Inkbird Environment Control Automation - VPD Made Easy!

[Organic Greens]

Hi guys,
Quick question...
Where is the best location in tent to put sensors (temp and humidty)
I got mine like this but not sure its correct or not 
 

 

Edited November 19, 2020 by Organic Greens
Grammar mistakes

[NezA]

I keep mine close to where I want to achieve the conditions I've set. So as close to the cannopy as you can manage at the stage of growth you're at I would place them next to the stem on top of your mulch remove the sensors when you water and replace after you've finished. As your plant grows and you get a bigger canopy I hang mine so they dangle among it and adjust as required.

 

Make sure both probes are close to eachother and you're golden.

[NezA]

These devices keep saving my bacon. 

 

A couple of examples:

 

A few weeks back the heating element on my oven went which tripped the electric I was at home and flipped the switch and thought nothing more of it. It gets to around lights on and I have a rule that kicks in around that time that switches the temp setting to allow a couple more degrees before cooling. The app sends me a notification that the task failed I think that's odd so nip upstairs to check and surprise surprise the RCDs in my loft tripped when the cooker went. A quick reset and everything was back on at the right time no interruptions to light cycle lovely I thought.

 

Tonight I'm sitting there watching TV with the wife and as per usual I am compulsively checking my app even though I've only just left them after their first watering. I'm used to the routine now and it seems so are the ladies. I'm used to my environment fluctuating after I've disturbed them but I looked and thought my humidity is higher than expected it should be on it's way back down by now left it a couple of minutes humidity had climbed slightly... Hmmmm really odd... Few more minutes still climbing nothing ridiculous but got to about 61%, no something's definitely wrong. So up the ladder I go open the door and my second light hasn't come on check the connections and for some reason I must've unplugged it on my earlier visit (edibles are fun!) Anyway I plugged the light back in and now after 15 or so minutes everything is right where it should be.

 

The way I figure it the ladies are used to that extra light kicking in at that time now and so they ramp up transpiration at that time and I could see it and fix the issue. 

 

Just another way they can tell me when something is up now.

 

Really fantastic bits of kit.

[assault and battery]

Ive got a little app on my phone too and I obsessively check my temps. I can relate to this!

[-G-]

Tremendous write up NezA  this sounds as good as it gets when it comes to environment control, saved me a lot of work in the thinking department! What do you use to control your extraction fan? Do you adjust for lights on/off or do you find there's no need?

 

 

[NezA]

28 minutes ago, -G- said:

Tremendous write up NezA  this sounds as good as it gets when it comes to environment control, saved me a lot of work in the thinking department! What do you use to control your extraction fan? Do you adjust for lights on/off or do you find there's no need?

 

 

 

Sharing the wealth is all, glad people are finding it useful.

 

So my setup at the moment extraction speed control is manually adjusted using a WAC1 fan speed controller (check the DIY section)

 

At the moment I have 2 x 5" extractor fans pulling air from the space one of these is in my veg tent with a long ducting run between the flower cab and the intake of the veg tent. In addition I have a 120mm intake that's hooked up to the cooling socket so intake is passive until the temp is exceeded then it switches to active when needed.

 

I do adjust for lights on and off so there's a 2c drop at lights off just feels right to me to have the night cooler than the day but I have read that to big a drop isn't beneficial so I went for a conservative night time drop. All this is managed by the rules I took a screenshot last night of all of the ones I've set I'll pop it in this thread when I get a chance.

 

Plenty of options for what devices you can hook up so yeah very versatile.

[NezA]

For anyone who's interested here is a screenshot of the full list of my rules the only one that's missing is my < 24 c rule for late flower. For some reason my scrolling screenshot app kept bugging out and this was the best I could manage.

 

[NezA]

Here's a little video I threw together to give you all a better idea of how this all looks.

 

 

A quick bit of context what 24 hours in my garden looks like:

 

- At 8pm the first light comes on. At 8:15pm a rule kicks in to set the max temp to 25.5c.

- At some time between 8pm - 9pm I will go give the ladies their first watering of the day and give them a bit of attention, defoliate, adjust the ties whatever needs doing.

- At 9pm the second light comes on. In the early hours usually around 1am they get their second and final watering.

- At 8am it's their bed time.

- At 8:15am a rule kicks in to drop the max temp to 23.5c where it will maintain this temp until lights on and the cycle starts over.

 

On the graphs you can see the time stamps running along the bottom a data point is captured every 15mins and it stores 30 days of data.

 

As you can see the lights on temps (and therefore humidity because my temps drive my humidity) are very very stable. The night time temps fluctuate slightly as the rad switches on and off and takes time heat and cool but this is kept within about 1 - 1.5c of fluctuation. You can also see how the various events such as lights on and off affect the various measurements and behavior of the controllers. Notice the times when I go to tend to them, just how disruptive that is to the stability of their environment, the disruption is kept as brief as possible. You can also see the big spike in temp as the room is closed and before the radiator has a chance to cool down.

 

It's fascinating having the extra information and I am really noticing the difference in the plants. Up until now I've only ever bothered to keep temps and humidity within acceptable ranges, I've never had this much control over my environment before and it's really making a difference. It's a shame I don't have a recent diary that you can compare the difference but trust me it's very noticeable.

 

In the future it's my aim to get blumats and switch to No Till, this will enable me to provide an even better environment than I do currently that's the next step in my evolution as a grower.

 

Now I just need to buy another set for the veg tent...

 

Keep it green

 

-NezA

[-G-]

Outstanding, those are some damm fine trends! 30 days worth of recorded data is a nice feature to have.

 

I'm looking to use passive intake only for my tent (still in the planning stage), so rather than an active intake for cooling I'm thinking I can use an EC extractor fan with thermostatic speed controller, I guess that's another way of doing it? Means I should only need the Inkbird heating outlet for when temps get too low.

[NezA]

6 minutes ago, -G- said:

Outstanding, those are some damm fine trends! 30 days worth of recorded data is a nice feature to have.

 

I'm looking to use passive intake only for my tent (still in the planning stage), so rather than an active intake for cooling I'm thinking I can use an EC extractor fan with thermostatic speed controller, I guess that's another way of doing it? Means I should only need the Inkbird heating outlet for when temps get too low.

 

Aye a fan with its own thermostatic speed controller will serve the same purpose ramping up the cooling when you need it. I'm running my humidity controller with no dehumidifier attached and it functions just fine, so I can't see why what you're saying wouldn't work.

 

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. 

[oovavoo]

On 01/11/2020 at 9:16 PM, NezA said:

The max rating for these is 1200w

 

My understanding would be (and please check as I'm NOT an electrician) is that if it a unit is rated for 1200W at 110V, then at 240V (assuming you're using UK power supply) it would be double that, 2400W. Apologies if someone else has already mentioned this subsequently in the thread, I'm still reading through.

[NezA]

8 minutes ago, oovavoo said:

My understanding would be (and please check as I'm NOT an electrician) is that if it a unit is rated for 1200W at 110V, then at 240V (assuming you're using UK power supply) it would be double that, 2400W. Apologies if someone else has already mentioned this subsequently in the thread, I'm still reading through.

 

Just found this on another section of the description on the Bezos site:

 

• 【Heating & Cooling Output】 Dual relay output, which can connect heating and cooling device at the same time. Maximum output load: 1100W(110V)/2300W(230V).

 

So looks like you're right. Either way running a 1000w oil rad you should be safe. Perhaps even something as much as 2000w given that info. Don't run these at or close to capacity and everything should be fine. 

 

Thanks for the contribution.

[oovavoo]

No worries bud.

[Northeastrobie]

On 17/10/2020 at 9:12 PM, NezA said:

@sweettooth

 

I've got a diary up at the moment mate feel free to check it out. This is my first dabble into the world of VPD. 

 

Give this a watch mate it's interesting stuff

 

 

Here are the VPD Charts I'm using for reference:

 

 

 

 

 

Great Post, ive gone and ordered the kit as I struggle with both temps and RH due to my location thanks for putting it up.

I just watched the link and was a little confused to the VPD concept, the lady talks about the pressure in K pascals (which i believe is a pressure measurement), is she talking about actual pressure on the leaves? Reason i ask is i my grow tent im pretty sure the internal pressure is much lower than atmospheric pressure because I have a 6 inch fan sucking more air out than is coming in (the tent walls are always sucked in and in order for the carbon filter to work the tent must be a negative pressure?) So I was wondering in a room that is negative pressure could the VPD be measured and true to the figures in the graph or would this only be feasible in a room that is at atmospheric pressure? 

[NezA]

Just now, Northeastrobie said:

Great Post, ive gone and ordered the kit as I struggle with both temps and RH due to my location thanks for putting it up.

I just watched the link and was a little confused to the VPD concept, the lady talks about the pressure in K pascals (which i believe is a pressure measurement), is she talking about actual pressure on the leaves? Reason i ask is i my grow tent im pretty sure the internal pressure is much lower than atmospheric pressure because I have a 6 inch fan sucking more air out than is coming in (the tent walls are always sucked in and in order for the carbon filter to work the tent must be a negative pressure?) So I was wondering in a room that is negative pressure could the VPD be measured and true to the figures in the graph or would this only be feasible in a room that is at atmospheric pressure? 

 

Cheers man just doing my part of people find it useful that's all that matters.

 

Vapor pressure deficit and atmospheric pressure are two different things. Although the unit of measurement is the same the pressure being measured is an entirely different concept. A bit like how joules is used as a measure of energy but depending on what's being measured for instance joules can be used to measure thermal energy or kinetic energy so in this way it can mean different things. Like she said in the video VPD is the pressure that the environment is putting on the plant to transpire. So "kPa" is just how we quantify pressure in this context.

 

To answer your question atmospheric pressure negative or positive shouldn't influence your VPD as this is dictated by humidity vs temp. There might be an interaction I am not aware of, but I haven't personally seen anything on the subject.

 

Hope this helps

 

-NezA