Android to monitor your room?

samba

Active member

• Jan 18, 2011

• #1

I was thinking of putting a android phone with a camera in my growroom, point it at the plants and have the pH and EC meters in the view of the camera. But heres the tricky part, where would I get a program that would take a picture everyday at the same time and then upload it/email it online.How reliable are the internet connections on the phones? I have just a simple old phone, so don't know a lot about the new ones. Mine makes calls and has sms Some friend of mine have 3g internet on there laptops and it keeps dropping them offline, this would fuck things up if the phones do the same...
What you think, bad idea?

Oh, and do the new cameras have the black "stripes" on the pictures, when taken with HPS lights? That could mess things up as well...

 

One Love 731

Senior Member

Veteran

• Jan 18, 2011

• #2

expensive but would be nice to have, there is several programs that do what your looking for. http://growtronix.com/store/

 

samba

Active member

• Jan 19, 2011

• #3

Growtronix would end up costing a lot more than a android phone and some software(if its available). Of course you wouldn't be able to control anything, just observe.
And on a phone, you could use a prepaid sim, so no need for adsl connection that you need ID for...

 

Aerohead

space gardener

Veteran

• Jan 19, 2011

• #4

I would love to have a grow room cam to check from remote locations. Seems like the cheapest way would be a wireless PC cam $75 bucks or so and remote login to the PC it's connected to.

 

R

RedRain

• Jan 19, 2011

• #5

echo bee sells a thermostat thats quite reasonable...$350 cad that you can use to adjust your AC and furnace, and also see how long it takes your room to be cooled down to see if there is a problem occuring, or if it starts to take longer to bring your room to the desired temp. it will also call/email/sms you when there is an issue. ie. high heat

the camera have stripes because of the light

bud bug tells you what kinda filter you need on your camera to properly view your stuff

 

S

supaleeb

Member

• Jan 19, 2011

• #6

If you have an old PC lying around, put Ubuntu on it, connect a cheap usb webcam, and install ZoneMinder.

 

I

itzgrowtime

Member

• Jan 19, 2011

• #7

great ideas. i think ima get a wireless video security system, and have it connected to a server that i can pull up online or my android phone.

 

Capn

Member

• Jan 19, 2011

• #8

okay, you can do this easily with an android phone and this application.

http://www.appbrain.com/app/com.pas.webcam#

 

samba

Active member

• Jan 19, 2011

• #9

Not sure here, but wouldn't reading a email with a picture in it be safer that connecting strait to a IP webcam? You could forward the email to other addresses and so on, dont know a lot about internet security... I would prefer a picture over mpeg/video, as I could easily just check a email address specific for this, and I could do it with bad internet connection. Why? I'm leaving for a holiday to Africa in 3 weeks and internet is shit were I'm going. And having a picture per day you could kind of get statistics of your grow...
As I said earlier, with a phone all you need is a "pay as you go"/prepaid/burner SIM card, no need for a internet connection that must be harder/riskier to get everywhere in the world compared to a SIM card.

And, where I live the "pay as you go"/prepaid/burner SIM card you pay data by the Mb, so video would be madly expensive...

 

David762

Member

• Jan 19, 2011

• #10

Pretty expensive solution ... but a great idea.

Pretty expensive solution ... but a great idea.

samba said:

I was thinking of putting a android phone with a camera in my growroom, point it at the plants and have the pH and EC meters in the view of the camera. But heres the tricky part, where would I get a program that would take a picture everyday at the same time and then upload it/email it online.How reliable are the internet connections on the phones? I have just a simple old phone, so don't know a lot about the new ones. Mine makes calls and has sms Some friend of mine have 3g internet on there laptops and it keeps dropping them offline, this would fuck things up if the phones do the same...
What you think, bad idea?

Oh, and do the new cameras have the black "stripes" on the pictures, when taken with HPS lights? That could mess things up as well...

Click to expand...

I was toying with the idea of a somewhat less expensive alternative, since I would already have (1) a network, (2) a computer, (3) a camera, and (4) a land-line telephone, as part of a DIY home security system:

http://www.cainetworks.com/products/webcontrol/webcontrol-faq.html
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...lectronics&field-keywords=webcontrol&x=9&y=23

They're so cheap ($39), that I bought 3 of them.

 

Socomvet

Member

• Jan 20, 2011

• #11

something to just watch http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Panasonic+-+PetCam+Network+Camera/8636504.p?id=1194053241543&skuId=8636504&st=network%20camera&cp=1&lp=5

 

samba

Active member

• Jan 26, 2011

• #12

Still looking for software that could do this, no one?

 

samba

Active member

• Jan 26, 2011

• #13

I guess I just have to forget about this as I wont/cant open a internet connection there.