IKEA Cab Micro Scrog Airlift DWC Techie Grow Box

Discussion in 'Micro Grows' started by hotpockets, Oct 16, 2014.

  1. This is my attempt at a single-plant stealth IKEA internet-monitored grow box. This is my 3rd grow box build. Each one gets successively smaller and more complicated  :). In the past, I've had mother/clone/flowering chambers and larger setups, but I just keep trying to minimize space and have found that a single plant system is plenty for personal use.
     
    So this is all built on an IKEA Brimnes cabinet, just roughly 16"x16" in footprint:
     
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    Looks unassuming, but unlock it and all drawers swing out as a door:
     
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    </div>I had a few of these cheap cabinets, so I measured out all of the predrilled holes in the drawer faces and CNC'ed a single solid panel with white enamel backing for reflectivity, fastened each face to the panel and mounted with hinges. I used some insulation stripping to block light leaks.
     
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    Space is at a premium, so power, microcontroller for environment sensing/alerting, and output venting fan/odor control are all stuck in the very top to allow maximum space for the lights and growing.
     
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    In the middle, a small group of sensors to monitor light, temperature, and humidity.
     
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    For a grow container, I started out designing this to be a flood and drain system with the reservoir on the bottom and the grow container mounted to drawer rails to slide in and out, but I was having problems getting my bell siphon to work with such a small volume. Eventually, the simplicity of an airlift pump dwc won out, and I went with a smaller 3-gallon bucket and 6" netpot lid. I like having only the air pump to worry about, and I can position the tubes from the lift precisely to start seeds from rockwool directly in the system.
     
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    </div>There's a lot of wires there, and I've since cleaned it up some. Each tube from the airlift has a water sensor with a 3D printed mount that fits on the end of the tube. If one or both of them stop sensing wanter flowing, I get an alert about it. There are 2 more sensors in the reservoir: A liquid level sensor that can tell me the height of the water to the hundredth of an inch, and a PH sensor... both kept away from roots in a section of pvc. All sensors in the system have configurable alerting thresholds for high and low values, and all periodically log data remotely. I like being able to see charts and trends... especially with water levels since that corresponds closely with growth rate.
     
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    </div>The 'floor' is just carbon filter cloth stapled to the bottom. The cabinet is on padded feet, so this allows some air into the system. Additionally I 3D printed a light-trap (that will fit a standard PC case fan if I ever need to boost the input) and mounted it near the bottom back.
     
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    For lights, I went as cheap as possible. I like CFL's for their relatively low-heat and quick swappability for different stages of growing. I used a few Y-adapters to make a 4-outlet light fixture, then CNC'ed some plexiglass to make a simple reflector mount for a cheap hanging lamp socket. I added a few vent holes around the mounting hole and some at the corners to zip tie to chains. I've tried fancier stuff for all aspects of lighting, but keep coming back to simplicity so I'll see how this works out ;). I painted the underside with reflective white enamel.
     
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    For the output vent, I used a temperature-controlled PC fan and some ducting. I 3D printed an insert that can hold scented oils or gels to help with odor, and then I take a section of carbon filter and rubber-band it over the whole thing.
     
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    The sensor and power wires all run outside in the back of the cabinet. I went fast and cheap and just covered this with a piece of flexible foam and duct tape, but if it turns out that I keep needing to access this, I'll probably make a velcro-removable panda film section to cover it. The only cables going to the cabinet from outside are power and ethernet.
     
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    And finally, the scrog screen. CNC'ed plexiglass. I also made inserts for all of the holes to block out the light until each one is used. Originally, this was mounted to the sliding drawer unit of the flood and drain system, but for now it just rests on the drawer channels.
     
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    </div>And that's about it! Just starting a little something out to see how it goes now. It's designed to be on-demand... as in, if it needs something, it will alert you. In practice, it's too much fun to be hands-on with each plant so I usually only use sensor data for history or to know what's going on during a vacation. Hope you like it, and thanks for the great community and inspiration!
     
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  2. holy shit man. that's a beautiful build. :)
     
    awesome to see someone using airlift...first I've seen someone using it for growing.
     
  3. Thanks Bongsauce! Yeah I hope the airlift works out. I've grown a lot of legit stuff in a small AquaFarm aquaponics system that uses airlift and it's kept fish and 5 plants growing strong flawlessly. I've been on a test-run of the grow cabinet for a couple of weeks to test the sensors and alerting, and haven't had any issues with the airlift part yet :)
     
  4. The duct tape wire covering didn't last long. I changed it to be 2 overlapping foam sections attached by velcro strips. Seems much cleaner and easy to access:
     
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    Have a plant about a week from seed now in the bucket, just circulating rainwater at the moment. I'll post how it goes :)
     
  5. Pure art...
     
  6. #6 hotpockets, Oct 25, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 25, 2014
     
    Thanks! It was fun to make, but I like the data part too... It's obvious, but just seeing things like the correlation between humidity and temperature (which in turn, of course, is correlated to light) is cool for me. Also, it helps me really evaluate what works in getting temps under control without going too crazy  :smoke:
     
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  7. wow that's really cool to see the 2 together like that :D    
     
      ...are the heat peaks when the lights are on/off? ..like 10 days worth of data there?
     
  8. Yeah, the temps are in blue on that and it's on a 20/4 cycle, so looks to me like temperature dips during the dark period. The change in the pattern in the last part is where I added an intake fan... seemed to smooth things out overall and brought the average temp down.
     
  9. Simply awesome!

    Peace & Love
    PyspherE
     
  10. Very cool man, I've been in and out creepin. Love the 3D printed insert for the fans, I am designing something similar. How's it coming along? Also, just wondering if you could go a little more into detail about your sensors? More specifically, which ones you use lol, I'm looking to do something similar so I can monitor what is going on while I am away at work or when I am out of town.

    Love the build man, I love stuff like this, can't wait to see it when she explodes

    Sent from my Spaceship using the GrassCity App.
     
  11. I'm fine tuning my set up at the moment although not taking quite such a high tech approach. Trying to rearrange things to reduce the amount of ducting. Perfection's something we aim for but never achieve, dunno who said that but it sounds cool...:)
     
  12.  
    Thanks Dazed! Checked out your build too... very nice! Which sensors are you interested in? I have a 5v logic system, so your mileage may vary. It's a DHT22 temperature and humidity sensor (accurate enough, cheap), a Milone eTape level sensor (seems very temperature-sensitive, however), some generic eBay ph Monitor (that's turning out to be a disappointment - I'll have to look for something else next time around), just a photocell for a light sensor (I'm just seeing if it's off or on... not intensity). Can't remember where I got the flow sensors, but they're mainly just parallel traces on a small circut board that conduct when water connects them.
     
    The fan inset really needs to be deeper... just doesn't hold much, but it does work while it lasts :) I might tinker with it more. Are you designing a printable filter? Would love to check that out.
     
    Being able to have peace of mind while away is exactly what motivated me to start monitoring.. starting with just temps in my first box. Now if I have to go out of town, I have a really good idea of how long the res will last, how the conditions are, and if anything stops working for any reason. Looking forward to hearing about what approaches you take as well  :smoke:
     
  13.  
    Cool, you have a nice clean setup... hope you get some results! I'm definitely not after perfection.. just like to see proof that my changes don't make things worse  :p
     
  14. Very cool setup!  What are you using to drive the data acquisition pieces... open source by chance?
     
  15.  
    Just some custom code on the microcontroller (arduino). The building was much more challenging than the code :)
     
  16. That's really cool.  I am experimenting with Raspberry PI at the moment and want to build a PH automation system.  Lots of possibilities with Arduino and the PI!!
     
  17.  
    Let me know if you come up with a reliable PH sensor. I've settled for my eBay cheapie to just indicate which direction it's changing and to what degree... it needs constant calibration. Good luck with the PI... I never really considered that for this kind of thing b/c it seemed like the GPIO was kind of a sparsely-documented afterthought... and I didn't need audio/video/usb for anything. I'd like to go even smaller for the next project: They have a microcontroller in an SD card with built in wifi that looks like it'd do the trick :)
     
  18. Here is the PH/EC meter that I was looking at.  I have not pulled the trigger to purchase as of yet as I am still working on getting my RPI setup with FreeBSD current and getting a few misc GPIO sensors operational.
     
    http://webpages.charter.net/tdsmeter/products.html
     
  19.  
    Cool, good find and not insanely expensive... let me know how it works out if you do it!
     
  20. #20 hotpockets, Nov 19, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 19, 2014
    For flower, I made a new light fixture based on the same idea, but with more sockets. I'm in a space just slightly over a square foot, so I came up with this to have up to eight lights and help airflow at the same time:
     
    I used these standard clip-in sockets from the big box hardware store:
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    I laser-cut acrylic to have 8 holes with snap-in tabs for the sockets and a pc fan in the middle. Painted one side for reflectivity:
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    Some wiring, crimping, and heat-shrink tubing later and it's ready to go:
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    In place... this helps to keep the air moving from bottom to top:
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