Pi grow room monitor/control

[highcontrast]

3 minutes ago, Dodgee said:

My bad, I thought you were trying to automatically fill the small tank itself.

 

 

 

I wish i had the space for that, If i was still growing in the shed i would be all over the ball cock idea  

[Dirk-Diggler]

Would it be possible to use this to route the direction of the res returning based on the temp i.e. if res is over 19C route to the chiller if under route to the heater?

[Gsp1ce]

16 minutes ago, highcontrast said:

dht22 is sorted, I did have a dht11 on order but just see these are more accurate. I may skip the level sensor as I have just seen the app I will use to drip feed has a work around. 

 

the dfrobot sensor is confusing me. it appears to be for the aurdino, i know alot of stuff appears to work for both, can you confirm ?

 

so if i just want to monitor temp/humidity and the soil probe do i still need the relay?

pretty sure both and more are supported..the dfrobot one is corrosion resistant unlike the ones ive seen relating to pi projects..

ah..hold up!..just been lookin a bit deeper..turns out a ADC chip would be required for the dfrobot one. Maybe just go with one used in other pi setups.

i am by no means an expert..but i think the resistive ones only trigger on/off at a level you set on the little interface board you get..ones requiring adc's would give you actual measurement.

Have a look at other pi projects man..gotta be vids and blogs on pi soil sensor setups

If your not wanting to switch anything on then you dont need a relay board.

 

cheers dude

 

[highcontrast]

@Gsp1ce Thank you, from the online guides i have seen i did order the corrodible option.I figured the only other option was an expensive option, my google skills clearly suck. 

 

Hopefully i do make it to a stage where i do have a corroded sensor fault   , could you please make sure you hit at least 50 posts for when that happens 

 

 

[3potheads]

@highcontrast if you are looking to measure soil moisture then I did manage this with a pi. I ended up using a capacitive soil sensor and not a resistive one. The resistive one puts a current through the soil and measures how much makes it to the other side, the wetter it is the more makes it. The capacitive one does it some other way, possibly magic.

 

I'd you use the resistive version you want to try and make sure you are only ever sending current to the probe just before and as you are taking a reading, this is due to the corrosion taking place when the probe has current as it starts to oxidise. I'm not sure how easy it is to only send current when you need it, I think I remember reading that you needed a control board.

 

I went the capacitive route so I didn't have to worry about the corrosion and only had to worry about the first part, getting it setup and working. 

 

I ended up buying a mcp3008 and putting the sensor though that. It wasn't that hard and I just used a breadboard with the chip in and jumper cables to the gpio pins and sensor pins. 

 

I no longer use the sensor as I broke it plus I use autopots so they are always in water anyway now.

 

I could grab my code and share it if you like though. 

 

I do really suggest getting a couple of breadboards and some jumper cables if you have never done this before, it made learning and mucking around with the pins sooo much easier.

 

That's a pic of the soil sensor when I was.using it, don't have one of the breadboard and chip on it.

[KayDog]

Please don't think I'm being rude - your post is great; you explain how and why you changed from resistive to capacitive sensors which is useful. 

 

My query is did the sensor (of any kind) actually tell you something you didn't know? I'll be honest and say most of us water either by experience or routine (or design as in dwc) - did this sensor 'earn its keep' by having you water differently/better? There's no negative if it turns out it was just another gadget to maybe confirm what you know. 

 

Would you be tempted to automate this further? Say, ie, the sensor triggering auto watering to reduce your workload and improve / guarantee watering opportunity you might otherwise have been late to do? 

 

As you might guess, I'm really quite interested in this area of automation. The professional kits are in the region of $2000! Probably with good reason! 

 

All the best with your growing! 

[highcontrast]

12 hours ago, Dirk_Diggler147 said:

Would it be possible to use this to route the direction of the res returning based on the temp i.e. if res is over 19C route to the chiller if under route to the heater?

 

Maybe a couple of solenoid valves set to open at certain temps ?

 

One directed at the chiller and 1 directed at your heater. On quick look some brass solenoid valves are available although they do report leaks from the quick look i had. Lots of fun research for you my friend

 

@3potheads thanks buddy, looking at the mcp3008 has provided a lot more available online projects to read up on. I love how cheap parts can be. I do have a small starter kit with a whole bunch of stuff on its way. I figured if i could get through some basic guides then this whole process would go a little smoother 

[KayDog]

Be wary of cheap parts. Sometimes they're good, most times not. 

 

Leaks from joints can mostly be solved by ptfe tape. Really cheap insurance - 5 x 25m rolls for £5.

Edited May 7, 2020 by KayDog

[KayDog]

@highcontrast

 

I've been looking at NodeRed. 

It looks like a good compromise between tedious learning and application. 

 

Are you aware, once you set a block/node for each sensor, does the data from those sensors then come automatically or do you have to loop? 

(my programming days were in the early 80s - a lot has happened since!) 

 

Thanks in advance

[highcontrast]

@KayDog I had a brief look today, i like it, although i did see it can be used as an add on to home assistant too. i managed to install and ssh in via putty and then remote in via chrome, all while heavily medicated . Sadly the postie only had tat for the wife today.

 

Im still unsure on how the programming works too, hopefully i understand more when i have some sensors to play with.

 

I did think of something today, The weight sensors that the led Gardner uses for his res, I'm picturing one under  each plant so you could see them putting the weight on in flower in real time. How cool would that be, no doubt it's been done but not something i have stumbled across yet

[Gsp1ce]

I exported my node-red project last night from the pi and then imported it to a pc running node red..it imported fine but due to hardware differences it was a bit messy.

So ive created this from scratch for you guys..its a kind of simulation using slider i/ps as simulated sensors and dashboard leds to simulate outputs.

You could in theory replace the sliders with hardware senors and leds for relays for a system..

oh..the 2 orange function nodes after the sliders are prob not necessary for simulation (they decode dht22 sensor data) 

import it (copy lump of code then paste it into 'import' page in node red) it'll flag that its missing nodes....click top right 'hamburger' and select manage palette then click the install tab...you can now search,install missing nodes.

[Gsp1ce]

Ah...just tried to paste my code in a post...UK420 blocked it!! must be cos its code! and be interpreted as a virus.

will see if i can dropbox or something.

[KayDog]

@Gsp1ce

 

Thanks for your hard work and effort to share. 

[highcontrast]

@Gsp1ce take a snip and upload as a picture should work fine

[Gsp1ce]

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/lzxvazzaau6k6i7/AACHhC9Q2SntQJocXhOI9HQda?dl=0

 

Try this..copy this massive line of code and paste it into node red.