Fully automated growroom runned from other country

[mg75]

i take what i wrote back...
apparently you can clone, transplant, harvest, etc...

a company named demtec
http://www.demtec.eu.com/English.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YidsX3WVkk&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyHxG4EVCSo&feature=related

 

[FirstTracks]

Anyone saying that this would have to be done using a hydroponics system is full of it. Seems it would be much easier to do an all inclusive organic soil in a large flood system or with blumats.

Blumats would almost never clog if you were watering with straight water and a large flood tray type system, flooding every few days to a few inches, could utilize large diameter piping that would be immune to clogging.

Instead of worrying about raising lights, why not just go vertical. Sure, you sacrifice some early on growth with the bulbs being a little high, but after that, just let the plants bush out and grow.

Air handling can be automated pretty well as it is, especially if you're not worrying about complications using CO2.

You could monitor smell by using PPM meters on the intake and outtake and comparing differences.

Of course, equipment can always fail, such as lights, ballasts, and pumps, but that is just something you have to be ready to come back and fix.

If you had enough cash floating around to automate the whole thing anyway, you could really implement back up systems that could be turned on remotely such as a secondary carbon filter, a backup ballast and bulb for each existing ballast/bulb combo, backup pumps...

An automatic fire suppression system is definitely something I'd use, in combination with a high temperature shutoff.

cloning, planting, harvesting, and trimming would probably still require you to be there...but you're probably not planning on just having your automatic setup smoke your harvest for you, so you'll be there anyway sometimes.

 

[gOurd^jr.]

Well I know the OP is asking about an indoor room but if you want the easiest automated set-up just go outdoors...irrigation could be done many ways. With good soil you might cut out any feeding, or automate feeding through the irrigation if you like. In a good area just gotta prep the plots, plant your plants, come back and Harvest. go as big as you want you could do fields. Sure plenty of prospective hitches in the great outdoors, but with all the stuff that can go wrong indoors(and the fallout resulting from a fire, flood, etc.)
I think Outdoor is the way to go for remote growing.

 

[CannaBunkerMan]

Holy shit, I think I just crapped my pants after looking at all that automation machinery from those links. I'm WAAAAAAAY to small time to use any of that, but it's nice to know that it's out there.

True, fully automating outdoors would be much easier, but you'd have to invest in some sort of auto turret to take care of the rippers. Disposing of the bodies might take some inginuity. Either that, or you could throw the dead rippers into a mulcher, and use them as fertilizer. Then you could smoke them. Awesome!

 

[Rednick]

OP - they have been doing this for decades in Mexico.
We all see what has become of it as well now too.

I thought that, too.
Why does 'Automation' have to mean robots and A.I..

 

[echo_chamber]

Totally possible with a programmable microcontroller, sensors, robotics and a remote PC app..

 

[AGBeer]

I think you missed the sarcasm/silliness in my post

Please don't think that I'm being negative. I'd really like to see someone tackle something like this. I think it's a great idea, and I've always dreamed of doing something like this. The last few years, I've been hard at work taking the most boring parts of growing out of the equation like watering and some HVAC.

I've considered things like X-10 drivers to control the electrical, but have always been scared off by things like computer crashes. I'd like to see some sort of modular sensor setup on a chip that won't crash. I have a grow controler by iGS, and that handles CO2, AC, and dehumidification. I'd like to see something that could gracefully handle a power outage without concern for a manual re-initialization.

The tecnology to do most of this is on its way soon. Just keep listening to threads like this, and eventually it will arrive.

 

[WasntMe]

I have set up Crestron systems to monitor, automate and remote control greenhouses for disabled gardeners before....AI, robots, sifi gear and extra laptops are not needed. Most is controlled by relays, RS232 and some IP control on a VPN network. Info monitor updates can be even emailed or texted to you daily/hourly. It takes some money and proper planning/purchasing and an automation programmer. One still needs to come to the site for minimal maintenance and obviously plant/harvest time.
The process can not, obviously, be 100% automated but automation can free up a lot of the gardeners time and/or simplify some tasks to make the burden on a disabled person more tolerable.

There are a few garden specific automation systems out there that run on PCs but I find more dedicated house automation systems to be more reliable and up for the task.
Crestron, RTI, Savant, Control4, Lutron Homeworks .... to name a few, could all be configured to automate an indoor garden depending on the specific configuration.
It's been done before, systems have been featured in magazines but automation that is quality is never cheap.

 

[Private Joker]

Why? The hours I spend in my room are some of the best. I look forward to that time every day. roll a joint and go see the kids.
Hoses break, lights burn out, duct work develops leaks, pumps clog, other people, animals, bugs, movers get stuck, so much more. I very rarely go 24 hrs w/o doing a vis check on everything.

 

[supermanlives]

just about anything can be done with enough money and some experience

 

[Rednick]

Hey, it works for the Cartels.
Besides, pruning is an art.

 

[Mr_Clean]

I program "Smart Homes" as a full-time job.
It would be ridiculously easy to fully automate a house and manage your grow from a remote location. As long as the grow has an Internet connection your good to go!

I'm thinking you add all the irrigation on timers and/or a water sensor placed in the growing medium once the soil dries out, trigger the drip irrigation.
You could even add cameras to look over things.

All that's missing would be a robotic arm. Which is also possible, but far beyond my knowledge...

Throw me 50k and I'll give you an automated environment. Minus the robotic arm of course

 

[CharmingMan]

I'm trying to automate my growbox, with an old pc. I'm nearly done with the programming and sensor building, and it was done under 200$ budget.
I have temperature, humidity(moisture), light sensors, that can be read by pc (through USB). The pc than controlls via relays some outlets. That way I can power on/off anything, based on time or sensor reading of the air and soil parameters.
This way I can control the lights, the ventilation, the heaters and the irrigation pump. That way I'm hoping to achieve a seedling to harvest autonomy of the growbox. Just pour the water into the container, pot the plants, stir, and wait for a couple of months

Future work could be many more types of sensors and PC interfaces. Once you have everything on the pc, it's relatively easy to do what you want.

 

[Sgt.Stedenko]

Allen Bradley makes a fine line of PLCs and software.

With the right equipment and money, anything is possible.

 

[RubeGoldberg]

I've done this for 2 weeks at a time using webcams (including one pointing at a cluster of digital environment sensor displays and a few in the grow room), a remote PC connection and a big reservoir running drain to waste nutrients.

I have experimented with software available where I could get all my environment stats displayed and controlled on the computer but I don't trust the computer not to crash and fuck shit up for me.

2 week intervals was good enough for raising lights and general maintenance. I had previously dialed in my room design though to the point where I could trust the fans, strain's stretching habits etc etc etc.

 

[CannaBunkerMan]

Are there any lines of plug and play sensors for PC? Charming man, what are you using for your Plug and Play USB hygrometers, thermometers, water level sensors, etc? I know there's X-10 for power management, but I don't know if they can handle the kind of juice that we're talking about. I'd love to see cheap environmental sensors that you could combine together to fit your needs.

More importantly, what would you use to drive the logic behind all of this? If there were C libraries to control them, I could program myself a Windows interface using MFC, or Java.

 

[Sam the Caveman]

If you used a strain that you were familiar with, irrigation, and organic amended soil and a way to move the lights up over the internet. I don't see it being a problem, during the veg and bloom cycle at least. Of course for harvest, cloning and drying, someone would need to be there maybe for 2 weeks between cycles. Monitor indoor temp,humidity and plant growth via remote cams through the internet and raise lights as needed.

Although, its possible, I wouldn't recommend it because what if the a/c goes out, or your irrigation pump stops working, or a blumat sticks open?

 

[sx646522]

If you used a strain that you were familiar with, irrigation, and organic amended soil and a way to move the lights up over the internet. I don't see it being a problem, during the veg and bloom cycle at least. Of course for harvest, cloning and drying, someone would need to be there maybe for 2 weeks between cycles. Monitor indoor temp,humidity and plant growth via remote cams through the internet and raise lights as needed.

Although, its possible, I wouldn't recommend it because what if the a/c goes out, or your irrigation pump stops working, or a blumat sticks open?

Or powdery mold, mildew, thrips, and nastier bugs? What if a bulb burns out and your light starts short-cycling (digitals can only do so much...)? Less of a problem with LED, of course (minus losing your drivers)...

Too many variables to not have someone hands-on at least occasionally, even automated.

-SX

 

[CharmingMan]

Are there any lines of plug and play sensors for PC? Charming man, what are you using for your Plug and Play USB hygrometers, thermometers, water level sensors, etc? I know there's X-10 for power management, but I don't know if they can handle the kind of juice that we're talking about. I'd love to see cheap environmental sensors that you could combine together to fit your needs.

More importantly, what would you use to drive the logic behind all of this? If there were C libraries to control them, I could program myself a Windows interface using MFC, or Java.

Yes, there are many, but mostly they are very expensive. I'm building my own sensor network, based on the 1-wire concept. This way my network will be very modular and easy to operate, with as low resources as possible.
For the PC side, I'm using linux on my server, and I program in Python, which rules. Now I'm going on a long vacation, and I will leave my pc running to simulate the dynamic in the growroom. If I'm back after two months and everything is still up, I think that will be a nice success (PC is 10y old IBM desktop, a little modified. it seems pretty stable for now and its worth like 40 bucks).

My idea is not to automate the whole process. There is no cheap way of doing that. But if the PC can mostly take care of the plants for me, than I say why not
Problems like blackout and (largely visible) disease can be monitored even more effectively with a PC. I mean, if you install lots of cameras, everything is a click away. A blackout detection can also be easily automated with a cam, like if picture gets dark send me an email. Just google for opencv to see what are the possibilities with webcam and picture recognition. I tell you, it's amazing!

You have too little faith in the PC stability my friends Of course it can die, everything can die. But PCs, if used correctly, can be a powerful and reliable machine.

My setup is meant for a home growbox or smaller growroom, where if needed, you can intervene in a short time. As for the remote growroom my biggest concern is the safety of data transmission through the internet. Because if it's not, and the police would suspect you have something going on in some building, they could easily intercept the data coming from there. Can the data be made unreadable for them, but readable for you, I have no idea.

 

[Bazarocka]

Nothing Wrong With Dreaming

Nothing Wrong With Dreaming

Oh you young "Grasshoppers" are surely tomorrows cultivators.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw32fiasUSs