DIY Remote monitoring and management

[karlkutta]

Hey guys! I'm on my first grow, growing in soil.
I'm usually gone most weekends and sometimes even a week or two at a time. I'm emergencies cases I can have someone intervene if needed, but ideally I would like to be able to run things remotely.

So far I am using WiFi outlets for controlling lights and fans, but really the fan is set and doesn't need anything. So biggest need is the watering and possibly temperature monitoring.

For watering I have a reservoir that holds plain water. This really isn't optimal since I cannot mix nutes in advance or they might spoil.

I was curious what others are doing.


Thanks
Karl

 

[jER]

Getting an automated watering system working well with soil is pretty difficult. Any kind of timed top feed or drip into soil will inevitably either over or under water as the plants needs change often. Hydro mediums can remedy some of the issues as they don't hold much water. You could try to rig up a system controlled by a soil moisture meter if you could find one with an output signal source. Feeding is also a problem, but if you used super soil maybe you could work around that.
Autopots or wicking methods are probably your best bet. I grow deep water culture and have left my plants for 2 weeks while working out of town successfully but it is definately not a simple process.

 

[Chronic_passion]

Autopots or wicking methods are probably your best bet.

I tried automating mine as much as possible as I'm overseas A LOT.
I have 6 x AutoPots all with AirDomes. I use a 70/30 mix of coco/perlite with 1.5" layer of hydroton around the AirDomes. I found you can leave the system for around 2 weeks after the initial top feeding (first 2 weeks) from the first full res. After that they start to guzzle the go go juice... I'm day 38 now and 5 plants consume a 47ltr res in about 4-5 days.
To automate the heat and humidity I use INKBIRD and SMSCOM controllers.

Link the SMSCOM to your exhaust fan, dial the speed down and set temp to say 2-3 degrees above max required. The exhaust will then auto increase speed on the temp set.
I also have 2 x 180W tube rads on an INKBIRD ITC-306T. Same deal... set the temp required and the fluctuation set point and it self regulates.
For humidity I have an HR-15 humidifier with 100ltr tank run on an INKBIRD IHC-200. Again, really simple, set the RH required and the required fluctuation set point and it self regulates.
For peace of mind I also have an IP camera I can log into to make sure all is well.

 

[karlkutta]

I tried automating mine as much as possible as I'm overseas A LOT.
I have 6 x AutoPots all with AirDomes. I use a 70/30 mix of coco/perlite with 1.5" layer of hydroton around the AirDomes. I found you can leave the system for around 2 weeks after the initial top feeding (first 2 weeks) from the first full res. After that they start to guzzle the go go juice... I'm day 38 now and 5 plants consume a 47ltr res in about 4-5 days.
To automate the heat and humidity I use INKBIRD and SMSCOM controllers.

Link the SMSCOM to your exhaust fan, dial the speed down and set temp to say 2-3 degrees above max required. The exhaust will then auto increase speed on the temp set.
I also have 2 x 180W tube rads on an INKBIRD ITC-306T. Same deal... set the temp required and the fluctuation set point and it self regulates.
For humidity I have an HR-15 humidifier with 100ltr tank run on an INKBIRD IHC-200. Again, really simple, set the RH required and the required fluctuation set point and it self regulates.
For peace of mind I also have an IP camera I can log into to make sure all is well.

I will check this all out. I like the camera, figured I want one in there too just to be sure I can have a visual.

Thanks for the input

 

[Marty McFly]

@karlkuttavonkrau

Look into Sonoff Th16. Temp and humidity WiFi control.

They're not EL, CSA, or TUV approved unfortunately. But if that doesn't scare you, they're pretty cheap.

There's an app to put on your phone to remotely monitor the conditions

 

[an0rmal]

Has anyone seen any setup using Raspberrys (3, Zero, etc) with some sensors and camera attached, it's easy to expose this info via web so you can check your grow everywhere, analog inputs in Raspberry... I don't know too much about, but i am sure it can be expanded so for example you could have humidity measures in each pot, also everything would be logged, so you can check complete evolution of your growth conditions, so you can check later productions, comparing, etc....
If anyone is interested about this, pm, maybe we could put some instructions and code in a github and share it with people.
regards

 

[karlkutta]

@karlkuttavonkrau

Look into Sonoff Th16. Temp and humidity WiFi control.

They're not EL, CSA, or TUV approved unfortunately. But if that doesn't scare you, they're pretty cheap.

There's an app to put on your phone to remotely monitor the conditions

I got the sonoff th16 some days ago but couldn't hook it up due to on only working with WiFi networks of 2.4ghz Frequency. This is only required for setup I think.

Today I spend a few minutes and created hotspots with another phone I had and got it all setup. Basically made a hotspot that had the same name/ssid and password which allowed me to finish the setup.

Seems to be working now. One thing I'm wondering now is weather I can control multiple devices from this, I don't think so.