Grow box + Arduino

Discussion in 'Grow Room Design/Setup' started by chr0nicb00m, May 14, 2009.

  1. Hey! ive been thinking about using an arduino along with a million censors to design a super smart grow box.

    if u dont know what an arduino is u can go here Arduino - Introduction

    the only thing is im not at all a grower so if one of the professional growers could help me out and tell me all the different variables i should me measuring for (i.e. Ph, temp, hydration, humidity, nitrates) along with the general area they usualy need to be at that would be an amazing help with getting this project off the ground.


    thank you!
     
  2. I'm liking the idea a LOT... would be useful for a stealth cabinet grow... as a CS major myself, I use the arduino a lot! great little board.

    If you have a sealed cabinet you would need to control: the light schedule, the exhaust fan (or level if you run it all the time) based on temperature, which I believe should remain about 72 degrees F. Also, humidity should be at 60% if im not mistaken, some verify that please! :p that could control your de-humidifer/humidor.

    If your running CO2 injection, dedicated CO2 controllers go for $400... imagine DIYing it and saving hundreds!

    Really like the idea, keep me posted, ill try to answer any questions as best i can! :D
     
  3. I have been wanting to do this as well. Im a CS major too and have been trying to think of ways to do an automated grow, as well as case grow, but I had not encountered the Arduino before but it sounds great I will be looking forward to news about this in the future.
     
  4. I'm allso thinking about an arduino controlled growroom, however i'm not a CS major... but i do have a lot of common sense. I see great possibilities in the arduino, especially the mega version with usb link, ethernet is too unsafe i'm guessing...
     
  5. theres your handy dandy pH guide. if your running a hydro setup you will need to moniter water levels, and PPM levels(nutrients).
     

    Attached Files:

  6. Nice chart:) I'm a hydro-grower..The first thing i'm looking for is a system for controlling PH EC and TDS... I have a feeding barrel of 350 liters, always filled with rainwater, i added a buffer barrel of 1,000 liters so normally i'll always have the rainwater wich is lower in PH. For adding fertilizer i was thinking of using a windshield sprayer motor... Only thing i have to figure out is how to make the system so that PH- and PH+ can be added automatically...

    Allso the heating of the feeding barrel must be automated and allso the amount of air pumped in and the circulation pump of course. As a last thing for the water part i would like to have my barrel filled automatically when i'm not around. Now i'm using the aquasafe from BTT, wich is allso easy to use but automated would be better offcourse...
     
  7. I saw a thread somewhere once where a guy built a fully automated grow box. It was up in his attic, and he only had to check on it once a month or so to harvest and plant new clones.

    He was using some type of industrial sensor equipment. I think he mentioned he was an electrician at a type of refinery and would bring home sensors and crap that he had replaced but still worked. I don't remember what type of computer the sensors were hooked up to, but he had all his levels for his hydro setup, temps, and CO2 all automated. He even had a few cameras throughout the box so he didn't have to go up to his attic and open it up to check on his plants.

    I wish I could find that thread.
     
  8. i used to dishwash at an italian restaurant. well, it wasnt so much dish washing as it was loading the giant box with flats of dishs and hitting the go button. it had pumps hooked up to 7 or 8 bottles of different cleaning solutions/drying aids. and depending on the amount of everything going on within the wahser it appropriatly measured the solutions.

    so i know similar things can be done.

    the windshield sprayer is a great idea. you would need a pretty badass EC pH TDS meter for an automated system i would think though. youre going to need alot of pumps and alot of hosing. although once its dialed in it would be pretty amazing.

    i dont see the need to have the air pump automated, you should have the pump on high, all the time. the more oxygen in the water the better. also you may not have to worry about res temps. ive never had a problem, but im not using 1000watt hps. these may just be things that will complicate your setup futher.

    :hello:
     
  9. errrr - not to hijack the thread - but - where did that pH chart come from and is the top for soil and the bottom for hydro?
     
  10. Those dishwasher pumps are allso a great idea... Sensors exist for all sorts of detections...Maybe we can all come up with a list to add to our arduino setup. Is it possible to use more than one arduino in a system? That would lead to a whole list of possibilities... The PH and EC system should consist out of two sensors, maybe an extra one for temperature controll. I saw a good solution for warming a barrel more effectively as an aquarium heater.

    Products 4 Engineers -

    Sorry it's in dutch though but the pics explain everyting.

    I would place the controllers + injection pumps for PH+ and PH- in a pipe, connected to the barrel, with an aquarium pump in it to mix the additions right away. I have a pic of this system, i'll scan it if i find the book...

    Another system to controll is ventilation... Any suggestions on this? Sensors for temperatur and humidity controlling in and outlet fans are easy, enough applications for that purpose exist allready. A co2 meter could allso be added allso controlling the fans.

    More will follow as i think about it...
     
  11. not sure how many people know about arduino's out there but there SICK, if you can program an arduino board to sensor levels of humidity, heat, oxy and c02 levels, jeez even lumens ffs! ( i know they probably have an arduino light sensor for SURE!) and all that other good stuff im sure you could make a "turnkey" box that will just grow the weed itself...yeesh is that what its really come to?! man...blew my f***** mind just now.. srry for rambling!:bongin:
     
  12. had the same idea. those arduino's are amazing easy for people to get into electronics, and do some really cool things.

    although my experiances with hydro organic growing, is that in some sense it's just better to let things be, and not add ph+ and - and mess with the NPK like you would with inorganic ferts; because the ph always seems to be way out of wack, and the micro-organisms are breaking down organic matter in order to give your plants nutrients. So even minutes after a water change, the ph can sometimes look really off and the plant never seems to care, as long as you had the correct amount of nutrients and the water wasn't too fucked up.

    but as for HVAC and all the other controls I think it'd be sweet.
     
  13. I see where you are getting at with too much ph balancing, but you can allso do this wit other natural solutions... A good ph is very important, allso after adding fertilizer... it's in my opinion best to balance ph after addition of fertilizers. There is allready a lumen sensor for arduino, just search a bit Instructables - Make, How To, and DIY Tomorrow i'm gonna search a little on my current ideas, i'll let you guys know when i know it :eek:
     
  14. yeah... ph blancing right after adding ferts is good.

    So if your automatically adjusting nute strength and adding different ferts for different stages of flowering, one way is to add the liquid in a specific quantity would be to have a valve that opens to suck the water through a a venturi, that basically uses the water pressure passing by a constriction in the line, in order to suck the ferts out of a container.

    Venturi's are quite pressure sensitive, and things like the distance that the venturi has to suck the liquid (or even having the liquid so it will gravity feed), can change things, so it's best to find a way to get a constant amount.

    A lumen sensor could be just a photovoltaic cell right? Or at least a poor mans lumen sensor.

    What would you control off of a lumen sensor? Or would that just be to see what changes in lights do to yield?

    anyways, looking forward to your research results.
     
  15. I've been cruising the net for a couple of weeks. And found a lot of info... I allso bought a book "Arduino projects for the evil genius in wich i'm reading right now.

    I've found a couple of setups for combining multiple arduino' in one big setup so the possibilities are really endless...

    I would add a lumen sensor/meter to measure lamp wear, if the light goes under some value, an alarm goes off, or a warning is displayed on the computer you are using for the control of the whole system. You can add a wired network plug to the arduino and allso a wifi edition, called zigbee?

    Now, a little list of possibilities i see, feel free to add or comment...

    - PH, EC, TDS and temperature control and monitoring in your nutrition barrel
    - Filling of your barrel, in my case pumping water out of my buffer barrel with rainwater
    - PH, EC, TDS and temperature control in your medium
    - adding fertilizers to your feeding water
    - Ventilation control in the growroom
    - temperature & humidity control in the growroom
    - Lumen monitoring and giving alarm levels of wear
    - Height control of lamps ( moving up according to the height of the plants)
    - Silent Intruder alert through sms
    - Entrance control to the growroom
    - Video monitoring in growroom, your electrics panel, surroundings of your growroom
    - Fire alarm with extinghuishers and sms alarm
    - Measuring used electricity and water (for making the bills and calculating cost of your operation in accordance to your harvest)

    All this can allso be used in the seedling/cutting room, motherplant room and drybox

    I plan to buy a first arduino one of the next months and will start experiments when i am completely better (i had major back surgery two weeks ago, so i'll need a long revalidation)

    I'll be expecting your comments, additions and critics...:smoke:
     
  16. I'm working on a few links here, first the one that links several arduino's into one:

    How to Connect Multiple Arduino Microcontrollers with I2C | Hack N Mod

    A few examples of security systems/entrance control:

    Hack a NES Controller into a Security Keypad | Hack N Mod

    Arduino Forum - Access Control (Electronic lock)

    Arduino Forum - Arduino + 2 RFID Reader !!!

    Alarm and break in alerts:

    Practical Arduino: Security / Automation Sensors

    If you wanna go extreme in video monitoring the environment surrounding your grow room:D:

    ArduPilot main page - DIY Drones

    Controlling your grow-room:

    The Arduino Weather Station / Thermostat

    Make your own programmable thermostat for ~$66 with Arduino

    Arduino: Nokia LCD & Sensors

    Mushroom Environment Control - Arduino Powered

    Data Logging:

    Build a datalogger for your wireless sensor network

    Network acces for your arduino('s):

    Ethernet shield

    That's all for now... going back to the study room:wave:
     
  17. Another link, a list of most shields that can be combined with the arduino

    Arduino Shield List
     
  18. Sounds like you know your stuff. I am old at outdoor-brand new at indoor. started a box using Peltiers for cooling (i live in the deep south-about 2 miles from the Gulf of Mexico-it is HOT here) and using CFL's for light. I bought a Kangen water unit years ago for health reasons. It allows me to instantly adjust Ph without additional chemistry. Have you heard of it?
     
  19. no, don't know that system, do you have a webadress for the Kangen water unit?

    I'm thinking and thinking now, i'm reading "arduino projects for the evil genius" on the bed stand, allso reading "getting started with arduino" on the laptop... scooping around in all sorts of projects... I guess i'm going to ask santa for the new arduino mega starter pack from cool components:D

    I'm waiting for comments on my posts to add more to this topic...

    All of the described functions the arduino('s) could do must be designed in pieces. I'm going for full automatisation with supervision and human control just in case murphy's law bites me in the a**:eek:

    I'm currently rebuilding my whole setup wich includes motherplants room, seeding and cloning area & growing/flowering area... Not everything will be automated at first, it's a challenge to grow where i have my little paradise. The whole setup is 4 square meters (2 meter by 2 meter and allmost 2 meters high). The only thing standing outside is my backup rain barrel.

    I live in Western Europe, it's a moderate climate, too cold in winter, too hot in summer and very much rainfall...

    in winter i have to provide additional heating, in summer i have to cool things like crazy. I allways use rainwater for the plants, wich is lower in ph & doesn't have a high amount of calcium wich i can"t say about the tap water:mad: plus my water bill stays low. The electricity bill is allready high enough when i'm growing... Maybe next year i'll have solar panels on the roof wich will reduce energy costs to allmost zero.

    For the moment i can't build or rebuild much cause i had major back surgery (spinal cord injury) allmost three weeks ago. So i have lots and lots of time to research the automation of the whole setup based on the arduino... In a couple of weeks i can slowly start building again...

    That's all for now:wave:

    going back to the books now:)
     
  20. I really never post on any sites, but your project is almost identical to what I wish to do. Lets see if we can write some sketches up tailored to a medical run....

    Arduino Forum - Interfacing with a CO2 sensor

    Liquidware : InventionLab

    wireplant - Project Hosting on Google Code

    My first project will be the CO2 sensor. A Senseair 22K PWM, although I suspect I will purchase the k 30 series, as it actually can control the on/off cycle onboard. I am waiting for the Mega 2560 big boy to arrive within the week.

    Check out How to Make Things Talk from the Makezine authors as well... I will happliy provide sketches and help for this thread!!!! BTW HELLO to all bioterristral beings here! :wave:
     

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