DIY Automatic hydro Grow

subscribed - there are quite a few computer folks on here - i am a sys-admin (UNIX) and loudblunts is a network admin and there are some coders on here too.

unfortunately, i know nothing about basic but if you need some shell scripting done or Perl - let me know.

in the meanwhile - good luck -- i'll be watching this one!

+rep for this one, i dont know anything about that kind of stuff but I will purchase the software from you when you finish it lol

SOUNDS good i'll be watching.

wow...i want in. although im completely confused on how you'd do it. i've been interested for a long time about this....but i hate programming. fuckin A!!!

im completely at your services! network help signing in!!!

I've decide to switch OS to Ubuntu because I have experience with similar setups using it am having problems with ssh and vnc on PClinuxOs. I want to thank everyone for the support. I'll get pics of the computer grow room and cam pics online soon

email468 is there a way to allow access to a web page hosting live images of grow room and current conditions whale keeping my location secure. I have used proxys before but I don't think I could use one and still host a webpage. It not a big issue but I thought alive feed showing what I'm monitoring and controlling could really add to the journal but I don't want to broadcast where I am.

rolln1up said:

I've decide to switch OS to Ubuntu because I have experience with similar setups using it am having problems with ssh and vnc on PClinuxOs. I want to thank everyone for the support. I'll get pics of the computer grow room and cam pics online soon

email468 is there a way to allow access to a web page hosting live images of grow room and current conditions whale keeping my location secure. I have used proxys before but I don't think I could use one and still host a webpage. It not a big issue but I thought alive feed showing what I'm monitoring and controlling could really add to the journal but I don't want to broadcast where I am.

Click to expand...

record on a webcam and post the movie of it rather than a live feed would be my knee-jerk reaction.

i've never had to do anything like that but i would think as much control you have over your network would be important. Multiple IPs and control over DNS would be, I think a requirement for any kind of real security - anyone else have any thoughts about this?

You would also have to rotate your IPs all the time and redirect from something like tiny DNS and then redirect to a fake IP that actually responds to http requests. Hmmmm. anonymous browsing is one thing - but anonymous serving is tricky i think!

Boy do i feel stupid after reading this thread .

panhead said:

Boy do i feel stupid after reading this thread .

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it is the lingo man - trust me this computer stuff is far easier than doing a top end on a panhead and i'm betting by your handle you know how easy that is

email468 said:

record on a webcam and post the movie of it rather than a live feed would be my knee-jerk reaction.

i've never had to do anything like that but i would think as much control you have over your network would be important. Multiple IPs and control over DNS would be, I think a requirement for any kind of real security - anyone else have any thoughts about this?

You would also have to rotate your IPs all the time and redirect from something like tiny DNS and then redirect to a fake IP that actually responds to http requests. Hmmmm. anonymous browsing is one thing - but anonymous serving is tricky i think!

Click to expand...

correct.

i would also create a macro so it would actually post the video at decided times or whenever you wanted it to update it self.

Looking forward to this one mate, good luck!

Ubuntu is generally a good choice. Or maybe just plain Debian, for more hackish stuff like this.

So far as remote access is concerned, I would run a VPN and make sure that only internal and VPN hosts can access the garden subnet. I wouldn't try and create a public live feed, doesn't seem like a good idea.

In fact, I might run a 'vanilla' VPN on the expected ports and then do some kind of port knocking routine to open a second VPN on a higher port, and use that for garden system access.

But I'm paranoid about things like that.

Anyway, have a look at these links:

uC Hobby » Blog Archive » Sprinkler control with embedded linux

Acacia Projects - Sprinkler Controller

ASABE Technical Library :: Abstract

Valves for irrigation control?

Computer Automated HydroPonics - The Garden's Cure

The Garden's Cure "Totally Automated Part Deux"

I'm interested in this.

Maccabee said:

Ubuntu is generally a good choice. Or maybe just plain Debian, for more hackish stuff like this.

So far as remote access is concerned, I would run a VPN and make sure that only internal and VPN hosts can access the garden subnet.

In fact, I might run a 'vanilla' VPN on the expected ports and then do some kind of port knocking routine to open a second VPN on a higher port, and use that for garden system access.

But I'm paranoid about things like that.

Anyway, have a look at these links:

uC Hobby » Blog Archive » Sprinkler control with embedded linux

Acacia Projects - Sprinkler Controller

ASABE Technical Library :: Abstract

Valves for irrigation control?

I'm interested in this.

Click to expand...

The VPN is a great idea for him to access the controls over a network - but i think he was talking about making it available to the public (us).

email468 said:

The VPN is a great idea for him to access the controls over a network - but i think he was talking about making it available to the public (us).

Click to expand...

Yeah, I added a clarification with a quick ninja edit.

I think grabbing a still or a 15 second clip and slapping it up somewhere via a script run from cron is a better idea.

There's also this, which comes up a lot. RelayRunner; it's an old Windows program.

http://www.emcarthur.com/relayrun/relayrun.htm

They have a list of (older) interface boards:

RelayRunner &#45 Vendor Links to Interface Hardware compatible with RelayRunner, includes Pictures and Graphics

This USB interface thing looks like it might be useful:
ActiveWire, Inc.

Or maybe this one, which is a little more complete (heh):
BWI Product Information for Measurement computing PMD-1024LS

Thanks everyone for the help!

Okay here is what i have so far. I installed Ubuntu, setup remote access using the GUI for VNC that can be found by going to Systems>Preferences>Remote Desktop and setting things according to ones needs. I than spent the next 4 hours or so trying different webcam programs to fine one that worked with my webcam. Some worked but didn't allow for repeating picture capture, others didn't work at all, some showed multiple cascading reaping images that made it unusable, but I finally found Camstream(download from synaptic) which works great and allows for picture capture and has a nice GUI so I don't have to run it from the command line. Camstream's only drawback is that it stores captured images in the directory in which it was ran from so I will have to make a script that can start it from the directory I wish to save the images to but for now I am starting it manually through the terminal. One of the perks to Camstream is that using VNC I am able to actually see the current video being displayed by it, something that I have notice VNC will usely not do as I don't believe is able to streams video. My guess is it displays the video as a series of pics and this is why it is possible but anyways it makes for a better experience so props to the developers. Okay so I moved the computer on top of the grow room and added the webcam inside of the grow room. In doing so I ran straight into a problem with the image. There are dark bands going across the image. I believe this is caused most likely by the frequency of the HID light interfering with the scan rate of the webcam. So I am going to have to purchase a better webcam for viewing but the images are good enough to show leaf color and canopy density so it's not all a wast. I have included a pic of the webcam to show what I mean. Okay so I have been doing some research and have found that it may be considerable easier to use the parallel port as I can control the pins logic level individual and have no need for and interface board if I do it this was all I would need a an isolation circuit a some relays to I hope to have a parallel cable connected to some LEDs today so I can begin testing on that part.

Okay now that I can capture images I will probable also be setting up a webserve running Apache to host the images so I don't have to VNC into it evertime. I will also be setting up SSH to tunnel VNC in so as to increase security because I am aware to the security issues with VNC but for now I think it will be fine, I hope.

Take a look at this too. It's software from someone who was posting in an old CW thread I found through the Wayback machine.

JAuto: http://www.geocities.com/ngc7579/



It might be easier to get help working on a Java based product rather than something in Basic, and this is something that kind of exists although it appears work stopped on it a long time ago. It'd be cool if the community here could revive it.

The thread that the above link comes from:
http://web.archive.org/web/20021218111424/www.cannabisworld.com/ubb/Forum10/HTML/001271.html

Thanks thats a real cool I'll do some looking around at it myself.

Okay heres what I've got so far. After researching the parallel port pin out heres what I cam up with. Pins 2-9 are I/O pins and 18-25 are ground. So I set about build a simple led connector to allow me to test the parallel port and my programs; the current limiting resistors are 470 ohm. To test the parallel port and my connector I am using a program called parashell which allows for the TTL level of the pins to be set through the terminal. The second picture is of the connector displaying the digital word 255 although I think it's hard to tell they are lit but they are.

NICE WORK!!!! This is one hell of a thread, yalls IT skills are insane!! Are you going to be able to play you plant growth in super fast foward and watch em grow before your eyes lol? +rep