Grow box help!

Hey all, I was on Facebook and saw one of their advertisements for a grow box. Said they completed first round and we're taking $100 deposits on the second batch, I submitted my email for notification when it was ready, but didn't get a confirmation email. I'm trying to find it, I don't know much about it and I'm not saying I necessarily want to buy it because it said $1400 due when it's ready, but I wanted more info so I figured it might stick out to somebody.

It stated that it's designed to detect and provide optimal amounts of light for the plan, reads and adjusts the temperature needed for optimal growth, and that it reads (presuming PPM) levels and provides nutrients exactly as needed and in the correct amount.

From the picture, I believe the source of nutrient was what looked like a cartridge that you must replace, but I could be mistaken and what I saw is some accessory that was in the picture.


And basically it's designed to automate itself and really all you need to do is make sure it has enough nutrients to provide to the plants and would be great for someone like me who works 24 hour shifts and then comes home and sleeps for 6-8 hours, leaving a 30+ hour window where I cannot give the attention the plant needs and deserves, every 3rd day.



I know it's a long shot, but that's the first one I've seen that was "fully automated", including nutes, so I'm hoping maybe someone else saw the same thing and can link me so I can get more info. If not, I guess I'll just wait until it pops up again or wait for an email when I hopefully have $1500 to spare if I so chose to buy it.


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Well it wouldn't be too terribly complex to code something to read the measurement a device would give (such as temp, pH, ppm, rH, etc) and give a buffer to correct it. That would only entail needing to know how to balance your nutes and pH and if you use a cartridge of those things you produce, it'd be a constant formula. IE, your system contains this volume of water at the ppm. The ppm happens to be lower than it should, so we'll give x amount of nutes a, b, and c. Giving that amount of those nutes will imbalance your pH, so we'll give x amount of buffer A to correct it, formulated from your given volume of water.

Then temp would be an easy buffer with a refrigerant.

In regards to light, I'm sure that be a balance between providing plenty of light for the plant and optimal energy draw.



Not defending the product at all, but what was advertised is very realistically possible if someone took the time to design it. I would love to, but I have no clue how to code so I could only do the calculation part of it.


That's why I want to find it, I want to look more into it and see if it's expensive because some real brainwork went behind designing it or if someone is just trying to say nice sounding words to net a high price and scram.


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Firstly, yes, that was it precisely so thank you so much! I couldn't find it!


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First know that while I answer your question, I was looking for the link so I could learn more because I only got a quick glance from a Facebook ad so my answers will be based off what I'm thinking or how I think it could work, I know very little about this product (for now) so nothing I say comes from the company or product reviews or anything.



Nutrient cartridges- I'm not sure. It didn't say. Those may not even be nute cartridges, but they look like it to me and you'd HAVE to use the SAME nute source every single time for any equations to remain constant. Will update if I can find a price.


Water source - sorry, will have to investigate further. Logically, it's HAVE to have some way to change water so it'd be pretty foolish to sell a hydroponic setup with no way to change or add water.



Ailments regarding nutes - how much of each nute and each buffer it 'tops off' with would be based off of the PPM measurement so in theory, you shouldn't have any of those problems if you're maintaining a constant PPM that is adequate for the plant. Knowing some strains are more sensitive than others and some require more of this/that, I'd also have to presume that the preset constant is programmable. If I wanted to buy this product and I could not adjust those values, that'd be a significant deterrent to buying it (for me, at least). I'd also expect to be able to also adjust your NPK concentration so you can be more acclimated for vegetative or flowering by giving more of this nutrient and less of that nutrient. I'd also for some form of a flush program (among a few things) to give you the option to either address it yourself or to intervene and let the system resume its thing.


Pests - it's a sealed unit in the sense it wouldn't be susceptible to external pests unless the internal environment is contaminated by external pests or environment by a human hand so a large chunk of this would be the end user either fucking up or not being as cognizant as I would be. Internal pests, like mold, would have a lot to do with your internal environment so I don't think it'd have a way to address pests (you'd have to do that yourself), but by maintaining a good internal environment (temp, relative humidity, etc) that should at least be a strong defense against them.





I agree, computers are at the mercy of their programmer. Because of that human factor, one person could have easily slacked off when designing and turn it into an expensive piece of shit, but that same factor could make one person benign meticulous with their programming could make it be an efficient piece of technology. That would all come down to what the programming has for parameters, ie how far does it need to go out of what range before the computer is triggered to address and also how the computer is programmed to address each problem and how to calculate, based on values) how to correct it to the true value you want.




Like I said it's more of something that interested me because I had the idea a while back, but while I know some concepts of coding, nowhere near what would be necessary for anything other than knowing it could work.



I prefer growing and handling it myself, but my last grow got a little miffed at the end because it had a few small issues I didn't address adequately because I work 24 hour shifts, sometimes 2 back to back, and when I get home I tend to sleep a while to "recover" from Benin on duty. Given that, it's leaves a generous window of time for a problem to develop or get worse. That's more so where I see potential value, I'd really like if I had something that could say "oh, this baby is getting a little low on nutes. Owner still has another 20 hours at work, I'll just give it a little top off and now we're good."


Absolutely unnecessary technology, but I would personally consider it just because my last grow showed me my work schedule can cause me less than optimal grows. I don't just stack 1500 in my pocket, but if I do some research and all my questions are answered, I may just because it's be a convenience and I don't have a need to grow 16+ plants at once. Grow out a few strains, find one I particularly like, and it could easily be used for propagation of seeds. Clean out very well and bam, back to yield growing.


I will look into it, post any more info I find, and if I decide to buy it, I'll definitely review it for the community.




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That's a legit concern. The videos on the website allude that producing one unit isn't exactly a blink of an eye and since they are taking reserves for second batch, maybe they're producing and establishing a good supply of the things you need to replace (like the cartridge). Maybe it comes with a warranty and anything that may need to be replace would need to be sent in and fixed by them? Or perhaps once you buy it, you gain access to a store that specifically sells them?


Not sure. I'll definitely look into how much it'd take to make one. If you presumed that my last comment was 100% spot on with reality, I'm sure the expense would come with the PPM device, the algorithm that would signal the need to release whatever is needed, and then the dispersal system. I may be wrong, but I don't think there are any devices available that are intended to read PPM and be programmable so the same thing could also disperse to correct. If there truly isn't such out there, that'd make this a new technology and I could see that factoring into production time and why we aren't seeing an option to buy things.


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Oh, I guess I just haven't come across the technology before. I'm looking at those links because like you said, it seems like it's not actually that difficult to make


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