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Hydroponic garden automation and monitoring

19 years ago

Is there any interest here in automation (i.e. automatic nutrient addition, automatic fill/flush)? What about using a PC to monitor the hydroponic system parameters, such as pH, EC, temperature, light, etc?

I've started an open-source project to address some of these goals. I'd be interested in hearing from any technically-minded folks with similar interests or ideas.

http://hmeter.sf.net

Brian

Here is a link that might be useful: hmeter project

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Comments (14)

heembo
19 years ago
This is awesome - I've wanted to do something like this for a long time. I am limited by my total and complete incompetence, though. Love to learn by watching talented people think.

-Jim
chuck
19 years ago
Hi, I have been thinking about this for a while and would recommend using the basic stamp module as the heart of an automated system. Just do a search on google for basic stamp. It is made by a company called parallax. It can be programmed using windows and one model has 16 I/Os. Just a thought I wanted to share. chuck
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Just my thoughts here. I might want to setup a drip irrigation system for the plants in soil. Learning about the PH and TDS(nutrient content) is not hard at all, it's just being gone for 2 weeks that might give a bit of a problem. Of course the plants would grow faster in a hydroponic system but the nutrient uptake is going to become greater as time goes by. If you were to fertilize the plants before you left and then had a small drip irrigation setup with a timer to go off every few days, that (in my opinion) would work for you too. You could take a 5 gallon bucket(with lid) and place a small submersible pump (150 gph) inside (at the bottom). Once you put the water in the bucket, let it sit for at least 24hrs so that the chlorine will evaporate. Cut a hole in the lid of the bucket big enough for a piece of tubing to go from the pump to your plant area. Really, instead of me trying to spell it out all for you, try looking and searching about drip irrigation online. It's all fairly simple. I say all this because, trying to watch the water parameters while being gone for 2 weeks is not so easy. Like I said before, if you just fertilize once before you leave and setup an automated drip system(that just consists of water from a bucket), it would all seem to be easier for now. Just my 2 cents.
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georgiii i like the pics. i saw what you were doing with the 2L bottles too, im definatly going to try that next spring (or if i do any winter sowing) I began quite humbly into hydroponics. my first attempt was a plastic trash can, and aquarium air pump and air stone, some airline tubing, a bag of playground sand, and some very diluted miracle-grow. i put the air stone in the bottom of the trashcan running airline tubing up the side to the pump, then i filled it with sand and poured in some water with very weak miracle grow into it. fired the air-pump up and instead of hydroponics i had made quick-sand. kind of disapointing but i was probably only 15 at the time so i guess i just didnt know any better. My next attempt was much more sucessful- i found some free plans for a system to grow herbs. so i followed the plans and built a contraption using a big "rubermaid" storage tote as a resivoire, a small aquarium pump and lamp timer, some 1" PVC pope, pipe fittings, and inverted 2L bottle "funnels" as the growing chambers. i used pea gravel this time as a media and ordered some "real hydroponic plantfood" to use as nutrients. i glued all the PVC fittings and pushed them together, let it dry for about 5 minutes and hooked up the water. it leaked from almost every single joint but the basic concept was there! i had made hydroponics! after using amazing amounts of glue and calk to try to seal up the leaks on the first contraption it worked really well. i grew all kinds of culinary herbs and was so proud of myself. (i was still 15 at the time) Next i wanted to design my own form of hydroponics. i had an idea for what i named a "constant drain ebb & flow" setup. basically water is pumped in through a big tube and out through an equally large tube but there is a small tube that is always draining the liquid and so when the pump is on more water goes in than the small tube can drain but when the pump cuts off on the timer, the small tube can drain the remaining nutrient solution. it worked pretty well but would occasionally clog up and because the nutrient was not returning to the tank i almost burned out the pump and drowned the plants. still a neat idea, but not an improvement over the standard ebb&flow system of draing the water backwards through the pump. i now had caught the bug. i attempted a few more systems with varying sucess. a "deep water" mint cloner was awesome. it was basically the same design as my quicksand bucket but with pea gravel instead of sand, and of course real nutrients for hydro instead of plant food for dirt being used. less sucessful was my salad towers. i used 4" PVC as columns with a 360* sprinkler nozzle at the top of each one. i added a large pump that had a "head" (maximum pumping height) that was unfortunatly not high enough to suport this type of system. i had planned to plant the outside of each colum (5 total) with different types of greens and be able to harvest one tower each week. i may try to go back to this when i get some time and money for a bigger pump. most recently i have been playing with "real" hydroponic stuff. i always bought nutrients and made everyhtign else i needed, but now i have ordered a few things that are made for hydroponics. a product called rockwool that is a spongy growing media made similar to fiberglass insulation but designed for plants. i also picked up a pH meter and a Total Disolved Solids meter to help monitor the water. I found a whole stack of pictures of what i have done, and i have 2 scanners and a printer with a built in scanner but i can not find the cords to hook any of them up (i just moved from an apartment into a house!) i swear the pics are coming. im sure i have them posted on a website/websites somewhere.
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I would use them for tomatoes: 4:2:1 (Gro:Micro:Bloom), and need hard water. The dilution you use depends on the drainage. Generally I would use it at 15 teaspoons combined in a full five gallon bucket and not water unless I were sure it wouldn't rain and they soil would hold it a while. So, a 5 gallon bucket would have 8:4:2 teaspoons (G:M:B). This is a very expensive fertilizer to use in this way! Coconutisland, you will harm your plants if you are growing in a true hydroponic culture with an otherwise inert growing medium, such as a DWC and using MG as a substitution for your hydro nutes on a weight basis. If you use it in lower concentrations, the plants will have insufficient fertilizer and not thrive. MG is not a suitable hydroponic fertilizer, what it is, is a relatively economical soluble supplement used as recommended that gives excellent results. PC edit: noticed OP said SWCs and raised beds. The expensive comment is for raised beds. The mixture above is for the SWC on alternate waterings. This post was edited by PupillaCharites on Sun, Feb 8, 15 at 12:49
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wampuscat
19 years ago
Brian..You are way out of my scope of hydro.
but I do use the micro II doser for nutrients and control the ph auto..
I only grow tomatoes and peppers and both are about the same as far as the ec and the ph go..I noticed that you are growing other veggies as well..Is that why you run your EC's so low?

corky
bkuschak
Original Author
19 years ago
Corky,

It looks like the microdoser II has been discontinued. It looks decent for the price, but I wanted a system which would allow me to easily change the nutrient mix over time (vegetative vs. flowering/fruiting). I was running a low EC since I had other plants (lettuce, cucumber) which didn't like the high concentration. Now these are running off a separate reservoir so that isn't a problem anymore.

Brian
wampuscat
19 years ago
Brian..the microdoser is still available..at present I have mine on the air pump but just got a couple of selenoids in to change over..that way I can use 5 gal.doser containers..and not worry bout air leaks..

corky
joejoemomma
19 years ago
Doesn't this already do that?

http://www.milehighhydroponics.com/details.asp?itemNo=GPM500
bkuschak
Original Author
19 years ago
Not even close...

My system is intended to be much more than simply a pH monitor. It feeds real time pH, EC, water level, temperature data to a PC for logging and graph/statistics generation. The PC serves this data on a webpage. User is notified via email or page if preset conditions are exceeded. The PC also controls an accurate nutrient doeser to feed 4 separate nutrients to the reservoir. (The nutrient ratios may change over time). It can also control lamp and pump cycles and performs automatic fill/flush.

It may completely automate everything except planting and harvesting ;-)

Not completely finished yet, but getting there...
hank_mili
19 years ago
In my opinion the most basic automated system is one where the nutrient in the reservoir can be dumped and replaced without hands-on intervention.
This would take two timers and two pumps.
One timer/pump combo would remove the nutrient and the other combo would replace it.
You would have to determine the replacement interval, the volume of the reservoir, and the pump rate.
For the dump cycle Timer On = Volume of Reservoir/Pump Rate
The replacement cycle would occur several minutes after the dump cycle ends. Assuming the same pump type the replacement timer on interval would be the same as the dump cycle. Running the replacement cycle on time alone however could run the risk of overfilling the reservoir. So an electrical float switch could be placed in series in replacement pump circuit to cut off the pump at a predetermined level.

To make the system more advanced one could use a sensor/switch to control the pumps instead of using timers. EC and pH sensors would determine the nutrient replacement interval.

One can also add a float valve with a gravity feed water reservoir to compensate for water loss due to transpiration and evaporation.
jamesvlad
12 years ago
The Grobot is a total ripoff
boston_grower
12 years ago
Before I bought the grobot system I went looking for grobot reviews and didn't find much of anything good or bad. The features seemed to be exactly what any grower would want but for me the gamble didn't pay off. In my opinion the Grobot system is a $3000 unreliable piece of garbage. Once you figure out that it can't be relied upon your out of luck because they don't offer refunds! Even worse their support is absolutely useless. The most common problem was that the system regularly wouldn't turn off the lights in the room when it was supposed to! Even worse several times the system WAY overdosed the reservoir with ph down which cause a cascade of problems. And I frequently can't login without having to restart it and/or my router. This thing stressed out the plants to no end. Currently I can only use it as a monitor, the control features just can't be relied upon.

I really wish I wouldn't have bought it :(
RoboGeek
12 years ago
Actually the main business is computers and networks, and we are involved with many environmental control systems. I've actually been thinking along the lines of an automated system using a STAMP type setup similar to what we use in robotics

The A/D converters are the fun part
NickCosta
10 years ago
Sorry for bringing up a 10 year old post but I thought you all would get a kick out of this. I engineer and install building automation systems for a living and I have brought the technology to my garden and sprinkler system. I have 4 valves installed that are all computer controlled and will open when I want them too or according to a program. I also have a chemical feeder that can automatically mix chemicals and dump them into the garden. I can set a schedule for the valves to open and close so I never have to go and water the garden anymore!

Here is a link that might be useful: What I Do
Rio_Grande
10 years ago
Nice!
Southpac-hydro
10 years ago
There's a lot of bleed over between hydroponcs and the reef keeping communities need for monitoring parameters and automation. if someone is superhandy, arduino based controllers for the diy crowd is a popular starting point.

for monitoring, you could modify an APEX or reefangel system to cover the basics, EC, PH, temp, nutrient feeding on a basic timer, with access and control via iphone or internet

for automated water changes, a liter meter dual pump could do the trick.

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