Inkbird Environment Control Automation - VPD Made Easy!

[latigid aikon]

2 hours ago, somelad said:

Mine have arrived this morning 

Mine too, I got the temp controller connected to wifi already but I cannot connect to the humidity controller whatever I do.

 

I noticed the instructions for the temp controller say to use an app called Inkbird Smart but the humidity one says to use Inkbird Pro so maybe I need to use the other app to connect. Unfortunately that app wont work with my old phone...

[somelad]

@latigid aikon i haven't opened the box yet haha, won't be using them for a few weeks. I have read that @NezA uses the inkbird smart app

[NezA]

The inkbird smart app definitely has the option to add an IHC-200

 

[latigid aikon]

20 hours ago, NezA said:

The inkbird smart app definitely has the option to add an IHC-200

 

I tried it any many times but it would not work for me for some reason. In the end I used inkbird pro on a different phone and I also had to use the "slow flash" wifi access point method.

 

Once it is added in inkbird pro you can see it in inkbird smart too so it's all good now.

 

The ITC-308 only took 3 or 4 goes to connect which seemed excessive at the time but in comparison to the IHC-200 it was nothing.

 

I've had the ITC running in my tent since last night and it is working flawlessly. Once the lights come on I'll add the IHC too.

 

Thanks for posting this thread, I wasn't thinking about doing anything like this until I read it but it should really up my game hopefully.

[superfruit]

I'm about to chop my second grow, what do we think of the following for the drying process?
 

- hanging single plant whole

- RH set to 55% with a humidifier connected (but no dehumidifier!)

- I want a nice 15c drying temperature, but only while the RH is less than 56%RH
- In case RH spikes due to unexpected days of humid weather, then raise the temp to a safe 19c to mitigate, otherwise stay at a nice slow 15c dry

 

[latigid aikon]

On 26/11/2020 at 8:48 PM, NezA said:

My only gripe with the data part is, there doesn't appear to be a way to export it and the data viewer is cumbersome and inflexible. But that's literally the worst thing I have to say about these. I'd definitely like an update to their interface especially an export function. 

I've just been reading back through the thread and I spotted this.

 

InkBird Smart is limited in this area for some reason but InkBird Pro has a facility to export log data to .csv files.

 

I've got Inkbird Smart and InkBird Pro installed simultaneously without any issues. Smart has the best automation options but I prefer the live view in Pro and it has the data export facility too.

[NezA]

Thanks for that @latigid aikon I've also just clocked your screen name, funny I must've looked at it at least 3210 times before 

 

Will have a butchers of the Pro app 

[Dapex]

FAntastic post and thread. 
 

can anyone recommend a dehumidifier to use ???

[Dapex]

@NezA Do you follow VPD all the way to the end ?? asking as my current temp in flower is 29Deg.. the VPD charts all say i should still be about 66% RH.. yet all the books and websites say in flower it should be 50% RH at the most.... Kinda torn now if i should bring my RH down to 50% or follow the VPD charts????

[NezA]

Hey @Dapex I followed the chart all the way through on my last run without any issues, but I was running lower temps so was in the mid 50's. 

 

What I've since discovered with an IR thermometer is my leaf temp offset is higher than I first thought so when using the actual values as opposed to an assumed value my humidity should have been slightly lower than the charts I shared earlier in the thread.

 

If you sign up on the Pulse website they'll send you a spreadsheet where you can plug your own values in and it'll produce a VPD chart suitable for your personal situation.

 

If you're following a chart that's tailor made for your situation you shouldn't encounter any issues. At least that's what all the people who know more about this than me say. I can only say that in my (incredibly limited) experience, I haven't had any issues caused by humidity when following VPD so far.

 

This is still a relatively new method in the Canna world so it's unlikely to feature in many books unless they've been written fairly recently. The 50% advice is sound. 

 

Ultimately the best thing to do is whatever you feel the most comfortable with based on your own experience. If you're a relatively inexperienced grower my advice would be to not worry about VPD at all, you'll still grow great cannabis without it.

 

[Dapex]

 

Quote

Ultimately the best thing to do is whatever you feel the most comfortable with based on your own experience. If you're a relatively inexperienced grower my advice would be to not worry about VPD at all, you'll still grow great cannabis without it.

 

hey.  This is actually my first grow but stumbled across VPD at the very start and decided I may as well try and do things right 

I’m running 480w LED and temp even with extraction fan is 27deg so I have based my humidity on that.   My leaf temp is about the same as the ambient air ( just happen to have a infra red temp gauge). 
 

I am 3 weeks into flower and my one single plant is filling my 4ft x 4ft tent. 
had to use a humidifier to start with  now having to use a dehumidifier 

Edited April 7, 2021 by Dapex

[Guest]

On 13/10/2020 at 2:19 PM, NezA said:

Right as promised over in my grow diary here's a post about my Inkbird environment controllers. I have the IHC-200 WiFi humidity controller and the ITC-308 WiFi thermostat, I managed to get these for a steal at 50% off but full retail price these go for ~£100 which makes them significantly more affordable than many other environment controllers on the market.

 

I'm using these devices to control my VPD and I have to say I'm extremely impressed. Both my temps and humidity have been extremely stable. Thanks to these devices not only are my temp and humidity perfectly stable, but both are being kept in the perfect range in relation to eachother, for optimal VPD.

So a little bit about how these work. Each controller has a probe sensor and 2 power outlets, one for a device to increase humidity or temp and one for a device to decrease humidity or temp respectively, depending on what you have each controller set to they'll automatically switch between the increase/decrease devices to keep the temperature and humidity within the desired range.

 

For example, for the humidity controller you could have a humidifier and additional extraction or a dehumidifier pugged in (or both with an extension.) When the humidity is too low it will run the humidifier until humidity hits the desired range then it will stop running the humidifier. If humidity starts to creep up it will run the additional extraction / dehumidifier until humidity is back where you want it. The same applies to the thermostat. Each device is only run when it is needed. 

 

There are basic versions of these controllers that don't have WiFi and for the budget conscious or non technical people they're potentially a good option, although don't think they'd offer the same level of precision when it comes to controlling your environment. But the WiFi version has an app that can be installed on a smartphone that's absolutely fantastic. The app itself allows you to remotely monitor and control both controllers independently from anywhere you have an internet connection. Which is a great feature in and of itself. However more importantly it has an automation feature that allows you to create rules for each device that can be triggered from the status of the other device or some other external factor.

What follows is a short guide as to how I have these devices setup and how I created rules that will trigger and adjust each device as my environment shifts the devices will adapt to compensate, keeping my VPD in the ideal range constantly.

 

Sensor placement. 
I placed my sensors at canopy level and far enough away from my heater and humidifier so that I'm getting an average reading rather than over indexing on any one reading. Obviously you know your grow space so make sure you're placing your probes in an appropriate location and that you're getting a good reading.

The trickiest part of the setup was getting the devices to register on my WiFi but after a couple of attempts we were in business. To be fair the app does a brilliant job of guiding you through the process and it's pretty straightforward.

 

Once they are connected and registered on your network you'll see each device listed in the app.

 

From here you can manually set the desired value for each device. I personally use temperature to drive my humidity and set the temperature value to 24.5c and my temperature range pretty much fluctuates between 24-25c consistently. On the odd occasion I have seen it as high as 27 and as low as 22. But I haven't seen those extremes for weeks now, not since I was initially dialing in the setup. Now everything is dialed in though it's extremely stable indeed. 

 

Creating Automation Rules

 

Ok so to create a rule firstly we select the smart option at the bottom of the screen.  

 

Next select the automation tab.

 

 

On my screen you can see all my veg rules in green. Obviously the first time you see this screen it will be empty and rules will be added in the order you create them. To create a rule select the blue "+" icon in the top left. You'll then be presented with a screen that allows you to select what type of trigger condition you want to set. Because I want the devices to balance each other I chose the "when device changes status" option.

 

 

 

My temperature like many of you, I'm guessing, tends to be far more stable than my humidity. So I opted to have my temperature value drive my humidity value. So on the next screen we select our thermostat. (ITC-308-WIFI)

 

Here we're are presented with a list of options. I have used the "current temperature" parameter.

 

 

Each rule I have created is set at 1c increments. I also use the "<" (less than) condition I originally set this to "=" but as soon as the temp shifted by 0.1c the rule would cease to apply so using "less than" at 1c increments covers the entire range of decimals. Select the upper limit of the temp range you want to cover. 

 

 

On the next screen we need to select what we want to happen when those conditions are met. In this instance we want to run our humidity controller so select "run device" 

 

 

Now select the humidity controller (IHC-200-WIFI)

 

 

Next we want to select what we want the humidity setting to be, so select the "Setting Humidity" option. Use the slider to get in the right range if you want to be really precise you can use the + and - icons to make fine adjustments.

 

 

Here you'll want to refer to a VPD chart to select a humidity value that's appropriate for the temperature threshold you have selected for this particular rule. The rule we are creating is for flower so I have used the appropriate settings assuming a -1c leaf temp offset, these values will give us a RH of 51% between 24-25c

On the last screen you get a summary to review before saving and activating the rule.

 

 

So for this example we are using <25c as our threshold temp. So to recap what we have said to the app is "if the current temp on our thermostat is <25c then set our humidity to 51%" now where this gets really interesting is that you can stack the rules up so if I set a <26c rule for 53% humidity we have now told the app 2 things:

"if the current temp on our thermostat is <26c then set our humidity to 53%, unless the current temperature on our thermostat is <25c then set our humidity to 51%"

You can then add additional rules for <24c etc etc and you continue to stack these rules one on top of the other until you cover your entire temp range and a couple of c either side just in case.

 

There's a whole heap of other options I'm yet to explore with this but just this functionality alone for the price is pretty fantastic. Yes there's quite a bit of setup involved but once it's done and your rules are saved you never have to look at it again other than activating or deactivating the rules for the various growth stages. 

 

At the moment I only have a complete set of rules for veg setup. By the time I flip I will have created a full set of new rules for optimal flower VPD. You can colour code the rules so you can easily see at a glance which rules are for which stage my and you can activate and deactivate any given rule using a toggle. So when I need to, I can just switch between different rule sets easily and there's no need to recreate rules from scratch all the time.

 

 

If people find this post useful I might explore some of the other features in the app and make additional posts over time.

 

Keep it green

 

-NezA

What a legend for this thread mate just persuaded me to scrap me original plan and order and get both these for price of the fan controller I was going to buy 

[NezA]

No problems @welshgorrilla mate. Make sure you have a read through the whole thread if you can there's some good info and some tips and some pitfalls. Worth having a butchers mate.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, NezA said:

No problems @welshgorrilla mate. Make sure you have a read through the whole thread if you can there's some good info and some tips and some pitfalls. Worth having a butchers mate.

Great info there bro spot on 

[latigid aikon]

@NezA Quick question; does the automation still work if your internet connection goes down? I haven't actually automated anything yet myself and I'm still trying to get my head round how it works.