.

That's pretty funny. I kinda did think for a moment - "I wonder if I communicated what I was saying/showing well enough..".

The thing I didn't/don't get is how one would go about making it do any "controlling" (via whatever remote server/"cloud" and mqtt it mentions, preferably one's own setup).

I guess it would be writing your own code and adding that functionality to the rpi?...

The instructable link for the "cloud" (I hate that term so much) brings up an error page - dead link.

 

[berten-ernie420]

So I rethought my design. The environment side was operational when I hooked everything up. However, I was not getting accurate readings from the c02 sensor even after the warm-up and first start period. So I hooked the sensors up to a second arduino and everything was reading just fine. So I'm not sure if they're was a compatability issue in regards to my existing stack or code, but I said fuck it and just built a second housing for environment control. So I have the doser which strictly feeds and waters my plants, and then above that we have an environmental controller capable of controlling up to 3 rooms the way I have it configured. As of now, it's only controlling the one flower room tho. Here's a snap of my screen displays. The first is the environment controller and those numbers are realtime. It displays as it continuously reads. The second is just one snap of one screen. It cycles through different screens periodically letting the user know the status of the rooms and the current ph of the water in the mixing res as well as the current time. (6 gallons of water must always be replaced to the mixer when feed is EMPTY to prevent ph probe from drying). Still working on the menu format. Had some bugs and some non pointers so I will track those down and hopefully have a complete video or something to upload for anybody interested. As of right now, it can be pre programmed with any feed schedule but only through the hard code. So it's a set t and forget it system. When the menu is 100, it can be called upon to do any individual aspect of the entirety of the program. But I'm only one guy with no formal training or coding. So if it gets there, cool. If not, I still got my own doser and enviro controller for way cheaper than retail.

 

[2com]

So I rethought my design. The environment side was operational when I hooked everything up. However, I was not getting accurate readings from the c02 sensor even after the warm-up and first start period. So I hooked the sensors up to a second arduino and everything was reading just fine. So I'm not sure if they're was a compatability issue in regards to my existing stack or code, but I said fuck it and just built a second housing for environment control. So I have the doser which strictly feeds and waters my plants, and then above that we have an environmental controller capable of controlling up to 3 rooms the way I have it configured. As of now, it's only controlling the one flower room tho. Here's a snap of my screen displays. The first is the environment controller and those numbers are realtime. It displays as it continuously reads. The second is just one snap of one screen. It cycles through different screens periodically letting the user know the status of the rooms and the current ph of the water in the mixing res as well as the current time. (6 gallons of water must always be replaced to the mixer when feed is EMPTY to prevent ph probe from drying). Still working on the menu format. Had some bugs and some non pointers so I will track those down and hopefully have a complete video or something to upload for anybody interested. As of right now, it can be pre programmed with any feed schedule but only through the hard code. So it's a set t and forget it system. When the menu is 100, it can be called upon to do any individual aspect of the entirety of the program. But I'm only one guy with no formal training or coding. So if it gets there, cool. If not, I still got my own doser and enviro controller for way cheaper than retail.

Nice job, dude.

 

[berten-ernie420]

Tent
Wk 9 of 19 (1 of 10 in flower)

 

[berten-ernie420]

Flower RM
Wk 7 of 10

 

[berten-ernie420]

I also have this real neat scope and camera that I can take closeup pics or videos of the trichs, forgot the name of the damn kinda camera but I'll upload an old scope session from our last crop and show you guys the quality in the trichs. I get lost in the shit, like alice going down the rabbit hole. A christmasy fucking wonderland.

 

[berten-ernie420]

here you go
check out the trich action

 

[berten-ernie420]

heres some still shots of the heads currently in flower
this is Pink Kush by Barneys Farm

 

[berten-ernie420]

and some purple diesel heads

 

[berten-ernie420]

Currently building another 4 cob light rail, running the clu048-1212's, off the hlg 320c-2100A to go into the tent bringing the total watts up to 1600 wall watts (not including fans). So in a 8x8, 1600 led watts, puts me at about 25 watts/ sq ft. Still a little low, but I'm consistently pulling 3-4 lbs out of the room as is with only 1280 true watts (~1.06 -- 1.41 g/w) . I'm not complaining, I just would like to try and get as close to 2g/w as I can. That illustrious elite top tier grower level. We're injecting c02, have a solid handle on the vpd, light intensity is up there, not peaked but up there, heavy strains, great lab results,

has anyone here topped 2 g/w?