D
dutty
Just wondered nobody is going nuts with the new possibilities out there, even my cats blanked got an IP address now..
Im talking about mini computers like raspberry pi, wireless sockets like the sonoffs (eps8266) and in detail xiaomi flower/plant sensors/monitors
Im a geek from birth so it was just a matter of time to automate and log my grows. It took me far to long but im finaly there and im asking myself why i didnt start years ago. Guess the biggest problem was the lack of hardware and the naked code that had to be written.
Alternatives are f.e. the smartbee controller. But prices are heavy. Just the irrigation system costs 3000..
so i started my own.. and ended up with under 100 bucks. How?!
My central unit is a raspberry pi ZeroW running Linux.
Released this year, it is smaller than a credit card, with wlan and bluetooth. Sd card slot, miniusb, mini hdmi. Basicaly a little computer with the power (and power consumption) of a 4 year old smartphone. Thats enough for my purpose.
Costs 11eu (without a case, micro usb power cable or sd card).
I couldve wired some relays to the pins of the raspberry and turn pumps on and of this way, but since i have more than one room and more than one tank/pump i was looking for a more flexible solution.
Ir switches are not reliable enough since there is no confirmation about the switch state...
I came up with sonoff wlan sockets.
They cost 5eu (china) and with some soldering skills that i havent had before i flashed them with custom firmware (tasmota). They can now be controlled by webapp + raspberry pi and can carry additional sensors. I wired a high class bme280 temperature/humidity/pressure sensor to it (6eu).
But the actual star in my team is this little guy here: The xiaomi plant sensor
I saw some other sensors, but they were not reliable or to expansive.
Pros:
Wireless (Bluetooth 4.1 BLE)
4 Sensors in one - Moisture, conductivity (EC/ppm), light and air (not soil) temperature.
Cheap: Ordered from china i payed 11eu a piece (International Version)
Lasts a year with one little battery
capacitive (they dont disolve in soil like cheaper sensors)
Cons:
A bit short
Just Bluetooth (with all its disadvantages, more later)
Initially just to use with the android/ios app
the sensors are meant to be used by the app only. Biggest disadvantage of them are the lack of notifications. They dont call when the soil is to dry. The information can just be retrieved (by smartphone), not sent by sensor on its own.
Thats why you need a "computer" thing that scans the sensors in a regular bases and process them to send the data to the database or a notification service or...
There is a fan base already. A guy wrote a python script that can easily be installed. After that (and some configuration) it collects the data.
I said something about coding... well, even thats different these days. Yes, coding skills are necessary, but the skill can be at script kiddy level, like mine is.
There is a tool called node-red
Its a graphical programming tool. A web app that let you easily wire components together without coding them. There are a lot of "nodes" that take care of functions you would have to code, like filter data, implement switches, write data to a database and so on.
For special functions theres also a function node where you can write your own javascript code (i used it to f.e. calculate my tank level).
Additional software i used:
InfluxDB, database for time series data.
Grafana, a beautiful visualization tool for time series data
Node red Dashboard
an easy to customize dashboard for node-red.
(Mosquitto, a service that controls the communication between sockets and pi)
What my system does:
It logs the sensor data based on room and plant(name)
it calculates average, min max, pitches and so on
It shows predictions (when to water, when to fill tank next time)
it starts the pumps based on calculations by a water content calculator (inspired by cannas recommendations about watering a container plant).
Im still to lazy to write my own android app to get notifications, and so far it was to risky for me to make the node red dashboard public to the internet, so i took the easy route and used the telegram chat bot node. With this its easy to get notifications and control the system.
F.e. i get a message when my pots are at 60%moisture. In this message i include 3 buttons like "water now" and "later" that react instant after pressed. Its lovely.
With this i didnt drown my roots even once - no claws
I havent forgot to fill my tank because i was to lazy to raise the cover.
My mothers didnt freeze after lights off because i found problems in my climate.
i dont have to open rooms to check climate/lights/water.. I look at my smartphone.. on the train
My fogger wasnt empty for days.. hours, if any
I differentiated my strains by thirst
the real power of the sensors is in soil. I use them in coco and had to make some adjustments so the moisture content can be used (automatic max min calibration). The conductivity/ppm sensor cant be used properly in coco, shows really low values, the coco seem to store the nutrients in the fibres...
My system still isnt ready for public. I would like to release it or a manual and some code after the second run without any bigger problems. But i can help with tutorials and documentation if somebody is interested..
I just want to show whats possible and give some ideas. I worked 3 loose months on it with little to no clue about linux or related stuff. I had changed code (script kiddy level) here and there but never did a whole project.
Next i will implement a smart climate controller to the pi. My step transformer has 8 steps and i use 2 with a stone age thermostat... future here we come.
love.. beep buuup
Im talking about mini computers like raspberry pi, wireless sockets like the sonoffs (eps8266) and in detail xiaomi flower/plant sensors/monitors
Im a geek from birth so it was just a matter of time to automate and log my grows. It took me far to long but im finaly there and im asking myself why i didnt start years ago. Guess the biggest problem was the lack of hardware and the naked code that had to be written.
Alternatives are f.e. the smartbee controller. But prices are heavy. Just the irrigation system costs 3000..
so i started my own.. and ended up with under 100 bucks. How?!
My central unit is a raspberry pi ZeroW running Linux.
Released this year, it is smaller than a credit card, with wlan and bluetooth. Sd card slot, miniusb, mini hdmi. Basicaly a little computer with the power (and power consumption) of a 4 year old smartphone. Thats enough for my purpose.
Costs 11eu (without a case, micro usb power cable or sd card).
I couldve wired some relays to the pins of the raspberry and turn pumps on and of this way, but since i have more than one room and more than one tank/pump i was looking for a more flexible solution.
Ir switches are not reliable enough since there is no confirmation about the switch state...
I came up with sonoff wlan sockets.
They cost 5eu (china) and with some soldering skills that i havent had before i flashed them with custom firmware (tasmota). They can now be controlled by webapp + raspberry pi and can carry additional sensors. I wired a high class bme280 temperature/humidity/pressure sensor to it (6eu).
But the actual star in my team is this little guy here: The xiaomi plant sensor
I saw some other sensors, but they were not reliable or to expansive.
Pros:
Wireless (Bluetooth 4.1 BLE)
4 Sensors in one - Moisture, conductivity (EC/ppm), light and air (not soil) temperature.
Cheap: Ordered from china i payed 11eu a piece (International Version)
Lasts a year with one little battery
capacitive (they dont disolve in soil like cheaper sensors)
Cons:
A bit short
Just Bluetooth (with all its disadvantages, more later)
Initially just to use with the android/ios app
the sensors are meant to be used by the app only. Biggest disadvantage of them are the lack of notifications. They dont call when the soil is to dry. The information can just be retrieved (by smartphone), not sent by sensor on its own.
Thats why you need a "computer" thing that scans the sensors in a regular bases and process them to send the data to the database or a notification service or...
There is a fan base already. A guy wrote a python script that can easily be installed. After that (and some configuration) it collects the data.
I said something about coding... well, even thats different these days. Yes, coding skills are necessary, but the skill can be at script kiddy level, like mine is.
There is a tool called node-red
Its a graphical programming tool. A web app that let you easily wire components together without coding them. There are a lot of "nodes" that take care of functions you would have to code, like filter data, implement switches, write data to a database and so on.
For special functions theres also a function node where you can write your own javascript code (i used it to f.e. calculate my tank level).
Additional software i used:
InfluxDB, database for time series data.
Grafana, a beautiful visualization tool for time series data
Node red Dashboard
an easy to customize dashboard for node-red.
(Mosquitto, a service that controls the communication between sockets and pi)
What my system does:
It logs the sensor data based on room and plant(name)
it calculates average, min max, pitches and so on
It shows predictions (when to water, when to fill tank next time)
it starts the pumps based on calculations by a water content calculator (inspired by cannas recommendations about watering a container plant).
Im still to lazy to write my own android app to get notifications, and so far it was to risky for me to make the node red dashboard public to the internet, so i took the easy route and used the telegram chat bot node. With this its easy to get notifications and control the system.
F.e. i get a message when my pots are at 60%moisture. In this message i include 3 buttons like "water now" and "later" that react instant after pressed. Its lovely.
With this i didnt drown my roots even once - no claws
I havent forgot to fill my tank because i was to lazy to raise the cover.
My mothers didnt freeze after lights off because i found problems in my climate.
i dont have to open rooms to check climate/lights/water.. I look at my smartphone.. on the train
My fogger wasnt empty for days.. hours, if any
I differentiated my strains by thirst
the real power of the sensors is in soil. I use them in coco and had to make some adjustments so the moisture content can be used (automatic max min calibration). The conductivity/ppm sensor cant be used properly in coco, shows really low values, the coco seem to store the nutrients in the fibres...
My system still isnt ready for public. I would like to release it or a manual and some code after the second run without any bigger problems. But i can help with tutorials and documentation if somebody is interested..
I just want to show whats possible and give some ideas. I worked 3 loose months on it with little to no clue about linux or related stuff. I had changed code (script kiddy level) here and there but never did a whole project.
Next i will implement a smart climate controller to the pi. My step transformer has 8 steps and i use 2 with a stone age thermostat... future here we come.
love.. beep buuup