Dosing Systems and Automation

[Pure]

I've been out of growing for a while now but am starting to get back on the horse because frankly my local access to home grown for a price has relocated and I'm too old for the commercial market lol.

Anyway those those know me or remember me ( I was an Admin of OzStoners prior to 2010) likely remember I like to bring my skills to the table and have a little fun tinkering around with my grows.

When I left the hobby automation was disgustingly horrible, things like keeping PH and EC stable in a res would cost you upwards of 2k so no one did it but shit has changed, the question is have growers adopted it

I'm curious from the Aussie users (who tend to be a little more conservative than the US) who the big players are now and who have you tried ? Or maybe how you've implemented something of your own.

Personally I'm planning to integrate my grow area into my existing Home Assistant environment, I have already built most of the relevant sensor types for other projects including things like LUX and PAR but don't see myself going that far.

I do think I will implement a dosing system based on my own design as I have plenty of spare parts, but honestly at this point I'm looking at what others are doing and have considered or what the commercial market is offering that people like in case I decide to start a side hustle making peoples grow's smarter

 

[Hudo]

I've been out of growing for a while now but am starting to get back on the horse because frankly my local access to home grown for a price has relocated and I'm too old for the commercial market lol.

Anyway those those know me or remember me ( I was an Admin of OzStoners prior to 2010) likely remember I like to bring my skills to the table and have a little fun tinkering around with my grows.

When I left the hobby automation was disgustingly horrible, things like keeping PH and EC stable in a res would cost you upwards of 2k so no one did it but shit has changed, the question is have growers adopted it

I'm curious from the Aussie users (who tend to be a little more conservative than the US) who the big players are now and who have you tried ? Or maybe how you've implemented something of your own.

Personally I'm planning to integrate my grow area into my existing Home Assistant environment, I have already built most of the relevant sensor types for other projects including things like LUX and PAR but don't see myself going that far.

I do think I will implement a dosing system based on my own design as I have plenty of spare parts, but honestly at this point I'm looking at what others are doing and have considered or what the commercial market is offering that people like in case I decide to start a side hustle making peoples grow's smarter

If im running hydro not a run to waste system I like to dump and refresh weekly because I'm a believer that plants will use more of some elements than others and adding more nutes to the res to maintain an EC could lead to toxicity of the elements that are slow to uptake and I also hate aiming for an EC because I always fuck it up.but as for PH there are a few nutes out there that once there set to a ph they hold it Canna Aqua being one. There is also devices that use cation exchange polymers to buffer PH I've been eyeballing the Torus for a while it needs to be charged with a solution before each run but now certain nutrients buffer themselves I don't think I will bother

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[dregs]

I was having a chat about controlling fan speeds with a guy at the local hydro store. He mentioned that DIY controller can be made for a lot of fans. Sounded like something I could get around. I eventually stumbled in to the world of Raspberry Pi s and set off on my first project with no fucking clue. I think I have spent well over a thousand dollars on all the wrong shit and every spare minute I've had in the last 3 months but I have finally ended up with something that works.

I am just about to finish a grow and will be wiring it in properly for the next grow but this is currently what I have:
RPi Zero switches a water pump on a Kasa smart plug, monitors how ever many litres I want through a flow sensor and turns it off, currently it is watering 5 times a day for 2 litres.

RPi pico has the dimming circuits of 2 fans and 2 led drivers connected to control fan speeds and led brightness.

The zero has a few bme280 sensors wired in and it will tell the pico what fan speed to set based on the RH/VPD in the tent.

I had a humidifier that was being switched with it but it shit the bed so I think I will just try and control the environment through the fan speeds for my next grow.

The plan is to get another two fans (I have two tents) and basically just have the code set the intake fans to 80% of the exhaust fans.

When the LED driver is dimmed to a certain point the LEDs turn off, so the drivers will never have to be turned off.

I plan to eventually have it monitor the pH in the reservoir and adjust it if it drifts too far. It looks like you can just fill up a jar with pH up or down, put a magnet in there and sit it on top of a computer fan and the magnets will spin when the fan is switched on then feed a peristaltic pump into the solution and into the reservoir but at this stage I just need to get it going or I will never finish it.