Dstroy's NEW grow journal

[dstroy]

The delay after flipping the man lights on is a safety, should only go through that when switching that relay from off to on. I get a lot of power fluctuanions and outages so being able to recover from one safely was critical, if I were using hps MH or other lamp I'd suggest a few minutes worth of delay before kicking back on. I will double check for unnecessary delays though and get the serial statement sorted as you suggest. I use an app called arduinodroid on an old phone but just as a monitor for those serial print statements.

CRS (cant remember shit)
do you have a battery backup?

Ah I see what you mean, the delay is for equipment safety to keep it from breaking. You can set up a function that keeps track of when it was last manipulated and not let it be turned on or off until the safety timer passes.

 

[SSGrower]

Ah I see what you mean, the delay is for equipment safety to keep it from breaking. You can set up a function that keeps track of when it was last manipulated and not let it be turned on or off until the safety timer passes.

I do get frequent brown outs and fluctuations and has created many a hiccup in using the garden as a whole. I believe it contrbuted to me loosing 3 timers in a month causing me to start investigating the arduino which aside from my own programming errors has been bullitproof for going on 2 years now.

The delay is also an attempt at preventing curcuit overload due to inrush current. Keep in mind the limits of the modified power strip are 1500 watts, so kicking on high demand items all at once could pop the circuit taking down the whole system.

Totally appreciate you taking the time to review and give solutions to the issues you have found with my code........

humbly bows head and takes a step back.

 

[dstroy]

I do get frequent brown outs and fluctuations and has created many a hiccup in using the garden as a whole. I believe it contrbuted to me loosing 3 timers in a month causing me to start investigating the arduino which aside from my own programming errors has been bullitproof for going on 2 years now.

The delay is also an attempt at preventing curcuit overload due to inrush current. Keep in mind the limits of the modified power strip are 1500 watts, so kicking on high demand items all at once could pop the circuit taking down the whole system.

Totally appreciate you taking the time to review and give solutions to the issues you have found with my code........

humbly bows head and takes a step back.

No problem dude, I'm self taught as well so if you see something up with mine let me know.

Power limitations are a major consideration for me too, I run everything in my garden on two 15a circuits (a/c, dehuey, and the fan/filter I'm using in my drying closet are on one, everything else is on the other)

I think the next thing I want to implement is a function that will reduce the light intensity in an effort to regulate temperature in the event that the extraction fans fail.

 

[SSGrower]

No problem dude, I'm self taught as well so if you see something up with mine let me know.

Power limitations are a major consideration for me too, I run everything in my garden on two 15a circuits (a/c, dehuey, and the fan/filter I'm using in my drying closet are on one, everything else is on the other)

I think the next thing I want to implement is a function that will reduce the light intensity in an effort to regulate temperature in the event that the extraction fans fail.

Right.

The scenario you state of extraction fans failing is not that unlikely but also consider this - The extraction fans could be operating just fine but there is yet another undetermined reason for the fault condition of high temp and whatever action taken by the control system may or may not resolve the underlying cause.

Keep in mind here I went from the blinking light tutorial on adafruit straight to making this control program.
I am very interested in exactly how you are dimming (fading up or down) the lights mostly what hardware is involved or is it a direct connect to the led driver? I am only scratching the surface of understanding how your system operates, it will take me a bit to get through all the info you have already posted.

 

[dstroy]

Right.

The scenario you state of extraction fans failing is not that unlikely but also consider this - The extraction fans could be operating just fine but there is yet another undetermined reason for the fault condition of high temp and whatever action taken by the control system may or may not resolve the underlying cause.

Keep in mind here I went from the blinking light tutorial on adafruit straight to making this control program.
I am very interested in exactly how you are dimming (fading up or down) the lights mostly what hardware is involved or is it a direct connect to the led driver? I am only scratching the surface of understanding how your system operates, it will take me a bit to get through all the info you have already posted.

The light fader function takes the fade duration variable (15 minutes currently), then it figures out what time the lights go on and off in minutes, and then it uses the map function which translates a value proportional to another value to turn an intensity percentage into a PWM output value. This allows for much more granular control (more dimming “steps” between fully off and fully on).

The output pin uses PWM to interface with a mosfet that switches +10vdc to the PWM dimming circuit of my LED drivers. One channel for each driver.

I can dim the lights from the front panel also, and it still fades them in and out to whatever I set it to.

 

[SSGrower]

The light fader function takes the fade duration variable (15 minutes currently), then it figures out what time the lights go on and off in minutes, and then it uses the map function which translates a value proportional to another value to turn an intensity percentage into a PWM output value. This allows for much more granular control (more dimming “steps” between fully off and fully on).

The output pin uses PWM to interface with a mosfet that switches +10vdc to the PWM dimming circuit of my LED drivers. One channel for each driver.

I can dim the lights from the front panel also, and it still fades them in and out to whatever I set it to.

This is next on my list of things to implement, however it would require the purchase of a different led driver or somehow mounting a stepper motor to the on board dimmer pot of my existing driver.

 

[dstroy]

This is next on my list of things to implement, however it would require the purchase of a different led driver or somehow mounting a stepper motor to the on board dimmer pot of my existing driver.

It would be much less of a hassle and last much longer to purchase a driver with a built in dimming circuit like the meanwell drivers that end in -b, I know there are more companies that make them besides meanwell.

 

[SSGrower]

It would be much less of a hassle and last much longer to purchase a driver with a built in dimming circuit like the meanwell drivers that end in -b, I know there are more companies that make them besides meanwell.

Yes, unfortunatly sarcassim is difficult to portray over this media....

 

[dstroy]

Yes, unfortunatly sarcassim is difficult to portray over this media....

Lol you got me

 

[dstroy]

12/23/17

Day 55 of flowering for the BB

aero res
pH 5.8
ppm 810
temp 68f

res change today

 

[SSGrower]

Lol you got me

To be honest I half expected you'd come back with "use an xyz stepper motor, its a good size for what you are trying to do and it s limited to 3/4 of a rotation." But hey, this is a hobby for me and I have a ton of building one off shit.

 

[dstroy]

To be honest I half expected you'd come back with "use an xyz stepper motor, its a good size for what you are trying to do and it s limited to 3/4 of a rotation." But hey, this is a hobby for me and I have a ton of building one off shit.

It'd be too much of a hassle, and unless you already had a stepper motor and driver you weren't using it would end up being about 1/2-3/4 the cost of a new dimmable driver. On top of that, it would require calibration, and torque limiting because there's the possibility that it'd be too strong and snap that potentiometer on your driver off. Much easier to purchase a pwm dimmable driver, mosfet, and write a few lines of code.

It would be cool though, just for fun to play with.

 

[SSGrower]

Yes on all accounts. Tagged you into my thread as not to plug yours up with my nonsenseical ramblings.....


Edit; note I spec'd a 3/4 rotation motor, the pot has a 7/8 rotation, calibration to be done at install.

 

[dstroy]

12/24/17

Day 56 of flowering for the BB

When I changed the res yesterday, I upped the cal mag to 3.3ml/gal (bottle says 5ml/gal)

aero res
pH 5.8
ppm 850 (1.7EC)
temp 68f

water level is falling, ppm is stable, pH is rising

 

[dstroy]

Yes on all accounts. Tagged you into my thread as not to plug yours up with my nonsenseical ramblings.....


Edit; note I spec'd a 3/4 rotation motor, the pot has a 7/8 rotation, calibration to be done at install.

Nothing wrong with talking shop.

 

[dstroy]

12/25/17

Day 57 of flowering for the BB

aero res
pH 5.8
ppm 850 (1.7EC)
temp 68f

 

[Crash_420]

Looking good man, watcha gonna do with the over grown veg plants?

 

[dstroy]

Looking good man, watcha gonna do with the over grown veg plants?

I’m going to try and spread them out under a screen, it’s gonna be a big pita though, I think that one in the back will fill up the tent on its own. I’ll start with that one.

Never tried it though, so I’m just guessing that it will fill it.

 

[dstroy]

12/27/17

Day 58 of flowering for the BB, got the chop today. It was a major larf fest. I learned my lesson. Got the “good” stuff hanging, three trays of mids, two of larfy trim, and one of frosty leaves.

They still had white pistils everywhere but the trichs were 80% cloudy and 20% amber on average, so I made the decision to get them down and prep the flower tent for the next plant. I think this next run will go better because the plants in the veg tent are looking nice.

I dissected the rootball on each plant, they looked nice.

 

[dstroy]

12/27/17

Got the plant in, and mostly manicured. Swapped the sprayers out in its bucket.

aero res
pH 5.8
ppm 840
temp 68f

It’s really lopsided though, I had to cut a few bigger branches to get what I did stuffed through the net.