Pc enviromental controls?

[elliottorion]

Hello everyone,

Been around the forum for a little while watching and absorbing post. I've grow small scale with success. It was a 600w hps with dwc and 150w hps mother room. The rooms were about 6' x 4' flowering and 2' x 4' mother room.

Now a little older a little wiser and have just recently moved into a wonderful house for growing. My qesution to everyone is about pc controled grow room. I have 10' x 8' flowering and 3' x 6' mother room.

I would like to have a computer control the following

1. Lights
2. Pumps
3. Fans
4. Temperature
5. Humidity
6. *pH
7. Light mover
8. *Nutrients
9. Co2 regulator

* Not necessary however would like to have

I would like to hear suggestions and reviews about different products. My budget is around $1200. I already own the follwing


Lights

• 1 x 150w hps grow light (all in one unit)
• 1 x 400w hps ballast and fixture
• 1 x 1000w hps ballast and fixture
• 1 x 2 tube by 2' bulbs HO fluorescent
• Multiple CFL bulbs (26-105 actual watts)

Hydroponics

• 12 x DWC 5 gallon buckets w/ airstone
• 3 x 4 outlet air pump 20w, 45 lpm

environmental

• 20lb Co2 tank
• Co2 regulator (don't mind getting new one)
• Small space heater
• 4 x Ultra-sonic humidifier( don't know spec)
• Misc. fans and blowers
• Window unit AC 6000btu
• 20 gallon reservoir for nutrients

My main question is there anyway i could buy or make (with existing software out there) a PC controlled unit for both flowering and mother grow room?

The mother i can handle if not practical to incorporate into environmental controls. However if I could leave flowering room for 3-4 day at a time comfortably would be in heaven.

Again 1200 is my budget for environmental. Pre-made unit or DIY units or a little bit of both. Just want to have everything controlled. Any information, experience, and reviews would be helpful and appreciated.

Thanks to all members.
-Orion

 

[stillsmokin843]

bro no offense but thats asking for a lot from the lil research i have done. im sticking around so heres a lil bump for your thread. best of luck on finding a solution the diy crew here at ic can do so much lets see were we can go with this thread.

 

[stillsmokin843]

just my sentinal chhc1 eviroment controller i found an awsome deal on was four hundred and some change seen it online for up to 7. that would take care of the duey the co2 heat and fans or small a.c or thermostat dont know if it could be done cheaper.

 

[bonsai]

Search here some more; there was a modular off the shelf system someone posted earlier this year that looked excellent. Ph and nutes will require $$$ sensors, best to leave that for round two.

 

[Ilie Mihai]

Have a look, growduino and gardenbot.

 

[bonsai]

Have a look, growduino and gardenbot.

These aren't really "off the shelf" options which is what OP asked for. Having designed and built my own arduino-based automation and monitoring system I can assure you growduino is a virtually useless toy and growbot looks only marginally better (though I haven't looked at the code thoroughly yet). Hard-coded scheduling, no independent RTC chip for accurate time keeping and power failure recovery ... at least growbot looks intended to be extensible, but growduino is a joke. If you want to do your monitoring and scheduling with arduino I'm happy to give you my code and help, but any project like that requires a solid understanding of electronics, electrical, and programming.

 

[SpaceKiller]

why on earth would you want to control all of that, i understand some if it but not the pump, lights, temps and even PH thats just asking for too much and im pretty sure to have all that set to be controlled from one device, let alone finding a device that can actually control all that will cost way more than $1200.

some of those things can be easily set and forgot about with a cheap $15 timer. i admire your ambition but what your asking for is like 30+ years of the future of growing that it will still need to advance to.. controlling all that perfectly would cost tons of money and would need something more than just a computer to control it all.

no offense or anything i know you arent specifically asking for all of that but i was amazed at the list and im not an expert in controlled setups but i am aware of how much things actually cost to run. if you can find something under $1200 to control nearly half of that, please let me know where you got this amazing device.

 

[overbudjet]

I know it"s not D.I.Y. but i use growtronix
all the thing you want.Pic of my set up.

 

[elliottorion]

The growtronix is perfect and a i can monitor it remotely thank you very much. Is it very accurate?

 

[elliottorion]

to spacekiller growtronix might be what your looking for as well. 679 for base price.

 

[overbudjet]

The growtronix is perfect and a i can monitor it remotely thank you very much. Is it very accurate?

yes it was ,You can use switch to drive everyting
switch----ssr(solid state relay)----water pump low power app. (or)
switch----ssr--contactor relay-----light high power app.

some gear and setup pics

 

[stillsmokin843]

nice over budget how much do ya have tied up in the automation end of your set up pumps , parts etc?

 

[overbudjet]

For all setup i would say "TO MUCH"
for automation soft and hardware 2.5 G(not including pump-light-dehu-fan-etc).
Room is in full overhaul now going from 3*1kw mag ballast to 4*600w digital(quantum)adding water cooled Co2 burner(hydrogen) and 4 new sylverstar hood.12000 Btu window a/c and some other thing

 

[stillsmokin843]

nice best of luck. i was jsut curious how much it would cost roughly for the software and stuff to make the automation cost. not lights duey etc just the parts it would take to turn your average hydro room run on a program including the injector pump for food etc

 

[overbudjet]

Doing the food parts by myself but for the rest 2.5G is a good estimate.

 

[stillsmokin843]

damm yea i fig it was up there i knew it was up there. i kinda looked into it a while back. thanks for the info bro.