70W vert + LED + organic + microcontroller madness.
- Thread starter bonsai
- Start date
exploziv_gbb: Thanks!
Here are the results after running the box with all lights on for 10 hours:
Average temp: 20.5°C
Average ambient temp: 12.7°C
Average humidity: 49.18%
Average ambient humidity: 73.34%
I'm not happy with the position of the ambient sensor, it's in one of the intake pipes, which is itself practically on the ground and surrounded by inches of insulating material. The positioning, insulation, and cool air being sucked over it are all increasing the apparent difference between internal temp and ambient. When I turned extraction fan on, the ambient temp dropped over 2°C. haha.
I'm going to move that to be outside and level with the internal sensor.
Here are the clones taken from the plants that I'm about to flip:
The two in pots are cuttings from a couple weeks back that already have roots. They'll be gifted to my buddy to say thanks for the seeds.
Here are the results after running the box with all lights on for 10 hours:
Average temp: 20.5°C
Average ambient temp: 12.7°C
Average humidity: 49.18%
Average ambient humidity: 73.34%
I'm not happy with the position of the ambient sensor, it's in one of the intake pipes, which is itself practically on the ground and surrounded by inches of insulating material. The positioning, insulation, and cool air being sucked over it are all increasing the apparent difference between internal temp and ambient. When I turned extraction fan on, the ambient temp dropped over 2°C. haha.
I'm going to move that to be outside and level with the internal sensor.
Here are the clones taken from the plants that I'm about to flip:
The two in pots are cuttings from a couple weeks back that already have roots. They'll be gifted to my buddy to say thanks for the seeds.
GrowBox420
Member
Really like the set up its amazing what people will come up with to supply there own medicine.
I don't know about readily available software. There are going to be options out there, but nothing compatible with the budget hardware I've used.
Anything with an Arduino board is usually going to require some programming. If you used exactly the hardware, sensors and wiring I'm using, you could use my software without any modification. I'm cautious about providing a wiring diagram, as there is a LOT of dangerous opportunities to kill yourself or burn your house down with something like this, and as such I think anyone who is capable of wiring it safely could do so without explicit instructions.
Scheduling (sunrise/day/sunset/night) on mine is managed by a 24 line text file, with one state per line matching each hour of the day, so no programming knowledge needed to set that.
Approx hardware costs (USD)
- arduino: $30
- sd card & clock shield for arduino: $20
- 1GB SD card: found in a drawer
- 2x temperature and humidity sensors: $22
- 2x opto-isolated relay boards (4 relays per board, 10A/250v relay rating): $30
- LCD: $20
- Power supply: scavenged from old external harddrive case
- DIP switch, wire, etc: $10?
So approx $130 for the above stuff.
Thank you for your words of encouragement, it's been a very frustrating week ironing out the last bugs, thankfully it's all good now
Anything with an Arduino board is usually going to require some programming. If you used exactly the hardware, sensors and wiring I'm using, you could use my software without any modification. I'm cautious about providing a wiring diagram, as there is a LOT of dangerous opportunities to kill yourself or burn your house down with something like this, and as such I think anyone who is capable of wiring it safely could do so without explicit instructions.
Scheduling (sunrise/day/sunset/night) on mine is managed by a 24 line text file, with one state per line matching each hour of the day, so no programming knowledge needed to set that.
Approx hardware costs (USD)
- arduino: $30
- sd card & clock shield for arduino: $20
- 1GB SD card: found in a drawer
- 2x temperature and humidity sensors: $22
- 2x opto-isolated relay boards (4 relays per board, 10A/250v relay rating): $30
- LCD: $20
- Power supply: scavenged from old external harddrive case
- DIP switch, wire, etc: $10?
So approx $130 for the above stuff.
Thank you for your words of encouragement, it's been a very frustrating week ironing out the last bugs, thankfully it's all good now
Last night was the first "day" of flowering!
8 plants, 7 in 1.5L (1/2gal) pots, one runt sativa in a ~0.8L pot. The runt has been flowering for a couple weeks outside and has already stretched. All the bigger ones are massively over-vegged, even after two cruel haircuts.
Fingers crossed for lots of healthy ladies. 5 of them are definitely ladies, but the other three are from Dutchgrown and Sam Skunkman, so I'd really like to get a taste from those genetics.
8 plants, 7 in 1.5L (1/2gal) pots, one runt sativa in a ~0.8L pot. The runt has been flowering for a couple weeks outside and has already stretched. All the bigger ones are massively over-vegged, even after two cruel haircuts.
Fingers crossed for lots of healthy ladies. 5 of them are definitely ladies, but the other three are from Dutchgrown and Sam Skunkman, so I'd really like to get a taste from those genetics.
Came home after 5 days away to find everything very happy. "F**kin' stoked", as we say here in Australia.
Looking greener than the last pic:
...the eerie LED & HPS glow that greats me when I open the drawer...
...the 5 day old cuts:
...and one of the 3 rooted cuts that were moved to mini pots 5 days ago:
Looking greener than the last pic:
...the eerie LED & HPS glow that greats me when I open the drawer...
...the 5 day old cuts:
...and one of the 3 rooted cuts that were moved to mini pots 5 days ago:
Another reason for me to want to run a home server. "Sure your TiVo can record TV, but can it also grow your weed?" Ha.
I remember last year someone posting pics of professional displays he made using leds and other lighting and it mimicked the color of the sun from sunrise to sunset.I'd love to be able to pull that off in my cab.
I know a lot of people on the forum use parameters bc they're easy to solder. How hard are the Crees or did you buy them on stars?
Looking good
I remember last year someone posting pics of professional displays he made using leds and other lighting and it mimicked the color of the sun from sunrise to sunset.I'd love to be able to pull that off in my cab.
I know a lot of people on the forum use parameters bc they're easy to solder. How hard are the Crees or did you buy them on stars?
Looking good
Lookin good dude. One thing that might help your LEDs are lenses for those Crees. www.Cutter.com.au has lenses to choose from. Maybe some 90 degree ones. At the height your lights are, they will help with penetration. I keep my arrays about 2-4" from the plants with no lenses. Penetration just isn't there with that wide angle.
Loving the Arduino. I'm about to start my PIC based microcontroller setup soon. Did you design the relay boards or are they purchased?
Loving the Arduino. I'm about to start my PIC based microcontroller setup soon. Did you design the relay boards or are they purchased?
JustDoIt: neither can I, bring on the buds!!
T_B_M: thanks, cutter are near me, I bought my crees at their warehouse. I'm considering some lenses and cool whites for round 2. I only have 10" from pot to LEDs and plants are currently 2-3" from the LEDs. Factor in the Hps which is no more than 3" from any plant and penetration is no longer a major concern.
I designed and built my own relay board for last years prototype, but these two are from futurlec and only cost $15 each. Part of the goal of this build was as little perfboarding as possible.
I hope to publish a complete parts list and zip of all code in the next couple days.
T_B_M: thanks, cutter are near me, I bought my crees at their warehouse. I'm considering some lenses and cool whites for round 2. I only have 10" from pot to LEDs and plants are currently 2-3" from the LEDs. Factor in the Hps which is no more than 3" from any plant and penetration is no longer a major concern.
I designed and built my own relay board for last years prototype, but these two are from futurlec and only cost $15 each. Part of the goal of this build was as little perfboarding as possible.
I hope to publish a complete parts list and zip of all code in the next couple days.
Temps have really been dipping the last couple of days. Doesn't help that the cab is in a shed. Unfortunately I'm using the heating plate for the clones still, but the flowering plants seem to be coping ok.
I can't be stuffed retyping all the details, but I've attached a screenshot of the temperature stats (celcius) over the past 2 days.
I can't be stuffed retyping all the details, but I've attached a screenshot of the temperature stats (celcius) over the past 2 days.
Attachments
CONTROLLER PARTS
Relay boards: http://futurlec.com/Opto_Relay_4.shtml These are great value for money. I made my own 4x relay board for my original prototype and just the relays cost me as much as each of these cost.
Arduino Uno: available from a number of suppliers, inc pretty much any of the suppliers listed below
SDcard & Real Time Clock: http://www.adafruit.com/products/243
- the Arduino team have announced their own official SDcard shield. Next time around I'll probably use that if it's available, as this one gets quite a few failed reads and writes. Due to this I've had to disable my system's "disable on critical error" system, as any read failure is a critical error.
Combined Temperature/Humidity: http://www.adafruit.com/products/385 or http://www.adafruit.com/products/393 (same thing, second one is easier to wire up)
The SHT range are easy enough to use as well. I had a few fail so I tried something else this time. I recommend against the HIH series as they use a 3.3v I2C interface, and the Arduino's I2C interface is 5v, which is a pain in the ass that's easily avoided.
Temperature: any of the 3-pin analog temperature sensors are super cheap and easy to use. I've used LM335 and TMP36 with this project without any dramas.
LCD: I used a 16x2 LCD that seems to have crapped out after running 24/7 for a few months. There are heaps of LCDs supported by the main Arduino LCD library, using any of them will be about the same.
CONTROLLER CODE
This zip file contains all the libraries you'll need. Put them in your __Arduino__/libraries directory. The main sketch code is in Biodome/examples/Biodome/Biodome.pde. It will be listed under the Example menu in your Arduino IDE. There are a number of other examples in the Biodome library, all of which start with "test_xxxx". Each of these are isolated test cases for each piece of hardware used in the system. Relay switching, LCD, scheduling, etc.
http://www.mediafire.com/?af0g1aagokf7b27
As always, let me know if there's anything I've missed that you want to know.
Relay boards: http://futurlec.com/Opto_Relay_4.shtml These are great value for money. I made my own 4x relay board for my original prototype and just the relays cost me as much as each of these cost.
Arduino Uno: available from a number of suppliers, inc pretty much any of the suppliers listed below
SDcard & Real Time Clock: http://www.adafruit.com/products/243
- the Arduino team have announced their own official SDcard shield. Next time around I'll probably use that if it's available, as this one gets quite a few failed reads and writes. Due to this I've had to disable my system's "disable on critical error" system, as any read failure is a critical error.
Combined Temperature/Humidity: http://www.adafruit.com/products/385 or http://www.adafruit.com/products/393 (same thing, second one is easier to wire up)
The SHT range are easy enough to use as well. I had a few fail so I tried something else this time. I recommend against the HIH series as they use a 3.3v I2C interface, and the Arduino's I2C interface is 5v, which is a pain in the ass that's easily avoided.
Temperature: any of the 3-pin analog temperature sensors are super cheap and easy to use. I've used LM335 and TMP36 with this project without any dramas.
LCD: I used a 16x2 LCD that seems to have crapped out after running 24/7 for a few months. There are heaps of LCDs supported by the main Arduino LCD library, using any of them will be about the same.
CONTROLLER CODE
This zip file contains all the libraries you'll need. Put them in your __Arduino__/libraries directory. The main sketch code is in Biodome/examples/Biodome/Biodome.pde. It will be listed under the Example menu in your Arduino IDE. There are a number of other examples in the Biodome library, all of which start with "test_xxxx". Each of these are isolated test cases for each piece of hardware used in the system. Relay switching, LCD, scheduling, etc.
http://www.mediafire.com/?af0g1aagokf7b27
As always, let me know if there's anything I've missed that you want to know.
Day 23 of flower.
Plants are looking a bit sickly, especially one of the Skunkman Mix and one of the Dutchgrown Mix, as they are very root bound having now spent 2.5 months in these 1/2 gallon pots. Combined with the constantly low temps (average ~13 celcius at night), and al the plants are showing various defs that won't be fixed by nutes. I don't actually care, I'm looking for strong survivors to keep as mother plants, not a big first crop.
One of the DGS plants has an incredible sugary sweetness smell with no hint of that citrusy smell. Very interesting, look forward to smoking it. Probably a Sweetest Cindy from what I've read.
Plants are looking a bit sickly, especially one of the Skunkman Mix and one of the Dutchgrown Mix, as they are very root bound having now spent 2.5 months in these 1/2 gallon pots. Combined with the constantly low temps (average ~13 celcius at night), and al the plants are showing various defs that won't be fixed by nutes. I don't actually care, I'm looking for strong survivors to keep as mother plants, not a big first crop.
One of the DGS plants has an incredible sugary sweetness smell with no hint of that citrusy smell. Very interesting, look forward to smoking it. Probably a Sweetest Cindy from what I've read.
2 of the bagseeds have hermied and been killed off. "DGS1"'s sweet smell is intensifying and becoming more complex. Starting to get some real grapefruit flavours. Don't want to speak too soon, but I might just have a keeper SWT#3-leaning Sweetest Cindy99.
Heavily sativa-leaning Skunkman freebie ("SKM2") is beginning to fill in nicely, it's the other likely keeper. Very strong vegging, super easy to clone (I got 5 clones off this one, 2 of which I gave away to friends), and good node spacing.
Best clones have been up-potted again to become mother plants.
Heavily sativa-leaning Skunkman freebie ("SKM2") is beginning to fill in nicely, it's the other likely keeper. Very strong vegging, super easy to clone (I got 5 clones off this one, 2 of which I gave away to friends), and good node spacing.
Best clones have been up-potted again to become mother plants.
T
trem0lo
Looking good man, love those microcontrollers!
Thanks gents 
trem0lo: it's a very long way from perfect, but it's great to be able to see the environmental life of the grow vs ambient conditions at 5 minute intervals. At the moment I'm just grabbing averages and max/mins every few days but as I get closer to harvest I'll post up some graphs of any interesting factors.
trem0lo: it's a very long way from perfect, but it's great to be able to see the environmental life of the grow vs ambient conditions at 5 minute intervals. At the moment I'm just grabbing averages and max/mins every few days but as I get closer to harvest I'll post up some graphs of any interesting factors.
